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Adobe Captivate: Repurpose Preferences

by Kevin Siegel

Have you ever visited the Preferences dialog box in Adobe Captivate (Windows users, Edit > Preferences; Mac users, Adobe Captivate > Preferences), made several changes and later, maybe months later, needed those settings on another computer running Captivate? I'm betting your answer is yes, and you've had a tough time ensuring the Preferences in one project match those in another.

When I teach Adobe Captivate, I try to stress the value of creating a project template (and creating templates from scratch is a big part of my Captivate 6 Advanced class). If you set the Preferences within a Captivate template and then use the template when you create new projects, the Preferences will match from one project to the next. However, you can create perfectly nice Captivate projects without a template. In that case, understanding how get Preferences from one project into another is useful.

For instance, in the images below, I accessed the Preferences dialog box and set the Preferences on some of the screens.

In the Project Information area, I added information about the Author (Biff, as usual, gets all the credit around here), Company name, Project Name and the Description.

In the SWF Size and Quality area, I set the quality to Medium.

From the Project Start and End area, I added the company logo as the Preloader, set the Preloader % to 50, enabled Fade In on the First Slide, and set the Project End Options.

I also visited the Publish Settings and changed the Frames Per Second to 20 (30 is the default) and disabled both Enable Accessibility and Play tap audio for recorded typing.

Setting each of the Preferences above wasn't difficult. In fact, it took perhaps 2-3 minutes to set everything. However, since having to memorize all of the settings isn't something I look forward to on a project-by-project basis, the ability to export this project's Preferences is going to be quite nice.

Export Project Preferences

1. Open a Captivate project and set your Preferences.
2. Choose File > Export > Preferences to open the Save As dialog box.
3. Pick a save destination for the Preferences file and, in the File Name field, give the file a name. (Note: The Preferences are exported as a .cpr file.)
4. Click Save.

Import Project Preferences

1. Open another Captivate project (or create a new project).
2. Choose File > Import > Preferences.
3. Locate and open the .cpr file you exported.

After the import process, browse the Preferences in the project. You'll notice that most (but not all) of the Preferences exported from the first project have been imported into the current project.

Note: If you'd like to see the process of working with a project's Preferences, check out my video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month includingIntroduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate & RoboHelp: Incorporate eLearning within a Help System

by Kevin Siegel

Like many of today's technical communicators, I wear many hats and use multiple tools to communicate with my learners. For instance, I use Adobe Captivate to create most of my eLearning content, and Adobe RoboHelp to create my Help Systems.

It wasn't all that long ago that eLearning content and Help Systems served different roles and different audiences. There was rarely talk of combining the two technologies. These days, more and more technical communicators are being tasked with creating effective Help Systems for an audience that is more distracted and stressed out than ever before. It's a daunting task, but one that is made easier if you follow a few best practices.

If you have created an eLearning lesson using eLearning tools such as Adobe Captivate, TechSmith's Camtasia Studio or Articulate's Storyline, you can insert the multimedia directly into RoboHelp Help Topics. When the topic is displayed in a web browser, mobile device (iPad, iPhone, etc) or HTML Help, the lesson will play (and remain interactive).

The Perfect Help Topic

When creating help content (Help Topics), I suggest that the topic contain just enough information to make it easy for a learner to quickly find the information they are looking for. Specifically, today's perfect Help Topic will:

• Contain no more than one or two paragraphs to explain the most important concepts of a feature.
• Contain an image or eLearning simulation/demonstration to support the text.
• Treat users as learners... not users. (As far as I'm concerned, a Help System is really just an opportunity for the author to teach something.)

eLearning Best Practices

The perfect playtime for a typical eLearning lesson is 5 minutes (give or take a few minutes). However, if the lesson is expected to be included within a RoboHelp topic, the person who will view the lesson is looking for specific information, not necessarily a complete lesson. I'd encourage you to keep eLearning within a Help Topic much shorter than standard eLearning lessons; 30-90 seconds is the perfect amount of time to get a quick point across.

When creating content within Adobe Captivate, avoid using Captivate features that are not supported by mobile devices (such as Flash animations or rollovers). Prior to publishing a lesson, choose Project > HTML5 Tracker to open the HTML5 Tracker (shown below). If the HTML5 Tracker displays any Unsupported objects, consider visiting the affected slides and removing those objects.

Choose Project > Skin Editor and edit the lesson's playbar so that it doesn't contain features that might cause problems within a Help Topic. For instance, in the image below, I've specifically deselected the Close option (lower left). I've found that if I embed a Captivate demo within a topic, the Close button on the Playbar doesn't work and will simply lead to learner confusion.

When publishing, take the learner's device into consideration. If the learner is going to use a standard Windows PC or Macintosh computer, SWF output is fine. However, if your learner is going to be using an Apple mobile device such as an iPad or iPhone, you'll need to select HTML5 from the Output Format Options area. You'll end up publishing two distinct output formats, but both can be imported into RoboHelp (at the same time).

eLearning Integration within RoboHelp

Once you've published the Captivate lesson, getting it into a RoboHelp topic is simple. Open or create a topic and choose Import > Adobe Captivate Demo. From within the Adobe Captivate Demo dialog box, use the Browse button to the right of Multimedia Name and open the SWF; use the Browse button to the right of HTML5 Output and open the HTML5 start page.

When you generate WebHelp or HTML Help, RoboHelp will automatically use the SWF within the generated Help System. If you generate Multiscreen HTML5, RoboHelp will automatically use the HTML5 output for all of the screen layouts (although you can edit the Properties of the Desktop layout and force it to use the SWF output instead).

Note: If you'd like to see the process of embedding interactive eLearning within a Help System, check out my video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate. And if you're looking to learn Adobe RoboHelp, we offer a two-day introduction to RoboHelp class.

Adobe Captivate: Hide Main Master Slide Objects

by Kevin Siegel

Last week I wrote about Captivate's Main Master Slide and Content Master Slides. I demonstrated how adding an object to a Main Master Slide instantly adds that object to all of the Content Master Slides and the Filmstrip slides. I went on to say that once you added an object to a Main Master Slide, you were stuck with that object on all other slides... and short of deleting the object from the Main Master Slide, there was nothing you could do about it.

Of course, my "all or nothing" comment prompted several emails from "Skills & Drills" readers that took me to task. Many of you pointed out, quite correctly, that it is actually very simple to remove an remove Main Master Slide object from Content Master Slides.

Nope... you are all wrong and it's not possible!

Okay, okay... when it comes to using the Main Master Slide, Captivate isn't as draconian as I wrote. (Never say never, right?) In fact, electing to hide objects on the Main Master Slide is very easy. Using the Master Slides panel (Window > Master Slides), select a Content Master Slide and, on the Properties panel, General group, deselect Show Main Master Slide Objects.

Any objects that you've added to the Main Master Slide will instantly be removed from the selected Content Master Slide.

But wait... what if you've merged an object into the background of the Main Master Slide? (You can right-click any object and choose Merge with the Background.) Once you merge an object, the object will instantly become part of the slide's background. In that case, there will not be an object on the Main Master Slide to hide. Wouldn't the Content Master and Filmstrip slides now have no choice but to fully obey the Main Master Slide? Actually, no. In the case of a merged background object, simply select a Content Master Slide and, once again on the Properties panel, General group, deselect Use Master Slide Background (shown in the image above). The merged background object will instantly be hidden from view.

Note: If you'd like to see the process of hiding master slide objects (and merging slide objects with the slide background), check out this video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate: A Master Slide for All Occasions

by Kevin Siegel

Master Slides were first introduced in Adobe Captivate 5 and I've written a couple of articles about them including: Creating Master Slides, Placeholder Objects on Master Slides and how to Keep Master Slide Backgrounds at Bay.

Adobe Captivate 6 took the concept of Master Slides to a whole new level by creating two different types of slide master: a Main Master Slide and Content Master Slides.

In each project, there is always a single Main Master Slide and multiple Content Master Slides. During this article, I'll teach you the differences between Main and Content masters, and how best to utilize them.

In the image below, I've created a new project, applied the Blank theme (Themes > Apply a New Theme) and then inserted several blank slides (Insert > Blank Slide).

Each new project includes a collection of Master Slides (even if you use the Blank theme). In the image below, the Main Master Slide is the larger slide at the left; the smaller slides are the Content Master Slides.

If you make a change to the Main Master Slide, the change will affect every slide in the project (Filmstrip, Content Master Slides... everything). Changing the Main Master Slide is like using a very broad brush. If there's something on the Main Master Slide that you don't want to use on the other slides, you're pretty much stuck.

For instance, I want every slide in my project to use the same background image. In the screen capture below, I've inserted the image on the Main Master Slide.

Having modified the Main Master Slide, every Content Master Slide and every slide on the Filmstrip now sports the same image. Since there are Content Master Slides for regular Filmstrip slides and Question Slides, should I insert a quiz down the road, the question slides will automatically include my corporate branding. And that's awesome.

Now I wanted to add a copyright notice to some of the slides on the Filmstrip... to some Filmstrip slides, but not all. If I added the text to the Main Master Slide, the text would appear on every slide of the Filmstrip and every Content Master Slide. Since that wasn't my intent, I created a new Content Master Slide by right-clicking within the group of Content Masters and choosing Slides > Content Master Slide.

I used the Properties panel to name my new Content Master Slide.

Next I inserted and positioned a text caption on the Content Master Slide.

The final step was to select the slide(s) on the Filmstrip that I wanted to follow the new Content Master and, on the Properties panel, select the Content Master Slide from the Master Slide drop-down menu.

The Filmstrip slide below is using two Master Slides: the graphic is coming from the Main Master Slide; the copyright notice is coming from the Copyright notice Content Master Slide.

Note: If you'd like to see the process of working with both Main and Content Master slides, check out this video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate: Save Your Skin

by Kevin Siegel

Skins that are added to an eLearning lesson serve a similar role to clothes. Depending on the clothes you wear, you can convey a certain impression about yourself. Bored with yourself? Perhaps a visit to your clothes closet will help change your attitude?

Captivate includes a Skin Editor--in essence, your project's closet. Using the Skin Editor, you can, among other things, control the look of a lesson's Playback Controls, add Borders and add a Table of Contents.

Many new Captivate developers have no problem finding the Skin Editor, where making changes to the way a skin looks is simple. However, once those changes are made, the original skin is modified. Should you select another skin down the road, the modifications are lost. Read on and learn how to keep those modifications permanently.

Change Skins

1. Choose Project > Skin Editor.
   
   There are three buttons at the top left of the Skin Editor: Playback Control, Borders and Table of Contents.
   
2. Select a Skin from the Skin drop-down menu.
   
   

Observe the preview at the right of the Skin Editor window. Among other things, notice the buttons that appear on the player, color of the Playbar and the Playbar's position on the slide.

Ensure the Playback Control button is selected and observe the left side of Skin Editor. This is where you can select such options as hiding the Playbar in a Quiz, the Playbar's slide position and the buttons that will display on the Playbar (Closed Captioning, Mute, etc).

Click the Position drop-down menu and notice that you can force the playbar to appear on the Top, Left, Bottom or Right of the slide. From the Layout drop-down menu, you can decide if you want the playbar to extend the width of the slide (Stretched) and to simply center horizontally.

The Difference Between a Skin and the Playbar

Many new Captivate developers confuse a Skin and a Playbar, often treating them as one and the same. A Skin plays a larger role in your project than a Playbar. A Skin is the big picture--it controls which Playbar is used, where the Playbar appears on the slide, the Playbar's Layout (Stretched, Left, Right or Centered), the buttons that appear on the Playbar, the borders that appear on the slide, and many other options. Compared to the options available to a Skin, the Playbar is a bit player.

Edit and Save a Skin

1. Select a Playbar from the Playbar list.

You'll notice that the Skin you selected is now using the Playbar you selected. In addition, the Skin name now includes the word Modified.


2. From the list of playback buttons (lower left of the dialog box), remove the check mark from Mute and Closed Captioning.




3. Click the Save tool to the right of the Skin's name and give your new skin any name you like.




From this point forward, your new skin will be available in the Skin drop-down menu for use in any new or existing Captivate project.

See also: Branding the Skin's Playbar Using Your Corporate Colors

Note: If you'd like to see the process of editing and then saving a Skin via the Skin Editor, check out this video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Two Captivate Classes to be Held in Portland for ASTD Cascadia

I'm excited to announce that I'll be teaching two full-day classes on Adobe Captivate 6 later this year for ASTD Cascadia in Portland, OR.

I'll be introducing Captivate 6 on the first day and following that up on day 2 with Captivate 6 advanced concepts.

You can learn more about the introduction session here and the advanced session here. You can sign up for either session (or both). And you don't have to be an ASTD Cascadia member to sign up and attend (although members do get some nice discounts on the event prices).

Adobe Captivate: Attack of the Clones

by Kevin Siegel   

I've met a few Captivate developers who say they have a love-hate relationship with Captivate's default Object Styles. Personally, I love Object Styles and can't think of anything to hate. As far as I'm concerned, using Object Styles will improve your development speed enormously.

 

Object Styles allow you to quickly update the look and feel of objects throughout your project with just a few clicks. Anyone who has developed eLearning using Adobe Captivate 4 or earlier versions of the software knows how ineffective those pesky Apply to All buttons were. Frankly, the old Apply to All buttons often failed to work for me.

 

I've found that Captivate's Object Styles are a marvel of flexibility. In fact, Styles have saved me dozens, if not hundreds, of development hours when compared to working in Captivate versions that were sans-Styles. Nevertheless, the haters pointed out a few annoying Style shortcomings. First, while you can use the Object Style Manager (via the Edit menu) to edit just about every attribute of any default style, you cannot change the style's Adobe-given name. Second, you cannot delete a default style.

 

While it's a short hate list, it's a valid list. In the image below, notice that the Name field found in the Object Style Manager is grayed out, meaning the name cannot be edited. 

Personally, I've never had a problem with the default names. (I've simply ignored the names and focused my attention on editing the look and feel of the styles to suit my client's needs.) However, I understand some people like working with Styles that use specific names. I wanted to put the haters at ease and show a slick trick that would end the madness and allow them to rename the default styles. Unfortunately, I had nothing. The sad fact is, you cannot rename Captivate's default styles... nor can you delete them. However, if you hate the default names, all hope is not lost. Read on...

 

Select the style you'd like to rename and then click the Clone button found just below the list of default styles.

 

 

The name field of the freshly cloned style will be available for editing. The beauty of the cloned style is that it will contain every attribute of the original style. Unlike the original style, the clone can be renamed and, should you one day tire of the clone, you can delete it.



And there you have it... another love-hate relationship turned into nothing but pure love. 

Note: If you'd like to see the process of cloning a Style, check out this video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate: Highlight Boxes in Reverse

by Kevin Siegel

Highlight Boxes added to a Captivate project provide an excellent way to direct a learner's attention to a specific area of a published eLearning lesson.

If you have spent any time in Captivate, you have likely added at least one Highlight Box to a project. If you haven't, you'll find that you can add them easily enough via Insert > Standard Object > Highlight Box.

After the Highlight Box appears on the slide, you can drag it to a desired location and resize it appropriately. You would then use the Timeline to control when the Highlight Box appears on the slide. Assuming you haven't made the Fill Transparency too high or too low (20% is typical), when a learner watches your published lesson, the area within the Highlight Box will darken just enough to command the learner's attention. As the middle of the highlighted area gets darker, the rest of the slide remains unchanged.

There is a Highlight Box feature you may not have realized is available: a Reverse Highlight Box. When inserting a Highlight Box, there is an innocent-looking option at the bottom of the Fill & Stroke group of the Properties panel: Fill Outer Area.



If you enable Fill Outer Area and raise the Fill Alpha (in the picture above, the value has been raised to 80), the Highlight Box will actually block everything outside the Highlight Box area (basically the reverse behavior of a typical Highlight Box).



While not appropriate for every situation, Highlight Boxes with filled outer areas are ideal if the interface you are discussing is cluttered. And you certainly don't have to raise the Fill Alpha all the way to 80. Instead, you can experiment with a value that works best for you.

Note: If you'd like to see a reverse highlight box in action, check out this video demonstration on our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate: Edit Mouse Points in a Video Demo

by Kevin Siegel

I was teaching a recent Adobe Captivate Advanced class how to create and edit a Video Demo using Captivate 6. One of my students agreed he could see many reasons to create a quick video of a computer process instead of using Captivate's capture other modes (Demo, Assessment, Training or Custom). However, since creating a video of a process is much like pointing a video camera at the computer screen and pressing the record button, he was concerned about the lack of editing that could be done during the production process.

In reality, once you've recorded a Video Demo, there is plenty you can do to it post-production. For instance, you can trim the video, split it, add images, text captions, characters and Pan & Zoom effects.

While all of those editing capabilities were great (and I taught the class how to perform many them), the student was still concerned about the apparent lack of mouse editing controls.

If you've recorded screen actions using Captivate's Demo mode, then you know that the mouse pointer is included during the capture by default. You also know that after recording, the mouse pointer can be changed from slide to slide, the pointer path edited, sound and visual effects added for each click, and the mouse pointer removed entirely.

With a video recording, the student believed that you are stuck with the recorded mouse motion and appearance. I can't blame him for thinking that way. Check out the image of the video on the Timeline below. There isn't anything on the blue bar that would indicate an ability to edit the mouse. In a Demo recording, there would be a mouse object on the Timeline than you can see and manipulate, along with a mouse pointer on the slide. (The image below is cropped pretty tightly so it would fit in the space. But trust me, the Video Object on the Timeline is just a nondescript blue bar that goes on and on and on.)

I learned long ago that just because I can't immediately find what I'm looking for in a program, I shouldn't assume a thing cannot be done. In fact, while not obvious, it is possible to edit the mouse within a video. First, choose Edit > Mouse Points to display an icon for every mouse click on the Timeline (one of those icons is shown in the image below).

After selecting the mouse icon on the Timeline, you will be able to change (and even delete) the mouse pointer on the video (much like you can with a Demo recording).

I've found this capability invaluable, especially after trimming parts of my videos. After trimming, I've noticed that the mouse pointer speed gets really, really slow. If I delete a mouse point prior to the part of the video that I trimmed, the speed issue goes away.

Note: If you would like to see a video demonstration of editing the mouse pointer within a Video Demo, check out our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate: Smart Shapes as Interactive Buttons

by Kevin Siegel

Text Captions and Buttons are the most common kinds of standard objects added to Captivate slides. The former typically provides learners with visual information about what's happening on the slide; the latter allows for learner interaction should the learner click the button.

Over the years, Captivate developers have had little control over the look of both Text Captions and Buttons. You are limited to a few dozen Text Caption types, and a handful of Callout positions (the Callout is the pointer arrow located at different positions around the caption). If you want to customize the look of a Text Caption, you have to visit a graphics program and edit the caption images. As for buttons, you can insert either text or image buttons onto a slide. However, there is little customization you can do to the text buttons, and less when it comes to the image buttons. In fact, if you're looking for image buttons beyond what comes with Captivate, you either have to find alternatives on the web, or create your own image buttons (again in an external image editing tool).

Smart Shapes were introduced in Adobe Captivate 6. Given the fact that you can type text within most of the Smart Shapes, they are an effective replacement for Text Captions. And if you spend any time at all on the Smart Shapes panel, you'll see that there are a collection of Buttons as well (shown below).

Once you've added a Smart Shape button, you can easily customize the appearance of the button (Fill, Stroke, Style). And since the shapes are controlled by Object Styles, project-wide updates are a snap.

While I love the Smart Shape buttons, I was a bit dismayed to learn that I couldn't add text to them. However, you'll be happy to learn that there is a way to work with Smart Shapes, add text, and have the shape act like a button (you know, the cake... and eating it too).

Instead of drawing a Smart Shape button, draw one of the other shapes.

Double-click within the new shape and type your text.

There's just one problem with your awesome Smart Shape... if you visit the Properties panel, you'll notice that there isn't an Action group. Certainly you'll find the usual suspects on the Properties panel (Fill & Stroke, Character, Format, etc), but without an Action, there isn't a way to make your Smart Shape behave like a button. And all is lost...

... only not...

Take another look at the Properties panel. You'll find a wonderfully simple solution to the Action dilemma: Use as Button.

Once you've selected Use as Button, the Action group magically appears on the Properties panel. At this point, it's a simple matter of selecting the desired Action.

Spend some time playing with the Smart Shapes. I'm betting that you'll find more and more ways to use them... and fewer and fewer reasons to use those tired old Text Captions and Buttons.

Note: If you would like to see a video demonstration of making standard Smart Shapes behave as buttons, check out our YouTube channel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate 6 classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.