Happy 2010!
Well it’s been awhile since my last post. I’m truly sorry that I have not been keeping up - there’s a backlog of cool article ideas I can’t wait to share. I will get to them, but they will not be in written form. More on that in a bit.
Over the last three months there has been many changes happening with my company Lodestone Digital. For those of you who are not familiar with Lodestone - we operate Adobe Authorized Training Centers across the USA that focus on corporations, creative firms, government agencies and higher education. A majority of these classes are delivered in the classroom, and some are delivered via Lodestone Live - our online training offering. The way that we deliver courses is evolving, and that of course had my FULL attention.
There is a fundamental change happening in education fueled by a convergence of delivery technology, social media, and online video. This is at all levels K-12, higher ed, and professional adult classes. I have immersed myself over the past 3 months with this opportunity, and with my team at Lodestone have come up with a new training model that changes everything we do. Our focus has always been to empower you to be creative and have more fun with software - now we have a new way of making it happen. You will see a lot more video from Lodestone on the web, and in this blog.
Lodestone will be making an announcement at the beginning of February that will spell everything out, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Josh
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Hello fellow Captivaters!
This week I’m going to create a simple page counter using Captivate 4 variables that will keep track of the current slide that you are on and the total number of slides in your presentation. (Example: Slide 3 of 20) This is a straightforward way of letting your audience members track their progress, and is especially helpful is you decide to ditch Captivate’s Skin for your own custom navigation controls.
In prior versions of Captivate I created a Flash movie that would grab the existing slide variables with ActionScript 2.0 code and display them in an imported SWF. This was always a big hit in Captivate classes, but anyone who was not inclined to program was a little put off. Well no worries about code anymore. All you will need to pull this off is just a Text Caption and few clicks. Let’s get Captivating!
- On the Captivate opening screen under the Create Project column select Blank Project.
Select Blank Project.
- The New Project dialog box appears. From the drop down list on the right choose 790 x 545 Browser.
Choose 790 x 545 in the New Project dialog box.
- Click the OK button.
- A new untitled CP file is created. Save your work as SlideCounter.cp
- Add three blank slides by selecting Insert > Blank Slide three times. This will take you to the Edit View automatically.
Create three Blank Slides.
- Select Slide 1 in your Filmstrip.
- Choose Insert > Standard Objects > Text Caption…
Insert a Text Caption.
- The New Text Caption dialog box appears.
- Set up some simple Text Caption Properties
- Caption type: [transparent]
- Font: Arial
- Size: 14
- Type the word “Slide” in the Caption editor.
Select the Insert Variable button.
- Click on the Insert Variable button. The insert variable dialog box appears.
- Select System for the variable type.
- View by Movie Information.
- From the Variable list choose cpInfoCurrentSlide.
Select the cpInfoCurrentSlide variable.
- Click the OK button.
- Type in the word “of” right after the inserted variable.
This is what your text should look like.
- Click on the Insert Variable button again. The insert variable dialog box appears.
- Select System for the variable type.
- View by Movie Information.
- From the Variable list choose rdInfoSlideCount. You now have the variable in place. When these variables render they will display “Slide 1 of 4”. The first variable will resolve the current slide that you are on and the second will keep track of the total number of slides.
Select the rdInfoSlideCount variable.
- Click the OK button in the Insert Variable dialog box to close out.
Text Caption with variables added.
- Now it’s time to set up an object attribute to make sure that we can see our Simple Page Counter on all slides.
- With the New Text Caption dialog box still open click the Options Tab.
- In the Timing section – change the Display for: value to Rest of Project. This will allow the Page Counter to be visible on all slides.
Display the Text Caption for "Rest of Project".
- Click the OK button.
- Preview your example by hitting the F4 key.
You should now see your page counter read 1 of 3, 2 of 3, and 3 of 3 as it progresses through the slides.
This is the final variable text rendered in the caption.
If you see these results – well done!
Sample File (520K)
Now that’s real Captivate variable power.
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The Captain noticed a great post today on the Adobe Captivate blog that lists all the Captivate 4 system variables, their default values, and a description. This is a great supplement to the Captivate 4 Help file - which only lists the older RoboDemo variables that begin with the prefix “rd”. I think one of the challenges of using the variables is the time it takes to test them out to validate functionality. This list is going to help decipher what these variables are used for.
Here’s a list of some of the variables that I find interesting, and that will most likely be used in my Captivate 4 projects:
Variable |
Description |
Comments |
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| cpCmndCC | Enable/disable closed captioning (CC). Set value to 1 to display closed captions. Change the value to 0 to turn them off. | This will really come in handy when you are trying to hide the Closed Caption area. For instance, when there are text captions that match the audio track. Having a closed caption would be redundant at that point. |
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| cpCmndGotoSlide | Assigns the slide number that the movie should move to before pausing. This is a little tricky - the Index begins with 0. | What makes this different than just a plain old “Jump to Slide”? When you are building conditional statements, or trying to evaluate a slide number - you will take advantage of this VAR in your Captivate Actions. |
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| cpCmndMute | This will mute the audio. Set the value to 1 to mute and 0 to un-mute the audio. | This is going to be great to turn off any background audio that you may have playing through the course. Keep in mind that this will mute ALL the audio. |
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| cpCmndShowPlaybar | This will turn the visibility of the playbar on or off. The default value is 1 if the Playbar is turned on in the skin. Set the value to 0 to turn the playbar off. | This variable is going pay off big time when you are trying to incorporate a Captivate skin and a demonstration/simulation. |
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| cpLockTOC | Enables/disables user interaction on TOC. If you want to lock the Table of Contents in place - set the value to 1. | If your users need to go through all the slides - this will force the TOC to stay open so they can see their progress. |
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| cpCmndVolume | Control the movie’s volume. Values can range from 0 to 100. | This will allow you to control the volume of your audio tracks in the course. This will come in handy if you have a section of your course where the audio levels don’t match. |
This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more variables that allow you to:
- Control the Captivate movie
- Pull Captivate movie information
- Grab Captivate movie metadata
- Grab System information
- Display Quiz information
In my next few posts, the Captain will be diving in deep with examples on how you can use Captivate 4 variables to extend the capabilites of your next course.
Until then - happy Captivating!
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First, the Captain would like to say - “I’m back”! I’ve been on hiatus for the first part of the year, but ready to start spreading knowledge once again on Adobe Captivate and all things related.
I want to mention an issue that popped up today when I was reviewing a client’s .CP file that used multiple FLV’s.
The .CP file was not complicated - one static slide with text and graphics and one slide with a FLV video - repeat that pattern 8 times. All the videos were set to progressive load, display until the end of the slide, and pause slide until the end of the video. There was a requirement for the FLV playback bar to be visible, and show the progress barmovement while the video was playing. No problem right?
The playback head was not moving!
Well some real strangeness started happening during testing. Some of the videos would trigger the FLV progress bar/playback head just fine, and then for others the playback head would just sit there. These videos would play just fine - but you had no control of scrubbing the video. When I tried to re-publish - different videos would work. Re-publish again - now a different set of videos worked.
Well, after much testing and gnashing of teeth - I’ve concluded that the new Table of Contents feature is messing with the FLV playback component. After removing the TOC - the FLV playback bar worked like a champ on every video! Unfortunately, the TOC is required by my client for this project.
The Captain is still trying to sort that one out.
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The Captain is soaring through the air with excitement! Adobe has announced the release of the Adobe eLearning Suite and the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2!
Here is a run down of all the new suite packages:
Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2:
Adobe eLearning Suite
Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional with Learning Interactions
Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4 with CourseBuilder Extension
These new suites provide content developers with some great software choices. If you are an instructional designer that’s creating more documentation than multimedia content - the Technical Communication Suite is your pick. The suite contains solid applications like FrameMaker, RoboHelp and Captivate - but now adds Photoshop which should be in everybody’s toolbox.
The eLearning suite provides multimedia producers with a set of tools that will allow flexible content output options - Flash, PDF and HTML.
In the next few weeks the Captain will be exploring all the new features of Captivate 4, and how this new version will work with Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Soundbooth and more.
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Recently Adobe Captivate 3 was named Best Simulation Solution in the 2008 “Best of Elearning!” awards competition. With all the other tools that are out in the marketplace - it’s good to see that Captivate still comes out on top. The Captain is still amazed each day how fast you can create demonstrations, guided practice and assessment simulations with Captivate. Obviously the voters thought the same thing.
Congratulations to the Adobe Captivate 3 development team, beta testers, and power users!
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Greetings fellow Captivate users!
The Captain was on hiatus the last few weeks, but now I’m back to supply you with all the Captivate knowledge you can handle. For readers of this blog - one thing you will notice is that it now has a nice, new design. This includes a Captain Captivate Twitter feed where I’ll be supplying quick tips for the day. If you would like to get these daily tips - just follow me on Twitter. In addition, there are new sections of the blog that will be filled with wonderful content - including training videos. Check out the video intro that will be part of these videos that you can preview.
Here are the Captain’s goals for 2009:
- Post meaningful training videos with great examples once per week
- Prepare you for Captivate 4 by reviewing new features
- Offer support materials including templates and training tips
- Come up with a killer slogan - for example - “By the power of Captivate!” or “Suffering Slidelets!”
As we move into 2009 - distance learning is going to accelerate with the reduction in training and travel budgets. To support this movement - the Captain is now offering online Captivate classes that you can take right at your own desk. Check out Lodestone Live for more information and class dates.
Thanks for hanging around the Captain’s blog!
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Captivate 3 Tip: Control Text Caption Margins with the .FCM File
Posted on 08. Dec, 2008 by captivatehero.
I’d have to say that Captain Captivate somewhat of a design snob.
I really do look at kerning and tracking of type in layouts, and it makes me cringe to see that offending widowed or orphaned text in print and on the web. So th
e first time I used Captivate, or at the time RoboDemo, you could imagine shock at the first Text Caption that I created. You know the one I’m talking about – the Blue default caption with about zero margins, and text jammed up on the sides. I thought that this cannot be happening. There was no property box to change the margins and nothing in the Text Caption properties dialog box either. Well, what’s driving the margins? There has to be something.
By poking around the Captions Gallery, I eventually I found the elusive .FCM file. If you want to check it out for yourself – the Adobe Captivate 3 Captions gallery can be found here:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 3\Gallery\Captions
Inside the Captions Gallery you will find a unique .FCM file for each caption .BMP file. That’s right – you need a unique .FCM file for each caption in a caption style set. So the AdobeRed1.BMP file will have an AdobeRed.FCM file that controls it.
To crack open the .FCM file you’ll need to associate the file type with Windows Notepad. An .FCM file is nothing more than a plain text file so Notepad is the easiest application to use. If you double click the .FCM file to try to open it up Widows will ask you if you would like to choose a program to associate with it – at that point go with Notepad.
Upon further investigation, I found out the following about the contents of an .FCM file:
- Contains Text Caption margin values in pixels (That’s what I was looking for!)
- Tells Captivate if the caption has a tail – either true or false
- If there is a caption tail – indicates which direction it is pointed indicated by top, left, right and bottom
- The distance from the tip of the tail to the corner of the caption in pixels
Here’s an example:
Left Margin=10
Right Margin=10
Top Margin=10
Bottom Margin=10
[Hotspot]
Enabled=true
Corner=left,bottom
MarginX=0
MarginY=24
All you have to do is modify the margin values for each caption in a style set, and you’re off and running. Keep in mind that your artwork is going to dictate the how high the margin value are. Take a look at this image:
The .FCM file controls the margins from the edge of the artwork.
You won’t have any problems with the “rectangle” captions. It’s the captions with the tail that you’ll need to make a measurement with.
A couple of notes moving forward:
- Once you apply a caption in a Captivate movie the .FCM values are embedded in the file. Make sure that you make your margin changes before you implement the caption in the Captivate movie. You can flush the values out in the Captivate preferences, but this is not recommended.
- Where did the .FCM file name come from? .FCM is short for FlashCam - the application that was the precursor for RoboDemo which then became Captivate
- If you need to change the font styling – check out the Fonts.ini file in the Captivate Gallery. This file drives the initial formatting of the Text Caption fonts.
Very good! I can tell your Captivate Caption Text is going to look much better in future projects.
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Most Captivate developers encounter a Highlight box for the first time as part of a Demonstration Recording. This faint flash of color to draw the user’s attention is great for simulation recordings, but there is another way that you can take advantage of this Captivate object.
Here’s a dirty little secret: a Highlight box can be used to cover up square areas of your screen temporarily or even permanently.
A good example would be an application that has yet to be rolled-out, and you have been tasked with building an eLearning module for that app. (I’m sure I just heard some groans.) Guaranteed that some system function will be stripped away before an application is released.
Let’s say that the development team decides to remove a check box from the application, and you have 80 background screens in Captivate with that check box. Now, that’s a problem. Along comes the Highlight Box to save the day.
Here’s an easy way to get rid of a that problematic interface element:
1. Identify object or area to cover.
In this case - the area is the check box and label “Remember me on this computer.” The screen capture is part of an image on the slide background. For the best results, the new Highlight Box must be in the layer above your background.
The highlight box will be above the slide background.
Select the Pick color tool and click your application background color for a perfect match.
2. Create the Highlight Box.
From the Main Menu select Insert > Highlight Box (SHIFT+CTRL+L)
Set the following attributes in the New Highlight Box window :
- Frame color: White (This can be any color!)
- Fill Color: Match your application background color with the eyedropper tool.
- Frame Width: 0
- Fill Transparency: 0%
- The Fill outer area box is unchecked
Select the Options tab and set these values:
- In the Timing Area set these values: Display for: rest of slide - Appear after 0.0 seconds.
- In the Transition Area set the Effect to no transition.
Click the OK button.
3. In the timeline, click and drag the new Highlight Box above the Background Layer.
You can never have visual content below the Slide Background – that’s impossible in Captivate.
4. Resize the Highlight Box and cover the checkbox and label.
You may have to lock a few layers down to do this depending upon the complexity of your Captivate slide.
5. Select Preview > Next 5 slides from the Captivate Tool Bar.
Good-bye offending interface element! Remember this techniques works well in situations that a visual element may or may not be a part of the final movie. Those developers may come back and say, “Hey - can you put that check-box back?.”
A couple quick notes:
- You can always remove the Highlight Box cover if functionality returns to the application you are recording.
- You can copy and paste the Highlight Box to other screens if needed.
- Right-click the Highlight Box and select Merge to Background if you want this to be a permanent change.
I have been using this same technique for years and it has never failed me. Now you have one more tool in your Captivate tool belt.
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I had a wonderful group at my presentation on Captivate 3. Thanks to
everyone who attended!
