Simulation Slides too Big - Help

[samamara]

Hello all;

I'm having an odd problem that I've not had before. I have been creating simulations for a project at work - which I do often as it's what we use Captivate for most these days - and my recorded slides are much larger than the first and last slide that come by default when I start a new project, even though the project is set to 1280 x 720. I don't know what happened but I assume it's related somehow to something I did while recording...? It's never happened before but now it's on all five of the simulations I'm working on. 

You can see in the shots below an example. The first slide, which is just there from the basic theme is at a view of 66 and size of 1280 x 720, and you can see how much space is around the stage. The second slide also has a view of 66 and is 1280 x720 but there is much less space around the stage. All of the project slides are like this except the first and last, which are the default with new project. The third slide is what it looks like in Captivate, while the fourth is the preview with everything cut off. 

I'd like to know why it happened, so it doesn't happen again in future, but more immediatly I need to know if I can fix this so I don't have to redo all of the simulations again. Please let me know if there's anything I can do. 

Thanks in advance!

SA

[RodWard]

Looks to me like these more recent captures were not done at exactly the same screen resolution or Windows display percentage as the previous ones.  If that is correct, the only way to fix this so that everything looks seamless is to redo the simulations at the same settings as before.

[samamara]

Hi Rod;

Thanks for answering this. It's crushing that I'll have to do these again. I've already made all of the notes and shapes and advanced actions, and didn't notice until I went to preview the project that it's wrong 😞

I just want to clarify in case it makes a difference: *all* of the captures in the project are big. You mention "more recent captures" being different to "previous ones" but these are all from one projece, all done in the same simluation. Does that make it different? Can I modify the size of the whole project or anything? 

Thanks again!

[Lilybiri]

You started in sort or a reversed way. If you want to do a capture which needs to end up to a specific resolution there are several ways:

1. Start with the content slide (not captured) which will set the resolution of the final project and use the Slides, Recording option to start the capture. The resolution of the captured slides will automaticallybe set to the project size.
2. Capture the simulation as you have done. To embed them in a project with a specific resolution, you use Modify, Rescale and get the resoltuion (mostly down) to what you need, while keeping the width/height ratio. The advantage of this workflow is that the result will be more crisp but the disadvantage is the bigger file size. If the final project has a different width/height ratio, you can use the approach which I explained in a recent blog/
   http://blog.lilybiri.com/embed-software-simulations-knockout-slide

Just another tip: avoid advanced actions and replace them by shared actions whenever possible. The reconstruction of your project will be much easier and without pitfalls especially for actions linked to slide events.

[RodWard]

If all of your captures belong to the same capture session then were they all captured at exactly the same dimensions (1280 x 720 height and width) as shown in your current project?  If you still have those capture CPTX files separate to your current project you should be able to open those CPTX files and take a look at what the measurements are.

If so, then it would appear that perhaps either the browser display percentage or the Windows 10 display percentage was different to what you did previously.  Either way something was different.

Captivate does allow you to use options under Modify > Rescale Project to change the dimensions of a project.  That would only be of use to you as a last resort (in my opinion) because making changes to captured screenshots that way will inevitably sacrifice the resolution of the final images.  They will likely look 'blurry' and not crisp.

I suggest still that your best advised to chalk this up to a learning experience and redo the captures, this time making sure everything is set up correctly and testing before committing to the final captures.

[samamara]

Hi Rod; 

Hmm...I think I recorded them at once resolution and then copied and pasted them into a project with a different resolution. That's the only thing I can think that I did, but I'm not sure. I have three projects that are like this and five that aren't, all recorded in the same week so I really don't know what steps I missed.

You are right, though; a learning experience it is and I've started over. 

Thanks for your help!

[Lilybiri]

I offered you a solution to save time, but you just ignored it. Any reason?

[samamara]

Hi Lilybiri;

No, I didn't ignore it...I promise! I didn't see it actually. I didn't get an email notification about it, though I got the ones from Rod and I got this one about ignoring your solution 🤔. 

Thank you for your feedback. I'm not sure what I did wrong; I've done loads of these simulations but this is the first time this has happened. Thanks for your workflow suggestions; perhaps I've just been lucky to date so I'd better have a more focused workflow going forward. 

This is the second time you've mentioned to me in this forum about shared actions. I've looked at them but I still feel a bit confused about them and how they help save time and streamline work. I will look more a them to see if I can understand them better. These types of simulations that are preferred by our deparment are a lot of tedious and repetitive work when it comes to created the advanced actions for them.

Thanks again!

[Lilybiri]

OK, that explains why there was no reaction. Not the first time this happened. 

Shared actions are much safer to reuse in multiple projects.  I have several blogs, and offered multiple shared actions for free. How to use them: have a crash course about Using Shared Actions, which is the first step. Here is the link to the introduction blog, ou can easily find the other ones:

http://blog.lilybiri.com/who-is-afraid-of-dot-dot-dot-shared-actions-crash-course-introduction

[samamara]

Thanks Lilybiri - I will look into them as soon as I get through this current round of work, which I'm now behind on thanks to the mistake that brought me to post here today. 

I'm sure shared actions will help streamline things but I think I'll need a little time to wrap my head around them. Since I am afraid of dot dot dot shared actions, I will start with your blog. Thanks!