Adobe Captivate – Page 9 – The Logical Blog

January 22, 2016

Hands-On Workshop: Come Compare Adobe Captivate to Articulate Storyline to TechSmith Camtasia Studio

When: Sunday, May 15
Where: Anaheim, CA

I'm proud to announce that I'll be facilitating/refereeing an awesome hands-on pre-conference session at the STC Technical Communication Summit in Anaheim, CA later this year. The session will give attendees a chance to use some of the top eLearning development tools available today.

Here's why this session is going to be a real slug-fest: In this corner: Adobe Captivate. Over there? It's Articulate Storyline? And because this isn't a two-tool fight, look over there and you'll see TechSmith Camtasia Studio.

Bring your own laptop to this session loaded with the trial versions of Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and/or TechSmith Camtasia Studio. Sound the bell and create and publish an eLearning project in each of the tools (or just one… it's up to you). By the time you leave class, you'll have a functioning eLearning lesson you can take back and show your team/boss. Along the way, you'll be armed with information about each tool's pricing, strengths, and weaknesses.

Let the tools pound on each other and find out, first-hand, which tool is right for you!

Learn more

January 21, 2016

Adobe Captivate 9: Awesome “Hidden” Find and Replace Feature

by Kevin Siegel

While you can use Captivate's Find and Replace feature (located in the Edit menu) to find all kinds of things in a project (including images, animation, and Flash video), I find this feature most useful for quickly replacing words or phrases throughout a project.

In the image below, I intend to change the phrase "Watch as" with the word "Select." I have no idea how many changes are going to be made throughout the project, let alone which slides are going to be affected. At this point, I can click Find Next, then Replace, then Find Next again and again until the process is complete.

Wouldn't it be great to know, upfront, how many changes are going to be made? (Heck, I might be adventuresome and click the Replace All button… I'd hate to find out afterwards that I didn't want half of the changes. Yikes!)

This is a perfect use-case for the Find All button (shown being clicked above). However, after clicking the Find All button, nothing will appear to change on the Captivate screen. At first glance it seems that the Find All feature doesn't work.

But here is where a little investigation does wonders. After clicking the Find All button, stretch the Find and Replace dialog box taller. And BAM! A complete list of the intended changes becomes visible.

Now you'll be able to see (in advance), what's going to change and where. Sure it would be nice if the dialog box expanded on its own, but now that you know what to do, it's a small matter.

If you'd like to see the Find All feature in action, check out the Video Demo I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

***

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

January 19, 2016

Adobe Captivate 9: Fixing the INI Error

by Kevin Siegel

Over the past few weeks I've gotten several emails from Captivate developers using Windows 10 and Captivate 9 who get the following error when attempting to record software simulations:

A quick Google search found the following forum article. According to the post, you need to edit the AdobeCaptivate.ini file found within Captivate's application folder.

While I'm using Windows 10 and have not run across this issue, I'm teaching Adobe Captivate at ATD's TechKnowledge this week and wouldn't you know it, one of my students (Brian O'Neill) got hit with the error message above. Unfortunately, my student wasn't able to edit his INI file.

Brian didn't give up. He was able to fix the problem and shares his steps below.

When I attempted to modify the AdobeCaptivate.ini file I received an "access denied" message. It appears that Captivate sets some restricted permissions in the /Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Captivate 9 x64 folder.

My workaround was to right-click that folder in File Explorer and choose Properties > Security > Users. On the Security tab, I enabled "Full Control" for Users and clicked OK.

I was then able to open and edit the AdobeCaptivate.ini file in Notepad and change the listing for DpiAwareness from 0 to 1. Captivate now appears to operate normally.

***

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

January 8, 2016

Adobe Captivate NeoSpeech and Assets Downloads

I've heard from several folks that the page to download the NeoSpeech software and other Captivate 9 assets has been moved/difficult to find.

Never fear. Here are the direct links.

Assets

http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp9_win_assets_installer

http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp9_mac_assets_installer

NeoSpeech

http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp9_win64_voices_installer

http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp9_mac_voices_installer

December 18, 2015

Preparing Adobe Captivate Content for an LMS

by Kevin Siegel

A few weeks ago I wrote about some common Learning Management (LMS) terms you need to be familiar with when preparing to report eLearning data to an LMS. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to show you the LMS setup process in the top eLearning development tools (Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, TechSmith Camtasia Studio, and Trivantis Lectora).

Reporting Scores with Adobe Captivate

Enable Reporting for the project via Quiz > Quiz Preferences.
From the Quiz category, select Reporting.
From the top of the dialog box, select Enable reporting for this project.
From the LMS drop-down menu, choose Other Standard LMS.
From the Standard drop-down menu, choose SCORM 1.2. (Although an older standard, SCORM 1.2 is still used by many LMS vendors today.)

Set the Status Representation options

If your project does not contain a Quiz, from the Status Representation area, select Incomplete —> Complete; otherwise, select Incomplete —-> Passed/Failed.

Status Representation

A project does not have to contain a conventional scoring quiz (with question slides). Instead, you can set interactive objects (such as buttons or click boxes) to report a value/score to the LMS, much like you can by assigning a point value to a question slide.

Set the Success/Completion Criteria

From the Success/Completion Criteria area, select Slide views and/or quiz.
If something in your project is worth points (a question slide or interactive object), deselect Slide Views and select Quiz. If you'd like, ensure Quiz is Passed is selected from the drop-down menu.

Set the Data to Report and Initialization Text

From the Data To Report area, select Percentage if your project doesn't contain a conventional quiz; otherwise, select Points.

The LMS Initialization Text field is not supported by every LMS. Anything you type in the field appears just before the lesson begins to play for the learner. In essence, LMS Initialization Text serves as a second lesson Preloader. You can edit the text, if you'd like, or leave it set to the default (Loading).

Data to Report and LMS Initialization Text

Manifest Files

The Manifest file allows your published Captivate projects to be used and launched from a SCORM 1.2- or 2004-compliant LMS. When you publish projects, you can have Captivate create the Manifest file for you. The Manifest file that Captivate creates contains XML tags that describe the organization and structure of the published project to the LMS.

From the top of the dialog box, ensure SCORM 1.2 is selected (from the Standard drop-down menu).
Click the Configure button to open the Manifest dialog box.
In the Course area, click in the Identifier field and type a name. (The Identifier specifies a name used by the LMS to identify different manifests.)
In the Title field, type a name.
The Title is seen by learners as they access the course on the LMS.

A Description is not required. Depending on the LMS you use, the text may or may not appear in the LMS. If the feature is not supported by the LMS, it will likely be ignored, just like the Title.

The Version number, which can be left selected, is used to distinguish manifests with the same identifier.

There are two other optional choices in the Course area: Duration and Keywords. Duration lets you show how long it takes to complete the Captivate project. The Keywords option allows you to specify a short description. When the course is displayed via a browser, such as Internet Explorer, the description and Keywords can be searched like any web page.
In the SCO Identifier field, type a name.
The Identifier, which cannot contain spaces, specifies a name used by the LMS to identify different SCOs.
In the Title field, type a title.
The Title shows up in the LMS. Although you can use spaces in the Title name, you should consider using short descriptive phrases. If you would like information on the remaining options in this dialog box, click the Help link at the bottom left of the dialog box.
Click the OK button to close the Manifest dialog box.
Click the OK button to close the Preferences dialog box
Nothing about your project changes physically. However, once the project is published, it will automatically be zipped and capable of communicating with any SCORM-compliant LMS.

Publishing a SCORM Package

If you're using Adobe Captivate 9, you can utilize the SCORM Cloud to ensure your published Captivate lesson will report scores/data correctly to just about any LMS. I've written about that previously and you can read about it here.

Assuming there aren't any reporting issues via the SCORM Cloud, you're clear to prepare your Captivate project for uploading into an LMS. This process is known as creating a Content Package. Simply choose File > Publish) and set up your Publish options as you normally would.

Because you Enabled Reporting via the steps above, the Zip Files option is selected by default (which will yield one zip file–the SCORM package). The zip file is what you will physically upload into your LMS. Once the package is uploaded, the LMS will automatically unzip and install the course contents.

Publish a Zip _Content Package_

***

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

December 14, 2015

Reporting eLearning Results

by Kevin Siegel

When developing eLearning, you can elect to use Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, Lectora, Camtasia Studio–there's no shortage of awesome tools.

Once the eLearning content is finished, do you need to track learner access to the content? Do you need to provide reports to your boss that show how learners have performed on a quiz? How about letting the boss know how many people have accessed specific lessons, and how many people have completed the course?

If you need your eLearning content to report data and have that data stored and available for you to format in a meaningful way, you need a Learning Management System (LMS). Before your project can be used with an LMS, you have to set up some reporting options and become familiar with the following: Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC), Sharable Content Object (SCO), and the Manifest File.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll go over the process of preparing your eLearning content for upload into standard LMSs. This week, let's get some important terms out of the way.

Sharable Content Object Reference Model

Developed by public- and private-sector organizations, SCORM is a series of eLearning standards that specifies ways to catalog, launch, and track course objects. Courses and management systems that follow the SCORM specifications allow for sharing of courses among federal agencies, colleges, and universities. Although SCORM is not the only eLearning standard (AICC is another), SCORM is one of the most common. There are two primary versions of SCORM-version 1.2, released in 1999, and version 2004.

During this series, you will prepare and then publish a project to a SCORM-compliant LMS.

Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee

AICC is an international association that develops guidelines for the aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of training technologies. When you publish your Captivate projects, you can specify SCORM or AICC compliance, but not both. Not sure which one to pick? Talk to your LMS provider for information on which one to use. When in doubt, consider that AICC is older and more established than SCORM, but SCORM is the standard most often used today.

Tin Can API

Today's learners are consuming eLearning content using a vast array of devices (PCs, Macs, and mobile devices, such as the iPad). And learners are working outside of traditional LMSs. In spite of these challenges, educators still need to capture reliable data about the learner experience.

The problem with data collection is that you need an expensive LMS to store the data. And your learners need live access to the LMS so that they can send the data. As mentioned above, the most widely used LMS standard for capturing data is SCORM. SCORM allows educators to track such things as learner completion of a course, pass/fail rates, and the amount of time a learner takes to complete a lesson or course. But what if a trainer needs to get scores from learners who are collaborating with other students using social media? What if the learners don't have immediate access to the LMS?

The new Tin Can API allows training professionals to gather detailed data about the learner experience as the learner moves through an eLearning course (either online or offline). According to the Tin Can API website, "The Tin Can API (sometimes referred to as the Experience API) captures data in a consistent format about a person or group's activities from many technologies. Very different systems are able to securely communicate by capturing and sharing this stream of activities using Tin Can's simple vocabulary."

If the Tin Can API is supported by your LMS, you'll be happy to learn that it's also fully supported in most of today's eLearning development tools.

Sharable Content Objects

Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) are standardized, reusable learning objects. An LMS can launch and communicate with SCOs and can interpret instructions that tell the LMS which SCO to show a user and when to show it. Why should you know what an SCO is? Actually, your eLearning projects are SCOs once you enable reporting (which you will learn how to do next time).

Next time: Preparing a lesson to report data

November 14, 2015

Articulate Storyline vs. Adobe Captivate

A recent LinkedIn post asked eLearning developers: which tool is best: Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline? As I read through the comments, I was struck by how many people insisted that Storyline was the better choice because it was easier to learn than Captivate because it was so much like Microsoft PowerPoint.

As someone who uses both Captivate and Storyline, I have to disagree with that recurring sentiment. Sure, Storyline seems to be more like PowerPoint (there's a similar Ribbon and toolset). But honestly, how many of you are PowerPoint experts? I bet you can make a traditional presentation in PowerPoint including text, bullets, and images, but do you really know how to use PowerPoint efficiently and to its potential? I would submit that the answer is no… unless you received proper PowerPoint training. Both Captivate and Storyline seem simple at first glance… just like PowerPoint. However, PowerPoint, Storyline, and Captivate are robust development tools and if you aren't trained, you'll quickly find yourself doing the "hunt and peck" shuffle as you learn on-the-fly… spending double (perhaps triple) the time necessary to perform simple tasks.

I'm a big fan of both Captivate and Storyline (and TechSmith Camtasia Studio too). I'm constantly asked which tool is best (typically this question comes from new eLearning developers who are under pressure to pick one tool for their corporate eLearning initiatives over another). People want to know the inherent strengths and weaknesses of each tool.

My answer? It depends mainly on two things: your budget to purchase an eLearning tool (are you a one-person shop buying a single license or are you part of a team requiring multiple licenses?); and the output you are trying to provide your learners.

Captivate costs around $1,000. If you don't want to shell out the cash up front, you can subscribe to Captivate for around $30 per month. Given that Adobe upgrades Captivate approximately once each year, and you get the upgrades for free as part of your subscription, subscribing is a pretty good deal. Storyline is far more expensive (I've seen it listed for upwards of $2,000 and there isn't a subscription plan).

When it comes to output, both Captivate and Storyline can publish SWF and HTML5 content. However, if you're required to publish interactive PDFs or create responsive eLearning, the choice has to be Captivate (Storyline does not currently support either output).

Here's an analogy for comparing Captivate against Storyline. Consider the Toyota Tundra to the Toyota Takoma. Both are trucks. Both are awesome. Both have similar appointments in the cabin (some of the appointments are identical and if you learn how to use a feature in one truck, you know how to use it in the other). The Tundra (Captivate) can tow a house; the Takoma (Storyline) can tow a boat. The Takoma is easier to park in a small garage; the Tundra… not so much.

Do you need to tow a house or just a boat? If just a boat, go ahead and get the boat-puller. However, once you've purchased the boat puller and then need to pull a house… yikes!

If you use both Captivate and Storyline, I'd love to read your comments about both tools below as comments.

And of course, no matter which tool you choose, we've got an awesome collection of training classes to support you.

November 4, 2015

Adobe Captivate: The SCORM Cloud

by Kevin Siegel

If you need your Captivate project to report learner scores and interactions, you'll likely need to publish as a SCORM-compliant package and then upload it into an LMS. However, there could be something in your project that isn't reporting correctly. You won't know there's a problem until after you publish the project, upload it to your LMS, and then test it. To save you a significant amount of work, Captivate allows you to verify your lesson will report accurately with an LMS via a free feature called Preview in SCORM Cloud. An LMS preview window appears allowing you to debug your project in preview mode and also view SCORM communication logs.

To preview a lesson in the SCORM cloud, add scoring objects to a project (such as a quiz) and enable SCORM reporting (via the Quiz Preferences dialog box). Then choose Preview > Preview in SCORM Cloud.

Click the Accept button and the project will be uploaded to the SCORM Cloud.

The lesson opens in a preview window. You can work through the lesson just as if it were published to an LMS. Errors will be reported in the Communication logs area at the bottom of the preview.

When the lesson is finished, close the preview to see the Relaunch the Preview dialog box.

If you click the Get Results button, all kinds of reporting data will be available. If there aren't any errors in this window, there shouldn't be any errors when you upload the lesson into your LMS.

***

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

October 30, 2015

Adobe Captivate 9: Altered States

by Kevin Siegel

In the past, if you wanted to present multiple versions of an object to learners as they interacted with the lesson, you needed to add multiple objects to the slide, hide them, and then use advanced actions to make visible objects hide and hidden objects appear.

I'm happy to report that Adobe Captivate 9 now supports multiple states, allowing you to develop interactive content easily without using multiple objects or the "hide and show" technique mentioned above. In addition, using states allows you to clean up what would otherwise be a cluttered, complicated project Timeline.

Here's a simple example of how easy it is to use states. In the image below, I've added a standard button to a slide.

I'd like the button to look different when learners interact with it. For instance, I'd like the button's text color (currently dark red) to change to white when learners roll over the button.

With the button selected, I went to the Properties Inspector and clicked State View.

At the left of the Captivate window, the Filmstrip is replaced with the Object State panel. By default, there will always be three states: Normal, RollOver, and Down. You can add as many states as you can imagine by clicking the New State button. Because I want to change the way the text looks when learners roll over the button, I'm going to edit the existing RollOver state.

After clicking the RollOver State, it's a simple matter of visiting the Properties Inspector, Character area, and changing the font color to white.

Changing the appearance of the text in its hover state

I could change more attributes of the button of course, but in this instance the font color was all that I wanted to be different. From the toolbar, all that's required now is to click Exit State.

If you followed along with the steps above, preview your project and test the state by rolling over the button.

Keep the following in mind when working with states:

Any object can have multiple states
Interactive objects have in-built states
You can customize the states of static and interactive objects
Buttons and smart shapes have in-built states with associated styles

***

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

October 23, 2015

Great Training and Free eLearning Assets? That’s Awesomeness!

Attend our multi-day Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, or Studio 13 courses and receive a free, one-year subscription to the eLearning Brothers eLearning Templates for free. (That's a $499 value!)

Learn more.