Adobe Captivate – Page 17 – The Logical Blog

January 21, 2014

Adobe Captivate 7: Publishing Video Demos

by Kevin Siegel

Over the past few weeks I've shown you how to trim portions of a Captivate Video Demo and how to Pan & Zoom. This week, I'm focusing on the Publishing process for Video Demos.

Publishing a Video Demo (cpvc) might seem like a no-brainer if you have past exerience working with standard Captivate project (cptx). I'd be surprised if any Captivate developers reading this article haven't published at least once via File > Publish.

Here's what the standard Publish dialog box looks like:

When publishing a cptx project, you can elect to publish as SWF, HTML, PDF, or all of the above. You can also select Media from the options at the left and publish as a video file. The bottom line is that you have choices… lots of choices.

Publishing a Video Demo is, to put it mildly, different. As with a cptx project, you still choose File > Publish. However, the Publish dialog box that appears couldn't be more spartan:

SWF? Gone. HTML5, PDF? Gone and gone! If you're working with a Video Demo and go to publish, the assumption is that you want to publish, well, a video. And that's exactly what you get should you click the Publish button–an MP4 file that will play nicely on YouTube and just about any computer or hand-held device that supports video playback.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when customizing the settings in the Publish dialog box.

Profiles: There are three choices (Baseline, Main, and High). Use Baseline for mobile and video conferencing applications.Main is for standard-definition digital TV broadcasts. High is for high definition devices. While the High Profile leads to a longer publish time and more complex video, I've found that this option yields the best results for me.

Encoding: You've got two choices, Constant (CBR) and Variable (VBR). Constant is the default (and it's what I use 99.99% of the time). A Constant bit rate typically results in a smaller published video. Should you elect to specify a variable bit rate, Captivate decides when to use more bits to maintain quality. The file size increases when more bits are used.

FPS stands for Frames Per Second. The higher the value, the smoother your video will play, and the larger the published video will be. The standard FPS is 15.

Key Frame Interval: All videos contain key frames (milestones that represent every second of playtime for the video). The longer you set the Key Frame Interval, the smaller the published video file will be. However, if the video supports Search, the search time increases. If you set the interval short (less than 5 seconds), the size of the file increases but the search function works faster. The standard for videos intended for eLearning is 5 seconds.

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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. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

January 15, 2014

Adobe Captivate 7: Pan & Zoom Video Demos

by Kevin Siegel

Last week, I showed you how to trim portions of a Captivate Video Demo. This week, I'm focusing on the Pan & Zoom feature.

Captivate's Pan & Zoom feature, which is only available in Video Demos, is really two cool tools in one. Zooming gives you the ability to automatically get the learner closer to the action. Panning lets you automatically change the area of the screen that the learner sees. You can control exactly when the Pan & Zoom occurs, its Scale, Speed, Size, and Position.

To add a Pan & Zoom in a Video Demo, first position the Playhead on the Timeline where you'd like the Pan & Zoom.

On the Pan & Zoom panel, click the Add Pan & Zoom button (if the Pan & Zoom panel is not on your screen, choose Window > Pan & Zoom).

On the Timeline, a Pan & Zoom point is added (in the image below, it's the orange circle with a magnifying glass in the middle).

To control the Pan & Zoom, drag and resize the Pan & Zoom window on the Pan & Zoom panel. (The smaller you make the Pan & Zoom window, the larger the zoom.)

You can control how fast the zoom occurs by adjusting the Speed via the Pan & Zoom panel.

The fastest way to zoom the learner back out (so they can see the entire video) is to click the Zoom Out button on the Pan & Zoom panel.

If you'd like to see a demonstration of the Pan & Zoom feature, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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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.

January 7, 2014

Adobe Captivate 7: Trim Video Demos

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.

December 18, 2013

Adobe Captivate 7: Quiz Not Scoring Correctly? Think Advanced… Check Your Interaction!

by Kevin Siegel

Here's an interesting scenario: You create a Captivate project that contains 12 slides: 10 question slides, each worth 10 points, and two "transitional" slides containing simple navigation buttons.

During the testing phase, a beta-tester who answers all of the questions correctly should be awarded 100 points. Simple. Interestingly, every beta-tester who answers the questions correctly receives a score of 96 from the LMS. Huh?

How about this one? You have a five-question Captivate project. As with the first example, this project also has a couple of "transitional" slides containing navigation buttons.

During the testing phase, the progress indicator on each of the question slides indicates that you are on slide 2 of 6, when you are actually on the first question slide. What's up with that? Keep in mind, the project only contains five questions so the first question slide should have indicated that you were on slide 1 of 5.

I've seen these problems before. The issues aren't with the question slides, and they're not a problem with your beta tester. The problem is typically found with the buttons on the "transitional" slides.

If you were to select a button and visit the Reporting group on the Properties panel, you'd see that many objects (click boxes, buttons, text entry boxes) can report user interactivity. In short, the object can be treated like it's part of a quiz.

If you select Include in Quiz, your question number counts will be thrown off. If you select Report answers and Add to total, your quiz score will likely be thrown off.

Here's the real challenge: Imagine you have 100 slides. Some of the slides are question slides; the majority are simply interactive or contain buttons. It's going to be a real pain to open each of your slides, show the properties of objects, and ensure the Reporting options are set correctly. What's a developer to do? Read on…

Choose Project > Advanced Interaction to open the Advanced Interaction window.

You can use this handy window to control all of the reporting objects in your project. For instance, if you wanted to stop a button from being added to the quiz total, all you need to do is select the object in the Advanced Interaction window and, on the Properties panel, Reporting group, deselect the Add to total check box.

If you'd like to see a demonstration of how to Report a score without using Question Slides and how to use the Advanced Interactions feature, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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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.

December 11, 2013

Adobe Captivate 7.01: Color Swatches

by Kevin Siegel

Over the past few weeks, I've written about the enhancements you'll find in the recently-released service patch for Captivate 7 (an enhanced lock feature and a new Star Smart Shape). This week I'm going to show you how to use the new Swatches panel.

In the image below, I've added a logo onto a Captivate slide. I'd like to use the green contained in the logo on the Highlight Box you see to the left of the logo. I'd also like to be able to use that same color in other Captivate projects.

Adobe Captivate: Highlight Box and Logo.

To begin, I opened the Swatches panel (Window menu). Then I selected the Pick Color tool (the eye dropper shown in the image below).

Using the Pick Color tool, I clicked on the green color on the logo. In the image below, you can see that the color is added to the Swatches panel (#90B000).

The Enter swatch name dialog box opens. In the image below, I named my new Swatch LogoGreen and then clicked the OK button.

The LogoGreen swatch appears on the Swatches panel (it's the last swatch you see in the image below). I can now use the swatch and apply the color to any slide object.

Keep in mind that Swatches are shared by all Captivate projects so you won't have to recreate the Swatch every time you create a new project. In addition, you can import existing swatches from either Adobe Photoshop or Kuler by clicking the Load tool on the Swatches panel.

Adobe Captivate: Load swatches

If you'd like to see a demonstration of the new Swatches panel in action, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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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.

December 4, 2013

Adobe Captivate 7.01: A True Star

by Kevin Siegel

Smart Shapes were introduced with Adobe Captivate 6. At that time, one of the most often-requested shapes that needed to be added was a Star shape.

When Adobe Captivate 7 was introduced, many developers were disappointed that there still wasn't a Star Smart Shape. Oh the heart-ache… oh the drama. Well, you'll be happy to learn that the drama and the heart-ache are over… and you didn't have to wait for Captivate 8.

Adobe recently released a service patch for Captivate 7 (to 7.01). Last week I wrote about the enhanced lock feature found in the patch. This week, let's explore the Star Smart Shape.

To add a Star, choose Insert > Standard Objects > Smart Shape. The Smart Shapes window will open and you'll find the Star grouped with the Basic shapes (shown in the image below).

Once you've drawn the Star, you can use the Properties panel to change the look of the Star, just like any other slide object. In particular, you'll find a Spikes area on the Fill & Stroke group (shown in the image below) allowing you to change the number of points contained within the Star.

And as with all Smart Shapes, always look for the yellow box (shown at the top of the Star in the image below). Dragging the yellow box further modifies the look and feel of the shape.

If you'd like to see a demonstration of how the new Star Smart Shape works in Adobe Captivate 7.01, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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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.

November 26, 2013

Adobe Captivate 7.01: Twice the Locking Power

by Kevin Siegel

Adobe recently announced a patch for Adobe Captivate 7. The patch offers support for the new Macintosh and Windows operating systems and fixes several bugs. As patches go, bug fixes and expanded support for operating systems is typical fare. However, if you've spent the few minutes that it takes to install the free upgrade, you might have missed some enhancements that are a pleasant surprise (and above and beyond what one might expect to find in a simple patch).

For instance, the ability to lock slide objects has been around for years. All you needed to do was select a slide object and, on the Timeline, click the white dot in the lock column. In the image below, I've added a Text Caption to a slide. The white dot indicates that the object is not locked. I can drag the unlocked object around the slide, resize it, and use any of the groups on the Properties panel.

Adobe Captivate: Object Lock Tool

Prior to the patch for Captivate 7, clicking the white dot simply locked the object and the white dot changed into a lock icon (shown in the image below). While locked, you couldn't move or resize the object nor change any of the object's Properties without first unlocking the object.

Adobe Captivate: Object locked

After installing the Captivate 7.01 patch, there are now two lock modes: fully locked and semi-locked. After an initial click on the white dot, the lock icon is noticeably different from what was seen in older versions of Captivate. In the image below, notice that instead of the standard lock icon that was shown in the image above, the lock icon now includes arrows.

Adobe Captivate: Object semi locked.

The arrows not only appear on the lock icon on the Timeline; the locked object on the slide also displays the semi-locked icon (shown below).

When an object is semi-locked, you cannot change its size or slide position. However, you can make other changes to the object. For instance, in the image below, notice that while the Transform group options aren't available, the options in the General group (Caption and Callout) are both available. In addition to the General group, all of the remaining groups remain available with a semi-locked object.

Adobe Captivate: Properties panel showing semi-locked options.

If you'd like to fully lock an object (just like in the old days), it's a simple matter of clicking the white dot on the Timeline a second time (the first click semi-locks the object; a second click fully locks the object).

If you'd like to see a demonstration of how the new lock feature works in Adobe Captivate 7.01, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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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.

September 20, 2011

Adobe Captivate: Quick Clicks and You’re Texting to Speech

by Kevin Siegel

The ability to convert text to speech using Captivate's built-in text to speech agents is awesome. All you need to do is select the slide note(s) you want to convert and then click the Text-to-Speech button.

Assuming you have installed NeoSpeech (a program that come with Captivate but needs to be installed manually), you will be able to choose from any one of five voices from the Speech Agent drop-down menu.

In addition to the five voices you get with Captivate, any voices that have already been installed on your computer will also appear in the Speech Agent drop-down menu. In the image below, Microsoft Anna, which comes with Windows, is also listed among the Speech Agents.

After selecting an agent, all you need to do is click the Generate Audio button to convert the selected text to an audio file. Simple! Of course, if you follow these simple steps, you won't get the agent you were hoping for in the generated audio.

In the image below, notice that I have selected Kate from the Speech Agent drop-down menu. However, Microsoft Anna is shown at the right of the dialog box. Most new Captivate developers (and even some vets) miss this little detail. If I were to click the Generate Audio button now, I'd end up with an audio file containing Microsoft Anna, not Kate.

Kate selected as the Speech Agent

There is one subtle thing you have to do before selecting an agent and then clicking the Generate Audio button: click just above the text you'd like to convert and ensure the space above the text turns gray (see the image below).

Kate re-selected as the Speech Agent.

If you miss this one simple click, you won't be using the agent you want… instead, you'll be using the default agent (which, as shown earlier, would have been Anna for me).