Using Freehand MX to Prepare a Logo for Captivate

When you work, as I do, for a post-secondary educational institution, much of what you do requires the addition of the college or university's logo to your Captivate slides. Inevitably these logos will come from the marketing or graphics department and be in the EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format. Or you may be required to place clip art into your Captivate presentation. Depending on the clip art vendor, the odds are good that it, too, will be in the EPS format.

The problem: Captivate can't use EPS graphics. They must be bitmaps. The solution: Follow these steps.

Tip

• This exercise uses Freehand MX to create the Captivate image. You can also use another drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator CS.

To use Freehand MX to prepare a logo

1.	Open the logo file in Freehand MX (Figure 9.16). Figure 9.16. The logo is created in Freehand MX and ready for placement in Captivate.
2.	Select File > Export. The Export Document dialog box opens.
3.	Navigate to the folder in which the file is to be saved, name the document, and select "JPEG (*.jpg)" from the "Save as type" pop-down menu (Figure 9.17). Figure 9.17. You can usually export EPS documents out of a drawing application as bitmaps.
4.	Quit Freehand MX and open the Captivate movie in which the graphic will be placed.
5.	Open the slide that will receive the image in the Edit View panel, and select Insert > Image.
6.	Navigate to the folder containing the graphic, select it. and click Open. The New Image dialog box opens.
7.	Click OK. The image is placed in the slide (Figure 9.18). Figure 9.18. A file created in Freehand MX is placed into a Captivate slide.

Tips

• If you are an Illustrator CS user, you can create the JPG file by selecting File > Export and selecting "JPEG (*.jpg)" in the Format pop-down menu. You can also place the logo in Fireworks MX 2004 or Photoshop CS and export it as a JPG image.

• Don't feel like using the Insert menu to place graphics in your Captivate slides? Open the folder in which the graphic is located, and drag and drop the graphic file into the slide.