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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Create responsive eLearning content, including quizzes, demonstrations, simulations and Virtual Reality projects that fit on any device with Adobe Captivate 2019
Key Features
- Build responsive, interactive and highly engaging eLearning content with Adobe Captivate 2019
- Build Virtual Reality eLearning experiences with Adobe Captivate 2019
- Assess your student knowledge with interactive and random quizzes
- Seamlessly integrate your eLearning content with any SCORM or xAPI compliant LMS
Book Description
Adobe Captivate is used to create highly engaging, interactive, and responsive eLearning content. This book takes you through the production of a few pieces of eLearning content, covering all the project types and workflows of Adobe Captivate.
First, you will learn how to create a typical interactive Captivate project. This will give you the opportunity to review all Captivate objects and uncover the application's main tools. Then, you will use the built-in capture engine of Captivate to create an interactive software simulation and a Video Demo that can be published as an MP4 video. Then, you will approach the advanced responsive features of Captivate to create a project that can be viewed on any device. And finally, you will immerse your learners in a 360o environment by creating Virtual Reality projects of Adobe Captivate. At the end of the book, you will empower your workflow and projects with the newer and most advanced features of the application, including variables, advanced actions, JavaScript, and using Captivate 2019 with other applications.
If you want to produce high quality eLearning content using a wide variety of techniques, implement eLearning in your company, enable eLearning on any device, assess the effectiveness of the learning by using extensive Quizzing features, or are simply interested in eLearning, this book has you covered!
What you will learn
- Learn how to use the objects in Captivate to build professional eLearning content
- Enhance your projects by adding interactivity, animations, and more
- Add multimedia elements, such as audio and video, to create engaging learning experiences
- Use themes to craft a unique visual experience
- Use question slides to create SCORM-compliant quizzes that integrate seamlessly with your LMS
- Make your content fit any device with responsive features of Captivate
- Create immersive 360° experiences with Virtual Reality projects of Captivate 2019
- Integrate Captivate with other applications (such as PowerPoint and Photoshop) to establish a professional eLearning production workflow
- Publish your project in a wide variety of formats including HTML5 and Flash
Who this book is for
If you are a teacher, instructional designer, eLearning developer, or human resources manager who wants to implement eLearning, then this book is for you. A basic knowledge of your OS is all it takes to create the next generation of responsive eLearning content.
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Seitenzahl: 933
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019 Fifth Edition
Copyright © 2019 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Amarabha BanerjeeAcquisition Editor:Larissa PintoContent Development Editor:Flavian VazTechnical Editor:Sachin SunilkumarCopy Editor:Safis EditingProject Coordinator:Pragati ShuklaProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Rekha NairGraphics:Alishon MendonsaProduction Coordinator: Tom Scaria
First published: August 2012 Second edition: February 2014 Third edition: March 2015 Fourth edition: September 2017 Fifth edition: January 2019
Production reference: 1310119
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78980-305-1
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Foreword
Training in all forms plays a substantial role in the success of organizations and businesses across the globe. Over the past quarter of a century, the impact of training on organizational success has become ever more apparent. Organizations have come to recognize that training impacts virtually all aspects of goal attainment in virtually every type of organization. From recognizing the impact of leadership training in information-driven businesses to identifying the impact of training in businesses that rely on learning to mitigate the effects of high turnover, every successful business today has come to recognize that without effective training, the organization cannot succeed. While training is still delivered in a variety of ways, delivery of most forms of training in online asynchronous formats has the potential to radically reduce the costs of training in the organization. It can potentially magnify the impact and value of that training by offering learning in a modality that provides better opportunities for personalization, repeated and convenient access, as well as careful monitoring and tracking of training outcomes.
The creation of online learning materials that fulfill this promise is the challenge addressed by Adobe Captivate. As a rapid eLearning authoring tool, Adobe Captivate has led the way in creating powerful tools for instructors, instructional designers, developers, and subject matter experts. Captivate is an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use multimedia authoring tool. It provides a host of special tools aimed at facilitating the easy creation of various training experiences, such as scenario-based training, process (step-by-step) training, product training, software/application capture, and video-based training. It supplements these tools with quiz creation and tracking capabilities as well as a variety of pre-built, easy-to-assemble information delivery and content creation tools.
Adobe Captivate has a nearly twenty-year history of leadership in the online course authoring space. During that time, there are a handful of people who have documented and shared some of the most essential strategies, methods, technologies, and pedagogical/andragogical approaches to online learning. Without question, Dr. Pooja Jaisingh and Damien Bruyndonckx have been among the foremost of these experts.
In this, the fifth edition of Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019, that extraordinary tradition is both evolved and well maintained. Readers will find the latest information about creating online eLearning with Adobe Captivate 2019, including the use of incredible new features, such as 360 virtual learning, and features that radically expedite the development process, such as the video overlay functions. These enhanced features allow even novice users to rapidly create beautiful, high-performance eLearning that includes automated assessments with extremely little time and effort. This extraordinary overview of Adobe Captivate 2019 provides readers with an easy-to-access and easy-to-comprehend guide to the use of the software.
Allen Partridge
Sr. Manager, eLearning Evangelism Group – Adobe Systems
January 2019
About the authors
Dr. Pooja Jaisingh works as a senior learning evangelist at Adobe for Captivate, Captivate Prime LMS, and Presenter. She has created several award-winning eLearning courses and eBooks, and regularly conducts workshops and webinars on Adobe eLearning tools and services. In her previous roles, she has worked as a teacher trainer, instructional designer, and chief learning geek. She has authored several courses on Adobe Captivate and Captivate Prime for Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning. Pooja is CPLP and COTP certified. She holds a master's degree in education and economics and a doctorate in educational technology. You can contact her on Twitter, @poojajaisingh, and via her website at www.poojajaisingh.com.
Damien Bruyndonckx has an interest in teaching that dates back to his original training as an elementary school teacher. He began his career in 1998, teaching French as a foreign language in two elementary public schools in Louisiana, USA. In 2001, he came back to Belgium, his home country, and began to work as an IT trainer. He soon acquired the title of Adobe Certified Instructor on various Adobe products, which allowed him to work for a large number of customers and Adobe-authorized training centers across Europe. In 2009, he went back to teaching at IHECS, a higher education school of communications based in Brussels, where he was asked to implemented eLearning in the curriculum. Thanks to his work at IHECS, Damien became an Adobe Education Leader in November 2011. Today, Damien is the co-owner and the pedagogical director of DiDaXo, a Belgium-based eLearning company. Damien is the author or co-author of the Mastering Adobe Captivate series by Packt Publishing. You will find him speaking at various Captivate- and eLearning-related events around the world. He lives in Thuin, Belgium, with his girlfriend and his two children. Damien is a music lover and occasionally works as a sound and lighting technician in the entertainment industry.
About the reviewer
Kirsten Rourke has worked as a learning and development trainer and consultant for over two decades. She is an eLearning developer, public speaker, and certified technical trainer who owns and operates Rourke Training, which provides instructional design, development, speaking, and training services in partnership with several training vendors.
When not playing video games obsessively or dancing, she divides her time between eLearning development, creating training videos, publishing articles on software, or giving virtual and in-person training. She can be found presenting at industry events, such as DevLearn, at @kirstenrourke on Twitter, or at rourketraining.com.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019 Fifth Edition
Dedication
About Packt
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Foreword
Contributors
About the authors
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Getting Started with Adobe Captivate 2019
Getting Captivate
The Captivate perpetual license
The Captivate subscription
Captivate in the Technical Communication Suite
A first look at a typical production workflow
Step zero – the pre-production phase
Step one – creating the slides
Step two – the editing phase
Step three – the publishing phase
Exploring the Captivate interface
Using the Advanced Interface Mode
Working with panels
Creating a new workspace
Extra credit
Renaming and deleting custom workspaces
Workspaces in normal mode
Joining the Captivate community
Exploring the sample applications
Experiencing the Encoder demonstration
Experiencing the Encoder simulation
Experiencing the Encoder Video Demo
Experiencing the take the train sample application
Experiencing a Responsive Project
Previewing a responsive project on your mobile device
Experiencing a Virtual Reality project
Experiencing the Introduction to Fluid Boxes project
Summary
Meet the community
David Kelly
Contact details
Working with Standard Objects
Creating a new Captivate project
Choosing the right project size
Applying a theme to the project
Working with placeholders
Adding slides to a project
Working with the Properties inspector
Exploring the objects of Captivate
Working with the Text Caption object
Creating new Text Captions
Resizing and moving Text Captions
Formatting a Text Caption
Working with Smart Shapes
Drawing a simple Smart Shape
Formatting Smart Shapes
Creating your own Smart Shapes
Modifying a custom shape
Saving a custom shape
Adding text inside Smart Shapes
Duplicating object
Extra credit – creating additional Smart Shapes
Working with images
Inserting an image
Using the image editing tools of Captivate
Inserting a picture slide
Inserting Character images
Working with SVG images
Working with Text Effects
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Anita Horsley
Contact details
Working with Multimedia
Preparing your work
Inserting external animations in the project
Inserting animated GIF files into the project
Inserting HTML5 animations into the project
Working with video
Working with audio
Adding audio to the objects
Adding background music to the entire project
Adding audio to the slides
Recording narration with Captivate
Setting up the sound system
Recording the narration
Editing a sound clip in Captivate
Importing an external sound clip
Using Text-To-Speech to generate narration
Installing the Captivate speech agents
Working with the Slide Notes panel
Converting text to speech
Using the Advanced Audio Management window
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Alice Acker
Contact details
Working with the Timeline and Other Useful Tools
Working with the Library
Using the Library to remove assets from the project
Importing external assets into the Library
Reusing Library items
Importing objects from another Library
Deleting unused items from the Library
Laying out the objects on the slides
Using Smart Guides
Using the rulers and the guides
Extra credit – aligning the image legend
Alternate ways to create guides
Using the Align toolbar
Selecting multiple objects
Extra credit – aligning the other objects of the slide
Grouping objects
Working with the Filmstrip
Hiding and showing slides
Locking and unlocking slides
Grouping and ungrouping slides
Working with the Timeline
Using the Timeline to select objects
Using the Timeline to lock and unlock objects
Using the Timeline to show and hide objects
Using the Timeline to change the stacking order of the objects
Extra credit – aligning images
Using the Timeline to set the timing of the objects
Tips and tricks for great syncing
Using the Sync with Playhead feature
Extra credit – adjusting the timing of the other slides
Working with effects
Applying and removing effects
Applying other effects
Extra credit – adding effects to the remaining slides
Summary
Meet the community
Josh Cavalier
Contact details
Developing Interactivity
Working with Buttons
Formatting the Buttons
Using Smart Shapes as Buttons
Extra credit – Creating the Continue button on Slide 4
Branching with Buttons
Preparing the buttons
Creating the other buttons of the slide
Creating the Branching scenario
Working with Text Entry Boxes
Working with multi-state objects
Working with the built-in states of buttons
Working with the Visited state
Creating the Visited state of the other buttons
Working with custom states
Creating the custom states
Using Buttons to change the state of an object
Customizing the Normal (Default) state
Working with the Go to Next State action
Working with Drag and Drop interactions
Using the Drag and Drop Interaction wizard
Using the Drag and Drop panel
Customizing the feedback messages
Working with Interactive Video
Inserting an interactive video
Working with Bookmarks
Modifying and deleting bookmarks
Using the Jump to Bookmark action
Creating the remaining buttons
Working with Overlay Slides on the video
Preparing the Overlay Slide
Adding the Overlay Slide on the Interactive Video
Modifying the Overlay Slide
Working with Learning Interactions
Working with the Accordion interaction
Using the Rollover objects
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Joe Ganci
Contact details
Crafting the Graphical Experience with Styles and Themes
Importing the colors
Using the imported colors
Working with styles
Managing styles with the Properties inspector
Resetting a style
Creating new styles
Applying styles
Modifying a style
Applying styles automatically
Working with the Object Style manager
Renaming styles
Exporting a style
Importing a style
Creating a style in the Object Style Manager
Working with fonts
Using web safe fonts
Working with System Fonts
Working with web fonts
Syncing a second Adobe Fonts web font
Working with Themes
Applying a theme to an existing project
The elements of a Theme
The Master Slides
Creating slides based on Master Slides
Changing the Master Slide of an existing slide
Inserting a blank slide in a themed project
The Styles
Creating a custom Theme
Customizing the Master Slides of the Theme
Customizing the Main Master Slide
Changing the background of a Master Slide
Adding a Master Slide to the Theme
Adding more Master Slides to the theme
Adding Styles to the Theme
Styling the titles
Adding placeholders to the Master Slides
Adding Title Placeholders to the other Master Slides
Saving the Styles in the Theme
Working with Templates
Creating a Template
Adding Placeholder Slides
Adding the last slide
Saving the Template
Creating a new Captivate project from a Template
Summary
Meet the community
James Kingsley
Contact details
Working with Quizzes
Introducing the Quiz
Creating Question Slides
Inserting the first Question Slide
Using the Multiple Choice question
Understanding the basic question properties
Working with Partial Scoring
Branching with Question Slides
Discovering the other options of the Quiz inspector
Customizing the feedback messages
Importing Question Slides from a GIFT file
Importing Question Slides from a CSV file
Deleting the Question Slides
Inspecting the CSV file
Importing the CSV file in Adobe Captivate
Creating CSV files for importing in to Captivate
Working with Matching questions
Working with Short Answer questions
Working with True/False questions
Adding the remaining Question Slides
Working with the Fill-in-The-Blank question
Working with Hotspot questions
Working with Sequence questions
Creating surveys with Likert questions
Previewing the Quiz
Understanding the Quiz modes
Understanding Pretests
Exploring the Quiz Preferences
Setting the passing score of a Quiz
Working with Question Pools
Inserting questions in a Question Pool
Inserting Random Question Slides in the project
Styling the elements of the Question Slides
Reporting scores to an LMS
Understanding SCORM, AICC, and xAPI
Enabling reporting in Captivate
Reporting options at the Question Slide level
Reporting other types of interactions
Setting up the project-level reporting options
Creating a SCORM manifest file
Testing your SCORM enabled projects with SCORM Cloud
Working with Knowledge Check Slides
Using the object states to customize the feedback messages
Creating the Correct feedback message
Using Knowledge Check Slides with Interactive Video
Summary
Meet the community
Rod Ward
Tristan Ward
Contact details
Capturing Onscreen Action
Choosing the right resolution for the project
Describing the problem
Resizing the project after the initial shooting
Downsizing the application during shooting
Using the Panning feature of Captivate
Using the Scalable HTML Content feature
Using a Responsive Project
Conclusion
Recording the first project
Preparing the application to record
Rehearsing the scenario
Resetting the application
Recording the movie
Enabling access to assistive devices (Mac users only)
Preparing Captivate to record the sequence
And action!
Previewing the rushes
The inner workings of the Captivate capture engine
Understanding the FMR mode
Controlling Captivate during the recording session
Exploring the Preferences
Exploring the automatic recording modes
Exploring the recording settings
The Video Demo preferences pane
Recording the other versions of the project
Previewing the second rushes
Recording with System Audio
Automatic and Manual Panning
Responsive capture
Rescaling a project
Modifying the object properties
The Highlight Box object
Working with the Mouse
Understanding mouse movements
Formatting the Mouse object
Working with Click Boxes
The Text Caption object
Modifying the content of a Text Caption
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Akshay Bharadwaj
Contact details
Producing a Video Demo
The Video Demo recording mode
Selecting the Video Demo recording settings
Changing the background of the webcam feed
The Video Demo interface
The post-production phase of a Video Demo
Resizing and repositioning the webcam feed
Changing the webcam background image
Masking the Video and Webcam layers in the Timeline
Deleting unwanted portions of the Video Demo
Adding objects to a Video Demo
Inserting images in a Video Demo project
Extra Credit – inserting the end image of the Video Demo
Inserting objects in a Video Demo project
Removing unwanted popups
Adding Pan & Zoom
Adding Transitions
Publishing a Video Demo
Publishing to YouTube
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Paul Wilson
Contact details
Creating a Responsive Project
Responsive Projects
Creating a Responsive Project
Resizing the Responsive Project
Fluid Boxes
Adding Fluid Boxes
Adding objects to Fluid Boxes
Using the Fill option for Fluid Boxes
Modifying the properties of Fluid Boxes
Marking Fluid Boxes/objects as Optional
Modifying the text properties
Enabling Uniform Text Scaling
Distributing objects equally
Marking Fluid Boxes as Static
Using Fluid Boxes with Master Slides
Exploring the possibilities
Converting a non-responsive project to responsive
Switching to Breakpoint Mode
Summary
Meet the community
Richard Vass
Contact details
Creating Virtual Reality Projects
Creating a Virtual Reality project
Adding 360 images and videos
Adding Text Labels
Adding Hotspots
Adding Hotspots to display text
Extra credit – Adding another display text Hotspot
Adding Hotspots to display images
Adding Hotspots to play audio
Adding quiz questions
Working with slide 3 – the Question Slide
Working with the Quiz Results Slide
Guided and Exploratory options
Previewing and publishing VR courses
Live Device Preview
Adding 360 slides to normal projects
Summary
Meet the community
Debbie Richards
Contact details
Using Captivate with Other Applications
Integrating Captivate with PowerPoint
Converting an existing presentation into a Captivate project
Viewing the presentation in PowerPoint
Creating a Captivate project from a PowerPoint presentation
Round Tripping between Captivate and PowerPoint
Updating a linked PowerPoint presentation
Inserting a PowerPoint slide into a Captivate Project
Localizing a Captivate project using Microsoft Word
Importing a Photoshop file into Captivate
Round Tripping between Captivate and Photoshop
Editing audio with Adobe Audition
Editing SVGs with Adobe Illustrator
Exporting the project to XML
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Phil Cowcill
Contact details
Creating Accessible eLearning
Enabling accessibility in Captivate projects
Adding accessibility text for slides
Adding accessibility text for objects
Assigning keyboard shortcuts
Setting the tab order
Adding Closed Captions for slide narration
Viewing the Closed Captions
Closed captioning a video file
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Pooja
Kevin Siegel
Contact details
Variables and Advanced Actions
Working with Variables
System and User-defined Variables
Exploring System Variables
Generating text dynamically
Using User-defined Variables
Creating a User Variable
Capturing values with Text Entry Boxes
Using User-defined Variables to dynamically generate text
Working with Advanced Actions
Using Standard Actions
Using a Button to mute and unmute audio
Step 1 – Creating the Mute button
Step 2 – Finding out which action to create
Step 3 – Creating the Action
Step 4 – Assigning the Action to an event
Using Conditional Actions
Extra Credit – Creating a Closed Captions toggle button
Using Shared Actions
Programming a conditional Button
Step 1 – Creating the necessary variables
Step 2 – Creating the Shared Action
Step 3 – Using and reusing the Shared Action
Reusing the Shared Action
Reusing Shared Actions across projects
Hiding and showing objects using Advanced Actions
Geolocation in Adobe Captivate
Inserting an extra slide
Detecting the location of the learner
Creating a custom Geolocation variable
Altering content based on the learner's location
Enabling Geolocation capabilities
Working with JavaScript in Adobe Captivate
Generating random feedback messages with JavaScript
Creating Captivate Variables
Creating pools of messages
Creating the pickMessages() function
Understanding the Common JavaScript Interface for Adobe Captivate
Displaying random feedback messages
Extra Credit – Randomizing feedback messages in the Quiz
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Mark DuBois
Contact details
Finishing Touches and Publishing
Finishing touches
Checking the spelling
Exploring Start and End preferences
Exploring other project preferences
Exporting project preferences
Customizing the project's Skin
Customizing the Playback Controls bar
Working with Borders
Adding a Table of Contents
Applying the same Skin to other projects
Publishing a Captivate project
Publishing to Flash
Using the Scalable HTML content option
Publishing to HTML5
Using the HTML5 Tracker panel
Publishing the project in HTML5
Publishing a Responsive Project
Using the Mobile Palette
Publishing a Responsive Project
Publishing a Virtual Reality project
Publishing an eLearning-enabled project
Publishing the SCORM package in HTML5
Extra credit – Publishing the Flash version of the SCORM package
Working with the MultiSCO packager
Creating a SCORM package from the Video Demo project
Creating a single course package from multiple SCOs
Publishing to PDF
Publishing as a standalone application
Publishing as a .mp4 video file
Publishing to YouTube
Publishing to Microsoft Word
Extra credit – publishing to Word
Publishing for devices
Summary
Meet the community
Rick Zanotti
Contact details
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Preface
Adobe Captivate is the industry-leading solution for authoring highly interactive eLearning content that can be delivered on any device. With Adobe Captivate, you can capture onscreen action, enhance eLearning projects, insert SCORM- and xAPI-compliant quizzes, optimize content for multiscreen delivery, make videos interactive, create stunning virtual reality training, and publish your work in various formats (including Adobe Flash and HTML5) for easy deployment on virtually any LMS, desktop, or mobile device.
Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019 is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to creating SCORM-compliant eLearning content including demonstrations, simulations, virtual reality projects, and quizzes that can be experienced on any device. The sample projects in this book have been designed to demonstrate virtually every feature of Adobe Captivate, giving you the expertise you need to create and deploy your own professional quality eLearning courses.
Who this book is for
If you are a teacher, instructional designer, eLearning developer, or human resources manager who wants to implement eLearning, then this book is for you. A basic knowledge of your OS is all it takes to create the next generation of responsive eLearning content.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Getting Started with Adobe Captivate 2019, introduces Captivate as an eLearning solution. It takes you through the Captivate interface and presents the sample applications that you will build during the course of the book. At the end of this chapter, you will have a precise idea of what Captivate 2019 is capable of and of the work that will be covered in the rest of the book.
Chapter 2, Working with Standard Objects, teaches you how to work with the standard objects of Adobe Captivate. These objects include the Text Caption, the Smart Shape, and the Image objects, among others. Important Captivate workflows are also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 3, Working with Multimedia, covers how to include and edit various types of multimedia elements in your eLearning projects. The tools covered in this chapter include the insertion of animations, as well as video and audio files into the project.
Chapter 4, Working with the Timeline and Other Useful Tools, covers various tools and features (such as the Alignment tools and Smart Guides) used to lay the objects out in the physical space of the slide. The use of the Timeline panel to synchronize the components of the project is also discussed in detail.
Chapter 5, Developing Interactivity, covers the interactive objects and workflows of Adobe Captivate 2019. These objects include the Drag and Drop interaction, Click Box, Text Entry Box, and Button. The all-new Interactive Video workflow is also covered in this chapter. Adding interactivity to allow you to design branching scenarios is discussed in this chapter as well.
Chapter 6, Crafting the Graphical Experience with Styles and Themes, focuses on the aesthetic aspects of your projects. You will learn how to ensure visual consistency both within a project and across projects using Styles, Master Slides, Themes, and Templates.
Chapter 7, Working with Quizzes, discusses the powerful Quizzing engine of Captivate. You will import questions into your Captivate project using various techniques, review each question type in Captivate, and integrate them into question pools to generate random quizzes. In the second part of this chapter, you will learn how to report these interactions to a SCORM- or xAPI-compliant LMS to easily track your student's performance.
Chapter 8, Capturing On-Screen Action, covers the screen capture engine of Captivate. You will learn how to capture interactive demonstrations and simulations using a wide variety of tools and techniques.
Chapter 9, Producing a Video Demo, focuses on producing a video tutorial from start to finish. This includes using the all-new Background Removal feature and all the specifics of that type of project as compared to the regular Captivate projects used in previous chapters.
Chapter 10, Creating a Responsive Project, discusses the use of Fluid Boxes to create a Responsive Project. You will learn how to optimize your eLearning content for multiple screens and devices, including the desktop computer, the tablet, and the smartphone.
Chapter 11, Creating Virtual Reality Projects, covers the brand new virtual reality features of Adobe Captivate 2019. In this chapter, you will create a virtual reality project, import 360 images into Captivate, add text labels and interactive hotspots on the 360 images, and insert Question Overlay Slides in the 360 experience.
Chapter 12, Using Captivate with Other Applications, explores the relationship between Captivate and other Adobe and third-party applications. First, you will convert a PowerPoint presentation into a Captivate project. You will then export some Captivate data to Microsoft Word in order to localize a Captivate project. You will also import an Adobe Photoshop file, edit audio with Adobe Audition, and edit SVGs with Adobe Illustrator.
Chapter 13, Creating Accessible eLearning, discusses how and why it is important to make your eLearning courses accessible for people with hearing, visual, and mobility disabilities. You will learn how to add accessibility text, closed captions, keyboard shortcuts, and tabbing order to the slides and objects in your Captivate projects to make them accessible for learners with special needs.
Chapter 14, Variables and Advanced Actions, unleashes the full power of Captivate by exploring Variables, Advanced Actions, and the use of JavaScript in Adobe Captivate. These features will help you design and develop highly interactive eLearning content that offers a unique personalized experience to each learner.
Chapter 15, Finishing Touches and Publishing, covers the project-wide preferences and the publication of your eLearning content in various formats. First, you will make your projects ready for publishing by modifying project-level options and preferences. One of these options is the Skin, which lets you customize the playback controls and the table of contents of your projects. In the second part of this chapter, you will make your projects available to the outside world by publishing them in various formats, including Adobe Flash, HTML5, video, and PDF.
To get the most out of this book
You need the latest version of Adobe Captivate 2019 (available as a free 30-day trial version on the Adobe website) to complete the exercises in this book. Some exercises require the installation of the Adobe eLearning assets and Text-To-Speech voice agents. Both these packages are part of your Adobe Captivate license and are available for free on the Adobe website. You can download your trial copy of Adobe Captivate 2019 from https://www.adobe.com/be_en/products/captivate/download-trial/try.html
This book assumes a clean install of Adobe Captivate with all the preferences at their default. If needed, you can reset Captivate preferences to default using the following steps:
Make sure Adobe Captivate 2019 is not running.
Navigate to the folder where Captivate is installed:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 2019 x64
(Windows)
/Applications/Adobe Captivate 2019
(Mac)
Navigate to the
utils
directory.
Double-click the
CleanPreferencesWin.bat
(Windows) or the
CleanPreferencesMac
(Mac) file.
The next time you start Captivate, your preferences should be back to default.
Other requirements are as follows:
A modern web browser with the latest version of the Flash Player installed
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 or higher (optional)
Microsoft Word 2013 or higher (optional)
Latest version of Adobe Photoshop CC (optional)
Latest version of Adobe Audition CC (optional)
Latest version of Adobe
Illustrator
CC (optional)
Download the example code files
You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packt.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.
You can download the code files by following these steps:
Log in or register at
www.packt.com
.
Select the
SUPPORT
tab.
Click on
Code Downloads & Errata
.
Enter the name of the book in the
Search
box and follow the onscreen instructions.
Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:
WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux
The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-Adobe-Captivate-2019-Fifth-Edition. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.
We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789803051_ColorImages.pdf.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Open the Chapter01/encoderDemo_800.cptx file in the exercise folder."
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Click the Browse button at the bottom of the Recent tab of the Welcome screen."
Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].
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Getting Started with Adobe Captivate 2019
Welcome to MasteringAdobe Captivate 2019, Fifth Edition. Since its introduction in 2004, Captivate has been the leading solution for authoring interactive eLearning content. In the beginning, it was a very simple screen-capture utility called FlashCam. In 2002, a company named eHelp acquired FlashCam and turned it into a full-fledged eLearning authoring tool called RoboDemo. In 2004, another company called Macromedia acquired eHelp and changed the name of the product once again. Macromedia Captivate was born. A few months later, Adobe acquired Macromedia and, consequently, Macromedia Captivate became Adobe Captivate.
As the years passed, Adobe released Captivate 2, 3, and 4, adding tools, objects, and features along the way. One of the most significant events in the Captivate history took place in July 2010, when Adobe released Captivate 5. For that release, Adobe engineers rewrote the code of the application from the ground up. As a result, Captivate 5 was the first version to be available on both macOS and Windows. Version 6 was another milestone for Captivate as it was the first version to offer an HTML5 publishing option. More recently, version 8 has introduced the ability to create Responsive Projects, as well as a brand new user interface. A Responsive Project allows you, the eLearning developer, to automatically adjust the layout of your Captivate projects to fit the various screen sizes of tablet and smartphone devices. This makes mobile learning a whole lot easier by creating content that looks perfect on any device.
At the time of writing, the latest version of Captivate is Adobe Captivate 2019. This version introduces many new features and enhancements, including the ability to create Interactive Videos and an exciting new project type for creating Virtual Reality training courses. Other new features introduced in Captivate 2019 include the ability to test your content on an actual mobile device (a feature called Live Preview on Devices) the ability to record your webcam and to change the background of your video (something called the Chroma Key effect) as well as other smaller enhancements.
With all this power only one click away, it is easy to overload your projects with lots of complex audiovisual effects and sophisticated interactions that can ultimately drive the learner away from the primary objective of every Captivate course: learning.
While working with Captivate, never forget that Captivate is an eLearning authoring tool. At the most basic level, it simply means that you, the developer, and your audience are united by a very special kind of relationship: a student-teacher relationship. Therefore, from now on–and for the rest of the book–you will not be called the developer or the programmer, but the teacher. The ones who will view your finished applications will not be the users or the visitors, but will be called the learners or the students. You will see that this changes everything.
In this chapter, you will learn about the following topics:
Discovering the available options to install Captivate
Seeing the general steps of the Captivate production process
Exploring and customizing the Captivate 2019 interface
Working with panels and workspaces
Viewing the completed sample applications you will work with during the course of this book
Getting Captivate
Before you can start working with Captivate, you have to download and install the software. In this section, you will discover the three ways that Adobe makes Captivate available to you.
The Captivate perpetual license
This is the old-fashioned way of obtaining the software. You buy Captivate and get a serial number to activate your installation. The serial number is valid for a specific version of Captivate, and for a specific platform (macOS or Windows) only. Once activated, that version of Captivate is permanently available on your computer. With this option, you get all the functionalities of Captivate, and you can start working on your eLearning projects right away! You also get all the patches and bug fixes for the version you bought. All the step-by-step exercises of this book work flawlessly with the Captivate 2019 perpetual license.
You can download and use this version of Captivate free of charge for 30 days. This should be more than enough time for you to go through the exercises of this book. However, once the trial period is over, you will not have access to Captivate unless you convert your trial to a licensed version. This can be a perpetual or a subscription license.
The Captivate subscription
With this licensing model, you subscribe to Captivate on a monthly basis. This means that you pay a certain amount each month to keep using Captivate. The main benefit of the subscription model is that you automatically get all the updates as they are released. The subscription model is the best way to ensure that you always have access to the latest version of Captivate. Note that the subscription is just another licensing model; the software itself is identical to the perpetual licensing model.
Although the Captivate subscription model is very similar to the way Adobe Creative Cloud works, Captivate is–at the time of writing–not a part of the Creative Cloud.
Captivate in the Technical Communication Suite
The Technical Communication Suite (TCS) is yet another bundle of applications from Adobe. It is designed to create technical content, such as help files and user guides. TCS includes applications such as FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Acrobat Professional, and of course, Captivate. The Technical Communication Suite itself is also available under both the perpetual and the subscription licensing model.
A first look at a typical production workflow
Creating content with Captivate is a three-step process, or to be exact, a four-step process. However, only three of the four steps take place in Captivate. That's why we like to refer to the first step as step zero!
Step zero – the pre-production phase
This is the only step of the process that does not involve working with the Captivate application. Depending on the project you are planning, it can last from a few minutes to a few months. This step is probably the most important step of the entire process. This is where you create the scenarios and the storyboards. This is where you develop the pedagogical approach that will drive the entire project. What will you teach the students? In what order will you introduce the topics? How and when will you assess the students' knowledge? These are some of the very important questions you should answer before opening Captivate. Step zero is where the teacher's skills fully express themselves.
Step one – creating the slides
At the most basic level, a typical Captivate project is a collection of slides, just like a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. So, your first task when creating a new Captivate file is probably to create a bunch of slides to work with. There are several ways to do this:
Captivate has the ability to record any action you perform onscreen. You typically use this ability to create software-related interactive training or simulations. You use your mouse to perform actions on your computer, and behind the scenes, Captivate watches and records any action you do using a sophisticated screen-capture engine based on screenshots. Each of these screenshots becomes a slide in your new Captivate project. Using the screen-capture feature of Captivate is covered in
Chapter 8
,
Capturing Onscreen Action
.
Very often, though, the Captivate project you are working on has nothing to do with software-related skills. In this case, you don't need to use screen capture to take screenshots. Instead, you create the slides entirely within Captivate. This is the preferred approach for new training materials that don't require screen-capture capabilities.
A third solution is to import the slides from Microsoft PowerPoint. You typically use this solution to convert existing training material made with PowerPoint into interactive online training modules, but it is not considered best practice for new training material. Importing PowerPoint slides into Captivate is covered in
Chapter 12
,
Using Captivate with Other Applications
.
Step two – the editing phase
This step is the most time-consuming phase of the entire process. This is where your project slowly takes shape to become an actual interactive course module.
In this step, you arrange the final sequence of actions, record narrations, add objects to the slides (such as Text Captions and Buttons), arrange those objects in the Timeline, add title and ending slides, develop the advanced interactions, create the Question Slides for the quiz, configure the quiz reporting options, and so on. At the end of this step, the project should be ready for publication. Sometimes, it can take several rounds of edits until you have a project that is ready to publish.
Note that, for most projects, step one and step two overlap. Unless you use screen capture, there is no clear distinction between step one and step two. It is ok to go back and forth between those two steps when developing your next Captivate project.
Step three – the publishing phase
Step three is where you make your project available to your learners. Captivate allows you to publish your course modules in a wide variety of formats. The two formats that you will use most of the time are the Flash and the HTML5 formats:
Flash is the historical publishing format of Captivate. Publishing the project in Flash makes the deployment of your eLearning courses very easy; only the Flash Player plugin is needed. The very same Flash Player that is used to read Flash-enabled websites is all you need to play back your published Captivate projects. The major caveat of this publishing format is that it is not supported on mobile devices.
This publishing method is fading out today, as Adobe announced the end of the free Flash Player plugin for the year 2020.
Captivate can also publish your projects in HTML5, which makes the project available on any device, including desktops and laptops, as well as tablets and smartphones. In today's technological landscape, HTML5 has become the preferred format for publishing your online courses for computers and mobile devices.
Note that some features of Captivate are only available either in Flash or in HTML5. For example, Responsive Projects and Virtual Reality Projects can only be published in HTML5, while a Text Animation object can only be published in Flash. It is very important to know the publishing format you will use before starting the development of a new project.
Captivate can also publish the project as a standalone application (.exe on Windows and .app on Macintosh) or as video files that can be easily uploaded to YouTube and viewed on a tablet or smartphone.
Step three will be covered in great detail in Chapter 15, Finishing Touches and Publishing.
Exploring the Captivate interface
In this book, we will cover the three steps of the process requiring the use of Captivate. You will discover that Captivate has specific tools to handle each of these three steps.
You will now discover the Adobe Captivate interface using the following steps:
Open Captivate.
If needed, click the
Recent
tab at the top of the Welcome screen.
Click the
Browse
button at the bottom of the
Recent
tab of the Welcome screen.
Open the
Chapter01/encoderDemo_800.cptx
file in the exercise folder.
Your screen should look similar to this screenshot:
The default Captivate screen looks very simple and clean. The main area is covered by the Stage (1). The Stage is where you lay out the objects that make up each slide of the project. The objects on the Stage will appear in your course. The objects in the Scrap Area (the grey area around the slide) will not be visible when taking the course. This makes the Scrap Area very useful! It is the perfect place to put instructions, reminders, color schemes, etc. that are used by the teacher when creating the course, but that should not be displayed to the student.
At the very top of the screen is the Menu bar (2). The Menu bar gives you access to a wide range of Captivate features.
Below the Menu bar is the main Toolbar of Captivate 2019 (3). The Toolbar is primarily used to insert new slides and new objects into the project, but it also contains important tools for operations, such as previewing, publishing, and saving.
On the left side of the screen is the Filmstrip (4). It shows the sequence of slides in your Captivate project. The primary use of the Filmstrip is to let you select the slide(s) you want to work with, but it can also be used to perform basic operations on the slides, such as reordering or deleting slides.
At the far right side of the Toolbar, click the
Properties
icon (
5
).
This action reveals the Properties inspector. The Properties inspector is one of the most important components of Captivate. It is used to control and adjust the properties of the selected object.
Click the
Properties
button on the Toolbar again to hide the
Properties
inspector.
Click the
Library
icon located just next to the
Properties
icon to open the
Library
panel.
The Library is another very important component of Captivate. It maintains a list of all the assets (such as images, audio clips, animations, and so on) included in the current project.
Click the
Library
button on the Toolbar to close the
Library
.
Click the
Timeline
button that stretches across the bottom of the screen. This action reveals the
Timeline
panel.
The Timeline panel is used to arrange the sequence of objects on the current slide. In short, you use the Timeline panel to decide when an object appears on the stage and how long it stays visible. This panel is also used to set up the stacking order of the objects. You will learn more about the Timeline in Chapter 4, Working with the Timeline and Other Useful Tools.
It is possible to open many panels at the same time.
Click the
Properties
button on the Toolbar to reopen the
Properties
inspector.
Both the Timelineand the Properties inspector should now be open.
Because the Properties inspector, Library, and Timeline are the most important panels of Captivate, they are only one mouse-click away on the default user interface. However, Captivate contains many other panels that give you access to a myriad of interesting tools. To get the most out of Captivate, you should know how to turn panels on and off.
Open the
Window
menu.
The Window menu displays a list of all the panels that are available in Adobe Captivate. Note the checkmark in front of the Filmstrip, Timeline, and Library entries of the Window menu. This reminds you that these panels and icons are currently visible on the interface.
Click the
Library
menu item of the
Window
menu. This action removes the
Library
icon from the Toolbar.
Click the
Window
|
Library
menu item again to reactivate the
Library
icon of the Toolbar and open the
Library
panel.
Click the
Window
|
Slide Notes
menu item to open the
Slide Notes
panel.
The Slide Notes panel appears at the bottom of the screen next to the Timeline panel, as shown in the following screenshot:
Let's now open one more panel.
Use the
Window
|
HTML5 Tracker
menu item to open the
HTML5 Tracker
panel.
The HTML5 Tracker panel lists the features and objects used in the current project that are not supported in HTML5. There should be one unsupported feature listed in the HTML5 Tracker panel (because the transitions between slides are not supported in HTML5).
Note that this panel is floating on top of the interface. This is very different from the Slide Notes panel you opened earlier that was attached (docked) at the bottom of the interface. Each panel of Captivate is either docked or floating. Also note that in Captivate 2019, it is not possible, by default, to dock a floating panel or undock a docked panel.
The interface is now very different from what it was when you first opened Captivate.
Quit Captivate without saving any changes made to the open file.
Reopen Captivate.
When Captivate reopens, you should see the Recent tab of the Welcome screen by default. There is a thumbnail showing the last open project(s).
Double-click the
encoderDemo_800
thumbnail to reopen the project.
When the project reopens, note that the default Captivate interface is displayed, even though many more panels were open when you exited Captivate.
Thanks to these little experiments, you were exposed to some important basic concepts about the Captivate interface. Before moving on, let's summarize what you have learned so far:
The Captivate interface is composed of panels laid out around the main editing area called the Stage.
The grey area around the Stage is called the Scrap Area. Objects on the Scrap Area do not show in the online course.
By default, most of the panels are hidden, making the interface simple and clean.
The
Properties
inspector, the
Library
panel, and the
Timeline
are the most important and most commonly used components of Captivate. This is why they are easily accessible from the default interface.
Some panels of Captivate are not immediately available on the default interface. You must use the
Window
menu to show and hide these panels.
The panels of Captivate are either docked on the interface or floating on top of it.
When you close and restart Captivate, the interface returns to its default layout.
