Category: eLearning

The following tip comes from fellow Captivater Alan Rosenberg:

Many of the items on Captivate’s Insert menu (Text Caption, Highlight Box, etc.) have four tabs in their dialog boxes where the Captivate user gets to configure exactly how the item looks and behaves. Each tab also has a check-box in its lower left, named Apply to All, that applies the configuration to other similar items in your presentation.

Be advised that when you check an Apply to All check-box on a single tab, you will be applying the characteristics selected on all four tabs, not just the tab on which you check the check-box. It took me a while to figure out why some characteristics of my Text Captions were "mysteriously" changing and this was the answer.

Got a tip? Send it along and we’ll publish it here, giving you full credit of course.

Adding narratives (audio) to your Captivate projects is one of the best ways to enhance the user experience and make your CBTs more effective.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to adding audio: hire the audio talent, or do it yourself. Between the two, hiring the talent is almost always the way to go. Of course, that assumes you have the budget to hire audio talent–it could get expensive.

If you’re looking to save money, don’t be afraid to record the audio yourself.  You can record your own audio easily enough: all you need is a microphone, a computer with a sound card, Adobe Captivate 2 and time. (Time to practice the audio before you record, and lots of time to "clean up" the audio after you’ve recorded it.)

Here’s How To Record Your Own Audio:

1. Open a project and then open a slide (we typically attach audio to the slide, not slide objects)
2. Choose Audio > Record
3. Click the Record button

   You may see the message below if this is the first time you’re recording audio in Captivate. In that case, click the Yes button.

   

   After clicking Yes, you will see the Calibrate microphone/line-in dialog box.

   Speak into your microphone until your microphone is calibrated. Then click the OK button.

   

   And just like that, you’re being recorded.

   

4. When finished, click the Stop button and then click OK

Now that you’ve recorded your own audio, you are likely to run face-first into a common problem: there are annoying "lip smacks," flubs and background noise, or static, throughout the audio.

You can fix several problems without having to re-record.

Here’s How To Delete Lip Smacks and Other Flubs:

1. Show the Timeline
2. Double-click the Waveform (it’s the last object on the Timeline) to show the Edit Audio window
3. Select the Lip Smack or other unwanted audio element and click the Delete selection button on the Edit Audio toolbar

   

4. Click OK

You will find that using the Delete selection button works great. But what if you want to remove background noise such as static? Or a door slamming?

If you use the Delete selection button, you’ll end up shortening the distance between syllables which will result in audio that plays too fast. Instead of removing the static, consider using one of the following two methods: Insert Silence or Adjust the volume.

Here’s How To Remove Background Noise:

1. Show the Timeline
2. Double-click the Waveform
3. Select the noise you want to delete
4. Click the Insert silence button on the Edit Audio toolbar

   

5. Click OK

Because the quality of your audio will only be as good as your microphone, and the quality of your "studio," the Insert silence technique only works moderately well. If you play the audio clip back, you’ll actually "hear" the silence because the part of the audio where you’re speaking still contains static that you cannot isolate and delete using Captivate. So what do you do with that pesky static? Instead of inserting silence, consider lowering the volume for the problem audio.

Here’s How To Adjust the Volume:

1. Show the Timeline
2. Double-click the Waveform
3. Select the problematic audio element
4. Click the Adjust volume button on the Edit Audio toolbar
5. Drag the Volume slider down to the 20-30% level

   

6. Click OK

Want to learn more about Adobe Captivate 2? Click here.

Click here to sample some of our 100% interactive simulations.

Anyone who has attempted to import PowerPoint slides can appreciate how frustrating it is when the slides, which look great in PowerPoint, look fuzzy in Captivate.

The problem isn’t with either program. There’s a good chance that you resized the PowerPoint presentation when you imported it into Captivate.

You have three choices when you import PowerPoint projects: resize smaller, resize larger or do nothing (keep the PowerPoint presentation at its original size).

If you resize smaller, the project backgrounds should look good in Captivate. But how small should you resize the project? You’ve probably noticed that when you select a specific size, the original size of the PowerPoint presentation may not proportionally match the new size you want in Captivate. If you don’t resize things proportionally, you could end up with a blurry look–which you probably don’t want.

If you resize larger, the PowerPoint presentation will almost certainly look blurry in Captivate. Again, that’s something you don’t want.

So how do you import a PowerPoint presentation, where the measurement system is inches, into a Captivate project, where the measurement system is pixels? Read on…

Let’s assume that your Captivate projects are all set up at 640 x 480 pixels and you’ve been asked to import a PowerPoint presentation that was set up at 8 x 10 inches. There is no way to Captivate can effectively resize or convert the 8 x 10 inch PowerPoint document down to 640 x 480 pixels–the sizes are not proportional.

The trick is to get the PowerPoint presentation resized to 640 x 480 before you import it into Captivate. However, PowerPoint’s Page Setup is in inches, not in pixels. How are you going to make the conversion? In your head? A fancy conversion table? I don’t think so. Try this instead.

1. Open the Captivate project you’ll be importing the PowerPoint presentation into
2. Right-click any slide and choose Copy Background
3. Switch to PowerPoint and create a new presentation
4. Choose Edit > Paste to paste the Captivate background into the PowerPoint presentation as an image
5. Right-click the Image and choose Format Picture
6. On the Size tab, make a note of the Height and Width of the picture (write the numbers down now)

   

7. Click Cancel and close the PowerPoint presentation
8. Open the PowerPoint presentation you intend to import into Captivate
9. Choose File > Page Setup
10. Change the Width and Height to match the size of the picture (you did write those numbers down, didn’t you?)

    

11. Click OK
12. Go through your PowerPoint presentation. You may need to adjust some of the text if the new size is dramatically different from the original size
13. Save and close the presentation
14. Back in Captivate, if no projects are open, choose File > Import and open your PowerPoint presentation.

    You’ll notice that the Width and Height (in the picture below, 640 x 480) are perfect.

    

    If you’re importing the PowerPoint presentation into an existing Captivate project, choose File > Import/Export > Import Microsoft PowerPoint Slides

After the import process, you’ll notice that the resulting slides aren’t blurry at all. In fact, they should look most excellent.

Want to learn more about Captivate? Click here.

When importing audio into Captivate, you have two options: WAV and MP3. Assuming you haven’t studied up on the meaning of WAV and MP3, allow me to fill you in.

The WAV format was developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM as the standard format for sound on PCs. WAV sound files end with a .wav extension and can be played by nearly any computer that supports sound. Since WAV files are not compressed, they can get huge.

MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) is a compressed audio format that allows for high quality sound that is significantly smaller than its WAV cousin.

Captivate converts imported WAV files into MP3’s when you publish.

Okay, so now that you know the difference between a WAV and an MP3, let’s move to the import process. You can import audio into a Captivate project in any one of three places: any slide object (show the Properties on an object, select the Audio tab and click Import); the slide (show the Properties of the slide, select the Audio tab and click Import); or the project (choose Project > Background Audio and click Import).

The decision to import an MP3 as opposed to a WAV really depends on what format you recorded or were provided. If you have an MP3, you will be happy to hear that MP3’s generally import into Captivate without a problem. However, WAVs can get a bit testy (I said that MP3’s generally import fine, but they have been known to cause problems too.).

It may surprise you to learn that WAV’s are not created equal. In fact, most audio editing applications offer several WAV export formats including, but not limited to: PCM RAW, Windows PCM, DVI / IMA wav, Microsoft AD PCM and ACM Waveform. Which format will work best with Captivate? Will they all work?

The answer is that not all WAV formats will import into Captivate. How will you know if a WAV will not import? Here’s how: You’ll step through the import process in Captivate, find the audio file you’d like to import and you’ll attempt to open it. Then you’ll see this message:

Panic? You? Nahhh! You’ll click OK to the message above and you’ll try to import the file again (it may sound silly to try again, but I would).

Of course, you’ll see the screen below after your second attempt, and your third:

At this point, you’re probably starting to get that feeling of panic. Never fear. Follow these steps for one solution to the problem:

1. Start Sound Recorder (On my system, the program was found at the following location: Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder)
2. Open the troublesome WAV file.
3. Choose File > Save As.
4. Click the Advanced button.
5. Click the Change button.



If the problem file was a WAV, you can select MPEG Layer-3 to convert the WAV into an MP3. You can also select PCM as a format and lower the Attributes until you find one that Captivate will allow you to import.



6. After selecting a Format and Attributes, click OK.

The audio file should now import into Captivate. Of course, using Sound Recorder to convert your audio files is a last-ditch process and one you should take only if you are working on your project at the mid-night hour and don’t have access to an audio resource. Most audio applications allow you to batch-convert audio files, taking the chore out of converting several files.

Want to learn more about Captivate? Click here.

The following comes from fellow subscriber Bill Koegler:

If you have a PowerPoint presentation with embedded animated gifs and sound files, but do not have the original source material, you can retrieve them by publishing the PowerPoint files as an HTML file. Check the supporting files created for the HTML output and you’ll find your animations and audio files! They may require some renaming and editing, but it beats having to re-create the assets.

As far as the animated GIF files go, they will become static if you import them into Captivate along with the PPT presentation. So, I just popped the animated gifs out of the PPT before importing it into Captivate and then re-introduced them from the HTML file into the Captivate program… worked like a charm.

We’ve spent the past few weeks riding the roller-coaster ride that is the world of Captivate and Vista. You’ve read some good and bad reports. Captivate runs on Vista. Captivate doesn’t run on Vista. What’s a Captivate developer to do? Who do you believe? Who do you blame?

If you are considering upgrading to Vista, the comments you’ve read in this newsletter have likely caused you to think long and hard about that.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time listening to comments from fellow Captivaters, and have read a significant number of BLOG and Forum postings. The general tone out there is anger with Adobe for not having a Vista-compliant version of Captivate ready to go when Vista was released by Microsoft.

The following comes from fellow subscriber Susan Hawkins. If your first instinct is to bash Adobe because Captivate is not working on Vista, her comments may give you a fresh perspective.

If you’re using Vista, please email me your findings and I will publish your comments here.

In defense of technology companies everywhere, I thought I should share a little about software development since most computer users are unaware.  Maybe you will include it in the next Skills & Drills.

Susan Hawkins

There are three numbers to think about with every Captivate project: the size of the production file (name.cp) in megabytes, and the size of the published file (typically that’s a .SWF file) in megabytes, and the number of slides in the finished project.

• A SWF will not play until 60% has been downloaded to your users’ computer. Internet connections being equal (I know they’re not, but let’s pretend), it just makes sense that the smaller the final SWF, the faster the SWF download will be.
• Shorter lessons are better for busy adult learners. If your lesson take 15 minutes or less to complete, learners will be encouraged to take more lessons.

Here’s how you can lower the size of your Published SWF:

• Keep audio use to a minimum (use it only if necessary)
• Keep Animation use to a minimum (I’m talking about importing SWFs and using unnecessary Fade In and Fade Out effects on images, captions and text entry areas)
• Set the slide quality to Standard if possible (Right-click a slide and choose Properties. Optimized, JPEG, or High Quality can increase file size.)
• Lower the Frames per second: Choose Project > Preferences > Preferences. The default Frames per second is 30, but lowering it to 20 typically works well and could save you significant SWF size)

What can result in Project Bloat?

• Unused Backgrounds
• Unused Audio
• Unused Animation
• Unused Images (Use the Library’s Select Unused Items tool and delete anything not being used.)

In the last issues of this newsletter, a reader wanted to know if it was possible to gather Captivate Quiz results without using an LMS.

I’m happy to report that the answer is yes. Of course, now you want me to prove it, right? Not me! The following comes from fellow subscriber Bruce E. Richards, Research and Instructional Design Coordinator, Office of Sponsored Research & Programs, Missouri State University.

Take it away Bruce…

"In the text that follows I will show you how to create a quiz using Captivate, copy code to a JavaScript file, add an ASP code, tabulate the results, and send them to a Microsoft Access Database. These instructions are based on an existing Adobe Captivate article. To review the original article, click here.

Setting Up Captivate File and Configuring the JavaScript

First, you will start by building a Captivate quiz by following the article above, publish the Captivate file, then modifying the resulting JavaScript, by replacing the sendMail javascript function lines 25-30 (VERY IMPORTANT!), with the sendMail function as outlined in the Adobe article document.

Setting Up Your Database and Access Data Source

We now break away from the Adobe article, by using an ASP code to create your database in Microsoft Access. (See the "Storing Captivate Test Scores in an Access Database" document).

Create your Access database using the description as outlined in the article and then copy and paste the code snippet found in this document and name the file, insert_soln.asp file. This will enable us to insert information from the quiz into our Microsoft Access database. Publish your files to your server and your users will now be able to send quiz data to an Access database.

Conclusion

It is important that you place your Access database file (quizresults.mdb) in the "fpdb" folder (if using Microsoft FrontPage) for security purposes. Also copy exactly the insert_soln.asp code (use notepad to take away the formatting). By changing the connection string, you can also send your quiz results to an SQL database."