People often ask me about Captivate file sizes and how to optimize the learner experience accessing online content. The crux of the question of course is how can i make playback start right away and keep size small enough that it downloads smoothly on the learners’ computer. It’s actually a lot easier than you might think.

I’ve posted a short video below (available along with many others on YouTube’s Adobe eLearning Channel as well) that demonstrates how I easily shrunk a 26 minute Captivate 5 file to a 12 MB SWF and how I used one of Captivate’s many preloaders to make the file start after downloading only a fraction of the content. In fact if you set such content to download only 1% the file would start after downloading only about 120 kb. (Even at 10% It only takes a second or two.) I think it helps to understand that by using preloaders (included with Adobe Captivate) you can create projects that only need to download as little as 1% of the Flash file before they begin. I would recommend downloading about 5% for most projects, as most projects are much shorter than 30 minutes.

So remember to try the optimization and preloader tools for your next online project. You’ll find happy learners as they jump into engaging, rich media eLearning experiences. (By the way, if you’re new to YouTube videos – you can click that 360p button to see a higher definition version of the video.)