Month: October 2019

I've long trumpeted the benefits of using Object Styles in Adobe Captivate. However, there may be times when you don't want to work with styles but still want to quickly apply an object's formatting to other objects. In that case, you'll love Captivate's copy and paste appearance feature.   Before I show you how to use the copy/paste appearance feature, let me review Object Styles (using styles is truly the most efficient way to work in Captivate). If you'd like to follow along with the steps below, create a blank project in Captivate 2019 (update 11.5) and draw a few shapes similar to the image below.

On the Properties Inspector, notice that the shapes are all using the Default Smart Shape Style.

Using the Properties Inspector, change the appearance of one of your shapes (for instance, change the fill color).

On the Properties Inspector, notice the plus sign to the left of the style name. The plus sign indicates a formatting override. The change you made to the object is not part of the object style and the formatting was not applied to any other objects using the same style.   To update the style, go to the menu across from Style Name on the inspector and choose Save changes to Existing style.

Every object on every slide using the style gets updated instantly. That's cool stuff. However, if you want to format multiple objects and you don't want to use Object Styles, this next technique is for you.   Select and format a shape (use the Properties inspector to change the fill, color, stroke, etc).

Select the shape you just formatted and choose Edit > Copy Appearance (or right-click and choose Copy Appearance).

Select another shape and choose Edit > Paste Appearance (or right-click and choose Paste Appearance).   The selected shape is instantly formatted to match the previous object. You can use this technique to format multiple slide objects, even across project slides. If you'd like to see a video demo of this process, you'll find it on my YouTube channel.

***   Looking for Captivate training? Check out these live, instructor-led classes.

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Kevin Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written hundreds of step-by-step computer training books on applications such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe RoboHelp, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia. Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has three decades’ experience as a trainer, publisher, technical writer, and eLearning developer. Kevin is a Certified Master Trainer (CMT), Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+), Certified Online Professional Trainer (COTP), and a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions.