20x increase in cptx file size in Captivate 2019

[stuartvine]

After updating to Captivate 2019, I've been updating some of my courses. With the same screens captured, the same audio added and the same settings, my file sizes have ballooned. One file has changed from 54MB to 1.2GB. This is obviously ridiculous, has anyone else encountered this problem?

[Lilybiri]

The blessings of HTML output, sorry for that sarcastic note.

You need to be much more careful now and use all possibilities to decrease file size. For video mp4 leads to much bigger file sizes than the former FLV and you lose transparency. You need to use images in exactly the needed resolution, not rescale them in Captivate.  Did you edit anything before conversion?

[stuartvine]

Thanks for the reply. No video involved. these are static jpegs with mp3 voiceover. I've just tried an old trick, create a new blank project, then copy and paste all the bloated project's slides into that. Suddenly, it's back to a normal file size (in this particular case, 10x smaller)!  So, a viable workaround.  I've been using Captivate since (ahem) v2 and this is the first time I've had this problem. It's an odd one.

[Lilybiri]

It is an old trick used when a project is bloated. You have been lucky that you didn't have to use it previously.

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

How many slides are in this project?

Do these slides have a lot of video content?

I recommend you try the following:

• Create a new THEME from your Cp 2019 1.2 GB project and save it somewhere to reimport in a moment.
• Create a new blank Cp 2019 CPTX project that is the same height and width as your current file and apply the new THEME to that project.
• Copy / paste all slides from your 1.2 GB project into this new CPTX.  If there are too many slides to paste at one time, do them in bunches of 10-20 at a time.
• Check the total filesize of the CPTX when all slides are in.  My guess would be that it is quite a bit smaller.

Let us know what happens.