I'm recording a software demonstration that includes drop-down boxes, which
I've done for years with Captivate, but I'm encountering a strange issue I've
never seen before. When I look at the slide itself, everything looks fine, but
when I preview the demonstration, the drop down box appears blank (a white box)
for a second before he box appears. There is no background or image anywhere in
the system, that I can see, of the screen with a white box where the drop-down
box should go.

When I go to preview only that slide (F3), the blank drop down box appears in
the last 1/2 second of the slide, yet it is no where in the library of
graphics. What is going on here?

I've been able to "fix" the issue by adding the bitmap of the background over
the top of the last 1/2 second of the slide, but I really don't want to have to
do that for every demonstration I do in the future that includes a drop-down
box. Does anyone know if there's a recording setting that might be doing this?

I suspect that you are witnessing the effect of a "shadow" graphic that is
buried in a lower layer of the 30 fps slide background. Since you have found a
fix, there is no point in going further except to mention that if this is the
case, you might be able to prevent it in the future by ...

... being careful and deliberate (slow) when recording your project,
making sure that each mouse-click produces a completely rendered image before
clicking again. Generally, what might be happening is that you are moving
through your script too quickly, and not allowing time for the background
change to complete is changed image (render) before clicking again.

Of course, I could be completely wrong ...

Thanks for the advice - I usually try and record more slides that I need since
its easy enough to delete the extras. I've never encountered this problem
before, though. If anything, I'm used to it recording the white screen the
appears in a transition from one screen to another and I take precautions for
that. I've never had a white box appear prior to a menu opening, though, or had
a slide show "movement" in the background graphic itself. It wouldn't matter
how slow I recorded it - it would still record the last fraction of a second.
It did get the completely rendered image, it just added a little "interlude" on
its own.

I had no idea that captivate recorded layers on the graphics. When looking at
the slide, the white box only appears when I drag the playhead across the
slide, and then only for the last fraction of the second. Is it possible to
edit these in any way? Maybe "crop" the end of the end that shows the white box?

I am also facing the same type of problem as Karimc. When I record a
demonstration, the screens appear fine in the Edit mode. However, when I
preview/publish the same, the screens get distorted. For example- the frame
outside different buttons and text boxes gets distorted. Also, at some
instances the edges of a text box disappears. When recording the demonstration
I was careful and deliberately moving the mouse very slow but no result the
same problem. Any solutions?