Captivate – Page 10 – The Logical Blog

March 19, 2013

Adobe Captivate: Round-Trip Your Background Image Edits

by Kevin Siegel

While Captivate is absolutely a great program for recording software demonstrations, simulations and creating soft skills eLearning, nobody is going to confuse Captivate's drawing capabilities with best-in-class tools like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop.

But what if there's a problem with one of your slide backgrounds and you need an image editor to fix it? In the image below, I'd like to remove the box and text just to the right of the yellow folder. While I could create a mask using a white highlight box, what if the background problem was too complicated to simply cover with a box (or other object)?

Background that needs editing

Some of you might be thinking that recording additional slides would be in order (and this time ensure the box and the text aren't there). While I'm not keen on recording additional slides, that's a solution that might work. However, who knows what kind of other problems recording additional slides would introduce. No thanks!

It may or may not surprise you to learn that you can edit any Captivate slide background in a graphics program like Microsoft Paint. Here's how:

Right-click the background you need to edit and choose Copy Background.
Switch to Paint and Paste the background into a new Paint window.
Use the Eraser tool to "fix" the graphic.
Once you are done edting/enhancing the background image, press [ctrl] [a] on your keyboard to select the entire image.
Press [ctrl] [c] to copy the image to the clipboard.
Return to the Captivate slide and (this is the big one) choose Edit > Paste as Background.
Bam!!! Your background problems are a thing of the past.

Fixed background

If haven't tried the steps I've just outlined, I encourage you to give them a try… they truly work and will save you countless hours re-recording.

Of course, I have one more trick up my sleeve. The problem with the steps above is that there are just too many steps. None of the steps are difficult, but miss any one of them and your background simply won't get fixed. Read on for a nifty approach that will make even quicker work out of fixing your background images in an external image-editing program.

Using Captivate, right-click the slide background you want to edit and choose Find Background in Library.
Right-click the found (and selected) background image in the Library and choose Edit with mspaint (you could also elect to use a different program like Photoshop or Fireworks by choosing Edit with… and opening your favorite image editing tool).

Note: If mspaint isn't in the menu by default, and it probably won't be, choose Edit with… and manually open the Paint application. The default location for the paint application (mspaint.exe) is C:\Windows\System32.

The image will quickly open in Paint. All you'd need to do now is edit the image, save your work and exit Paint.

And double-BAM!!! The edited image would replace your Captivate slide background. No copying. No pasting. No manually switching between applications! Nothing. Now that's cool!

If you're a visual learner, check out the video I created of this process on IconLogic's YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

March 5, 2013

Adobe Captivate: Pause the Recording Process

by Kevin Siegel

You're recording a complex series of steps on the computer using Adobe Captivate. As you near the mid-point of the recording process, the phone rings. It's your boss and he is demanding that you immediately stop what you're doing and check your email for some reason or other.

If you check your email now, without stopping the Captivate recording process, the act of checking your email is going to be recorded by Captivate. Do you ignore the demands of your boss and continue with the recording? Or do you stop the recording process and re-record everything later? What is a developer to do?

Stop a second and pause…

Prior to recording the lesson in Captivate, display Captivate's Preferences dialog box (Edit > Preferences on Windows; Adobe Captivate > Preferences on a Mac).

Under the Recording category, select Keys-(Global).

There is an option available in the General area that you might not have noticed before: To Pause/Resume Recording. Set the keyboard shortcut to any key you'd like (you can click in the field and press a key or keyboard combination) and then click the OK button.

Adobe Captivate: Setting a Pause Recording Key

Let's rewind the scenario mentioned above. You are nearing the mid-point of your recording process when the phone rings… it's your demanding boss and the email request. No worries! Press the Pause key you set up earlier and Captivate will take a break from recording until you press the same key a second time. You can tell that the recording process is paused by observing the Captivate icon on the System Tray (Windows) or the Dock (Mac). When the recording process is paused, you will see a small gray circle just above and to the right of the icon. Pressing the Pause key a second time removes the gray circle, and the recording commences.

So go ahead, record a lesson, check that email… take your break… tweet away… all without having to redo your valuable recording. It's okay! Captivate will wait.

If you'd like to watch a video of the Pause Recording process, check out the video demonstration on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

February 27, 2013

Adobe Captivate: URLs to New Windows

by Kevin Siegel

When selecting an Action for an object (i.e. Click Boxes, Buttons), you can select from several options available in the On Success drop-down menu including, but not limited to: Continue, Go to the previous slide, Go to the next slide, Jump to slide, Open URL or file; Open another project, and Execute Advanced Actions.

If you choose Open URL or file and target a website, learners will be taken to the website you specify should they click the object. That makes perfect sense. But after a learner clicks the object, the Captivate lesson will disappear when the target website opens. That's not such a good thing. Besides losing contact with the lesson, learners will have to click the "Back" button on their browser to return to the lesson. Of course, if the learner clicks around the website, it's going to potentially take several clicks to return to the lesson. Possibly worse, I've seen learners close the website, thinking they'd return to the lesson… only to realize the lesson was nowhere to be seen.

If you are like many Captivate developers, and plan to utilize the Open URL or File action, I have a simple option you can use to ensure that learners easily return to your lesson when they are finished browsing the website.

In the image below, I've set the Action for a click box to Open URL or file. The URL is the Super Simplistic Solutions website.
To ensure that the URL opens in a new browser window, I clicked the drop-down menu just to the right of the URL and selected New.

It's as simple as that. If you preview the lesson in a web browser and click the object, a new browser window (or tab) will open. If you close the new browser window, the lesson will still be available, in its own window.

I've created a video demo of the process and posted it to IconLogic's YouTube channel. The video demonstrates the URL action without the URL opening in a new window, and how it looks if you specify a new window.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

February 19, 2013

Adobe Captivate: Text Entry That Sticks Around

by Kevin Siegel

A client wanted us to create a software simulation that would allow learners to fill out part of a spreadsheet. In addition, as learners moved from cell to cell, the client wanted the learners to see what they had typed in the previous cells and change the text.

You can use text entry boxes to simulate areas in an application that require a learner to type data. But simulating a spreadsheet? That can get tricky, especially if you want to ensure that the learner will continue to see and edit what they typed as they move through the spreadsheet.

Fortunately, you can insert multiple text entry boxes onto a single Captivate slide. By playing around with the Timing and Actions for those objects, you can create the illusion of a learner filling out even complex forms and spreadsheets.

Here are your steps to success:

Insert a new slide in a Captivate project, and then set the slide Timing to 4 seconds.
Insert a Text Entry Box on the new slide (Insert > Standard Objects > Text Entry Box).
On the Properties panel, General group, select Validate User Input if there is something specific you want the learner to type. Otherwise, do not select Validate User Input.
If you selected Validate User Input, you'll see a Correct Entries screen on the slide. You can click the large plus sign to add a Correct Entry.
From the Action group, On success drop-down menu, select Continue.
From the Options group, select your desired Options. In my example, I did not Validate the User Input so I deselected all of the options.
From the Transition group, change the Effect to No Transition.
On the Timing group, set the Text Entry box to display for rest of slide.
Set the Appear After to 0 seconds.
Insert a second Text Entry Box.
If you'd like, once again ensure that Validate User Input is selected and add a correct entry.
As you did for the first Text Entry Box, select Continue as the On success Action.
From the Options group, select your desired options.
From the Transition group, change the Effect to No Transition.
From the Timing group, set the Text Entry box to display for rest of slide.
Set the Appear After to 2 seconds.
Position the Text Entry Boxes on the slide. In the image below, I've stacked them vertically.

If you preview the project, you'll be able to type in the first text box. When you press Enter, the text you typed in the first box will stick around as you enter text into the second text box.

Adobe Captivate: Two Staggered TEBs

The trick was staggering when each text entry box appeared (you spaced the timing out by 2 seconds); and telling each of the text entry boxes to display for the rest of slide.

Note: I've posted a video demo of this process to the IconLogic YouTube channel. The video was created using Captivate's Video Demonstration mode.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

February 12, 2013

Adobe Captivate: Export and Share Audio and Images

by Kevin Siegel

If you're a Captivate developer working with non-Captivate developers, you may be asked to share some of your project assets so those assets can be used in other applications.

I had a PowerPoint developer ask to use one of the audio clips in my Captivate project in his PowerPoint presentation. If I had access to the file on my hard drive or server, it would have been simple enough to email the file to him as an attachment. Unfortunately, my Captivate project was pretty old, and I no longer had access to the original clip that I had imported onto one of my Captivate slides.

Fortunately, there is a handy feature within Captivate that saved the day. First, I opened the Captivate Library (Window > Library). Next, I right-clicked the audio clip and chose Export.

Export a Captivate library asset.

From this point it was a simple matter of picking a save location and then emailing the file to the PowerPoint developer. Had the developer shared my network, I could have easily exported the file to a shared folder on a network drive and saved the email step.

Keep in mind that you can export any Library asset (images, animation, etc). And if someone has provided assets for you, you can use the Import menu item (shown just above Export in the image above) and import multiple assets at once.

Note: If you'd like to watch the Export process, check out this short video recently posted to the IconLogic YouTube channel. The video was created using Captivate's Video Demonstration mode.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

February 7, 2013

Adobe Captivate: Methods for Attaching Voiceover Audio

by Kevin Siegel

When it comes to adding narration audio (voice-overs), Captivate developers have plenty of choices. You can insert audio using any of the following methods:

Object-Level Audio

Right-click any slide object and choose Audio > Import to or Audio > Record to. If you choose Import to, you will be presented with an Import Audio dialog box. You can import wav's or mp3's.

Object-level audio import

Object-level audio is ideal if you want to quickly add sound effects to slide objects. However, I wouldn't use this technique for voiceover audio. If you attach audio to multiple slide objects, there is a good chance that those objects will take longer to work with (when compared with a project that has more slides, but fewer objects per slide). There's also a Section 508/compliance issue you'll need to forward-think, but I'll cover that later.

Background-Level Audio

To add Background audio, choose Audio > Import to Background or Audio > Record to Background. Once again, you will either be presented with a dialog box to open an existing audio clip, or a dialog box where you can record your own audio. You will also have options to lower the background audio if there is competing audio on the slide, and you can elect to loop the background audio. There is even an option to stop the audio when users close the lesson.

Background-level audio import

Background-level audio is perfect for background music… if you intend to include it. Personally, I think background music will quickly becomes a distraction (perhaps even an irritant) for your learners, which is why I shy away from it.

As for voiceover audio, I don't recommend that you add it to a project as the background. If you do, you'll likely find yourself facing all kinds of object-to-audio synchronization issues as you move from slide to slide within the project.

Slide-Level Audio

You can attach audio directly to the slide by selecting the slide on the Filmstrip and choosing Audio > Record orAudio > Import.

Slide-level audio import

There are a couple of reasons that slide-level audio is preferred over object-level or background-level audio. First, there's a production speed benefit. When I produce eLearning lessons for my customers, I try to keep the number of slide objects to a minimum. Typically I only allow for one text caption, and one button or click box per any given slide. Keeping the number of slide objects to a minimum speeds up the production process significantly In fact, fewer slide objects means less time spent synchronizing the timing of those objects with other objects or voiceover audio.

If you're not concerned with saving production time, perhaps my second reason for adding voiceover audio at the slide level will get your attention. If you are required to include closed captions in your eLearning (for Section 508 compliance), you must include voiceover audio. In fact, closed captions cannot be added to slide objects. You can only insert closed captions at the slide-level, and only if the slide already contains audio

Over the years I've heard horror stories from developers who were required to add closed captions, but couldn't because the audio had been added to slide objects instead of the slide itself. Unfortunately, the only solution to the dilemma is to remove the object audio, and then manually add the audio to the slide. It's not a difficult process, but it takes time. Of course, now that you've read the text above, that particular production conundrum isn't something you'll need to worry about.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including an Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

January 31, 2013

Adobe Captivate 6: Audio Control Without a Playbar

by Lori Smith

If you've spent any time using Captivate's new Pretest and the Branch Aware settings, I think you will agree that they are very cool. However, if you've used either feature, you have probably noticed that you cannot have a playbar in the published lesson. It's not a big deal if you don't need the playbar, but what if you need to give your learners the ability to mute/unmute the audio? Or maybe the learner is relying on closed captions? Without a playbar, the learner will not have access to the closed caption tool. If you would like to use the Pretest and/or Branch Aware options, and keep the playbar, I've got you covered. All you need to do is create a little advanced action and add a smart shape.

You will be working with the system variable cpCmdMute. Here is what Adobe says about using cpCmdMute:

The cpCmndMute variable.

According to the Description shown in the image above, you set the variable to 1 if you want to mute the audio, 0 if you don't. You need to use this variable in the project to allow the learner to control the audio when there isn't a playbar. Here's how you do it.

First, create a Conditional advanced action by choosing Project > Advanced Actions. Name the action Toggle Mute and create the action as shown in the two images. Remember, you need to fill in the ELSE section.

Filling in the ELSE section.

Creating the Advanced Action.

You need to attach the new action to an interactive slide object and force the object to display the object for the rest of the project. You may instinctively want to use a button or even a click box, but those types of interactive objects cannot be displayed for the Rest of Project. Instead, insert a Smart Shape (Insert > Standard Object > Smart Shape). Look in the Buttons group and you will find a Mute button (the sixth tool from the left).

Smart Shapes... Mute Button

Insert the Mute button on slide 1 of the project. With the Mute button selected, visit the Timing group on the Properties panel and set the Display for to rest of project.

Rest of project.

From the Action group, set the Mute button's action to execute the ToggleMute advanced action you created earlier.

Execute Advanced Action

Voilà–you have just given a playbar-less project the ability to mute/unmute. If you want to implement a closed caption toggle, follow the same process but use the variable cpCmdCC instead.

Another cool tip: Assign a keyboard shortcut to the smart shape and you have now made muting/unmuting even more 508 compliant.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Captivate 6 classes each month including An Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate concepts.

January 24, 2013

Adobe Captivate 6: Customize the Date Variable with a Little Interpretation

by Lori Smith

I was recently asked by a fellow Captivate developer if it was possible to show the date on a Captivate slide. My answer was a quick yes… use the cpInfoCurrentDateString variable within a text caption. When previewed, the date on the learner's computer will appear within the caption.

The developer needed a bit more. He needed the appearance of the date to be in a specific format. For instance, he needed the date formatted as December 18, 2013. The cpInfoCurrentDate variable displays the date as 12/18/2013.

I looked through the available Captivate variables and came across the following default variables.

Variable	What it Displays	Displays as
cpInfoCurrentDate	The day of the month	18 (1 through 31)
cpInfoCurrentMonth	The current month	12 (01 through 12)
cpInfoCurrentYear	The current year	2013
cpInfoCurrentDay	The day of the week	4 (Sunday being 1 through Saturday being 7)

Sadly, none of the default variables were going to work in this instance. Stumped only for a moment, I came up with a simple advanced action to solve the problem.

First, I created a user variable (Project > Variables) called myMonth with the following Value and Description:

Date Action 1

Next, I created a Conditional action (Project > Advanced Actions) and named it InterpretMonth.

To make the action easier to work with, I created 12 Decision Blocks, and then gave each one the name of a month (January, February, etc).

New Adobe Captivate Advanced Action.

Then I set up the InterpretMonth action as shown below within each Decision Block (January is shown below). It may feel like a lot of work, but once you start, it is a simple matter of repetition.

Date Action 2

Date Action 3

Note: In the two images above, notice that I have increased the value to match the Decision Block's month. For instance, February shows CpInfoCurrentMonth is equal to 2. My December Decision Block would read CpInfoCurrentMonth is equal to 12.

Once I was done with the Advanced Action, I returned to my slide and inserted a text caption. I typed the text and inserted the variables as shown below:

Date Action 5

The last thing I needed to do was invoke the InterpretMonth action. An easy time to do this is as you transition to slide 2. Why not slide 1? Because invoking an advanced action as you enter slide 1 is not reliable. Your best bet is to do it on slide 2 or later.

Date Action 6

Preview the project. When you get to the slide containing the variables, you should see the date formatted as the current month, day and year.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Captivate 6 classes each month including An Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate concepts.

January 17, 2013

Adobe Captivate 6: Instant Answer Feedback

by Lori Smith

Adding a quiz to an eLearning lesson gives you the ability to assess a learner's comprehension. Certainly tracking comprehension and pass/fail rates is important for anyone designing a course. However, quizzes can often be stressful to the learner. Rather than look at a quiz as a measuring stick to comprehension, I take a different approach (and hopefully lower my learner's stress level). I treat quizzes as an opportunity for me to communicate with my learner. In a live class, I communicate with my learners by simply asking direct questions.

Me: "Hey Bob."

Bob: "Yes?"

Me: "Earlier we were learning about super heroes and talked about the best super power. Do you remember what that power was?"

Bob: "Running really fast?"

Me: "While that's not a bad super power Bob, in reality, super strength is better. As you may recall…"

It doesn't matter if the learner answers my question correctly. By simply asking a question and then getting an answer, the lines of communication are open. In the example above, when Bob answered my question incorrectly, but then received the correct answer, learning occurred for Bob (and anyone else who was listening to the exchange).

How can you open a similar line of communication in an eLearning lesson (where there is never any live interaction)? One solution lies with Captivate's ability to provide an explanation as to why an answer is right or wrong (above and beyond the standard correct/incorrect captions that most developers use).

Let's use the simple quiz question below as an example. Since the correct answer is A) Superman, I've made it the correct answer by selecting the radio button to the left of the Superman answer.

Who is really super?
My next goal is to provide feedback should my learners select either of the other answers. On the Question Slide, I selected answer B (Green Lantern).

On the Properties panel I found the Advanced Answer Options group. I selected both Advanced Answer Option and Show Feedback Message.

Show Feedback Option

A feedback caption appeared on the slide.

Feedback caption

I edited the caption and then repeated the process for the other answers.

Multiple Feedback captions

When the learner takes the quiz, the proper feedback caption will appear depending upon the selected answer.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Captivate 6 classes each month including An Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate concepts.

December 18, 2012

Adobe Captivate 6: Delivering Standalone eLearning Lessons

by Kevin Siegel

I recently received an email from a new Captivate developer who had delivered an eLearning lesson to a client via email attachment. The client informed the developer that he could not open the email attachment since he didn't own Adobe Captivate.

I asked the developer what he had sent to the client, and was told that he had emailed an Captivate production file (the cptx file). The developer didn't realize that cptx files can only be opened by someone who has Captivate installed on the computer. When it comes time to deliver consumable content to a learner, the cptx files must be published (via File > Publish).

When publishing a Captivate project file, the format you select will depend upon on how the learner will access the lesson. If the learner is going to access the lesson over the internet (either from a web server or an LMS), publishing SWF and/or HTML5 is the way to go. If you decide to publish a SWF, the learner will use a web browser to access the lesson. In addition to the web browser, the learner must have the free Adobe Flash Player on the computer to view the SWF.

If you publish HTML5, a web browser is still required for the learner. However, since HTML5 isn't a Flash-based output, you bypass the need for the learner to need the Flash Player. Learners need only use a device, or browser, that supports HTML5 (such as the Safari browser found on the iPad and the iPhone).

If you'd like to email the lesson to someone as an attachment, neither SWF nor HTML5 are appropriate since both outputs result in multiple, co-dependent, published files. Instead, you could proceed to choose SWF/HTML5 from the publish options, select SWF as the Output, but then select Export PDF from the Output Options area.

After publishing the lesson, you'll receive an alert dialog box reminding you that the free Adobe Reader 9 (or newer) is required for anyone wanting to use the PDF. And while the publish destination folder will include multiple files (including a SWF and a PDF), the only thing you'll need to email to a learner is the PDF.

Many people are surprised to see that when opened in Adobe Reader, the PDF retains all of the lesson's animations, audio and interactivity. Because the PDF does not depend on other published assets, the PDF is a wonderful standalone option. The PDF is portable (it can be emailed as an attachment) and cross-platform (Adobe Reader is available for both the Macintosh and Windows operating systems).

If PDF isn't going to work for you, there are some other standalone publishing options. From the list of Publish options along the left side of the Publish dialog box, select Media. From the Select Type drop-down menu, you can choose to publish a Windows Executable (which will create a portable, standalone file that will only play on Windows-based PCs), or MAC Executable (which will create a portable, standalone file that will only play on Macs). Both of these options will create one single file that retain all of the audio, animation and interactivity of published SWFs, HTML5 and PDFs. However, since they are platform-specific, you'll need to know the hardware and software being used by your learners to ensure you publish the correct media.

Media options

The final option in the Select type drop-down menu is MP4 Video. This option will yield a standalone video file that can be opened by Macs, PCs and mobile devices (such as the iPad). However, while the video will include the lesson's animations and audio, any interactivity contained within the lesson will be lost (click boxes, buttons and quizzes).

The publish option that you select during the publish process really depends on your learner's setup, and how they will be accessing your lesson. Just remember that neither SWF nor HTML5 are good standalone options.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? I teach two live, online Captivate 6 classes. Adobe Captivate Essentials and Adobe Captivate Beyond the Essentials (Advanced).