Adobe Captivate 5: First production project

I have been using Adobe Captivate 5 in a real-life production project now for the last couple of weeks. I’m about half-way finished and thought I would post my findings and impression so far.

Using Adobe Captivate 5 for real:

I have been in the Beta test group for Adobe Captivate 5 and been through many different releases so I am pretty well aquainted with the new user interface and functions. However testing a software product in a beta test process is different from actually using it in a real-life project.

The first week I didn’t feel as productive as when I am using Adobe Captivate 5 because I had to get used to working in the new environment. I had to look for objects, buttons etc. since they are totally different from Adobe Captivate 4. However, after a week or so I feel pretty much at home in the Adobe Captivate 5 environment and my production speed have picked up. The properties panel makes it really easy to modify parameters quickly and is a big time saver.

Recording simulations with Adobe Captivate 5:

The project I am working on requires a lot of recordings of a web-service. The recordings went really well and seem to work better than with Adobe Captivate 4.

Recording sound with Adobe Captivate 5:

Prior to Adobe Captivate 5 I never used Adobe Captivate to record sound since I felt it sounded a bit off. You would also get a slight hissing sound that I didnt’ like. Instead I used Audacity to record my sound and imported it into my project afterwards. However the sound recording works alot better in Adobe Captivate 5. The hissing sound seem to be gone and the sound quality is more natural. I had to record a few pieces of speech in this course and I could just record them directly in Adobe Captivate 5 in a quality I was happy with.

Effects in Adobe Captivate 5:

One of the biggest time-savers so far is the Effects feature in Adobe Captivate 5. The ability to make objects move saved me tons of time since I didn’t have to open Flash and create animations all the time. It will also make it much easier to update the project later on. Read more about Effects in Adobe Captivate here and here.

Other observations:

It’s much easier to work with Advanced Actions due to the new editor. This also saves time. Another great thing is the Master Slide concept and the Style Manager that allows you to define custom styles easily for your captions etc.

The ability to have multiple Captivate files open in the same application and switch between the chapters is really great. Earlier you had to have multiple instances of Adobe Captivate 4 open in order to switch back and forth between chapters. This new MDI approach is alot easier.

I will post a new update once the project is completed

Buy Adobe Captivate 5 here on the Adobe website

Adobe Captivate 5 – Master Slides

One of the new additions in Adobe Captivate 5 is the Master Slide concept. This has long been known and used in Microsoft PowerPoint, but now the same feature is available in Adobe Captivate 5. This is a welcome addition and will give you a range of different benefits in your development.

What are Master Slides?

Well a Master Slide is a slide where you can put your background / template and also common objects that are used throughout your project. These objects could be logos and headers, text captions containing variables, static images and widgets.

The benefit for the developer by using Master Slides are that it will be easier to work with since you just place the elements on one slide and thereby guarantee a uniform look throughout your project. In Adobe Captivate 4 you could set an object to “Display for rest of project” (you can still do that in Adobe Captivate 5) but I still like the Master Slide approach better.

How do Master Slides work?

Master Slides in Adobe Captivate 5 is a static slide where you can insert your common objects. There is no timeline on the Master Slide so you cannot define when an object should appear / disappear. You still have the option to set Transition Effects for your objects though.

Using multiple Master Slides in a project

One of the really great features is that you can create multiple Master Slides in your project. This means that you can create one template/Master Slide for your content and one Master Slide for your quiz slides.

Which objects can I use on a Master Slide?

These are the objects that you can use on a Master Slide in Adobe Captivate 5.

I’m not really sure why you can add a FLV/F4V file since you would have that video play on all your slides. Perhaps someone will find it useful but I can’t really see where I could use that ;o)

You can’t add buttons, which I think is a shame. It would have been nice to be able to drop your own Navigation Buttons on the Master Slide and then have them appear on all other slides. For example if you create a large course with a main menu you could have created a Main Menu button that performed a “Jump to Slide XX” action. This can still be achieved but now you just have to create the button as a widget instead and insert it on the Master Slide.

Buy Adobe Captivate 5 here on the Adobe website

Switching to a new webhost

I am getting tired of my current host and the unstable service so I have started the process of switching to a new host.

First of all I’m switching the domain to an independent registrar so I can switch easily between different hosts if and when I please. After this is sorted I will be pointing the domain to the new webhost, which hopefully should give a more reliable and faster service.

I hope that there will be no downtime, but if all of the sudden you are getting a “Page not found” within the next 7-8 days then don’t worry – rest assured that www.cpguru.com will be back faster than ever.

/Michael

Adobe Captivate 5 – Widgets and the Widget API

One of the things that has recieved an overhaul in Adobe Captivate 5 is the Widget API. I’ll try and give you some examples of the new things and the changes here in this post.

Changes / Enhancements in Adobe Captivate 5 with Widgets:

AS3 only

Adobe Captivate 5 will only be able to use AS3 widgets. Actually it will only be able to use AS3 anything so this will give you a problem if you are using third-party content from for example Articulate or Rapitivity since they are pure AS2 at the moment.

New Widget classes

One of the biggest changes in the Widget API are the new events. These event based classes will allow you to access and use information from Captivate much better than with the old structure.

The classes are imported into your widget along with the flash.external.ExternalInterface and then you are ready to start coding

import com.adobe.captivate.widgets.*;
import com.adobe.captivate.events.*;

The com.adobe.captivate.widget classes are:

The com.adobe.captivate.events classes are:

Basically these classes lets you communicate with your widget and Captivate but it will now also be possible to have individual widgets communicate with eachother. This is a very interesting perspective and can open up for a lot of interesting developments.

Widget Parameters

The Widget parameters are now called Widget Properties. One of the good things about this is that it is no longer a small box in which you had to stuff all your parameters inside. Now the Widget Properties is a self contained window that “floats” on top of the stage when you insert the widget. This makes it easier for the developer to work with the widget in Captivate but also makes it easier for the widget developer to create a nice interface.

Additional changes / enhancements / restrictions

- The updating of an existing widget used in a Adobe Captivate 5 project is now easier than what it was in CP4.

- The new Widget API uses proxies to prevent widget developers to access objects on the stage / slide at runtime. This was implemented to prevent Widget developers of gaining too much control of a Captivate project and potentially delete and mess up other peoples projects. In my personal opinion it’s a wrong move but luckily it won’t be such a big problem after all as this can easily be circumvented according to Whyves. I’m sure that he will post more details on this on his blog here.

Adobe Captivate 5 stock widgets

Adobe Captivate 5 will also ship with a number of stock widgets. Some of them are actually pretty good and prove to be useful in your projects. Personally I really like the new Arrow Widget. I would probably still create my arrows in Photoshop using shapes and styles as I am used to do, but this widget does give a pretty good idea about the capabilities of Widgets in Adobe Captivate 5.

Click the image below to see some more information about the Widget API and stock Widgets in Adobe Captivate 5.

Buy Adobe Captivate 5 here on the Adobe website

Adobe Captivate 5 – Effects in use in a project

In my earlier post I talked about the new Effects feature in Adobe Captivate 5. I have updated one of my old projects from Adobe Captivate 4 to Adobe Captivate 5 and have used the new Effects in the project.

This gives you an idea of what you can do in your own projects with these effects. It’s a really cool feature and very quick and easy to implement in your projects.

By the way – The conversion from Adobe Captivate 4 to Adobe Captivate 5 was painless. No problems what-so-ever.

Click the image below to view the project. Not only will you see how the Adobe Captivate 5 Effects work, but you will also improve your cooking skills ;o)

Enjoy..

/Michael

Buy Adobe Captivate 5 here on the Adobe website

Adobe Captivate 5 – The new Effects feature

Adobe Captivate 5 introduces a new feature called Effects. This is a really cool feature and something that will allow you as a developer to create more visually appealing and interactive courses.

Normally when I design E-learning courses in Adobe Captivate I tend to use Adobe Flash quite a lot also. Not because I need something super advanced, but simply because I wanted an object to move in my Adobe Captivate project. One of the things I created most frequently was a simple motionpath where an image moved in a couple of cm’s from left or right while it faded up from invisible to fully visible. It is really just a simple movement, but it looked good in my Captivate projects.

Now with Adobe Captivate 5 I will be able to do this without actually using Adobe Flash. This is all because of the newly introduced Effects feature. Not only will it allow you to move objects in or out, but you can also apply certain filters to objects such as Drop Shadow, Blur, Alpha (visibility), Glow and more.

These effects can be used directly on objects on the stage simply by applying the selected effect to them. The effects can also be triggered as a result of something. This could for example be as a result of a button press or as a result from an Advanced Action. This makes the Effects in Adobe Captivate 5 really versatile and something that is very usable as an E-learning or Instructional Designer.

But wait.. There is even more. These effects are XML files based on the Motion XML that Adobe Flash can produce. This means that you will be able to produce your cool effects in Adobe Flash – export these as Motion XML – and then use these directly in Adobe Captivate afterwards. Now this is really brilliant.

To see a small presentation on a couple of these effects and how you can use them click the icon below. The presentation is built with Adobe Captivate 5 and only uses stuff that is possible to do directly from within Captivate.

In my view this new Effect feature in Adobe Captivate 5 is one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to Adobe Captivate 5 as soon as possible.

Buy Adobe Captivate 5 here on the Adobe website

Preorder Adobe Captivate 5 and eLearning Suite 2.0 now

If you are interested you can already now preorder Adobe Captivate 5 and the eLearning Suite 2.0 through the Adobe Store. If you select “Download” as the delivery method you will be able to get the products on the release date in mid-June.

The full retail version of Adobe Captivate is $799 and the upgrade is $299.

Adobe Captivate 5 Preorder now. English language version expected to ship by mid-June 2010. See language version availability below. Adobe Captivate 5 Adobe® Captivate® 5 software lets you rapidly author and maintain professional eLearning experiences including software demonstrations, application simulations, and branching scenarios without programming. Work more productively thanks to an intuitive user interface. Engage and retain learners with multimedia, interactivity, and quizzes. Enable learner collaboration using the Twitter widget from Adobe. Deliver content to the web, desktops, mobile devices, and leading Learning Management Systems.

The full retail version of the eLearning Suite 2.0 is $1799 and the upgrade can be as low as US$599 if you have the eLS 1.0 or any other CS4 suite.

Adobe eLearning Suite 2 Preorder now. English language version expected to ship by mid-June 2010. See language version availability below. Adobe eLearning Suite 2 Adobe® eLearning Suite 2 software is the complete toolbox for efficiently creating professional eLearning content end to end. Accelerate development with the rapid prototyping and smart aggregation capabilities of Adobe Captivate® 5, roundtripping between authoring and asset creation tools, and value-added functionalities like domain-specific HTML templates. Adobe eLearning Suite 2 combines Adobe Captivate 5, Adobe Flash® Professional CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver® CS5, Adobe Photoshop® CS5 Extended, Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro, Adobe Presenter 7 (available only on the Windows® platform), and Adobe Soundbooth® CS5 with additional tools and services. Important: Existing customers who have Mac OS versions of eligible Adobe products can only upgrade to the Mac OS version of Adobe eLearning Suite 2.

Widget: Interactive Label Widget by Whyves

Whyves has created a fantastic widget for Adobe Captivate 4 and I wanted to share the link for you to see it here.

The widget is an AS3 Interactive Label Widget and it’s hard to explain what it actually does – that is something you need to see for yourself.

The bottom line is that this is an amazing widget. The usability of the widget is great and can be used for a lot of different purposes. Whyves also made it possible for you to add your own styles and layouts to the widget so you can customize it to fit your exact presentation and brand.

To see the widget in action click on this link: http://blog.flash-factor.com/widgets/interactive-label-widget/

You can also download a trial version and see how if works for yourself before you buy it.

I hope that Whyves will continue to create widgets like this for Adobe Captivate 4 and the new upcomming Adobe Captivate 5.

/Michael

Adobe Captivate 5 – the new workspace

Adobe Captivate 5 is a complete rewrite of the Adobe Captivate application. This is also very clear once you open up the app. The style and layout now resembles the other Adobe CS apps. Whether or not this is a good thing can be discussed but in my view the GUI looks a bit depressing. I live in Scandinavia and half of the year we live in a world of grey – now my favourite app resembles a danish winter ;o)

Click for a larger view

Apart from the GUI colors some good things have been implemented. First of all I like the panels approach as this allow you to dock and undock panels and move them where you want to have them. This is particularly great if you are using multiple monitors. 

Another great thing about the panels is that many options are available to you straight away. No need to open up slides or objects properties to access options and parameters. This can be done directly in the panels now. This will speed up development but more importantly it will save you from unnessecary mouse-clicks.

If you look at the main screen when no object is selected you have access to the slide properties straight away. Earlier versions of Adobe Captivate required that you double-click the slide or selected properties to access these parameters.

Now one of the really great things about these panels in Adobe Captivate 5 is that they are “object aware”. Basically this means that when you select an object the properties panel will switch to reflect the properties for the selected object.

If we create a standard Text Caption in Adobe Captivate 5 we will see the following Properties panel:

This will save a tremendeous amount of time when you are working with and adjusting Text Captions.

The properties panel in Adobe Captivate 5 for a button object looks like this:

The button Properties Panel is larger due to the many different options with this object so you can scroll down to reveal more settings and parameters.

An independent study commission by Adobe amongst the Beta testers of Adobe Captivate 5 shows that the new UI will allow you to save substantial time when developing in Captivate.

As the other Adobe CS apps you also have the ability to modify and design your own workspaces. Adobe Captivate 5 comes with 6 prebuilt workspaces – “Applying skin”, “Classic”, “Navigation”, “Quizzing”, “Review” and “Widget” but you can easily create your own. I have always liked this feature as I can create my own favourite views and switch between them easily.

/Michael

Adobe Captivate 5 – the new features

New features in Adobe Captivate 5:

Adobe Captivate 5 is packed with a lot of new and very interesting features and functionality.  Here is an overview of those I find most interesting.

The new GUI

Adobe Captivate 5 has a brand new Graphical User Interface that resembles the other Adobe products like PhotoShop and  Flash.

Master Slides

Just like with MicroSoft PowerPoint it is now possible to use the Master Slide concept in Adobe Captivate 5. This makes the workflow easier because you can set up your entire layout and design on the Master Slide and one need to do it once. It is also possible to use multiple Master Slides in Adobe Captivate 5.

Object Styles

Adobe Captivate 5 allows you to apply a variety of styles to your objects. This makes it quicker and easier to get a consistent look in your entire project. And behold – the “Apply to all” actually works now!

Publish to Acrobat.com

With Adobe Captivate 5 you can publish your content to Acrobat.com and share it with learners and reviewers from around the world. The cool thing about this is that if you don’t have an LMS then you can use this feature and still collect quiz scores and results from your learners.

Animation effects

Adobe Captivate 5 now also makes it possible to animate things. Earlier you had to use Adobe Flash in order to make an image or object move from left to right but now this is possible directly from within Adobe Captivate 5.

Video overhaul

Adobe Captivate 5 has a new rutine for handling video in your projects. It works much better than Adobe Captivate 4. You can now import video and synchronize it with the project, slide, or a set of slides.

Other

Other things worth mentioning with Adobe Captivate 5 is improved quizzing design and control, new and better recording rutine, improved round-tripping between Adobe Captivate 5 and other Adobe Products (and PowerPoint too), new and improved Widget API

In the next couple of days I will post a more detailed review and look at each of these topics starting with the new GUI.