Category: Captivate

by Kevin Siegel

I fell in love with Captivate 5 the moment I started the program. The user interface (UI) was a vast improvement over every legacy versions of the program. Looking back on my experience with Captivate 5, I have few complaints. Honestly, Captivate 5 is really, really good and there's not much to gripe about.

That being said, I do have a few pet peeves in Captivate 5. For instance, what's up with the color contrast (or should I say the lack of contrast)? If you take a look at the Timeline of any slide, you'll see that the contrast between objects on the Timeline leaves plenty to be desired.

Check out the image below. If you're like me, the color contrast between one object on the Timeline isn't very good at all. For instance, the difference between the pale green color used for interactive objects (the Button and the Text Entry Box) and the light blue (used for captions and animations) are too similar. If your display's contrast is off just a bit, it will be difficult for you to tell one object group from the other. And in the image below, the click box object (fourth down the list) is selected. However, the contrast between the gray list at the left and the only slightly darker gray highlight color makes it somewhat difficult to see which of the Timeline objects is actually selected.

So along comes Captivate 5.5 and now there's one less pet peeve in the world. As you can see in the image below, Adobe overhauled the Timeline colors. Now you can clearly see the interactive objects (dark green) from the static objects (blue). With a simple glance at the left side of the Timeline, you'll know that the click box object is selected. Nice job Adobe!

If you have Captivate pet peeves, let me know. I'm happy to share them here with other skills and drills readers.

by Kevin Siegel

You've always been able to create quizzes with Captivate. Of course, over the years the quiz features have gotten better and better. However, if you've spent any time with the quiz feature in Captivate 5, you are probably a bit disappointed with how bad some of the text formatting features are. For instance, when you add a multiple choice question slide, something simple like aligning the text horizontally is a real challenge.

You'll be happy to hear that all is well in the new Adobe Captivate 5.5… and then some. I've spent some time playing with question slides and it appears that the text formatting issues that plagued Captivate 5 are a thing of the past. Nice! But since that particular fix was to be expected, you will be happy to hear that there are more quiz enhancements in Captivate 5.5.

For instance, when your learners take a quiz published with Captivate 5.5, the answers now include some cool rollover effects that provide some nice feedback just before the learner selects an answer.

When learners review a Captivate 5.5 quiz, another great new feature will reveal itself. Take a look at the image below and notice that the feedback given to a learner is much improved… a red X appears on any slide that was answered incorrectly and a check mark appears next to the correct answer. (A green check mark appears if the question was answered correctly.)

Improved interactivity as learners answer questions and better feedback during the review process are both nice new features. However, neither feature is worthy of writing that letter home. What would get me to start writing that letter? For starters, it would really be nice if there was something that actually made the process of creating a Captivate quiz a bit less painful. And I love it if I was able to create better-looking question slides out of the box. Which brings me to my favorite Captivate 5.5 feature. Check out the image below:

Adobe is now providing quiz templates… and they really look nice. When you visit the Quiz menu in Captivate 5.5, you'll find a new menu item at the bottom of the menu: Download Quiz Templates. Choosing Download Quiz Templates will take you to the Captivate 5.5 Quiz Templates page on the web. There are currently six templates on the site (and a promise for more).

The templates are cptx files that have been zipped for easy download. Once you've downloaded the zip to your computer, unzip the file and open the project with Captivate 5.5.

You'll find multiple question slides in the project that you can edit and use as your own. There's a master slide that will ensure new slides will be consistent with those already in the project. In addition, all of the object styles have been set. If you're happy with how the template looks, all you have to do is insert new question slides and type the questions and answers. You can't get more turn-key than that! Better-looking quizzes… and faster? Nice! I'd write more but I've got to dash off to the post office and mail that letter home.

Note: When you upgrade legacy projects that contain quizzes to Captivate 5.5, the enhanced learner feedback I mentioned above will automatically be added. (There aren't any special hoops you'll have to jump through to gain the new features.)

by Kevin Siegel

While some of the new features in Adobe Captivate 5.5 (such as the ability to free rotate and publish to Apple mobile devices) have gotten all the fanfare since Adobe released the new software, one new feature has sat on the sideline, overshadowed by the others: Shadow. But don't let this understated feature fool you… it's awesome.

Using the Shadow feature couldn't be easier. All you need to do is select or draw an object and then visit the Shadow group on the Properties panel.

By default, the shadow feature is disabled. Click the Enable check box and a shadow will instantly be added to the selected object. At this point, you can select from any one of nine shadow Presets.

Not happy with the appearance of the default shadows offered by the presets? No worries. You can change just about all of the shadow's properties including its color, angle and how far the shadow falls from the object (the Distance field shown in the image above).

Next week: The enhanced quiz features.

by Kevin Siegel

Adobe announced the immediate availability of Adobe Captivate 5.5 late last week. Over the next few weeks, I'll be spotlighting some of the new features here.

If you are a veteran Captivate 5 developer, you'll appreciate that the 5.5 version looks almost identical to version 5. However, since the two versions look the same and act the same, it'll take a bit of poking around to find the new stuff. For instance, if you take a look at the main toolbar at the top of the Captivate window, you'll see a new Publish To YouTube command button.

Also, if you look in the File menu, you'll see a Publish To YouTube menu item.

Once you select the Publish to YouTube command, you'll be prompted to log in to your YouTube account.

Next, the Video Publisher screen opens where you'll need to add the lesson's Title and Description. You can also add tags to make it easier for users to search YouTube and find your video. And you can select a Category and make your video Public or Private.

Once published, a results screen will appear providing a link to the published content that can be shared with your learners.

And that's it. Your video is magically available on YouTube. It couldn't get much easier than that.