CP5: Copy and paste of images doesn't work

[HolgerD]

Hi,

this may sound silly, but I'm not able to copy and paste an image from Photoshop into CP5 (german version).

In older versions of Captivate I often copied an imgage in PS and pasted it simply via CTRL+V into the Captivate-Slide.

With Captivate 5 this doesn't seem to work any more, it simply ignores the "Paste"-command. Copy and Paste only works for images, that are copied within Captivate.

It's not an Windows-Problem, Copy and Paste between Photoshop and all other applications works fine.

Does anyone have an idea what's wrong?

best regards

Holger

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Please do import the Photoshop file, that is a much better way because you can choose which layers you want to keep and you do get all the layers as separate PNG-images in the library. It will also be possible to edit the PS-file from within CP. You can import directly to the stage but I do prefer to import all of the PS-file to the library.

Lilybiri

[happie_97]

Hi,

I'm having a similar issue, except Captivate is not copying and pasting correctly from one Captivate 5 project to another Captivate 5 project. I can do it once and it keeps the first object that I copy and won't paste anything else. I even tried resetting the clipboard outside of Captivate by copying from notepad and it still only pasted the first thing that I copied. Do you have a possible solution for that?

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Again, why don't you import the images to the library? It is a much better practice IMHO. Open an external library via File, Import, external library and you'll have all the images to use in the new project,

Lilybiri

[HolgerD]

Hi Lilybiri,

generally you are right, it is better to import an image into the library.

But sometimes the project is in big hurry, I've only small changes to one or several screenshots, and in CP1 to CP4 was the fastest way to do this quick&dirty via copy and paste.In that situation its a bothersome bug with CP5.

Besides this, it seems very strange to me that an sophisticated application in 2011 doesn't support an old-school-feature like copy&paste correctly.

Best regards

Holger

[Lilybiri]

Hello,

Perhaps due to a lot of bad experiences with the windows clipboard, I will always avoid it when possible to use it for graphics, personal quirk, do not mind.

Just to doublecheck: I have several CP5-projects open for the moment and have been copying/pasting about 10 graphics between them in all possible scenarios without being able to repro the described issue. Just wondering if it is really a CP5-bug or due to other causes or a combination? But now I revert to my own work flows without using the clipboard that I do not trust at all as told.

Lilybiri

[Guest]

On a similar vein, I am just testing out CP 5.5 after previously using CP 2 and 3. In these older versions, I was able to copy an image from powerpoint and paste it into my project. It's very important for me to be able to do that because the images I use in CP are Microsoft office clipart and selecting them through powerpoint and pasting them into CP means I don't have to save each and every image I try to use. I have created more than 65 projects with 25-50 images each, so you can imagine how much easier it is to just copy and paste from powerpoint rather than save each image to a folder through save as image in powerpoint, and then retrieve it from that folder through CP. Am I right that what I used to do can no longer be done in CP 5.5 or is there another easier way to do this that circumvents saving as an image and then retrieving with CP?

Thank you very much for your help!

[RodWard]

Right click on the image in PPT and select Copy from the context menu.

In Captivate 5 or 5.5, right click on the screen and choose Paste from the context menu.

Even grouped shapes in PPT are brought across to Captivate as images this way.

Works for me.  This doesn't work for you?

[HolgerD]

Generally copy and paste does work.

After several experiments we realised, that after some time the clipboard-access of CP5 may crash, so that copy&paste doesn't work any more. In those cases I've to restart Captivate (and Photoshop, if opened), afterwards copy&paste keeps up working. This only applys for the german version of Captivate, so your language version can be unaffected.

Best regards

.

[Guest]

Thank you both, I was indeed experiencing lots of issues in that particular session of Captivate 5.5 (and I am using the English language version), but upon closing and reopening, it is now working fine. I had the same issue in Captivate 3 and had hoped it was fixed in the newer versions. At least it doesn't happen as often as it did with version 3! Thank you again!!!

[Brett_Conlon]

And can you believe that it's now 9 years on and this problem still exists (in Cp 2019 v11.5.1.499)?

It plagues me intermittently (it's happening for me now) and in the past I had to reboot for the ability of Pasting content (copied outside of Captivate) to work again - which is a pain because invariably I have lotsa stuff open and I'm not ready for a restart.

It's the only app I have that does this <grrrr>

Brett

[Lilybiri]

You have been very lucky in that case. I learned many years ago that the Clipboard should not be trusted, and avoid Copy/Paste whenever possible in any application. Captivate has a Library, drag the images to the library and from the library to the stage. 

[Brett_Conlon]

Hey Lilybiri,

I suppose so, but it's reliable most of the time. But it's painful when it all of a sudden stops!

I often use it when capturing screenshots to the clipboard, then pasting them directly into my project. You can't do that with the Library, can you?

And, as mentioned, I can successfully paste it into Photoshop and save it out then import it into Captivate, but that's lots more steps ;-}

Cheers, Brett

[Lilybiri]

I have lost so much work in the past due to the clipboard that I even avoid copy/paste screenshots. I save them and import the whole bunch to the Library. Screenshots can be saved, whatever you use: Snagit, Snipper, .... 

Since you talk about PS, it also will allow you to optimimze the image or even convert it to SVG, which will guarantee crispness if you work with responsive projects. For bitmap images you can optimize by rescaling the image to exactly the resolution you want in Captivate. Keep all your screenshots on layers in PS, and import the PSD file instead of individual images.... Seems more work but could save you tons of time if you ever have to edit one or more screenshots.

I am not a MS fan... and I have been teaching a lot of their applications. 

[Brett_Conlon]

Images saved as SVG? Hmmm, I thought they were strictly for Vector. I'll have to play with that one.

And, I made a mistake above... when I paste screenshots (or whatever) from the clipboard, they go straight into the Library and sit there as "Clipboard####...png" I think I was thinking you meant "Assets" not "Library"

And yes, the images aren't perfectly 100% the final size but you keep that in mind (and correct the extremely scaled images) but sometimes it's worth the speed hit for the kind of project you're working on.

[RodWard]

Maybe the 'speed hit' isn't as great when you factor in all the lost time when the shortcut lands you in trouble.

The recommended method of inserting images doesn't really take that much longer.  I've never had problems doing things that way.  

But it's your call how you want to gamble.