Open or edit a Captivate 2017/2019 course without Captivate
No Captivate license, an old .cptx that newer versions reject, or only the published SCORM zip left? Here is what each option can and cannot recover, and how to get an editable course from the published output alone.
Last updated 5 min read
You inherited Captivate 2017 or 2019 courses. Nobody has Captivate any more, the .cptx files may be missing, and you need to change a few screens — or the whole course.
Why it is hard
A .cptx is a binary project file that only Captivate Classic reads, and projects move forward only: a project saved in a newer build cannot be opened by an older one. Very old projects (.cp, from Captivate 4 and earlier) need an intermediate Captivate version that Adobe no longer offers to convert them. And the published output — the SCORM zip in your LMS — is a player plus compiled data, which no version of Captivate can open.
Your options
- Get Captivate Classic. If you have the .cptx and the change is small, a Captivate subscription (which Adobe says includes Classic) is the most faithful route: the course stays exactly as it was.
- Edit the published files by hand. In a Captivate HTML5 publish most on-screen words are drawn into images and the rest live in a compiled JavaScript file (
assets/js/CPM.js), so changing text by hand is fragile and changing structure is not realistic. - Rebuild in another tool from screenshots of the running course. Reliable, but slow for anything long.
- Convert the .cptx or the published output into an editable course (below). A Captivate 9, 2017 or 2019 .cptx imports directly into Scormbusters — slides, text, images, narration and quiz answer keys — with no Captivate license.
What Scormbusters recovers from the published zip
Upload the SCORM, xAPI or HTML5 zip you already have. Scormbusters reads CPM.js as data — the slides, the caption text, each item's accessibility text, images, audio, video, closed captions and the quiz definitions with their correct answers — and rebuilds each slide as a lesson of ordinary blocks. It has been tested on real publishes from Captivate 9 to 2019 and from the all-new Captivate 12 and 13.
A course whose actions keep state — variables, conditional (advanced or shared) actions, object states — comes across on the slide canvas instead, with its button, click-box and slide actions as working triggers. Execute JavaScript, effects, widgets and the timing of a slide do not come across, and software simulations keep their jumps and reveals but not their scoring. The import report counts each of these. See Import an Adobe Captivate course for the full list.
Note: A Flash (SWF) publish is different: its content cannot be read back at all. See Convert Flash (SWF) eLearning to HTML5.
Part of the documentation: Migrate.
Found something here that does not match what the product does? That is a bug in the guide — see all guides or tell us from the Help Center.