by Kevin Siegel 
Smart Shapes were introduced in Adobe Captivate several years ago. Similar to PowerPoint's Shapes feature, Smart Shapes in Captivate allow you to draw stars, ovals, banners, and more on a slide. Once drawn, it is easy to switch from one Smart Shape to another (without having to redraw).
To draw a Smart Shape, visit the Shape tool and select any one of the Shapes. One the slide, drag your mouse to draw the shape.
If you're unhappy with the Smart Shape (perhaps you meant to draw a star but you drew an oval), visit the Properties Inspector and, assuming the shape you drew is still selected, simply pick a different shape.
The ability to create a Smart Shape and change it on the fly is awesome… but that ability pales in comparison to your ability to not only reshape the Smart Shape (and create shapes limited only by your imagination), but save your custom masterpiece as a Smart Shape for later use in any Captivate project.
To customize a Smart Shape, right-click a drawn shape and choose Convert to freeform.
Drag the points to create any kind of shape.
If you need to add more points (the points will disappear if you deselect the Smart Shape), right-click the Smart Shape again and choose Edit points.
When you're finished creating the Smart Shape, right-click the shape and choose Save Smart Shape.
Name the Smart Shape and then click the OK button.
From now on, the saved Smart Shape will be available in the list of Shapes.
