I have run in to this problem a few times lately and some clients have recently asked the question too:

“How can I get my Captivate project to play faster? It seems to take forever to start as it has to completely download before it begins.”

I asked around a little and received a few answers to do with large audio files and differences in the way a .zip file can be packaged up, but it was Nelson Swartz of DVPRO Studios that first alerted me to the default settings of Captivate’s preloader.

After doing a little Google snooping I came across this great instructional video on YouTube by Twitter friend Rick Zanotti explaining Captivate 4’s preloader defaults and how to change them. I tweeted about the video because I thought it was super useful, but judging by the amount of learning industry people who retweeted me, I’d say it’s a pretty common problem and it’s worth a blog post.

Captivate 4 Quick Tip – Using a Preloader

Oh and another piece of advice offered over Twitter by Rick was:

Thanks Rick!
@Schnicker