Pie Chart (Adobe Captivate 8)

Report · Jan 02, 2017

Is there a simple way to insert a pie chart in adobe captivate 8? I keep trying to copy one over from powerpoint and it looks horrible. I also tried making it a png file and brining it over but it still looks awful. Can I create one directly in adobe captivate 8?

Report · Jan 02, 2017

I think your best bet is to screen capture one and insert the image into Captivate.

Can you share images of how it "looks horrible" once in Captivate? Normally that only happens if your edit area is set to something other than 100%.

Does it also look bad when you preview?

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jan 03, 2017

I actually can't post it because its for my Company. However, can you clarify something about the pie chart and other images that might help me. Do I need to make them very close to the correct size I will be using them in another software (such as adobe fireworks) before pulling them into Adobe Captivate? I have noticed today as I play around more that if the image is pulled in and is large and I try to resize (by using the shift key and dragging the corners in which is all I could find online about improving the resizing within captivate) the image doesn't look crisp at all.

Report · Jan 03, 2017

Best practice is to create the image at exact the size you need it in Captivate. Too bad you are still on CP8, in CP9 I would recommend to create a SVG, vector image.

Report · Jan 03, 2017

Indeed. Typically we work with raster (AKA Bitmapped) images. And any deviation to present them smaller or larger causes distortion.

Although it's not specific to Captivate, the video linked below explains it very well.

Click here to view

Cheers... Rick

Report · Jan 03, 2017

Thank you so much!

Report · Jan 04, 2017

I've been researching this, and I have to say simple?

Not really!

I did find a technique for using HTML5 and or Flash (SWF) animated pie-charts.

This one I found at Web-Site-Scripts has three different components:

A SWF File for the chart that you want to create. We want to create a 3D Pie Chart.
An XML Data File. These components only accepts data in a pre-defined XML format. So, you'll need to convert your data to XML format.

I was able to build an Excel file for creating the XML file using a technique from @RodWard.

3. An HTML Wrapper File. This HTML file would contain the code to embed the chart.

Creating a ZIP with all these elements allows us to place the file into a Captivate project as an HTML5 animation, but the use of a SWF animation will limit the output of that slide to a Flash format.

Creating the ZIP file

Place as HTML5 Animation into your Captivate Project

As displayed on the Captivate slide

Resulting Published Captivate Project

Ready for the bad news?

Since we're using an XML file as the source of the data, and it's imported into Captivate as a ZIP file, any updates require changes to the data, importing a re-zipped file, and replacement of the HTML5 animation on the slide.

Of course, for a user to see this update, you would need to publish the project, and replace files on the LMS / webserver that hosts your courses.

There is an alternative (the good news!):

If you have access to a webserver (or an LMS that can host static webpages) the XML file can be replaced with a URL to and XML source in a database or to a file on a server.

This means you can update data in the database, or republish just the new data file, and you wouldn't have to touch the Captivate source file just to update your data!

This sounds like it could be another case study, so let me know if you're interested.

Report · Jan 04, 2017

BDuckWorks-

WOW! I can't believe you went to all that effort to answer my question. THANK YOU! I have to concur that this wasn't simple at all. I certainly appreciate your detailed response and all of the screen shots. As I am WAY WAY behind on my commitment to deliver a draft of this course (my very first Adobe Captivate project) I am going to have to defer digging into getting my pie chart to look better until next week. But you may just find me asking you some more questions when I get back to it. I think at the moment I'm going to try another users suggestion to make it a more similar size before adding it into captivate.

I have learned so much this month and especially this last week with so many helpful responses on the forum. Let's all hope there is a great way in future versions to add charts and graphs more easily directly in adobe captivate.

THANKS again. You rock!

Report · Jan 05, 2017

Were you talking about a static or a dynamic pie chart? First answers were about a static pie chart, BDuckWorks did a fantastic job for dynamic pie charts.

Report · Jan 05, 2017

Here is another solution for the creation of a pie chart in Adobe Captivate. It isn't the best solution, as I believe the best solution would be to have a Pie Chart creation tool, perhaps a learning interaction (widget), but it does give you something that could be resized without a diminished quality.

https://youtu.be/PE1i3gTkE_Q

Paul Wilson, CTDP