Slide screen automatically changes when I hit play.

[Jordin31269632p7py]

I'm having the issue where the background of my slide (set as optimized) is changing when I hit pause versus I hit play. I'm trying to add objects to time them correctly with my audio. However, when my video is paused and I'm editing it looks exactly how it should but when I hit play Captivate moves my background. I recorded a simulation but on this slide I didn't move the screen at all so I don't know why captivate is changing my background. Because it moves the image over to the side it throws off all of my objects. Help!

[Lilybiri]

Are  you using Captivate Classic of the new version 12?

You talk about a 'video' but do you mean a normal Captivate project? If you use Captivate Classic, is it a responsive or non-responsive project? How did you set the background image? Did you do it on the main master slide or on other master slides? You also talk about a software simulation, which will be using the Blank master slide which is not inheriting objects from the main master slide.

Sorry for all those questions but it is difficult to understand your problem when not disposing of those details.

[Jordin31269632p7py]

I have using Captivate 2019 (64 bit). It is a slide from a simulation. No other slides in the simulation are do this. It's just slide 8 for some reason.

[Lilybiri]

It is difficult to understand...would it be possible to record a short video? It is a simulation slide, but is it perhaps a Full Motion Recording slide?

[Jordin31269632p7py]

Attached is a video. I kept hitting pause and play to show you what is happening to me.

[Lilybiri]

A simulation slide is never so long, and those shapes have been added on top of the slide. You didn't answer my question about this being a FMR slide? Seems weird, but I don't really understand how this slide was created. I suppose by Play/Pause you talk about the button on the playbar?

[Jordin31269632p7py]

I'm not sure what an FMR slide is so I apologize for not answering. Is there a way to turn a simulation slide into just an image? That might solve my problem. Basically redoing a course and made it the same way the old course was which is to record a simulation then put shapes on top to point out to the learner.

[Lilybiri]

If this is really a software simulation slide captured in Captivate (which I am not sure), you should find its background in the Library. A Full Motion Recording slide has a camera icon in the Filmstrip. Or could it be a Video Demo slide? It is a cptx project, but you can have a Video Demo slide in a cptx project. Can you check the Properties panel? Such a Video Demo slide results in a mp4 slide and you should add the Smart Shapes in the Video Demo editor.

[Jordin31269632p7py]

Yes. I recorded the simulation in Captivate, not a demo. It's a cptx project.

[Lilybiri]

Is it a FMR slide or not? You tell that it is not aVideo Demo slide, which could explain its long duration. In a software simulation, whatever the mode, non-FMR slides have always a duration of 3 seconds, never one with such a long duration as you show in the screenshot.

[Jordin31269632p7py]

The slide is longer because I made it longer. I did that to every other slide of the project too. When I imported audio it asked me if I wanted the slide to be as long as the audio or not and I clicked yes. Once I did that I added shapes on top. So the audio it made it that long.

[Lilybiri]

I didn't ask about the audio because it is not visible in the Timeline. Slide audio needs indeed increase of duration, but there is no slide audio visible: it should have a timeline under the slide timeline. Did you use another type of audio?

[Jordin31269632p7py]

I imported an audio which then prompoted Captivate to ask me if I would like the length of the slide to match the audio. I clicked yes and then added shapes on top of the slide after the audio was imported. I used Amazon Polly to create the audio then imported that.

[Lilybiri]

I give up, because you have real troubles with my questions and terminology.

Why is there no audio timeline?

[Jordin31269632p7py]

I'm a new user to captivae. I'm sorry I can't keep up with your terminology. I'm trying my best to learn. Perhaps you could explain in detail to help instead of just giving up. There is audio timeline. The background simulation slide, audio, and all shapes are present on the timeline it just wasn't in my video so I could give you a better view. You never specified that you needed that in the video. Frankly you're being mean when I'm really trying my best.

[RodWard · Accepted solution]

I think Lilybiri was just trying to establish whether you added the audio directly to the slide (i.e. slide audio) or to one of the objects on the slide (i.e. object audio).  If you had to extend the slide length to accommodate the longer audio then it would seem that you did in fact add the audio to the slide. 

However, in the video you sent with an earlier post that showed the issue it was not possible to see the audio on the timeline because that audio was in the row at the very top of the timeline layers.  Is that correct?

In any case, whichever audio type you used, that should not be changing the appearance of your slide background.

My suspicion is that your slide background graphic has multiple layers.  The movement you see is due to those layers.  This is a fairly rare issue but it sometimes happens with Captivate when capturing screens where there are rollover effects (e.g. dialogs or tooltips that popup when your mouse hovers over some area).

Unfortunately its not always simple to resolve the issue because the layers are built into the graphic in much the same way animated GIFs can have multiple images on an internal timeline that then shows as an animation at runtime.

The quickest way to resolve these issues is usually just to recapture the image.  But setting up the screen to exactly replicate pixel-perfect placement and zoom percentage may not be possible.  So, if you are unable to find the background image in the Captivate library and extract it to some kind of image editing software that allows you to remove the layers, then the best option might be just to recapture the entire session.  That's what I have usually done.

[Jordin31269632p7py]

Rodward,

Thank you so much for your kind answer. I really appreicate it. I took your advice and simply recaptured the image. I couldn't get the image as clear in Captivate as I would have liked but it was close enough. Thank you!