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

Changing the default preloader for your Adobe Captivate project

Don't like the default preloader for your Adobe Captivate project? .... Change it !
Yes, you can change the preloader, not only this, you can also set that how much you want to preload before your project starts playing. Say, for example, you want that when 60% or more is loaded, your project should start playing... so here I am giving you the solution of how to do that.
Not only this, you can even show your company's logo (or may be put a link to your company's website, while the user waits for the Captivate movie to be loaded), something like the following:


The source file for the preloader is kept at the following location:
[Program files directory]\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 2\Gallery\Preloaders

You can open either of the 'Breezepreloader.fla' or the 'defaultpreloader.fla' to get the action script code.

Now all you have to do is put together your designing skills in Flash and do a little tweak in the ActionScript code to make your own customized preloader ... as simple as that !!

The ActionScript code is also very simple to modify.

Now once you have created your own preloader and published the SWF at some location, all you have to do is include this preloader in your Adobe Captivate Project, here is how to do that:

1. Open the Project preferences in Adobe Captivate (Project -> Preferences)
2. In the first tab, against the 'loading screen' text field, there is a button, click on it and browse and select the SWF you created.
3. Publish the project

Thats all !

Creating FLV out of your Adobe Captivate project

Adobe Captivate 2 is indeed a good tool for making software simulation, but by default it does not generate the output as FLV. I will tell you here that how you can convert your project into an FLV.

It requires Macromedia Flash to be installed on the same machine where Adobe Captivate 2 is installed.
It also requires Macromedia Flash 8 Video Encoder (or any other software which can convert AVI into FLV)

1. Create your project in Adobe Captivate 2 (Note - Create your project only as demonstration, do not include any interactivity in it)
2. Save the project.
3. Open Macromedia Flash and create a new file with the same dimensions as in your Adobe Captivate Project.
4. select File -> Import -> Import to Stage, browse and select the CP file.
5. In the options for importing DO NOT import the playback controls and DO NOT select 'slides as movieClips'
6. Export from Flash as an AVI (File -> Export -> Export Movie)
7. Now from Macromedia Flash 8 Video Encoder or any other AVI to FLV converter, you can easily convery it into an FLV.

Note that if you wish to use this FLV in any other Adobe Captivate 2 project, then you should select 'Sorenson Spark' video codec for best results.

Making Customized information for your Adobe Captivate 2 project

If the project information button on the playbar always irritated you? Did you want to show your customized project information on click of the information (i) button on the playbar of your Adobe Captivate 2 project?
If yes, then I am going to tell you how you can customize the project information shown on click of the 'i' button on the playback control, you may show your company's logo there too :)

Note that the following tutorial requires Flash 8 and knowledge and expertise in working on Macromedia Flash 8.

We will achieve this by modifying the _skin file.

First open the 'default' skin file in Flash, it is named 'cpPlaybar.fla'. It is kept at the location 'C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 2\Templates\PlaybackFLA' folder. Note that if you have installed Adobe Captivate at some other location, then locate this file by following the folder structure mentioned above.

Now create a new symbol (movieClip) [Press Ctrl + F8], give it name 'projectInfo'

After this design the information as you want to appear in your project, may be something like the following:

Drag and drop this movieClip onto the main timeline in a new layer. Give it the instance name 'projectInfo_mc'. Write a ClipEvent Load function for this as follows:

onClipEvent (load) {
this._visible = false;
}

Also write

on (release){
this._visible = false;
}

[Note you can choose to put a button inside this movieClip also, which will hide this movieClip]

Now from the library open the symbol named 'pbcBtnInfo'. In the timeline you will see three layers. Open the actions on the actions layer in the actions panel. You will find the onClick action event code here. Copy and paste the following code there (remove the original code):

var btnTipsId = 9;
function onClicked(){
var myInfoMC = _parent._parent.projectInfo_mc;
myInfoMC._visible = true;
var stageHeight = Stage.height;
var stageWidth = Stage.width;
myInfoMC._x = (stageWidth - myInfoMC._width)/2;
myInfoMC._y = (stageHeight - myInfoMC._height)/2;
//_parent.onPBCBtnClick("info");
}

Save this FLA with a new name (say, cpPlaybay_new)
Now open the publish settings and in the 'Formats' tab change the path of the .swf to only the [name].swf, so that it is published at the same location. Publish the SWF. Keep the rest of publish settings as it is.

Now copy the published SWF file to the following location:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 2\Gallery\PlaybackControls\SwfBars

Finally, inside Captivate open the skin editor (Project -> Skin...)
From the 'playbar' drop down combo box, select the SWF which you created. Thats it, you are done, now publish the project from Adobe Captivate. Following image shows how it will look on click of the information button:


Important : Few of the new transitions available in Flash 8, Filters, and/or new text rendering options may not be supported here. If you face issues, make your playbar as Flash player 7 SWF by changing the publish settings. If you face any issues implementing the above please leave a comment.

Creating Accessible content with Adobe Captivate 2

Though creating accessible content was possible in Macromedia Captivate also, with the release of Adobe Captivate 2, it has just got better.

In a nutshell, The guidelines of Accessibility (as also in the section 508) state that the content created must be accessible for everyone, even if they are physically challenged (say visibly challenged for instance)

While creating accessible content, the author must put Text equivalents for every visible content, text equvalent for each audio used in the project, make all the text used in the project accessible so that it can be read by the screen reader software like JAWS or Window-eyes and keyboard equivalent for each button used.

Though the rest of things are responsibilty of the content author, Adobe Captivate 2 takes care of making the text accessible to the screen readers. Following is the list of things that Adobe Captivate 2 makes accessible :
1. Project Name and Description (Derived from Project Properties)
2. Slide Accessibility text (Derived from Slide Properties)
3. All the buttons' text labels
4. Labels of the playBack controller
5. Text and button labels of every question slide
6. Text and button lables of the 'Result Slide'
7. Password protection (if any Adobe Captivate SWF file is password protected, the prompt for a password is read by screen readers)
8. Slide Labels (Derived from the Slide Properties)

To enable the accessibility for your project Open the Project Preferences (Project -> Preferences), switch to the preferences tab and check the checkbox titled '508 compliance' (Note that by default this is checked, if you wish that your content should not be accesible, then uncheck this box, However, it is not recommended)

In addition to the above, Adobe Captivate 2 Also enables the content authors to add Closed Captions to audio used in the project. The end-user can read the closed captions by clicking on the 'CC' button on the playBack controller.
Adobe Captivate 2 also makes it very simple to add the closed captions to audio used. A content author can either add the closed caption to a particular audio by using the audio tab in the slide properties OR he/she can also use the Advanced audio dialog to edit the closed captions for every audio used in the project.

The content authors can edit the look and feel of how the closed captions appear when the end-user clicks on the CC button. If you wish to edit the look and feel of the closed captions for your project, do the following:
Open the skin editor (Project -> Skin...) and click on the 'settings' button below the closed captioning checkbox. You can edit various settings such as number of displayed lines of text, foregroung.background colors, etc.

Note that this option of CC button on the playback controller is available only with the new Adobe Captivate 2 style playback controllers, with the old-style BMP playback controllers it is not available.

Using old-style playback controls in Adobe Captivate 2

Though in the latest release, Adobe Captivate 2, you can customize the playback controls, you may be wondering that whatever happened to the old-style playback controls (which were available in Captivate 1.01).
So, those are still there in Adobe Captivate 2 also (really!)

To use old (Captivate 1 style) playback controls, do the following:

1. Open the Skin Editor (Project -> Skin...)
2. From the 'Skin' Drop down combo box, select 'BMP Playbars'.
3. Now from the 'playbar' drop down combo box you can select any of the playback controls which were there in Captivate 1.01

Multiple SWF files Vs Single SWF output

Macromedia Captivate 1.01 always used to generate only one SWF file as the output, but in the latest releas, Adobe Captivate 2, the output consists of two SWF files. One xxxxx.swf and another xxxxx_skin.swf. Though this allows users to add customised borders to their projects, it is often annoying for those people who take the captivate output files and put in to their (other) framework(s).

But generating only one SWF file as output is not that difficult. It can be achieved in two very easy steps:

1. Open the skin Editor (Project -> Skin...)
2. From the 'Borders' Tab, Deselect 'Show Borders'.

Doing the above two steps will result in only one output file which will include the playbar. However, it will overlap some part of the content.

If you wish that your playback control should not overlap the content and still output is one file, then do the following steps:

1. Turn off the borders (as explained above).
2. From Project menu, open 'Resize Project'
3. In the 'Resize project' dialog, Increase only the height by 20 pixels.
4. In the group below (left hand side, 'if new size is lager'), select 'Keep project the same size and fill bg with color' and selct a color.
5. Select the position of project as top center.
6. Do not rescale any objects

In the above way, your output will only be one file and still will include the playback controls and the playback controls will not overlap the content.