Ready to ‘Captivate?’

Let’s begin...

2) OVERVIEW

What’s New in Captivate 6?

• High-definition Screencast (record video and publish immediately to YouTube, social media or as MP4s)

• HTML5 Publishing (output compatible with Apple products!)

• Pre-tests and Branch Aware Quizzes (based on results, learner is directed to certain screens)

• Remediation (based on quiz answer, student is looped back to an appropriate place in the tutorial)

What’s New… (cont.)

• Themes (for the visually-design-challenged, like me!)

• Smart shapes (that you can convert to buttons!)

• Smart learning interactions (widgets)• Character Images• Round trip w/ PowerPoint (& stay

synced)

Bells & Whistles (a.k.a. Assets)

• Images• Animations• Audio files• Characters• Quizzes• Widgets• Actions

Good to Know:

• There are many project assets installed with the program

• These are contained in the Gallery

Good to Know:

Free Downloads from Adobe

• eLearning Assets • NeoSpeechTM text-to-speech

voices

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=captivate

Also Good to Know:

• Start Captivate with a right click & select Run as Administrator

• Captivate uses lots of RAM – you will sometimes see the (Not Responding) message – wait it out!

• Best to add audio later, during production (rather than while recording)

• Use the smallest recording size possible – keeps the finished project smaller. Try for 800x600 if you can.

Exploring the Workspace

• Welcome Screen• Many familiar menus• Manipulating the workspace• Themes• Preview a project

Let’s take a closer look…

3) STARTING A PROJECT & IMPORTING/RECORDING

Starting a Project

Importing from PowerPoint

• All aspects of the PowerPoint file will be imported: images, animations, transitions, audio, etc.

• Settings– Set Resolution to 800x600– On Mouse Click – Select “Linked”

Image SlideShow

A great way to practice with some of the basic settings and tools • Inserting standard objects• Setting properties• Slide Transitions• Working With Images

Recording Screen Actions

Process:

1. Write your script (so you know what to do)

2. Rehearse

3. Reset (if necessary)

4. Record

5. Produce

Recording Screen Actions

• Can simply insert screen shots taken using SnagIt or any other software

• Captivate has 3 modes– Automatic – new screen capture each

time you click your mouse– Manual – you must press specific key

to get screen shot– Video – not individual screen capture

4) PRODUCTION BASICS

Let’s Jazz Up Our Projects!

• Highlight Box – to draw attention• Text Captions – to covey information• Smart Shapes & Animation• Rollover Areas, Captions & Slidelets• Buttons – to make something happen

– Text– Image– Transparent

Basic

More Advanced

• Text Entry Field• Click Boxes• Question Slides• Variables• Widgets• Interactions• Actions

5) WORKING WITH AUDIO

General

• WAV files – very big• MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer III) –

compressed• Captivate comes with many sound

files (In the Gallery)• Free sound clips at

http://www.grsites.com/sounds

Audio in Captivate

• Object Audio• Slide Audio• Background Audio

Options for Adding Audio

• Narrate as you record the screen• Import with PowerPoint file• Add audio later

– Record all at once– Record one slide at a time– Record to a specific object (then add rollover?)– Import

• Slide notes– Can be displayed when recording voiceovers (this

can be your script)– Text-to-Speech

Other Considerations

• Silence is golden• Try to reduce echo & background noise• Microphone tips

– 4-6 inches from mouth– Above, point down toward mouth– Just to side of mouth (softens s and p

sounds)• Calibrate your microphone! It does make

a difference!

6) PUBLISHING, TESTING & POSTING

Publishing Options

• Output as– SWF (Small Web Format)– HTML5– PDF

• Set a Pre-Loader (for slow connections)

• Export Captions for easy editing & collaboration

Publishing Options

• Create a Table of Contents• Publish to You Tube, LMS

– Each LMS is different– Cp6 works better with Blackboard– Your technical support will help with

this