Importing a PowerPoint with animation on mouseclicks into Cap 9

[jacquelync5308005]

I am importing a PowerPoint with animation on mouseclicks into Cap 9 but this behavior does no appear in Cap. Do I need to rebuild my animations on mouseclicks?

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

Importing of PowerPoint into Adobe Captivate was a feature added to help out first time Captivate users in getting started. It was never intended to handle the advanced capabilities of PowerPoint, nor is it a great way to create advanced animation. My advice would be to remove all the advanced animation from your PowerPoint before importing it into Captivate.

In this video, you can see what my workflow is for importing a PowerPoint into Captivate. I would like to point out that this is something I seldom do since Captivate is a far more robust tool for creating sophisticated eLearning courseware.

https://youtu.be/m6aivJSMV94

[jacquelync5308005]

Paul-

Thanks. I watched the video but it doesn't quite go far enough for the work I'm completing. I agree about the use of the PPTX. My primary use is storyboarding in a medium with which my SMEs are familiar and are equipped to handled.

Here is what I know I need to do with the PPTX:

1. Insert sample template slides into the PPTX that I can replicate and use later in Cap 9. I initially picked this up from your video; however, I'm still trying to grasp the philosophy of Cap 9.Can I create a template? Can I create shareable objects or chunks that I can reuse?
2. In the import, check High Fidelity and Aspect Ratio.Played around with these to improve a video clip that did not exactly fit my PPTX dimensions.
3. Leave Advance Slide set to Automatically. I changed this and it took a while to figure out why I had a Click box in the center of my Cap 9 slides. I haven't figured out how to remove it: Re-imported. Frustrating!!!
4. Uncheck Linked. I don't plan to maintain a PPTX and a Cap 9 version of my eLearning courses. I also don't like the idea of not being able to do something simple such as renaming my PPTX. Removed a space from my course title and broke my PPTX link to Cap 9.
5. Set the animation delay and duration in PPTX.
6. Record audio into the Cap 9 project does seem to have any cons.
8. Jacquelyn

[Lilybiri]

Just popping in with some additional information.

All imported ppt slides are using the Blank daughter master slide, whatever theme you are using. They are converted into a movie, that is why it is not a very practical way if you want to add more interactivity and design to the course.

If you want to read about the meaning and the content of themes vs templates, have a look at:

What's in a Theme - a Template? - Captivate blog

You can build a theme, using the assets/background from a ppt, but a theme in Cp has a lot more than in Powerpoint.

I posted also a slightly changed version of this article, on demand, on the Community portal.

[jacquelync5308005]

Thanks!

I will explore themes versus templates.

[Lilybiri]

How did you set up the import? Can you show the settings, please?

[jacquelync5308005]

After much testing...

[Paul Wilson CTDP]

I realized after the fact that the PowerPoint I used in my video is probably not the best example. If you wish to import a PPTX file with all the cool animation make sure you have High Fidelity and Slide Duration checked off as well. It would be advisable to have Linked checked if you intend to reimport the PowerPoint file if you update the original PPTX file.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are so many third-party different plugins and multimedia add-ins for PowerPoint. Obvious Adobe Captivate will only work with animation that was natively created in PowerPoint. 

[BDuckWorks · Accepted solution]

One further point to offer, DO NOT change 'Advance Slide' from Automatically.

Doing so will cause Captivate to insert a click box on each slide that will capture a mouse click from your users. You will wind up with a file that requires a double-click to continue from slide to slide. 

Captivate will require a single-click for each click box.

PowerPoint will require a single-click for each slide.

[Miguel_Morales]

Related to this.  I'm able to import the PPTX and in Captivate the animation is converted into a .swf (I can see it from the slide properties). but my animation, for example, has 5 objects.  the 1st one appears with the expected animation, but the animation for the 2nd object stops.  If I click the slides, then it resumes and all of the remaining objects.  How to remove that 1-click for PowerPoint and let the animation flow completely?  Thanks.

[jacquelync5308005]

Thanks! I didn't have Slide Duration checked.

Jacquelyn

[Tracey Aucott]

This is very interesting.

Has anyone experienced the error of 'Unable, to import, the file may be damaged' when trying to insert PowerPoint 2013 presentation slides into Captivate 9?  If so, any suggestions of how to overcome this?  I can only successfully insert slides which have been saved as PowerPoint 97 to 2003 file type (.ppt).

[Miguel_Morales]

Tracey. I have not seen this error msg. Can you try saving to both .ppt and pptx? Also, if the presentations is corrupt, maybe reusing the slides to a new fresh blank presentation and trying with the new fresh one.

--Miguel