Reducing Size of Captivate project & published files

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
March 17, 2008
3 replies
6204 views

Hi Everyone,
Has anyone had any experience reducing the size of Captivate working files and the published SWF file?

I've been given the task of reducing the size of previously created Captivate files. The original creator did not follow any of the guidelines to keep files sizes to a minimum. The files are hugh, all 9 projects are 1028x768, one project contains 107 slides resulting in a 95 mg CP file and a 20 mg SWF file. I've worked with the files, removing any unused images/ graphics, exporting slide backgrounds optimizing them and replacing the original, all to very little reward. Actually, files sizes increase even when the no longer used large slide backgrounds are deleted. It seems that Captivate doesn't really delete these files, but keeps them included somewhere not accessible.

The only thing I've found that reduces the SWF file size is to reduce the publishing settings for bitmap to 8 bit and jpg to 50%.

Reducing the project size to 800 x 600 only increased the CP and SWF files sizes.
Optimizing slide backgrounds reduced the CP file size to a point and then increased it, while the SWF file size increased dramatically.

Does any one have any successful experience in this area that they can share?
Thankful for any help,
Charlotte

This topic has been closed for replies.

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dpatrickm

Participating Frequently

Here is a story:
After working for hours on a project for a client, the file was damaged and I could not open it. I had been saving the file throughout and worked on keeping the size to a minimum. The project was 39 slides in length and was a hair over 100MB. I called tech support to determine if there was some way to retrieve my project. The project was lost, and I received the standard answer from Adobe Captivate tech, "file size is too big, keep it below 50MB". Each time I call tech with an issue (i.e., zoom function problems, etc.), the answer is always the same - "file size too big".
I am finding that to keep a project below 50MB is impossible when I attempt to use the functions available to make the project "interesting" or "educationally sound". I typically use text animation, zoom, text captions, full motion recording, and audio (per project). After combining all of those elements, a 45 min. training (project) runs around 250MB.

I create online training to be placed on a 3rd party LMS, and to give to clients to put on their LMSs.

Can I deliver a project in chunks to my clients?
Can an LMS accept a project in chunks?

If anyone out in the Captivate world has an answer to what I should do, I'd appreciate it. I'm losing sleep over this issue.

dpatrickm

A

Anonymous

Thanks for reportig the size issue to Adobe. They need to hear it LOUD AND CLEAR THAT THIS THING IS BROKEN AND IN NEED OF A PATCH.

I can't take credit for the size ideas. Many of them are posted here again and again.

I do suspect that the issue is sound. Have you tried a presentation with NO Sound.

Have you tried to set your computer to 16K colors befroe recording. You could export all of the slides and then redo the resolution in batch mode with irfanview (free).

But setting the size to Normal and reducing the sound levels to something much smaller seems to help. I have many projecvts with over 100 slides and they are not that big at 800X600 resolution, but they have no sound.

Considering that Flash projects can include thousands of slides and that You Tube is handling Flash video, it is hard to believe that this file size has not been addressed.

Try to import MP3 files and not use the WAV recording and see if that helps you out.

COME ON ADOBE, PATCH THIS THING!

Joe C.

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dpatrickm

Participating Frequently

Thanks Joe C.!
I have tried those options, but I still appreciate your help.
I have to use audio... that is one of the main reasons I bought Captivate. And, I don't want to cure my learners' insomnia with a no-sound elearning experience.

You're right, Captivate needs to get on the ball with this. Especially considering all of my issues of the software have been directly related to size.

Thanks again.

D

dpatrickm

Participating Frequently

Ahhhh... some traction and interest in the size issue. Yes, I am still struggling with this, as most of my projects are delivered to either our LMS or a client's LMS. What I create in Captivate, and what one experiences, after the project has been uploaded to the LMS, is the difference between night and day. Meaning their view of the project is full of glitches.

I would like to call either one of you (Joe or Charlotte) to discuss more tips and tricks, if possible. Drop me an email, and I will get back to you with a number.

A

Anonymous

This volunteer moderated forum has many posts and you'll hear some common themes about size if you do a SEARCH from the small Search link located above.

Some people have reported good results by doing a save-as (NEW NAME) and then Importing slides into a NEW project. Then saving that twice, with a new name each time. Seems crazy.

PLEASE contact Adobe BUG forum to let them know how displeased you are with this. Everyone should complain and they should complain loudly.
Adobe Bug Report Site

In the meantime and after you vent on the company that NEVER patches Captivate bugs (except for a sound card issue in Captivate 2), you will be relaxed, relieved and ready to try some stuff... Like alcohol...

I am not a fan of reduced resolution JPG files. They seem to be too grainy and pictures will get blothcy. Instead, set the First slide to NORMAL and then click the option on the slide editing scren (lower left) to replicate the changes to ALL other slides. This should set all to Normal and it will make the SWF smaller.

Kill off live motion video. Captivate records real motion as a movie if you want it to and that causes some bloat.

Use the same backround slides over and over. Just select one of the thumbnails that has a repeat background and select COPY BACKGROUND and then go to the next slide that needs it and select PASTE BACKGROUND. You can then purge the unused (old) slides from the Asset manager on the right side (select all unused and then select delete).

Sound seems to be the killer. for size. It seems that Captivate was optimistic and they repord all sound as WAV files. I'm not cutting CD quality here so we can cut-down on the sound quality to FM or less. I hav very good microphones and sound bariers, but I record at 16 bits and in Captivate I might use a sample rate of 0 or 1. You have to see where the quality actually drops off. Try recording the same passage at several settings and then compare the "best quality" to the "worst." Do this with headphones and home stereo speakers so that you can really give it a fair trial.

I have not tested and I have not seen a definitive post here, but maybe you can provide it... You could save your recording to MP3 at a low bitrate and see what that does in Captivate. Some people think that Captivate converts the MP3 to WAV for internal storage, but I don't think so. You can use an external recorder like Audacity (free GPL license and quite excellent). For MP3 with Audacity you need to download the LAME plugin. I even imported a "tube-amp" library to make my voice a bit warmer with Audacity, very cool. But I have not done any size comparisons of recording a short package in Captivate and saving that project and then doing the same project with an imported MP3 file? Would be interestig to see the results.

I record most of my files at 800 X 600 at this time, but here again it depends. If I am doing a PowerPoint presentation, then the slides have a lot of the same colors and the JPG conversion is efficient and 1024 X 768 is better. If I am recording software simulations or demos, then the slides are all different and the compression is all over the place so it makes bigger images and reducing the size to 800X 600 is better. I was using ONE background image and then adding the text in Captivate to make the files super small, but that has not worked well for larger presentations that require tons of editing and handouts. I like my PowerPoint handouts at 2 per page and the formatting is far better than Captivate for my time constraints.

In review:
Slides at Normal
No full motion recording
For sound, try MP3 at FM or Sub FM quality
Repeat backgrounds if possible
Save as a new name and then import into a blank presentation and save twice

Please complain to Adobe and let us know if you got the size issue under control.

Joe C.

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Anonymous

Joe C... Thank you for some very interesting information!
If I had produced these Captivate projects I would have followed the majority of your suggestions for keeping CP file size to a minimum as they are part of my "best practices". But, the Captivate files I've been given to "lighten up" were produced by someone with a multi-media type point of view without regard to CP file size. These projects are gorgeous with very complex branching, and adhere well to instruction design principals but they are huge and take forever to upload.

I think your suggestion, "Save as a new name and then import into a blank presentation and save twice.", may be the one that works out best for me with these projects. I have noticed in previous projects that the file size had reduced, after saving projects after multiple revisions. I'll try this suggestion first.
Thanks again,
Charlotte C

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Anonymous

Here's an update on file size for everyone.

Joe C, just to let you know I tried the "Save as a new name and then import into a blank presentation and save renamed/save renamed/save renamed." This process did not do anything to improve the CP file size with this project. Thanks for the suggestion, it was worth a try.

This is the combination, of your suggestions, I found to work best for at least reducing the published SWF file size, with these specific projects.
#1 = Slide quality set to "Standard" and applied to all slides.
#2 = Audio quality set to MP3/ 64 kbps/ 22.05 khz (As a last resort, I did lower the audio quality.)
#3 = Project Preferences: BMP image quality Low (8 bit)

After applying these settings and publishing a SWF file, the size ended up 8.6 mg as compared to the original published SWF file size of 15.9 mg. Thanks for your suggestions Joe!

I did submit an Adobe Bug report on the file size issue. The initial recommendation from Adobe was to close Captivate completely after each slide was replaced with an optimized background slide and reopen. A very cumbersome and time consuming process just to delete a background. I documented this process writing down the CP files size after each slide deletion. After repeating this process on 13 slides the result was the CP file size enlarged equal to the size of the new background images imported, 13 slides which were under 300 kb. You would expect the CP file size to be reduced equal/nearly equal to the 13 slides x their original 3.1 mg size, but that wasn't the case. It seems to me that Captivate is only deleting the file names from the Asset Manager/ Library not removing the actual file from the project.

Yes, I did report these findings in my reply to the Adobe Bug Report email.

I hope this information is helpful to other Captivate users.
Charlotte

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