Captain Captivate

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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Captivate 4 Sneak Peak at the Adobe Learning Summit

Posted on 12. Nov, 2008 by captivatehero.

The Captain was lucky enough to sit in on RJ Jacquez’s presentation on the upcoming features of Captivate 4 at the Adobe Learning Summit on Monday. He called it “Captivate Next” in the presentation, but it was apparent by the opening screen that it may be Captivate version 4.

The session was billed as a sneak peak on Adobe eLearning technologies, but it was primarily an overview of Captivate 4 - which was just fine by me. There were a few announcements around Adobe tools including an eLearning suite to be released sometime in 2009 that includes Photoshop CS4, Flash CS4, Acrobat Professional 9 and Adobe Device Central integration with Captivate. In addition, RJ mentioned that a Macintosh version of Captivate is in the works - no word on a release date.

Here are the new features that were revealed:

Captivate File Set Up

• Create a new Mobile Captivate file in Adobe Device Central
  • Preview your Captivate application on devices that support FlashLite 3.0 and 3.1
  • Simulate lighting conditions for the mobile device in Adobe Device Central

Recording Features

• Automatic panning that will follow your mouse
• New recording interface
• New “pre-recording” panel

Development Features

• Inline text editing with captions! No text tool yet, but it’s close enough.
• Call Captivate variables to control the environment
  • Turn the navigation bar on or off
  • Turn the visibility of elements on or off - like a caption
• Use custom variables to store and display any information you want
  • Variable values are displayed visually by using $$variablename$$ in a caption. This can be used to capture a student’s $$firstname$$ or $$lastname$$ values
  • Static variables can also be used in a Captivate language RDL file. This will allow you to customize the automatic captions that are created during a recording
• Captivate Widgets
  • Pre-built Flash components that can communicate with the Captivate development environment
  • ActionScript 3 code is provided so you can create you own Widgets
  • Widgets revealed include:
    • Text entry box that captures a variable value
    • Student certificate that has the course name, score and student name
    • Buttons that will display for rest of movie that will turn off the next and back buttons depending if you are on the first or last slide
  • Download widgets from Adobe.com
  • Use existing widget FLA files to modify or make your own custom widgets
  • Build a quiz widget that can get reported to an LMS
• Create multiple Captivate Actions on one slide

Publishing

• Export your SWF file as either ActionScript 2 or ActionScript 3 based code
• Easier way for creating an Image Slide Show
• Output directly to a PDF document - Acrobat 9 Reader only
• Create one SWF file that embeds all the media including the skin, SWF videos, and quiz question elements
• Create a Table of Contents - the Menu option is gone
  • Use the TOC for one or more Captivate movies
  • Multiple Captivate SWF movies will need to use the new Aggregator feature to “package” everything together
  • Search your Captivate movie through the TOC
• Output to Flashplayer 7, 8, 9 and now 10

Tool Integration and Workflow

• Captivate files and templates are now rendered in Adobe Bridge
• Import Photoshop files into Captivate
  • You can either flatten the image or retain the individual layers
  • The PSD file will take each layer and convert it into a PNG
  • Each PSD layer becomes a separate Captivate layer on the timeline. This will make it really easy to build animations and screen builds in Captivate.
• Create Captivate templates that use placeholders for graphics, captions, videos, and slide types like a quiz question, or recording slide.
• Round trip editing with PowerPoint content in Captivate via a dynamic link
• Adobe Air Review Application
  • Allows you to send a reviewer an Air application that will play the Captivate movie
  • Reviewer makes comments and e-mails them back to the Captivate developer, or uploads them to a development server
  • Comments import back into Captivate
  • Changes can be made, and comments sent back to the reviewer

Wow! What a list.

The Captivate development team has been busy. There are some real substantial changes to Captivate that will really speed up development time, and create an integrated workflow with other Adobe tools. This is going to really be a worthy upgrade to the product, and the Captain cannot wait to see more.

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