Adobe Captivate 4 Released

Adobe has released the 4th version of Adobe Captivate, which empowers you to rapidly create elearning content with advanced interactivity, software and scenario simulations, quizzes, and other engaging experiences.

This version has some very nice features like SWF commenting, Customizable widgets, Text-to-speech functionality, and more. Here is the list of top new features:

• SWF commenting
  
• Professional project templates
  
• Customizable widgets
  
• Roundtrip PowerPoint workflow
  
• Table of Contents and Aggregator
  
• Text-to-speech functionality
  
• Variables and Advanced Actions
  
• Expanded output options
  
• Adobe Photoshop® layer support
  
• Streamlined workflows and enhanced usability

I have been using Captivate for over three years now, and over the next few days I will be posting about these new features of Captivate 4, so watch out for this space!

Till then read more about it at the Adobe Captivate product page

Adobe Captivate 4

I have seen this wonderful product growing!
It is about to reach another milestone.
Adobe Captivate 4 beta ... sounds extremely interesting to me.
If you are also interested, please fill in the prerelease interest form
By being a part of the prerelease program you can help in making a product that is going to help you better in future. Also you get to see the features ahead of rest and I did hear from someone that Adobe gives gifts to people who contribute significantly in such programs... correct me if I am wrong, will you Silke?

Adobe Cativate 3 - the MultiMode Recorder!

With the introduction of Multi Mode recording, the recording has just got better with Adobe Captivate 3.

What are Recording modes in Adobe Captivate?

There are three main types of recording modes in Adobe Captivate, which are explained below:

Demonstration Mode
By default, the Demonstration mode will do the following:

1. Automatically add text captions
2. Show mouse location and movements
3. Automatically add highlight boxes when the mouse is clicked

Training Simulation Mode
By default, the Training Simulation mode will do the following:

1. No text captions
2. Automatically add click boxes when the mouse is clicked (with hint captions and failure captions
3. Automatically add text entry boxes to text fields (with hint captions and failure captions)

Assessment Simulation Mode
In Assessment Simulation mode there are no text captions. Automatically the click boxes are added for the mouse clicks but without hint captions, same is the case for text entry boxes which are added automatically for the text fields.

And a different combination of options can be created in the Custom Mode (for example - you can combine the auto text captions from the demonstration mode and auto TEBs from the training simulation mode and call it as your custom mode of recording)

Where can you find the settings/options for recording modes

If you used Adobe Captivate 2 and now you are using Adobe Captivate 3, you must have noticed that the menu items are not the same as before. Though it is a good thing done by Adobe to combine the similar dialogs but you may have to spend a little time to understand new dialogs, especially the 'Preferences' dialog. Now for any setting/option you should look into the 'Preferences' dialog.

To change the settings for 'Recording Modes' -

Go to the Preferences dialog (Edit > Preferences...)

In the 'Categories', expand the 'Recording' node

From the 'Recording' mode, select the 'Mode(s)' item

Now from the right hand side select the mode which you want to change from the drop down


What is Multi-Mode Recording?

With the introduction of Adobe Captivate 3, now you can record all the three modes and also your custom mode in a single recording session.

To record in multiple modes do the following:

From the Start page select 'Record or Create new Project'
Select Software Simulation
In the recording dialog check all the modes you want to record

After you finish the recording session, Adobe Captivate will prompt you to save all the projects (based on the number of modes you selected) and you can also specify which project you want to open in the edit view (from the drop down)

This multimode recording feature sure is a great help for those who want to train their users/students by showing them demo and then evaluate their learning by asking them to perform the same steps which they saw in the demonstration. As an ID, it sometimes gets cumbersome to record the same steps in different modes but Multimode recording eliminates the rework!

I hope this post helps you to understand about Multimode recording in Adobe Captivate 3, I will keep posting about the new and improved features in Adobe Captivate 3, so keep checking this page.

Thanks!

Thank You All!

Thank You all for the various responses.
I never thought that writing just a few (6 to be precise) blog posts would make this blog appear in the top 10 search results in google (that is when given the correct key words)

Right now I have one open question:
"How to decrese the file size of the published SWF of the Adobe Captivate project", To be frank, even I dont know the correct solution, so I recommend you to post it on the Adobe Captivate forum, may be someone there would have a better solution, but here are a few tips which I can tell:

1. Break your entire simulations in parts (MAX 40-45 slides) and use your flash knowledge OR menu builder to link them all together.
2. turn off the 'accessibility' (from the preferences). Though it doesnt affect much, but it sure doesn't include un-necessary information in the SWF
3. Try to keep the resolution of your project smaller. (If recording full screen is a must, then reduce your screen resolution before doing so)
4. If you can sacrifice little bit on the quality, then change the 'quality' settings from the 'slide properties' dialog (use the 'apply to all' feature of Adobe Captivate 2 to apply to all the slides).

I Hope this will surely help reduce the size a little bit. These are a few things I do. If someone has a better solution, please feel free to write a comment.

Once again, thank you all, and keep visiting this page for updates !

Best regards and wishes,
- Dexterous