In this blog post, Ashu Vashishtha shares a tip on determining the total length of a video along with the break-up of individual slide duration in Adobe Captivate 5. She has been using Adobe Captivate quite extensively of late at her workplace, Cadence Design Systems.
In Adobe Captivate 5 (5.0.1), the total duration of the video is available in the Project Info panel (File > Project Info).
Video duration in Project Info
To view the total duration and the duration of each slide simultaneously, enable the Table of Contents for your project. This way you can identify those slides that you can modify to fine-tune the total video duration.
Here’s how you can enable the TOC and determine the time duration:
- Do one of the following to display the TOC:
- Choose Project – Table of Contents. The SKIN EDITOR window appears, displaying the settings for TOC.
- Choose Project – Skin Editor. The SKIN EDITOR window appears. Click the TOC button to display the TOC settings.
TOC icon in Skin Editor
- In the SKIN EDITOR window, select the Show TOC checkbox.
The Table of Contents is displayed on the left of the preview area with Slide Title and Duration as the table headings. - Click the Show/hide TOC entries button to include all slides in the TOC. You can also show or hide individual slides by selecting the checkbox provided with each slide.
Show/Hide icon in Skin Editor
- Close the SKIN EDITOR window.
- Press F4 to generate a preview of the project.
The video starts playing with TOC displayed on the left. This TOC displays the duration for each slide and also displays the total duration of the video at the bottom. - Close the preview.
Note: After determining the video length, you can clear the Show TOC checkbox in the SKIN EDITOR if you do not want to include the TOC in the final output.
#1 by Lieve Weymeis on February 17, 2011 - 9:32 am
Just want to add that after the installation of the December patch, the total duration of the Captivate file is also available in the Preferences, Category Project, item Information. You will find there also the resolution, the number of slides and eventually number of hidden slides.
#2 by AshishG on February 17, 2011 - 10:59 am
I did not know where to look, when I want the timing! This is desirable while adjusting length of a demo.
#3 by Nils on May 5, 2011 - 12:47 am
It’s an essential part in a video player to show the duration of the file being played. I’m a bit surprised that this integral function is left out in the player…
Is there a possibility to see the total duration of the swf-video in the integrated player _without_ having to activate the TOC function?
The TOC function is useful sometimes, but for my particular projects I only want to use the default player.
Regards
Nils
#4 by Kim on June 13, 2012 - 7:52 am
This discussion is over a year old now, but I was wondering if anyone has found a way to display the duration of the video *without* turning on the TOC. Like Nils, I am surprised that Adobe left out this very basic function! It should be built-in to the playbar. I have spent significant time trying to find a workaround for this and it is very frustrating.
#5 by Kim on June 26, 2012 - 10:19 am
Hello All,
I have been searching feverishly for a way to display the time duration in the playbar WITHOUT having to have the TOC enabled. Nils, I totally agree about your comment that this is a very basic and necessary function. It’s ridiculous that Adobe has left it out. The only thing I’ve found is using advanced functions, but I’ve no time to spend trying to get that to work. Also, there are some widgets out there that do what we’re talking about, but I haven’t seen any that are free and/or suitable for my projects.
Has anyone found a workaround to this since this discussion was opened?