Retaining changes to Engage slides

Aug 13, 2014

Graeme Orchard
By Graeme Orchard

Hi All,

Wanted to ask a question in gaining understanding about how Engage (and maybe other Articulate files) interact with Powerpoint.

I've had a number of times where updating an Engage slide (eg changing font, adding a picture etc), saving the changes, then when I go back later to the same slide the changes have not been retained. (see attached for a file I've been working on)

Question: If you have multiple slides in a folder for the presentation labelled eg Training.intr, Training1.intr, Training2.intr etc

Are there issues that can cause the presentation to pull the incorrect slides when you reload the presentation at a later time?

Adding to the above, Powerpoint will sometimes crash for whatever reason and create a back up slide eg Training.backup.intr

Is anyone able to explain the ins and outs of how the files end up being labelling when crashes happen or multiple copies can be created for one reason or another.

Hope my ramble makes sense, though I'm trying to get more efficient at using the software.

Kind regards

Graeme

3 Replies
Leslie McKerchie
over 9 years ago08/14/14 at 6:42 am (UTC)

Hi Graeme and welcome to E-Learning Heroes!

It's possible that your changes could have been overwritten by an earlier version if your project files have been moved more than once. Here's a hypothetical scenario:
1) You moved your PowerPoint presentation and its corresponding Articulate (*.ppta) file to another folder or another computer.
2) You made changes to the embedded interaction and saved those changes.
3) Then you moved your updated project files back to the original location.
Can you confirm if your workflow was similar to the steps above? In this situation, the original interaction file was left behind (in step 1), so your changes (in step 2) would have been saved to the cached copy of the interaction in your *.ppta file. When you moved the project files back (in step 3), they re-linked with the original interaction file, which didn't include your changes.
When you need to move or share your project files, we always recommend creating an Articulate Package first to keep all the project elements intact.
Graeme Orchard
over 9 years ago08/14/14 at 5:35 pm (UTC)

Thanks for the reply Leslie.

The scenario I actually had was were there were multiple versions of a particular Engage slide and I was only editing one of them, but when I went to preview the presentation, the changes I had made weren't showing up.

Glad I found the video clip that explained how the ppta, engage, and quiz maker files work together.

I'm more trying to work out if the way I save documents is causing an issue, or if there is something else going on.

Is there a chance that even if you create an Articulate package that a slide within it (eg engage slide) can still pull information from the original folder you created the Articulate package from?

Hope this makes sense.

Graeme

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.