# Changing movie start and end options

You can define how a movie starts and ends. Many options are provided including fade in, fade out, looping the movie, and displaying a load screen.

#### To define how a movie starts and ends:

1. Open a Captivate movie.

2. From the Movie menu, select Preferences.

3. Click the Start and End tab.

4. Change options as required.

   Loading Screen: Select this option to display a loading screen at the start of the movie. A loading screen might be useful if the first slide of the movie is large or contains audio and takes a few moments to display. Click More to select an image.

   Note: Captivate includes several loading screen images you can use or create a custom image. To make a custom image available as a loading screen option, use Windows Explorer to copy and paste the image into the following folder: Program Files/Macromedia/Captivate/Gallery/Preloaders. The image must be in BMP file format.

   Password protect movie: Select thisoption to establish a password that users must enter before they can view the movie.

   Movie expiration date: Select this option to set a date for the movie to expire. When a movie expires, it can no longer be viewed and the playback controls do not appear.

   Message line 1: This option enables you to write an expiration message. The message appears if the movie has reached its expiration date (set above) and a user tries to view the movie.

   Message line 2: This option allows you to add a second line of text to the movie expiration message, if necessary.

   ##### Movie end options

   Action: Click the drop-down arrow and select an action to take place at the end of the movie.

   - Stop Movie: This option stops the movie after it plays once.

   - Loop Movie: This option continuously replays the movie. (When the end is reached, the movie restarts.)

   - Close Movie: This option closes the browser window at the end of the movie.

   - Open URL or file: This option specifies a URL or file to load at the end of the movie.

   - To load a URL, type in the full path to a website (e.g., http://www.website.com). Click the drop-down arrow to select the window in which the URL should appear; choose from Current, New, Parent, and Top.

   - To load a file, click More, browse to the file, select the file, and click Open. Click the drop-down arrow to select the window in which the file should appear; choose from Current, New, Parent, and Top.

   - Execute JavaScript: Select this option to run a specific piece of JavaScript code. Click More to browse to the JavaScript file.

   - Open other movie: Select this option to open another movie at the end of the current movie. Click More, browse to the movie file (.rd file), select the file, and click Open. Click the down arrow to select the window in which the file should appear; choose from Current, New, Parent, and Top.

   - Send e-mail to: Select this option to open the default e-mail browser and send an e-mail message at the end of the movie. Type in the full e-mail address (e.g., jdoe@companyzyx.com).

5. When you are finished, click OK.