Captain Captivate

Adobe Captivate 5 Videos

Posted on 17. Jun, 2010 by captivatehero.

Here are some videos that cover the new features of Captivate 5. These were recorded during my online seminar on June 11, 2010. There are 10 videos that cover the new interface, Effects Panel, slide based video, audio editing, recording and more.

Captivate 5 New Features

Enjoy!

- The Captain

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Adobe Captivate 5 and eLearning Suite 2 Announced!

Posted on 04. May, 2010 by captivatehero.

Today Adobe announced the update to Adobe Captivate 5 and eLearning Suite 2. This is a detailed list of all the new features and my own commentary.  This release is defiantly a game changer for rapid eLearning development, and will really spice up my Captivate 5 training classes.

Captivate 5 New Features :

Optimized User Interface

• If you have been using any of the CS4/CS5 products then this new interface is going to feeling like home. You will be able to fully customize the layout of panels in Captivate 5 and save it out as your own custom Workspace. This is really going to help Captivate users who are working with multiple monitors. Also, the new Property Inspector will seem foreign to those of you who just use Captivate, but over time will become indispensable as you build your content. Finally, there is paste board/scratch area so you can have content off the screen, or partially on the screen. This is going to come in handy for introducing content with the new Animation Effects (see below).

Collaborate via Acrobat.com

• The integration of Captivate 5 and Acrobat.com will be a nice added benefit for anyone who can use the Acrobat.com service. Send Captivate review files to Acrobat.com for a Shared Review, and notify your team members with an e-mail blast right from Captivate 5. All of your files will be accessible to team members across the internet, and you will be able to track changes remotely.  You can post Captivate development files to Acrobat.com for backup or share them with a team member. With 5 gigabytes of storage for free - there is a lot of space to work with.

Rich Animation Effects

• Captivate 5 now has the ability to animate your objects using the new Effects panel. There are over 130 of pre-built animations that you can take advantage of by just choosing the effect from a menu and setting the timings. Multiple effects can played in sequence and some can even be played concurrently. One of my favorite effects is the motion path. You click on a small icon that appears in the lower right corner of your object and a motion path editor become enabled. This is a feature really should be put in Flash for aspiring animators. Now for you advanced Flash jockeys out there - you will be able to export your Motion XML files and use them as a Custom Effect. This is going to allow for the easy expansion of animation capabilities in Captivate 5.

Open Multiple Projects and New File Format

• You can now have multiple projects and Captivate Libraries open at the same time. Gone are the days of having multiple versions of Captivate open at the same time! Copy and paste assets between files with ease and drag and drop Library elements from different files. You will notice that there is a new file extension: .CPTX.

Object Styles

• Design Templates in Captivate are no more. They have been replaced with new Object Styles feature. You will now be able to select an object in Captivate 5 and format it visually with a default style or something that you whip up. Some formatting options of objects include Character, Text  Format, Fill & Stoke, and Transition.  Here is a big one: Quiz question elements can now set up with styles including the progress indicator.  Once you make a change to a Captivate Style it will easily propagate those changes throughout your entire Captivate development document. The Object Styles Manager panel will be intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it will prove to be one of the most powerful new features in this product.

Track & Report via Acrobat.com

• Attention all small and medium businesses… you now have a way to track your courses without a learning management system! This is all done by using the new Adobe Captivate Quiz Results Analyzer, or what I would like term ACQuRA - pronounced just like the car. All you need is an account to Acrobat.com and you are in business. When you set up reporting for your Captivate 5 files just pick Acrobat.com for eLearning reporting, and your student results are then written to the Acrobat.com cloud. The “ACQuRA” desktop application then kicks in an analyzes the files and will generate a report for you. Also, it has the ability to download to a file, export to .CSV, customize reports and hook up to external servers. This feature alone would sell me on an upgrade to Captivate 5. I can only imagine how many users are going to be praising Adobe for this functionality.

Multi-Video format Support

• With Captive 5 you will now be able to use FLV, F4V, AVI, MP4, MOV and 3GP for all your video needs.

Master Slides

• This feature is for all of you who have been saying to yourself, “I wish that Captivate had Master slides like PowerPoint.” Master slides in Captivate 5 allow you to add elements and set up a layout. You can have multiple Master slides in a project, and create new slides based upon a Master slide. Changes to a Master slide will update all slides based upon that Master. Using Master slides with Captivate Templates is going to be an amazing one-two punch for eLearning development.

Span & Synch Video

• This includes placing one video on a slide, or having your video span across multiple slides. The new Video Timing panel will give you precise control over when your video plays and the timing of other Captivate events. Another new feature is the ability to place video on the Table of Contents using the Video Timing Panel. Your TOC will slide down to reveal a video for the slide and then slide back up when the video is done playing.

Expanded Asset Library

• Get a larger set of prebuilt widgets, playbars, skins, stock animations, images, text captions, and buttons with superior aesthetics and usability.

Adobe Captivate Twitter Widget

• I have yet to use this widget so I really can’t say too much other than it’s going to be nice to have a hook into a social media site like Twitter. I would imagine that this will close feedback loops when students have comments on a course.

Enhanced Rich Media Support

• Better support for Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 animations.

Community Help

• There is a new Adobe AIR application that will search the Adobe help files and specific related sites that have a wealth of information. You can think of this as a hyper focused Google search with a nice interface. It’s nice to have an organized way tap into the user community for knowledge.

Enhanced Custom Widgets

• There’s a large amount of  new widgets that will expand the functionality of your courses. Some of them include: webcam access, volume control, external video link, timer, text area tied to a variable, custom caption, data table, slide numbering, quote of the day, print, podcast link, new playbar designs, help link, hangman game, send email, open web browser and ask the expert/send an email.

Macintosh Version

• Captivate 5 is now available for the Macintosh OS. Welcome Mac enthusiasts to the world of Captivate!

Screen Recording Workflow

• Brand new countdown and interface to start a recording. The quality of panning has increased, and there are other tweaks under the hood that are going to give you cleaner recordings.

Audio Recording/Editing Workflow

• There ’s a new audio recording window and edit window for you to take in. You have just about the same functionality as the previous version of Captivate, but this new interface will speed up your audio production. It’s going to be a breeze for those of you who add closed captioning.

eLearning Suite 2 New Features:

1. Round-tripping between Adobe Captivate 5 and Adobe Soundbooth CS5
2. Round-tripping between Adobe Captivate 5 and Adobe Flash Professional CS5
3. Round-tripping between Adobe Captivate 5 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
4. Multi-video support and Synchronization leveraging Adobe Media Encoder
5. Application capture in Adobe Flash Professional CS5
6. Domain-specific HTML templates
7. No LMS Required: Tracking and reporting of Learning outcomes
8. Optimized user interface of Adobe Captivate 5
9. Easy/ Enhanced Multi-Module SCORM / AICC LMS Integration

I’m really looking forward to these new products and all the options for creating amazing eLearning content.

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No Captivate on the iPad

Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by captivatehero.

For all of you who were hoping for a way to get your Adobe Captivate content on a Apple device - well it’s not going to happen - at least in the near term.

Apple has essentially blocked any Flash development with this recently released update to the iPhone 4.0 SDK:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

The bottom line -  any Captivate content that you import to Flash WILL NOT be allowed on any iPad/iPhone device.

Principal Product Manager for developer relations for the Flash Platform at Adobe, Mike Chambers, has a great blog post to summarize Adobe’s position.

What does this mean for rapid development of mobile eLearning? Well, it’s quite simple really. It’s either going to be on an Android or RIM device moving forward for Flash mobile development. I have always thought of the iPad/iPhone as a consumer play, and with the Apple’s walled garden growing ever so higher there is no way I can see it making inroads for corporate eLearning.

Great - so when do we get started? Recent comments by Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen have the Flash Player being delivered to Andriod and RIM in the second half of 2010. Fox Business (Video Link) By the time the cell phone manufacturers get Flash player 10.1 into a new device it will be by Q3 2010. There’s going to be a lot of testing this year, but 2011 will be the year for Flash eLearning on mobile devices.

- The Captain

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Displaying the Slide Label on the Screen in Captivate 4

Posted on 11. Mar, 2010 by captivatehero.

Time for some system variables in Captivate 4! Who’s ready?

You are going to use the System variable – cpInfoCurrentSlideLabel - to display the name of the Slide Label on each slide. This will save you a tremendous amount of time if you need to put a custom title on each screen.

1. Create a blank .CP file
2. In the Filmstrip – navigate to slide 1
3. Double click slide 1 and add the Slide Label: Main Menu
4. Click OK in the Slide Properties dialog box
5. Create a new Text Caption in slide 1
6. Double click the caption to edit it
7. From the Text Edit toolbar above the work area – click on the Insert Variable button
8. In the Variable Type drop down menu choose System
9. In the View By menu select – MovieInformation
10. From the Variables menu select the cpInfoCurrenSlideLabel variable
11. Set the Maximum Length to 50. This will allow for really long slide titles
12. Click the OK Button

You now see the Variable displayed in the Text Caption. To display the title on every screen you will need to change the properties of the Text Caption

1. Right click the text caption
2. Select Properties… in the contextual menu
3. In the New Text Caption dialog box – select the Options Tab
4. Set the Following:

1. Click the OK Button to set your text
2. Test you work by Previewing the Project

You will now see the title “Main Menu” appear in you slide. Try duplicating this slide a few times and change each slide label. When you preview your project - the variable will now update with each slide’s label information.

The Captain loves these variables!

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Using Variables in Captivate 4: A Simple Page Counter

Posted on 07. Oct, 2009 by captivatehero.

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!

1. On the Captivate opening screen under the Create Project column select Blank Project.
   

   Select Blank Project.

2. 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.

3. Click the OK button.
4. A new untitled CP file is created. Save your work as SlideCounter.cp
5. Add three blank slides by selecting Insert > Blank Slide three times. This will take you to the Edit View automatically.
   

   Create three Blank Slides.

6. Select Slide 1 in your Filmstrip.
7. Choose Insert > Standard Objects > Text Caption…
   

   Insert a Text Caption.

8. The New Text Caption dialog box appears.
9. Set up some simple Text Caption Properties
   • Caption type: [transparent]
   • Font: Arial
   • Size: 14
10. Type the word “Slide” in the Caption editor.
    

    Select the Insert Variable button.

11. Click on the Insert Variable button. The insert variable dialog box appears.
12. Select System for the variable type.
13. View by Movie Information.
14. From the Variable list choose cpInfoCurrentSlide.
    

    Select the cpInfoCurrentSlide variable.

15. Click the OK button.
16. Type in the word “of” right after the inserted variable.
    

    This is what your text should look like.

17. Click on the Insert Variable button again. The insert variable dialog box appears.
18. Select System for the variable type.
19. View by Movie Information.
20. 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.

21. Click the OK button in the Insert Variable dialog box to close out.
    

    Text Caption with variables added.

22. Now it’s time to set up an object attribute to make sure that we can see our Simple Page Counter on all slides.
23. With the New Text Caption dialog box still open click the Options Tab.
24. 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".

25. Click the OK button.
26. 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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Useful Captivate 4 Variables

Posted on 15. May, 2009 by captivatehero.

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:

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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Captivate 4, FLVs and the TOC

Posted on 23. Apr, 2009 by captivatehero.

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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Adobe eLearning Suite and Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2

Posted on 20. Jan, 2009 by admin.

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 FrameMaker® 9

Adobe RoboHelp® 8

Adobe Captivate® 4

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro Extended

Adobe Presenter 7

Adobe eLearning Suite

Adobe Captivate® 4

Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional with Learning Interactions

Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4 with CourseBuilder Extension

Adobe Photoshop® CS4 Extended

Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro

Adobe Presenter 7

Adobe Soundbooth® CS4

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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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 the 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:

1. Contains Text Caption margin values in pixels (That’s what I was looking for!)
2. Tells Captivate if the caption has a tail – either true or false
3. If there is a caption tail – indicates which direction it is pointed indicated by top, left, right and bottom
4. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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
3. 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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Captivate 3 Tip: Using a Highlight Box as a Cover

Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by captivatehero.

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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