Here are some things you can count on:
- Death
- Taxes
- Sunrise
- Sunset...
... and version 4 of Adobe Captivate. I don't mean to get you overly excited about Adobe Captivate 4 since there hasn't been any word from Adobe indicating when the next version will go into development... or even if it is in development. And I don't mean to assume anything (you know what happens when you assume). But let's go out on a limb and suppose that Adobe will release Adobe Captivate 4 anytime between tomorrow and the year 2020. And let's suppose Adobe was anxious to hear from you Captivate developers about the new features you would like to see added to the program. If Adobe called you tomorrow and asked for your Adobe Captivate 4 "wish list," would you be prepared? Have you thought it through? Is there something missing from the program that you'd pay the Adobe-piper to see?
Here's my short list:
Text Caption and Button Workshop
When inserting Text Captions, you can change the caption type simply enough, and you've often got up to five caption styles from which to choose. However, the captions as they exist today are really just bitmap images. You can create your own images in any image-editing application. Anyone who has attempted to create custom captions will tell you that it's not as easy as it seems. In Captivate 4, I'd like to be able to launch a Caption Workshop from within Captivate and be able to totally customize the look and feel of the captions. Like PowerPoint's AutoShapes, I'd like to be able to quickly and easily change the size and shape of the text caption pointer, the background and border colors, and the text inset within the caption (the distance between the border of the text caption and the text within the caption).
While I'm at it, I'd also like a Button Editor where I can create and manage text and image buttons. In the current version of Captivate, you can choose between creating a text or image button. There are several images available for free with Captivate. However, if you don't like any of the choices, you're once again stuck creating your own in an image-editing application.
Object Styles
If I've created custom captions, buttons or if I've edited my click boxes and/or text entry boxes, I'd like to be able to create Object Styles much like you can in Adobe InDesign. If I create a style for some buttons called Button1 and use the object throughout my project, I'd like to be able to edit the Button1 object style and make global changes throughout my project. Captivate's current Change All feature is heading in this direction... the feature just needs a gentle nudge forward.
Playbar Editor
I love the Skins in Captivate. I'd love them more if there was a Playbar Editor where I could create my own button bars, move buttons around, etc.
Improved PowerPoint Integration
Captivate 3 was a huge leap forward when it came to PowerPoint integration. I'd like to see things moving forward by allowing me to edit the animation on a slide after the slide has been imported from PowerPoint. And I'd like all PowerPoint slide properties to be retained (such as hyperlinks) after the slides have been imported into Captivate.
Master Slides
I'd like to be able to create master slides in Captivate (like you will find in programs like PowerPoint, QuarkXPress and InDesign) where I can drop slide objects and be able to quickly apply them to project slides as backgrounds.
Enhanced Library
The Library is wonderful. And would be even better if it displayed slide objects such as Buttons, Click Boxes and Text Captions. Currently, only images, audio and animation assets appear on the Library.
FLV Onion Skin
I recently worked on a project that utilized dozens of FLV's. Each of the FLV's contained audio. I was trying to synch slide objects to the FLV audio. Since you cannot drag the Playhead left and right on the Timeline and hear the audio in the FLV, I was essentially working blind. I had to time everything out using a stop watch believe it or not. It would be nice if FLVs played without having to preview (by dragging the Playhead on the Timeline).
That's my partial list, and I'm sticking to it. I'd say more, but I'd like to hear from you. What's on your "wish list?" Email me your suggestions. I'll combine em, wrap em up, put a bow on em and see if I can find someone at Adobe who might be interested in seeing em. Who knows, today's wish just might become tomorrow's Captivate 4.
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