Rescuing a corrupt Captivate File

If you do any work with Adobe Captivate, you probably have experience with Captivate’s tendency to corrupt files. The last Captivate project I worked on gave me a chance to get reaquainted with this feature, so I am posting the solution which saved my work:

First, you must know the exact size of the old project. If you are using an odd size, be sure to note it down. Create a new, blank project at that size. Select “File>Import Slides/Objects” and import all the slides and their objects from the corrupted project. If you don’t see any slides to import, you are probably out of luck.

The knowledgebase article on adobe.com does not seem to be available anymore, but the cached version is still available on Google:

Google cache of the article

In case it vanishes from the cache, I’ve copied the text below:

<br /> TechNote</p> <p>Opening a corrupted Adobe Captivate project</p> <p>Issue</p> <p>Your project file is corrupted and will not open.</p> <p>Reason</p> <p>An Adobe Captivate project file can become corrupted for any number of reasons. Listed below are the most common causes of Adobe Captivate file corruption:</p> <p>Editing a project on a network drive or network location.<br /> Closing Adobe Captivate improperly.<br /> Using an older version of Adobe Captivate (for example, Macromedia Captivate 1.0).<br /> Copying and pasting of objects/slides in an older version of Adobe Captivate.<br /> Using Adobe Captivate on a system that does not meet or exceed system requirements.</p> <p>Solution</p> <p>If your project has become corrupted and will not open, then it most likely is not recoverable. Below are listed a couple of steps to try to recover your Adobe Captivate file.</p> <p>Upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Captivate. You can download the latest free update by clicking here. You can purchase the newest version here.<br /> Try to open your project in the latest version of Adobe Captivate.<br /> If the project still fails to import the project into a new clean project, then follow these steps to import the project:<br /> Create a new blank project with the same dimensions as the original CP file.<br /> In the clean Adobe Captivate presentation select ‘File>Import Slides/Objects from other Captivate projects’.<br /> Browse to and select the corrupted CP file.<br /> If no slides show in the importation dialog, then you will not be able to open the project.<br /> If slides do show in the importation dialog, then click OK.<br /> Once the slides have imported save your project.<br /> You should now have an uncorrupted Adobe Captivate project.<br /> Note: You will not be able to import quiz slides from one Adobe Captivate project to another.</p> <p>Product versions affected</p> <p>All<br />