Category: Captivate

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Adobe Captivate: Don’t Throw The Closed Captions Away with the Audio

by Kevin Siegel
 
Closed captioning allows you to provide descriptive information that explains the audio recording in written text. If your playbar contains a CC button (most playbars do by default), a learner has the option to click the CC button which will display a panel where the closed caption text will appear.

Adding closed captions to a slide is relatively simple. Choose Audio > Audio Management to open the Advanced Audio Management dialog box. Select a slide that contains audio and, at the bottom of the dialog box, click the Closed Caption button. From there, click where you want the closed caption, click the Add Closed Caption button (the plus sign) and type the caption.

Closed captions

It really is a simple process… labor intensive, but simple. If you have several slides with audio, you'll need several closed captions, which will take time. But seeing how you are determined to add closed captions to your project, you work and work and work and then, one day…success… your project has hundreds of closed captions. Congratulations are in order!

And then your world falls apart… the client requests that the audio on several slides be replaced with new audio. You honor the request only to realize, with absolute horror, that the closed captions for the replaced audio clips have been deleted and now you'll have to recreate the missing closed captions. Unless…

If you need to replace a slide's audio clip, you have two choices. First, you could choose Audio > Import to > Slide and replace the existing audio clip with the new one. This sounds like the most straightforward method. However, if you proceed, you will lose the slide's closed captions (sort of like throwing out the baby with the bath water). Instead, choose Audio > Edit > Slide. Select the waveform via the Edit tab and replace it by either clicking the Import button or the Library button. Once the audio has been replaced, check out the Closed Captions tab and you'll see that the captions have been retained. Nice!

***
Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we still offer two online classes for Captivate 4, Beginner and Advanced. Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class. Lastly, we've got classes for the new Captivate 5. We are currently offering a Captivate 5 Essentials class (the Advanced class is under development).

***

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate: Pulling Manual Screen Shots

Question: What Do I Do When Captivate's Print Screen Does Not Work?

I'm using Adobe Captivate 4. When I try to create a screen capture using my keyboard, I press print screen but instead of a Captivate screen capture, SnagIt opens. What can I do to create a screen capture using Captivate? I would prefer not to close SnagIt.

Answer: You can easily change the key used to create manual screen captures. While print screen is the Captivate default, there are often programs that have already started on your system that have laid claim to the keyboard command. Since you say that you do not want to close the conflicting program, open Captivate's Preferences. Go to the Keys category and enter a different keyboard shortcut into the manual screenshot area instead of print screen.

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Adobe Captivate: Hearing (Extra) Voices? You’re Not Crazy!

by Kevin Siegel
 
Text-to-Speech (TTS) was one of the coolest new features in Adobe Captivate 4. In the new Captivate 5, TTS is still available but the interface for converting text to speech has changed (like everything else). In addition, if you've grown tired of Paul and Kate as your speech agents, you will be pleasantly surprised by what you will find when you use the feature for the first time.

Before you can take full advantage of Captivate's TTS feature, you will need to install the software and agents. The installers (there are now two that come with Captivate 5) are typically found in the Adobe Captivate 5 Content\Add-ons folder that is part of the Captivate 5 installation files. There is an installer for Neospeech (which adds the two legacy voices for Captivate 4, Paul and Kate); and an installer for Loquendo (which provides three new voices: Stefan, Juliette and Simon).

Once the text to speech software has been installed, converting text to speech is a snap.

  1. Go to a slide where you want to convert text to speech and open the Slide Notes panel (Window > Slide Notes).
  2. Click the Text-to-Speech Button.

    Text to speech button

  3. Select a Speech Agent from the drop-down menu.

    CP5 Text to Speech Agents... agents everywhere!

  4. Click the Add Text-to-Speech button (the plus sign).
  5. Type some text.
  6. Click the Generate Audio button.

    Convert button

    And just as simple as that, your text has been converted to speech.

  7. Click the Close button.
  8. Preview the slide to hear the agent at work.


The Text-to-Speech audio can be edited like any other audio clip. In addition, you can change the voice from one agent to the next, and then back again simply by choosing Audio > Speech Management. Change the Speech Agent and click Generate Audio.

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we still offer two online classes for Captivate 4, Beginner and Advanced. Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class. Lastly, we've got classes for the new Captivate 5. We are currently offering a Captivate 5 Essentials class (the Advanced class is under development).

***

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate 5: External PowerPoint Changes? Avoid the Guesswork

by Kevin Siegel
 
Beginning with Adobe Captivate 4, and continuing in Captivate 5, you can create a link to a PowerPoint presentation during the import process by simply selecting the Link option on the Convert PowerPoint Presentations dialog box.

Link option selected

Anybody who has had to update the linked PowerPoint presentation at any point after the import process will appreciate the workflow… simply choose Edit > Edit with Microsoft PowerPoint > Edit Presentation.

The PowerPoint presentation will open in a window that can best be described as a union between Captivate and PowerPoint. If you've used PowerPoint before, you will recognize the familiar PowerPoint interface. However, there are two buttons you wouldn't normally see if you opened the presentation directly within PowerPoint: the Save and Cancel buttons at the upper left of the window.

Save and Cancel buttons

After making your changes to the PowerPoint slides, all you need to do is click the Save button and the changes will be reflected within Captivate. Nice!

Captivate 5 has added a nifty improvement to this workflow… you will be alerted should the PowerPoint presentation be modified by someone else after you have imported it into your Captivate project. Here's how it works: import the PowerPoint presentation and select the Link option as mentioned above and then get on with your Captivate development.

At regular intervals, take a glance at your Library (Window menu). The Status column now sports a Synch button. If it's green, there have been no changes to the source presentation; red indicates changes.

Not in synch

All you need to do at this point is click the red button and the changes made to the PowerPoint presentation will make their way into the Captivate project. Bam!

***

Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes for Captivate 4, Beginner and Advanced. Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class. Lastly, the new Captivate 5 has recently been released by Adobe. We are currently offering a Captivate 5 Essentials class (the Advanced class is under development).

***

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate 4: Looking for NeoSpeech?

Question:  I own Adobe Captivate 4 and need the installer for the Text to Speech software (NeoSpeech). Adobe used to have a link on their site but it's now the NeoSpeech for the new Captivate 5. This software will not work with Captivate 4. Can you help?

Answer: I posted the NeoSpeech software on my server. You can download it by clicking here.

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Adobe Captivate: ZigZag Motion Paths

by Kevin Siegel
 
Back in June, I wrote about the new Effects feature in Adobe Captivate 5. Now I'd like to introduce you to Motion Paths (specifically, ZigZag Motion Paths).

A Motion Path allows you to control not only where an object appears on your slide, but the path it takes across the slide before it exits.

To create a Motion Path, first apply an effect to an object: Right-click and select Apply Effect to open the Effects panel (which will appear at the bottom of your window, grouped with the Timeline by default).

In the lower left of the Effects panel, click the Add Effect button (the FX icon).

Select an Entrance effect (I selected Entrance > Fly In > Fly In From Right).

Entrance effect

To apply the ZigZag Motion Path effect, right-click the same object, click the Add Effect button again and choose Motion Path > ZigZag.

On the Effects panel, drag the ZigZag effect right until its left edge lines up at the 7s mark (you'll find that working with the Effects panel is similar to working with the Timeline).

Effects panel

And now for the zigging and zagging: Select the object and notice the number 1 that appears in the lower right of the selected object.

Click the number 1 to reveal the object's current ZigZag motion path.

ZigZag1

Drag the green arrow at the end of the motion path to the right and just off the slide.

ZigZag2

Drag the white dots at the top and bottom of the path to change the height of each zig and zag.

ZigZag3

Preview the new few slides to see your new motion path.

***
Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes for Captivate 4, Beginner and Advanced. Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class. Lastly, the new Captivate 5 has been released by Adobe. We are currently offering a Captivate 5 Essentials class (the Advanced class is under development).
 
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Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate 4 Audio Editing: Shhhhhh! I Mean Speak Up!

by Kevin Siegel

When working with audio in Adobe Captivate, one issue you are likely to face is audio levels that are all over the map. Unless you created your audio in a studio or received your audio from an audio professional, you'll likely come across sections of your audio that are either too loud, too low or both. Luckily, you can fix some of the issues without leaving Captivate.

Right-click any audio file on the Library, choose Edit with Adobe Captivate and you'll open the Edit Audio dialog box.

In the image below, parts of the waveform are taller than others. Generally speaking, the taller the wave, the louder the audio. You wouldn't even need to preview the audio shown below to know that the audio suddenly gets louder, softer and then louder again.

Audio that is too loud.

Without leaving the Edit Audio dialog box, click the Adjust Volume button to display the Adjust Volume controls. At this point, you'll need to experiment a bit to come up with a volume that sounds the best to you.

If your audio file has multiple sections that are too loud, select Dynamics from the Audio Processing area (as shown below). You can typically leave the Ratio and Threshold settings alone and click the OK button.

Audio Volume Controls

In the image below, you can see that the waveform is now pretty smooth (I didn't have to tinker around any further). If your audio still has sections that are too loud, go back and experiment with the Ratio and Threshold sliders to see if you can calm things down a bit.

Adjusted Audio

If there is just a little bit of audio in the waveform that is too loud, and the Dynamics option isn't helping, select the problematic part of the waveform, click the Adjust Volume button and drag the Volume slider down a bit or as necessary to equalize the volume.

Finally, if your audio has sections that are alternating between too loud, perfect and then too soft, try selecting the Normalize option you'll find just above Dynamics. I find that this is the option of last resort and that Dynamics or manual Volume adjustments work better.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that the features you will find in dedicated audio-editing programs like Adobe Soundbooth or Audacity are light-years better than the options you will find in Captivate, but it's nice to know what you can accomplish without leaving Captivate.

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class.

***

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate 5: Quickest Quizzes Ever!

by Kevin Siegel
 
Adding Question Slides has always been a necessary evil in Captivate. I'm not saying that including a quiz in your eLearning isn't a good thing… certainly quizzes are an integral measuring stick for the effectiveness of your course. However, adding question slides to a Captivate eLearning course was, at best, tedious.

Prior to Captivate 4, you couldn't duplicate a Question Slide or import them from one project to another. With the introduction of Captivate 4, both of those problems were a thing of the past. But anyone who created a quiz using Captivate 4 knows how much work the process was. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, it goes a bit like this: you'll choose Quiz > Question Slide. Select the Question type and click OK. Type the question, type the answers, select the correct answer(s) and click OK. Format the Question Slide to taste. Then repeat. Not difficult, but very, very click-intensive.

Quiz Object Styles

With the new Captivate 5, the mundane chore of creating a quiz gets a whole lot easier. Prior to adding any Question Slides, you'll choose Edit > Object Style Manager. At the upper left of the Object Style Manager dialog box, there is an entire Quizzing Objects group. There are several Quizzing Objects, and you can set the styles to suit your needs.

Default quiz object styles

Improved Quiz Default Labels

Choose Quiz > Quiz Preferences. From the Quiz category, select Default Labels. When your Question Slides are created, there will be buttons added automatically along the bottom of the slide allowing learners to submit their answers, clear selections, skip a question and go back and answer skipped questions. Learners will also see feedback captions as they get the answers correct or incorrect. For the first time in Captivate history, you can elect to use the default values for your captions or create custom caption styles you can use on the Question Slides. The concept of Object Styles is new in Captivate 5 and will save you a significant amount of formatting time.

Quiz default labels

Add Multiple Question Slides

The best new feature Quiz feature you'll see in Captivate 5 will present itself when you insert the first Question Slides (via Quiz > Question Slide). Gone are the bad-old-days when you had to select a single Question Type and click OK. Then, when you wanted another Question Slide, you'd have to repeat the process. And again and again.

Take a look at the image below:

Add multiple question slides

All of the Question Types available in Captivate 4 are still there. However, a wonderful enhancement is the ability to specify multiple copies of each Question Type will be added to the project with a single click of the OK button (in the image above, I'm only showing the first two Question Types but I've asked Captivate to create 11 of each).

Improved Question Editing

And finally, while it's not as awe-inspiring as the ability to add a billion Question Slides to your project at one time, in Captivate 5 you can now edit the questions and answers directly on the slide (goodbye unnecessary dialog boxes). Double-clicking the text on the slide will now take you directly into text-editing mode where you can make your changes without losing focus on the slide itself.

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class.

***

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate 5: Styling with Object Styles

by Kevin Siegel

How many times have you had to update the appearance of objects in Captivate and the pesky Apply to All feature simply didn't work? If you've tried to update Captivate's text captions across an entire project, then you know how truly hit or miss the process can be.

Over the past couple of weeks I've touched on some of the wonderful new features you'll find in the upcoming Captivate 5. This one ranks in the top two or three: Object Styles. For the first time in Captivate history, you'll be able to create, edit and use styles for many of Captivate's standard slide objects. This feature effectively replaces Design Templates introduced in Captivate 4.

Using Caption styles, you can alter the way text captions will appear in a project. Once you set up the appearance of the default Caption Style, new captions will take on the attributes of the style and save you a ton of manual formatting. Want to update the appearance of your project's text captions months from now? Simple. Update the style and BAM! Every text caption will follow the lead of its style.

To edit the Default Caption Style, choose Edit > Object Style Manager. From the top of the Object Style Manager dialog box, select Default Caption Style (there are also defaults for Success, Failure and Hint Captions).

You can use the Caption area at the right to specify a Caption type. From the Character area, you can select a font Family, Style and Size (such as Verdana, Regular, 16). From the Format area, you can specify the alignment both horizontally and vertically. And there are other formatting options available.

Default caption style

When you insert new text captions (via Insert > Standard Objects > Text Caption), each new caption will follow the formatting specified in the style. Cool!

Of course, here's where things get interesting. I added several captions to a slide. Each used the Default Caption Style. Next I did the unthinkable–I manually changed the appearance of each caption. What a mess!

What a mess!

You might want to stand back a bit… this next step just might leave a mark. I selected all of the captions that I fouled up. Then, from the top of the Properties panel, I clicked the Reset Style button.

Reset styles

And Bam, Bam, Bam! All of the text captions once again followed the formatting I specified in the object style!

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class.

***

Follow Kevin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

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Adobe Captivate 5: One Masterful Slide

by Kevin Siegel
Ever needed to display an object across several or all of your Captivate project slides? Me too! The good news is that there is more than one way to accomplish the task. The bad news is that neither process works very well.
One way to show an object (such as your logo) across multiple slides is to use Captivate's Show for rest of project command via the Options tab. This technique works well enough until you come across one of the slides where you don't want the image. Since the Show for rest of project command is an all-or-nothing affair, you are sunk (unless you cover the object or know how to Hide an object).

The other way to show an object across multiple slides (hold onto your hat) is to copy and paste the object onto said slides. While antiquated, this is a simple-enough process until, sometime later, you want to move, alter or remove the object from all or some of those slides. The only foolproof way to make changes to those objects is to go from slide to slide and manually make the change(s). I know that there's an Apply to All feature, but it is often inappropriate to use or worse, simply doesn't work consistently. Ouch!

So hello to Captivate 5 where you will find a wonderfully welcome addition: Master Slides. Once you create a Master Slide, anything you add to a Master Slide can quickly be applied to any project slide(s). If you modify, move or delete Master Slide objects, the slides assigned to the Master Slide will instantly be affected. Nice!

To create a Master Slide, choose Window > Master Slide.

The Master Slide panel appears alongside the Timeline. If you click on a Master Slide, you'll enter Master Slide view. Any changes you make to the slide will affect the selected Master Slide.

Master Slide Panel

Add, format or position object(s) on the Master Slide just as you would a project slide. In the picture below, I added a logo to the lower right of the master slide.

Master Slide

The final step is to apply the Master Slide to project slide(s).

On the Film Strip, select any or all of the slides.

From the General group on the Properties panel, select the Master Slide you would like to apply from the Master Slide drop-down menu.

Apply a Master Slide

You can have multiple Master Slides in a project (choose Insert > Master Slide while the Master Slide panel is open to add a new Master Slide). And you can name a Master Slide via the Properties panel of any selected Master Slide.

If you don't want to use a Master Slide on a specific slide(s), select the slide(s) and, from the General group on the Properties panel, select None from the Master Slide drop-down menu.

No Master Page

As mentioned earlier, once you have applied a Master Slide to a project slide, any changes you make to the objects on a Master Slide will have an instant affect on any slides that are assigned to the Master Slide.

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class.

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Follow Kevin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel