Adobe Captivate 3: Recorded Keystrokes Got You Re-Recording? Not Anymore!

When you record movies in Captivate, you can elect to capture your keystrokes at the same time that you're capturing your screen. The ability to capture your keystrokes isn't a new feature in Captivate. In fact, the feature has been around since Captivate was known as RoboDemo.

If you've read any of my Captivate books, you know that I've always recommended that you turn the Record keystrokes option off. Why? In the bad old days, typing you recorded couldn't be edited in either RoboDemo or Captivate. If you typed a typo, the typo and your attempts to fix it, appeared in the movie. If you wanted to replace the recorded keystrokes, you had to re-record the movie.

In Captivate 3, there is now a way to edit recorded keystrokes (kind of), as you will see next. Please keep in mind, however, that while these techniques will work, and aren't difficult, replacing the keystrokes will impact your bottom line because fixing each instance of the keystroke takes time and involves multiple steps. For this reason, I still recommend using the Record keystrokes feature sparingly.

Turn on Record Keystrokes

1. With Captivate 3 running, choose Edit > Preferences
2. Select Settings from the Recording category
3. Select Record keystrokes and, optionally, Hear keyboard tap sounds
   
   
   
4. Click OK
5. Record a movie and during the recording process, type some text (when finished, Save and Open the new movie)

Replace Recorded Keystrokes

1. Ensure the movie you just recorded is open, or open an existing movie containing recorded keystrokes
2. Go to the slide containing the recorded keystrokes
3. View the Timeline (View > Timeline)
   
   The typing you recorded will be listed on the Timeline with the name Typing
   
   
   
4. Right-click the Typing object on the Timeline and choose Replace with Text Animation



5. In the New Text Animation dialog box that appears, notice that the Typing Text Effect is already selected in the Effect drop down menu
6. Type your corrected text into the Text field





7. Click the Change font button and select the font and font size that match the typing you recorded originally
8. Click OK twice to close both dialog boxes
9. On the slide, position the Text Animation over the background image

Now Things Get Interesting

You've replaced the recorded keystrokes with a Text Animation. Sweet! But you'll notice that there's text in the background behind the Text Animation. If you preview the slide, you'll see that the text in the background makes it nearly impossible to enjoy your next Text Animation. You'll need to remove the background. But how? Read on...

1. Right-click the Slide Background and choose Copy Background
2. Start MS Paint (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint)
3. Once Paint is running, choose Edit > Paste to paste the Captivate background into the Paint window
4. On the Paint toolbar, select the Erase/Color Eraser tool
5. Use the Erase/Color Eraser tool to erase the text on the background that you do not want
   
   
6. When finished, choose Edit > Select All
   
   
7. Choose Edit > Copy
8. Switch back to Captivate and open the slide with the Text Animation
9. Right-click the slide background and choose Paste as Background
   
   Cool! The background has been updated without affecting the timing of other slide objects.

Repeat this process on any slide where there are recorded keystrokes and problematic backgrounds that require editing. You might even find yourself using Paint's Text tool to replace slide background text with updated text.

Like I said earlier, none of the steps above are difficult. But depending on how much recorded text you have to replace with Text Animation, and how many slide backgrounds you need to clean, the process could take a significant amount of time.

Want to learn more about Adobe Captivate 3? Click here.