by Kevin Siegel 
The more I work with Captivate's Video Demo mode, the more I like it. If you have a need to demonstrate a quick concept, using Video Mode is the absolute fastest way to create eLearning.
To record a video using Video Demo mode, select Video Demo from the Create New area of Captivate's Welcome Screen. When the Recording Area appears, you record your screen actions just as you would if you recorded screen actions using the Software Simulation mode.
Unlike a typical Software Simulation (where there are multiple slides and Timelines), a Video Demo consists of a single video and just one Timeline.
While there are limits to how much editing you can do to a video project, you can insert images, Text Captions, Characters, and Smart Shapes. You can edit the mouse pointer shown in the video, add Pan & Zooms, and Trim the video. This week, I'm going to show you how to Trim a video.
Trim a Video
- Open or record a Video Demo.
- On the Timeline, click where you want to begin the Trim process. (The red bar you will see is known as the Playhead.)
- From beneath the Timeline, click the Trim button. (Two markers will appear. Upon completion, the area between the markers will be deleted.)
- Drag the two markers left or right as necessary to highlight the part of the video you want to delete.
- Click the word Trim on the Timeline to trim the selection.
The selected part of the video will immediately be removed from the video.
Note: I've found plenty of ways to take advantage of Video Demos, keep in mind that Video Demos are, well, videos. Published videos will play on any computer (Mac, Windows), upload to YouTube, and play on most mobile devices (including the iPad). However, Video Demos cannot contain interactivity. You cannot add quizzes, buttons, click boxes, Advanced Actions, or Text Entry Boxes. Do keep that limitation in mind if you plan to produce mainly demos for your eLearning content.
If you'd like to see a demonstration of video trimming, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel. And if you'd like to see some of my Video Demos, stay on our YouTube channel. Every video you see was created using Captivate's Video Demo feature.
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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.