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.
8 Comments
Thanks so much for the demo. This is the kind of stuff users really want to know about– but aren’t really being advertised by Adobe (yet). I’m so happy about the motion paths and would love to see more about that!
Your welcome – I’m sure that Adobe will advertise these features as well, but there are just so many good things about the new Adobe Captivate 5 that they can’t cover it all in the beginning.
/Michael
Hi Michael… I love your Demo! Very informative!!
I had a question though; how did you get the demo to be shown in a small window within the slide? (i.e. the text boxes on left of slide and playing demo on right side of slide) That’s exactly what I want to do but dont know how to do it. Could you share your genius with me!? 🙂
Thanks – Shannon M.
Hi Shannon,
Thank you ;o)
Well it’s actually not difficult at all. Basically what I have done is to record a demonstration of something in Captivate and then published that as an SWF. Afterwards I have inserted the SWF as an animation into a “Master” Captivate project. That’s really all there is to it.
/Michael
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Michael- I am looking to do the same thing as Shannon. So, you publish the demo as a SWF file, then embed it into the master Captivate file? How can I add the text shown on the left? I can’t find any specific instuctions on how to do this in Help or in the tutorials. Is there a template?
@Keli,
Simply record your demonstration in Captivate and insert it into a new Captivate project (that is larger) as an animation. Then add regular captions buttons etc. in the main Captivate project.
/Michael