Previous developer didn't provide project files

[gjq]

I'm sure I know the answer to this one, but I have to ask anyway...
We had a previous designer who left the company and didn't provide the project files (ppt, sound/image assets, etc) behind for updates. Is there anyway to "decompile" the published files to make these updates?
Thanks

[Mama Loo]

Hi gjq,

Unfortunately, I don't believe there's a way for you to make revisions to the published content without having access to the original project files

Mama Loo

[Spectre]

Hi gjq. I have to cringe on this one. I obviously discourage this as a general rule as Articulate is not designed for this. It's by no means easy, but not impossible. Much depends on the type of updates you need to do. Is it minor text edits? New voiceover? Regardless, it can get gnarly and quite time-consuming. But I have done something like this before when I did not have the audio source files.

If you would like me to take a look at your published files and can give me some detail on the type of changes need to made, feel free to shoot me a private message.

Phil

[GerryWaz]

Hey, Phil! Spill the beans!

I've been able to use a third-party tool that extracts the audio files from SWFs into WAVs and then re-import into a PPT.

I'm assuming that you have to re-create the PPT though??????

[gjq]

Hi Phil, Thanks so much for the reply. At this point the first project will require some new VOs. I figured it would be tough but expected I could make some changes in the .xml files and replace some existing sound files if I name the new one(s) exactly the same as the original. But I didn't want to start and then find I was still missing some files that would need to be updated. Unfortunately there are many courses this will apply to later on and so I want to "prepare" myself. <insert tears and gnashing of teeth here>

[daveperso]

I wrote a little article about editing a published presentation without the project files which you might find useful although it sounds like your edits might be more challenging. The voice overs are written into the SWF files, you would to use a method like Gerry suggested to separate the audio from the slide. A lot of the text can be edited though, and you can add or remove slides quite easily, all by exiting an xml file. None of this is supported of course

Regards

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by GerryWaz

Hey, Phil! Spill the beans!

I've been able to use a third-party tool that extracts the audio files from SWFs into WAVs and then re-import into a PPT.

I'm assuming that you have to re-create the PPT though??????

Hi Gerry.

It really depends on the type of modifications being made. In my particular circumstance with a few courses (the first time), I did everything underneath the hood with Flash, but it was not pretty. It's time consuming and makes your brain hurt. In most cases, I think this approach is counterproductive--especially for content regularly updated. Each time you update, you would have to jump through these hoops.

The article Dave wrote is a good overview of some things that can be done outside of Articulate.

When I modified the courses a second time, I decided to suck it up--transcribed them, rebuilt them in PowerPoint, and VO'd them. That was painful too, but in the long run, I'm know that I'll be saving tons of time in maintenance.

Phil

[gjq]

Thanks to everyone, I appreciate it!