Adobe Captivate – Page 8 – The Logical Blog

July 1, 2016

Adobe Captivate: Restricting Keyboard Tabbing

by Kevin Siegel

Allowing a learner to use the keyboard to navigate around a published Adobe Captivate project is a large part of ensuring that your project is accessible (you learn about accessibility and Section 508 compliance during our live, online, 2-day advanced Captivate class).

However, if you've added a Table of Contents and/or a playbar to your Captivate project, you might want to ensure that only slide items can be accessed via tabbing.

As an experiment, add a TOC to a project (via Project > Table of Contents), publish it and view it in your web browser. As you press the [tab] key, you'll notice that you can go down the TOC and then across the playbar.

Back in Captivate, display the Publish Settings dialog box via the File menu. Select (check) Restrict keyboard tabbing to slide items only.

Adobe Captivate_ Restrict keyboard tabbing

Republish the project. This time when you [tab] through the lesson, the TOC and playbars are not accessible, but screen objects are.

Note: If you publish the project as HTML5, the learner will end up in the browser's Address bar after all of the slide items have been tabbed.

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Looking for Adobe Captivate training? Check out these live, online classes.

June 24, 2016

Adobe Captivate: Custom Color Swatches

by Kevin Siegel

When creating a template (you can learn how by attending my 3-hour mini course on building templates), you'll likely need to add colors that meet your corporate brand. Fortunately, it's easy to create color swatches in Captivate and reuse them again and again.

To create a custom swatch, create or select an existing text caption. On the Properties Inspector, Character group, click Color.

In the Color panel, click Swatches.

At the right of the Swatches window, click Open Swatch Manager.

Click Pick Color.

Pick a color or mix your own and then click the OK button.

After clicking the OK button, you will be prompted to name your new swatch.

Once you have created your swatch, it will appear on the Swatch Manager.

The next time you click Color on the Properties Inspector, your custom swatch will be available for use. You can create as many swatches as you need; and if you create the swatches in a project template, the swatches will appear in any new projects that are based on the template.

Looking for Adobe Captivate training? Check out these live, online classes.

June 2, 2016

Adobe Captivate 9 Now Supported on 32-bit Systems

Adobe Captivate fans lamenting the fact that Captivate 9 was only available on 64-bit operating systems will love the latest from Adobe: Captivate 9 is now available for older, 32-bit systems. This is a huge deal for people who wanted to upgrade to Captivate 9 but couldn't because they weren't able to upgrade their systems. (People who weren't able to upgrade were forced to stick with Adobe Captivate 8.)

Click here to see Captivate's new, improved system requirements. And here is a list of all of the updates available for Captivate.

May 11, 2016

Adobe Captivate 9 Introduction Video Course Now Available on Adobe KnowHow

Get a Jump-Start On Mastering This Awesome eLearning Development Tool!

If you're looking to learn Adobe Captivate… and quickly… this beginner course is for you. During the 6 chapters that make up this course you'll learn how to create a soft-skills lesson from scratch. The lesson will include adding slides, applying themes, adding images and text, and adding interactive buttons.

You'll learn how to publish your eLearning content for the widest possible audience. Learn to publish SWF, HTML5, or both… and why.

Curious how to create software simulations? This course has you covered. You'll learn how to create both software demonstrations and highly interactive software simulations… and in multiple languages.

And you'll learn how control slide and object timing, and how to work with and edit object styles.

All this, and you'll be able to work through all of the lessons in just a few hours.

May 3, 2016

Adobe Captivate: Train The Text-to-Speech Agents

by Kevin Siegel

During my live, online Adobe Captivate classes, I teach students how to use Captivate's Text to Speech feature. I look forward to teaching this particular feature because it honestly gets everyone in the room pumped up. And why not? Text to Speech is an easy-to-use utility that will instantly convert written text into audio files. All you have to do is type a slide note, select the note, click a check box, click the Text-to-Speech button, select a "speech agent," and click Generate Audio.

However, if you've spent any time with Captivate's Text to Speech utility, you have probably discovered that the pronunciation of the spoken words isn't always perfect. Unfortunately, if you don't like it, there isn't a pronunciation editor in Captivate that will help, so you're stuck. Bummer! The end! Have a nice day.

Oh, you were looking for solutions here? In that case, read on.

Believe it or not, there is actually a pronunciation editor for the Text to Speech utility called UserDicEng. It's not part of the Captivate interface and you aren't likely to stumble upon it accidentally. If you have installed Captivate and the Adobe Captivate Voices, you'll typically find the tool in the following location: Program Files (Windows) or Applications folder (Mac) > Adobe Captivate Voices > VT > The Agents Name > M16 > bin > UserDicEng (app or exe depending on your platform).

After opening UserDicEng, click the File Open button and open userdict_eng.csv.

At the bottom of the dialog box, click Add Word. Type the original word into the Source field and then type the correct word into the Target field using the correct pronunciation (using the letters or the Pronunciation symbols).

You can always click Read to hear the pronunciation of the new target word. When finished, click the OK button.

Word added

Click the File Save button followed by the Close button and you're done. The new pronunciation will be used by your Speech Agent within Captivate the next time you convert text to speech.

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Looking for Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate training? Check out these live, online classes.

April 13, 2016

Adobe Captivate: Mac Cures

by Kevin Siegel

I've gotten several emails over the past few weeks about some pesky issues Macintosh users are having with Adobe Captivate: adding captions during the recording process (in most instances you don't get any text captions at all) and stopping the recording process using keyboard shortcuts (try as you might, pressing the recommended shortcuts does nothing at all and you end up with a mess while trying to record screen actions).

Fortunately, both problems are easily fixed. First, quit Captivate and then open your Mac's System Preferences (Apple > System Preferences). Click Security & Privacy.

Select the Privacy category and, from the Allow the apps below to control your computer area, select Adobe Captivate.app. (Note that you might first need to click the padlock icon in the lower left of the window.)

Privacy Settings_ Allow the apps to control your computer

Start Captivate and create a software simulation. This time, in addition to being able to stop the recording process, your new project should also include captions (assuming you enabled the feature prior to recording).

And here's another issue that's been reported: when attempting to create a software simulation on a Mac, the red recording area doesn't show up (meaning you really can't create the simulation). I've found that this issue typically occurs for people using two or more monitors. The fix for me is to move what I'm trying to capture to my main monitor and record from there (versus trying to record on the second or third monitor). You can also visit your System Preferences > Displays. Select the Arrangement category and enable Mirror Displays.

While you should now be able to capture your main display with Captivate, the glory of having 20 monitors (show off) will be negated until you return to the Arrangement category and disable Mirror Displays.

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Looking to get a jump start on creating software simulations with Adobe Captivate? Check out our newest mini course: Adobe Captivate: Creating Software Simulations. And if you're looking for our full, multi-day Captivate classes, check these out.

February 18, 2016

eLearning Accessibility: Hidden Buttons

by JoAnne Juett

Often an interaction in Adobe Captivate demands a different approach from a user with a disability. An example might be that a sighted user will click buttons on a slide to reveal information, while a visually impaired user might listen to information through a screen reader without ever clicking any buttons.

Usually, these different approaches do not affect the ability of a visually impaired learner from moving forward through an eLearning module. However, there are times when engaging in the interaction will actually trigger the appearance of a forward button. Obviously the learner who doesn't click can't trigger the forward button, so what can you do?

The answer is to add a hidden button somewhere on the slide that impaired learners will access with the keyboard. My colleagues will often place the hidden object on a slide's title banner–probably the least likely place for a sighted user to inadvertently click.

How does the visually impaired learner get there? I would suggest adding instructions, probably at the end of the information on the slide that tell the user to TAB to the forward button and press ENTER to proceed. Admittedly, a focus box will appear around the hidden object, but I find that this is more of an annoyance to a low vision user than a hindrance.

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Looking to create awesome accessible eLearning? Check out this live, online mini course.

February 11, 2016

Adobe Captivate: Live, Online Training Now Available in Central European Time Zone Hours

Due to popular demand from our friends in Europe, we're now offering our top rated Captivate training during Central European Time Zone hours!

This beginner Adobe Captivate training class will quickly have you creating eLearning and mLearning lessons that include software simulations, demonstrations and soft-skills (compliance training).

You will learn how to make your lessons engaging and interactive by creating quizzes, adding text captions, animations, videos, rollovers, clickable areas (buttons and click boxes), typing areas, voiceover audio, and sound effects. And you will learn how to publish your lessons for the widest possible audience including how to output both Flash (SWF) and HTML5 (so that your lessons will play on such mobile devices as the Apple iPad).

Class Schedule

February 10, 2016

An eLearning Workflow

by Sally Cox

I spent more than 15 years as an Adobe trainer, teaching people the latest features of new products. One of the things I have learned from this experience is that people don't just want to learn what's new in an application… they need guidance on incorporating the application into their workflow. They need to see the entire development process that will enable them to get their jobs done. With this in mind, the article focuses on the workflow I use when I create my eLearning courses.

From Paper to Adobe Illustrator

My eLearning courses begin life on paper (where I've sketched some ideas). I am a designer at heart, so Adobe Illustrator is a natural starting point for me. I use Illustrator to lay out the basic look and feel of my eLearning course, choose colors and fonts, and solve my design dilemmas.

I start with the client's brand guidelines (or style guide), an important part of the design process. If you want to keep a client for the long term, respecting their brand is key. I work within the brand guidelines for colors, fonts, general look and feel, logo placement rules, etc.

I then begin laying out the cover/transition slides for my courses and a sample content slide. The image below is an example of a recent project I did. I did not have brand guidelines to work with here so I had a lot of freedom. I created these two slides in Illustrator, using swatches from the Swatches library to choose harmonious colors. I work out headers and footers, if there are any, and start to think about the interactions I will be using.

The Swatches in Illustrator have amazing color combinations. My favorite Swatch library? Baroque! Look at these rich colors… they typically show up in all of my projects.

I export my Illustrator graphics as transparent high-resolution PNG files for easy import into Microsoft PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline, or Adobe Captivate. To create the transparent PNG's, build the graphic on a separate artboard and note the artboard number.

Export as transparent high-resolution PNG files.

Next, choose File > Export, select the appropriate artboard, and then select PNG as the output.

Illustrator shows you a preview of the artboard, and here you set options. I change the Resolution to High 300 PPI and Background color to Transparent. These settings allow the image to import beautifully into just about any application.

Microsoft PowerPoint

When it comes to eLearning development, I use PowerPoint as my "heavy hitter." It's the place I gather all my graphics, content and interaction ideas.

Why PowerPoint for eLearning?

Most everyone has it–clients like to be able to make minor edits, so giving them something they can actually use is key
PowerPoint imports into Adobe Connect, Articulate Storyline, and Adobe Captivate easily
I can create custom colors using the Eyedropper tool
You are only limited by your imagination–think of PowerPoint as a "delivery tool," nothing more. My work doesn't LOOK like it was created in PowerPoint and yours doesn't have to either! (If you're looking to ensure your PowerPoint slides are optimized for eLearning, check out AJ's Optimizing PowerPoint Design for eLearning & Presentations class!)

Here's an example of how I grab colors from the artwork using the Eyedropper tool in PowerPoint.

Articulate Storyline

Storyline is my preferred authoring tool for creating eLearning courses. My PowerPoint presentations import beautifully into Storyline which allows me to quickly get my courses up and running. Storyline recognizes PowerPoint's Master Slides, and every slide element comes in as a separate piece so I can quickly add transitions, set object timing, add Triggers, and a quiz in Storyline. Then I can quickly publish my content as HTML5 and I'm done!

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If you'd like to attend some awesome 3-hour mini courses that focus on eLearning, check these out.

February 4, 2016

eLearning: When Should You Record Your Voiceover Audio?

by Kevin Siegel

Adding voiceover audio to eLearning enhances the learner experience. And before you spend thousands of dollars hiring voiceover talent to record your audio, you should know: your voice is fine (nobody likes their own voice so trust me on this, yours will do nicely). I've been creating eLearning for years (and years and years). I've found that the voiceover audio does not have to be highly produced to be effective. In fact, home-grown audio works fine provided the audio doesn't contain loud, annoying, distracting background noise, or the narrator has a very thick accent that hinders learner comprehension.

But when should you record your audio? If you're creating a software demonstration or interactive simulation, should the audio be recorded while you're recording the screen actions? Perhaps it's best to record the audio later (after the screen actions have been recorded)?

The answer to when it's best to record audio is… wait for it… it depends.

When I create video demos with Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, or TechSmith Camtasia Studio, I tend to record my voice at the same time that I'm recording the screen. I find that if I try to record my audio after-the-fact (in the tool itself or in an external program), it's more difficult to synchronize my audio with what's happening in the video.

I find that my "off-the-cuff" video demos sound more natural when I record my voice during the recording process… more informal. You can listen to samples of my audio in videos I've posted to the IconLogic YouTube channel. The audio on my YouTube videos isn't perfect… there's some flubs here and there. But perfect audio wasn't my goal. I was trying to create quick video demos to share with fellow eLearning developers. There wasn't time to go back over the audio or the videos again and again to make things perfect. The videos I've posted to YouTube are known as "just-in-time" videos. In other words, since there isn't time to make them perfect, I record the video, do some minor edits, and just get them out there.

So what about interactive software simulations or soft-skills learning? With those kinds of eLearning, when should the audio be created? Since simulations or soft skills lessons are typically produced slide-by-slide (in Captivate, Storyline, PowerPoint, or Presenter), I think it's best to record or import the audio directly onto the slide once the slide is done. All of the eLearning tools will let you record audio on-the-fly… it's really easy to do.

On the other hand, easy doesn't necessarily translate to quality. Because none of the off-the-shelf eLearning development tools are great at recording and editing audio files (they'll do the job of course, but they're lacking a lot of essential audio editing options that you'll find in more robust audio software), consider recording your audio externally in tools such as Audacity, a free and really powerful.

So what's your audio workflow? What tools do you use for audio? Is there a particular microphone you use? (I've recently picked up a Blue Yeti… it's awesome!) Please feel free to share your thoughts via comments or email me directly at ksiegel@iconlogic.com.

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Looking for training or help with Adobe Captivate? Check out these awesome live, online Captivate classes.