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sn_GH
Inspiring
September 27, 2011
Answered

Too many clicks required on imported some PPT slides

  • September 27, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 5547 views

Hello,

I am having a problem when importing some PowerPoint slides into Captivate 5 (from PowerPoint 2003). Most slides import animations, transitions, and text just fine. However, a few slides have a problem with the number of clicks required.

On these slides, instead of the user needing to click only once to see the first line of text, image, etc., he has to click around five times before everything is displayed. Each time the user clicks, the play indicator in the .swf skin momentarily changes to a pause, indicating that it is playing, and then goes back to play. This shows that the clicks are registering and the timeline is progressing, but nothing is happening.

The original PowerPoint files don't require these extra clicks.

I have added navigation buttons to all the slides, but I have set them to not pause the playback until the user clicks. I also have a final 'continue' click box over the slides that was added by Captivate during import. On 90% of the slides these work, but not the problematic ones.

I had the same problem with an embedded .flv video. As a slide with the video faded in, it would stop at about four different fade steps before it was shown clearly and the video could be played properly. I turned off the slide transition (no longer fade in, or fade in and out) and this fixed the problem with the video. Unfortunately turning off the transitions hasn't worked with these other slides.

I assume there is something in my timeline that is causing this problem, but I can't see what it is. If anyone has any ideas I would love some advice,

Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer sn_GH

I have found a reasonable workaround to this issue. It seems to be related to the PowerPoint master slide. The problem arises when I remove the master slide layout from the slide, and then it is imported into Captivate.

To fix this, I go back into the PowerPoint slideshow and apply the master slide layout. I then update the slide as required, and even leave a blank text box if necessary.

2 replies

S
sn_GHAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
November 3, 2011

I have found a reasonable workaround to this issue. It seems to be related to the PowerPoint master slide. The problem arises when I remove the master slide layout from the slide, and then it is imported into Captivate.

To fix this, I go back into the PowerPoint slideshow and apply the master slide layout. I then update the slide as required, and even leave a blank text box if necessary.

RodWard
Community Expert
RodWardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 27, 2011

It would help if we could see the timeline for one of these problem slides.   Can you upload a screenshot?  (Use the cameral icon on the editing toolbar here on the forum posts.)

S
sn_GHAuthor
Inspiring
September 27, 2011

Thanks, I should have done this earlier. The attached screenshot shows my timeline. The click box at the bottom is the 'continue' click box to move on to the next slide. The click box on the top is a click box that provides a hyperlink to a website. The buttons provide navigation, and the widget is a supplied widget providing page numbers.

The imported slide has several images that appear as the user clicks (all created in PowerPoint, so this is the entire timeline).

I should note that I have been able to fix some slides by creating a brand new slide in PowerPoint, saving the images to a different location (instead of pasting them from the problematic slide), and then recreating everything. In other words, creating the slide from scratch must get rid of some artifacts that were added somewhere else in the process by PowerPoint. However, this doesn't always work.

RodWard
Community Expert
RodWardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 27, 2011

My immediate suspicion is that somehow these buttons and clickboxes ARE in fact still pausing the playback.  Your timeline screenshot doesn't show any pause points, so according to what is visible on the layers in theory they shouldn't stop playback.  But the actual behaviour seems to indicate they ARE doing this.

I've found that sometimes the settings in the object Properties fields sometimes don't take properly and you can often fix issues by toggling the setting in question and saving each time.  Can you try setting a pause point for each interactive object, saving the project, then turning off pausing again, before finally saving again?  If the issue is simply that Captivate is not SHOWING you what is actually happening, this might force the timeline or properties display to update reality.

The only other suggestion I would have made is the one you already made...rebuild the slide from new.

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