Macromedia Captivate - 8.0.1 User Manual

Download

ADOBE® CAPTIVATE® HELP

Legal notices

For legal notices, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/legalnotices/index.html.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 1: What’s new

What's New in Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Chapter 2: Workspace

Undoing and redoing actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Shortcut keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Filmstrip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Disable confirmation messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Customizing the workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Branching panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

iii

Chapter 3: Creating Projects

Create projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Responsive Project Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

View Specific Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Enable backup file creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Customize the project size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 4: Recording Projects

Record video demonstrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Pause while recording projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Record software simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Set recording preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Types of recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter 5: Slides

Slide notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Add slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Change slide order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Delete slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Edit slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Group slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Hide slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Lock slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Master slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Slide properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Slide transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Tips for introductory slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Last updated 10/13/2014

CAPTIVATE

Content s

Chapter 6: Adding and Managing Objects

Web objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Object style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Rotate objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Resize and reposition objects bypixel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Object effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Managing objects with the MainOptions toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Merge objects into a slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Manage Library objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Group objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Edit object information using the Advanced Interaction panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Copy, paste, and duplicate objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Controlling the visibility of objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Change the display order of objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Apply shadows to objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Align objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Add reflection to objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Chapter 7: Noninteractive Objects and Media

Smart shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Tex t capt ions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Insert Mathematical equations (Cp 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Highlight boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Images and rollover images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Rollover captions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Rollover slidelets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Set audio for noninteractive objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Zoom areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Chapter 8: Interactive Objects

Tex t ent ry box es . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Add JavaScript to boxes and buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Add audio to boxes and buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Click boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Project navigation using interactive objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 9: Audio

Edit audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

System audio (Cp 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Export audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

View audio details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Preview audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Recording in sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Insert audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Last updated 10/13/2014

CAPTIVATE

Content s

Chapter 10: Video

Differences between event and synchronizedvideos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Event video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Multi-slide synchronized video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Chapter 11: Widgets

Smart learning interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Learner Notes interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Drag-and-drop interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

New widget APIs in Adobe Captivate6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Create widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Create WDGT files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Accessing Adobe Captivate movie properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Add widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Defining visibility mode for widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Properties of widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Question widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Twitter widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Types of widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Using ActionScript 3.0 in widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Using XML in widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Using variables in widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Widget panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Chapter 12: Variables and Advanced Actions

Shared actions (Cp8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Tutorial on scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Edit/delete a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Create a user-defined variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Adobe Captivate SWF events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Assign advanced actions to an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Advanced actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Chapter 13: Creating a Quiz

Import questions from GIFT format files (Cp 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Allow users to return to quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Insert pretests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Insert question slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Quiz preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Random question slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Set up question slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Submitting all answers simultaneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Chapter 14: Advanced Editing and Project Reviews

Using the AIR Review application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Table of contents (TOC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Spelling and search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Last updated 10/13/2014

CAPTIVATE

Content s

Resize projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Projects and project preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Preview projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Localizing Adobe Captivate projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Link Adobe Captivate projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Import, export, and delete content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Creating accessible projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Combining multiple SWF files with aggregator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Chapter 15: Publishing Projects

Publish projects as executable files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Preview and publish Responsive projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Publish projects as MP4 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Publish projects as HTML5 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Set publishing preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Report to Acrobat.com or internalserver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Publish projects as SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Collaboration with Acrobat.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Change the default location ofpublished files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Chapter 16: Using Adobe Captivate with OtherApplications

Common JS interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Adobe Connect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

RoboHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Learning management system (LMS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Microsoft PowerPoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Adobe Multi-SCORM Packager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Microsoft Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Adobe Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Adobe Captivate App Packager (Cp 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Adobe Bridge (Cp 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Chapter 17: Troubleshooting

Animation timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Application distortion when recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Capture of elevated applicationsin Windows Vista/Windows 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Capturing while recording a web application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Choppy full motion recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Correcting colors in slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

JavaScript that does not appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Publishing projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Quizzing errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Recording Applications on Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Recording audio produces recording(Clip).wavfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Security warning with Flash Player9 or later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Text viewed in a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

The Skin Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Last updated 10/13/2014

CAPTIVATE

Content s

Uninstalling Adobe Captivate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Video errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

vii

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 1: What’s new

What's New in Adobe Captivate 8.0.1

Adobe Captivate reimagines the way interactive eLearning is created for a multi-device world. Rapidly author a wide range of interactive and responsive HTML5-based eLearning content without programming. Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 release includes phone gap integration, exe publishing, responsive project support for drag-and-drop, custom shapes, smart shape conversion of captions, smart positioning, and many feature enhancements.

Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 is an update release which is available to Adobe Captivate 8 customers through Adobe Update Manager.

Read on for a quick introduction to these new features and enhancements, and links to resources offering more information.

What's new and changed

App packager integration

Publish apps for devices from within Captivate project instead of using app packager. Choose Publish > Publish for Devices (App). It is supported for Android, iOS, and Windows 8 platforms.

For more information on publishing apps for devices in responsive projects, see Publish as Apps for devices

For non-responsive/blank projects, see Publish as Apps for devices

Convert captions to smart shapes

Success/Failure/Hint Captions can be replaced with Smart Shapes. Right-click the Caption and select Convert to Smartshape. To revert, right-click and click Revert to text.

For more information, see Tex t c a p t ion s .

Responsive drag & drop

Users can drag-and-drop objects in responsive projects with a seamless experience. For more information, see

Responsive Project Design.

Custom shapes & line support

Now, you can use custom shapes and line to create your own objects in responsive project.

For more information, see Smart shapes .

Last updated 10/13/2014

What’s new

Publish projects as exe files

Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 enables you to publish your projects as stand-alone executable files for both personal computer and for Mac. This publishing option enables you to create a Windows executable file (.exe) or MAC executable file (.app). For more information, see

Publish projects as executable files

Other enhancements

Map support

Map support is included for selecting geolocation in variables. Users can browse through Google™ integrated maps and choose the location. Values are populated automatically.

For more information, see Geo location map .

Embed support for web objects

Now, you can embed code in to the properties window along with URL. An option to choose Help (i) is also added. Width and height of Video web objects aligns according to the web object container dimensions seamlessly in responsive projects.

For more information, see Web obj e ct s .

Symmetrical editing

Shift+draw option added for drawing shapes like circle or square. Now, by pressing shift key authors can draw a circle or square symmetrically in projects.

Shift+control+drag option is included for all shapes enabling authors to draw shapes symmetrically with reference to a starting point.

In the above image, A and B graphs are drawn with reference to Origin (intersection point of x and y-axis) by using shift+ctrl+draw. In A, you can see the starting point with crossbar cursor at the origin. When you draw circle with shift+ctrl+draw, it moves symmetrically with reference to the starting point (here, the origin).

In the image C also the pink colored circle is drawn with origin as a starting point, but here shift+ctrl+draw is not used.

Last updated 10/13/2014

What’s new

You can notice the difference and the usefulness of this enhancement for drawing.

Apply position properties across all views

Now you can update position properties of objects across all views to match the properties of the currently selected text element. To support Applying the object position properties across all the views, right click context menu is included. This setting relinks objects across the views in responsive projects.

For more information, see Position properties .

Apply text and text properties across all views

Now you can reset the properties of responsive text elements or update all views to match the properties of the currently selected text element. To support applying the text and text properties across all the views, right click context menu is included. This setting relinks objects across the views in responsive projects.

For more information, see Responsive text .

Color coding

Now, text objects in different views of responsive projects can have color coding. You can see different color coding in text area border in properties window. Earlier, it was applicable for only position properties.

For more information, see Color coding .

Project size

Project Info panel displays the project content size enabling users to know the size of the projects before publishing. Users can choose Windows >Project Info panel to view the size. In non-responsive projects, it displays SWF content and HTML content sizes. For responsive projects, only HTML size.

A sample project info view is shown in the below snapshot. Figure A represents responsive project and Figure B represents blank project. By default, when you open project info, the size of the project is not displayed in responsive and blank projects. Click blue colored Check text to view the size.

Last updated 10/13/2014

What’s new

Smart positioning between breakpoints

Smart Positioning is honored in between breakpoints of responsive projects. View published projects seamlessly across all device sizes.

For more information, see Smart positioning

Export responsive views captions to single Word or xml file

Project Captions and Closed Captions in responsive projects can be exported to a single Word™ or xml document. Now, it is responsive. Exported documents contain data from all the views of responsive projects. This feature facilitates translation of responsive captions, even when the text is different in various views.

Autoscaling of interactions in responsive project views

Now, interactions in responsive projects autoscale themselves to align for all the views with a fixed ratio. Users can experience seamless alignment of interactions in each view.

Automatic linked files inclusion in output

Open URL/File/Project options copy/paste the linked file to the destination folder if the file is present in an accessible location. It copies automatically in the published output folder. (Note: files in next level reference url do not get copied.)

Swatch manager

Swatches are integrated in color palette. Users can load swatch manager from color palette by clicking at the upper-right corner as shown in the Figure - B below. In windows menu, swatches menu item is renamed to swatch manager as shown in Figure -A below.

Last updated 10/13/2014

What’s new

Lock individual objects

Now you can lock or unlock the size and position of individual items contained in group, from within timeline.

fx symbol for objects in timeline

Visual indication added for objects with effects in timeline. fx symbol appears adjacent to object in timeline.

Color tool tip

Color Category is displayed as tool tips in theme color palette. For example, hovering over a color theme displays Title component of theme.

Note: Refer to what's new of Adobe Captivate 8 to understand all the features that were introduced in Adobe Captivate 8.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 2: Workspace

Undoing and redoing actions

You can reverse the previous action by using the Undo command.

• From the Edit menu, select Undo [Name of the recent action] or press Control+Z.

Each click reverses one more action. Continue clicking Undo (or pressing Control+Z) to remove as many of the previous changes as necessary.

When the Undo command is unavailable (dimmed), you cannot undo the previous action.

Adobe Captivate tracks actions from the time you open a project until the time you close the project. Therefore, you can undo as many times as you need to, as long as the project remains open.

You can reverse the action of the Undo command by using the Redo command.

• After you have used the Undo command, from the Edit menu, select Redo or press Control+Y.

Toolbars

Toolbars provide you an easier access to the most commonly used menus. You can quickly complete a task or a procedure by clicking the buttons on the toolbar instead of navigating to the menu.

You can hide or show toolbars according to your requirements. To show or hide a toolbar, select Window and then select the name of the toolbar.

Main Options Shortcuts to frequently performed actions, such as, save, record, and preview.

Object Toolbar Shortcuts for adding Adobe Captivate objects, such as, text captions, buttons, and highlight boxes.

Using this toolbar you can also draw smart shapes, such as, lines and rectangles, and also set the stroke and fill colors.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

A Smart Shapes B Smart Shapes fly-out C Insert Text Caption D Insert Rollover Caption E Insert Image F Insert Rollover Image G Ins ert Highlight Box H Text An imat ion O

Align Shortcuts for aligning different objects on a slide. For more information, see Align objects.

Inse rt Ro llover Slidel et I In ser t Z oom Are a J Inse rt Mou se K Insert Click Box L Insert Button M Insert Text Entry Box N Insert

Insert Animation P Insert Video Q Insert Interaction

Rearranging the Object Toolbar

By default, the tools in the toolbar are arranged in a single column. Click the double arrow at the top of the toolbar to make it horizontal or to arrange the tools in two columns.

Note: To make the toolbar horizontal, ensure that the toolbar is free-floating and is not grouped with any other panel.

To make the toolbar free-floating, drag it out of the panel group using the two horizontal dotted lines at the top of the bar.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Timeline

The Timeline is a visual representation of the timing of all objects on a slide. The Timeline provides an easy way to view, at a high level, all objects on a slide and their relationship to each other.

With the Timeline, you can organize objects and precisely control the timing of objects. For example, on a slide that contains a caption, an image, and a highlight box, you can display the caption, then the image 4 seconds later, and then the highlight box 2 seconds after that. The Timeline also shows any audio associated with the slide or with objects on the slide. You can easily coordinate the timing of audio with the slide using the Timeline.

A Show/Hide All Items B Lock/Unlock All Items C Playhead D Time line Heade r E Fly-Out Menu F Move the Playhead to the beginning G Stop H

Play I Move the Playhead to the end J Mute K Elapsed Time L Selected Start Time M Selected Duration N Slide Duration O Zoom Slider

The major components of the Timeline are objects, the header, and the playhead. The objects on a slide are displayed as stacked bars in the right pane of the Timeline. The header at the top of the Timeline indicates time in seconds (and parts of seconds). The playhead shows the point in time in which the slide is being viewed.

The Timeline header shows time, in minutes:seconds format. For example, 01:05 indicates 1 minute and 5 seconds. The markings helps you see exactly when objects appear.

You can use the Timeline to hide or lock objects easily. This is useful when a slide contains many objects and you need to edit the objects separately.

Show or hide the Timeline

Select Window > Timeline.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Rearrange the Timeline panel

By default, the Timeline panel is docked at the bottom of any slide in an Adobe Captivate project. You can move, resize, group, or dock the Timeline panel to suit your requirement.

Change the zoom level of the Timeline panel

Use the slider in the Timeline panel. The center of the slider indicates 100% zoom. To increase the zoom level, drag the slider to the right. To reduce the zoom level, drag the slider to the left.

Change the order of object layers

1 Move the mouse over the object in the Timeline panel until the hand icon appears and drag the object up or down

to reposition it.

2 If you have two objects that overlap on the slide, you need to select the object you want in front by setting the

stacking order.

Changing the stacking order consists of moving objects to the back and front of the slide Stage. The key point to remember is that objects at the back of the Stage appear behind other objects. Use one of the following methods to set the stacking order:

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) an object on the slide, click Arrange, and select one of the

object order options. If necessary, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) other objects on the slide and adjust their order.

Bring To FrontThis option brings the selected object to the top. When the project plays, the object appears on top of all others.

Send To BackTh is op tion send s the s electe d obj ec t to the ba ckgro und . Wh en the pro ject p lay s, the obje ct app ear s behind all others.

Bring ForwardThis option moves the object one layer forward.

Send BackwardThis option moves the object one layer back.

• On the Timeline, move the mouse over an object until the hand appears and drag the object up or down to change

its position in the stacking order. Moving an object higher in the stacking order moves it to the front of the Stage, while moving an object lower moves it to the back of the Stage.

Hide objects during editing

❖ In the Timeline, click the dot below the eye icon in the layer that you want to hide.

The object disappears from the slide and an X icon appears in the column. To display the object on the slide, click the X icon.

When you hide an object layer, it is hidden only on the Stage. You can still view the layer when it is previewed or published.

Timeline for slidelets

A slidelet is a slide within a slide. A slidelet has its own Timeline. All the objects in the slidelet are displayed in its Timeline. When you select a slidelet, the Timeline changes automatically to that of the slidelet. To display the Timeline for the slide containing the slidelet, click anywhere outside the slidelet. For more information on slidelets, see

slidelets.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Rollover

Workspace

Lock objects

❖ In the Timeline, click the dot below the lock icon in the layer that you want to lock.

The layer and its corresponding object cannot be edited or moved until you unlock the layer. To unlock the layer, click the lock icon.

Set time for objects and slides using the Timeline

You can change the amount of time an object or slide appears in the movie using its Property Inspector or by using the Timeline. You may find this feature useful in several situations. For example, you may want to set exact object timing when coordinating a voice-over with a highlight box; you may want the highlight box to appear only when the voiceover says, “Enter the date here.”

• Move the mouse over the left or right edge of the slide or object on the Timeline until the resize pointer appears.

Click and drag the edge to the required position in the Timeline.

• To set two objects to appear at the same time, align their left and right edges. For example, you can set a highlight

box to appear at the same time as an image so that the highlight box can appear over the image.

• To adjust the display time of interactive objects (such as text entry boxes, click boxes, and buttons) rest the pointer

over the line between Active and Inactive in the bar until the slider handle appears. Drag the slider to adjust the display time.

You can select multiple objects and move them at the same time. Hold down the Shift key and click objects to select consecutive stacked objects in the Timeline, or to select nonconsecutive objects, hold down the Control key and click the objects to move.

You can determine whether keystrokes are played slowly or quickly in a project. If the project has many keystrokes, increasing the speed will make the pace of the project faster. However, if keystrokes are critical in the project, you may want them to play slowly so users can view them clearly. Use the Timeline to change keystroke speed. Keystrokes are contained in a Timeline object named Typing.

You determine the speed at which the mouse moves on any individual slide in a project. A high mouse speed increases the pace at which the project plays. However, if mouse movements are complicated, you may want to decrease the mouse speed so users can view all movements. Mouse movement is contained in a Timeline object named Mouse. To shorten the amount of time it takes for the mouse movement to play, move the mouse pointer over the left edge of the Mouse object until the resize pointer appears. Click and drag the edge to the left.

Preview a slide using the playhead

The red line that moves across the Timeline is the playhead. The playhead moves through the Timeline to indicate how the currently displayed slide appears in the project. It is a quick and efficient way to preview a single slide and check object timing.

To see how the playhead functions, press F3. You can stop a playhead when it is playing by clicking it. To drag the playhead to a required position, move the mouse over its “head” in the area displaying the time. When the pointer appears, drag the playhead to the required position.

❖ Do one of the following to preview a slide:

• “Scrub” the slide by dragging the playhead to the left or right. As you move the playhead, objects appear and fade

as they will when users view the slide. Scrubbing gives you the ability to control the pace and view the slide at any speed from very slowly to very quickly.

• With the playhead in any location on the Timeline, press the Spacebar or F3 to begin playing the slide.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

• With the playhead in any location on the Timeline, press in the lower-left corner of the Timeline. (To end

playback, press , or to wait, press .)

Shortcut keys

Shortcut keys provide an easier and quicker way to navigate and use Adobe Captivate. They let you use keyboard key combinations instead of a mouse or program menu. The common shortcut keys are listed in the table.

Shortcut key Action

F1 (Win & Mac) Open Adobe Captivate Help (To access dialog-box-level help, click the

F2 (Win & Mac) Rename the selected object

F3 (Win & Mac) Test view the current slide

F4 (Win & Mac) Preview the project

F5 (Win & Mac) Record audio

F6 (Win & Mac) Import audio

F7 (Win & Mac) Perform a spelling and grammar check

F8 (Win only) Preview project from current slide

F9 (Win only) Show the Advanced Interaction panel

F10 (Win only) Preview the current slide and the following “N” slides

F12 (Win), Command+F12 (Mac) Preview the project in a web browser

Page Up (win & Mac) Scroll to the previous slide

Page Down (win & Mac) Scroll to the next slide

Alt+A (Win), Option+A (Mac) Create question pool

Alt+Up, Down, Left, Right Arrows (Win), Option+Up, Down, Left, Right Arrows

Control+A (Win), Command+A (Mac) Select all

Help button on individual dialog boxes.)

Click the object, click a resize handle, and use these options to resize the object in the selected direction by 1 pixel

Control+B (Win), Command+B (Mac) Find audio in the Library/Change text to Bold

Control+C (Win), Command+C (Mac) Copy (slide in Filmstrip, and selected object on stage)

Control+D (Win) Duplicate (slide in Filmstrip, and selected object on stage)

Control+E (Win), Command+E (Mac) Extend the length of the objec t display time to the end of the slide on

Control+F (Win), Command+F (Mac) Find/replace a particular object in the project Library

Control+I (Win), Command+I (Mac) Increase the indent (selected object on stage)/Change text to Italics.

Control+L (Win), Command+L (Mac) Sync the selected object to the playhead

Control+M (Win), Command+M (Mac) Merge the selected object with the background

Control+N (Win), Command+N (Mac) Open new project

the Timeline

Indentation is equal to the grid size.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Shortcut key Action

Control+O (Win), Command+S (Mac) Open the project

Control+Q (Win), Shift+Option+R (Mac) Insert a random question slide

Control+R (Win), Command + R (Mac) Start/record new capture project

Control+S (Win), Command+S (Mac) Save

Control+T (Win), Command+T(Mac) Open project template

Control+U (Win) Underline the selected text

Control+V (Win), Command+V (Mac) Paste what is on the clipboard (for example, slide, image, object, and

Control+W (Win), Command+W (Mac) Close the project

Control+X (Win), Command+X (Mac) Cut (selected object on stage)

Control+Y (Win), Command+Y (Mac) Redo

Control+Z (Win), Command+Z (Mac) Undo

Control+Enter (Win), Conmmand+Enter (Mac) Preview the project

Control+Alt+A (Win), Command+Option+A (Mac) Export PowerPoint slides as animation

Control+Alt+B (Win), Command+Option+B (Mac) Show or hide Filmstrip

Control+Alt+C (Win), Command+Option+C (Mac) Show the Closed Captioning dialog box

Control+Alt+D (Win), Shift+Option+D (Mac) Update the Library

Control+Alt+E (Win), Command+Option+E (Mac) Edit points of polygon drawing object

Control+Alt+F (Win), Command+Option+F (Mac) Find in the Library

Control+Alt+G (win), Command+Option+G (Mac) Create a slide group and autoadjust the rollover area

Control+Alt+H (Win), Command+Option+H (Mac) Hide the selected object

Control+Alt+I (Win), Command+Options+I (Mac) Find PowerPoint slides in the Library

Control+Alt+J (Win), Command+Option+J (Mac) Edit PowerPoint slides

Control+Alt+K (Win), Command+Option+K (Mac) Lock the selected object

so on)

Control+Alt+L (Win), Command+Option+L (Mac) Show or hide the Library

Control+Alt+M (Win), Command+Option+M (Mac) Insert master slide

Control+Alt+N (Win), Command+Option+N (Mac) Show slide notes

Control+Alt+O (Win), Command+Option+O (Mac) Record additional slides

Control+Alt+P (Win), Command+Option+P (Mac) Remove a slide group.

Control+Alt+Q (Win), Option+Shift+Q (Mac) Show the Question Pools Manager

Control+Alt+S (Win only) Edit PowerPoint slide

Control+Alt+T (Win), Command+Option+T (Mac) Show or hide the Timeline

Control+Alt+U (Win), Command+Option+U (Mac) Library usage

Control+Alt+V (Win), Command+Option+V (Mac) Import video file

Control+Alt+X (Win), Command+Options X (Mac) Show/hide the SWF-Commenting pane

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Shortcut key Action

Control+Alt+Z (Win), Command+Option+Z (Mac) Show/hide the Widget panel

Shift+F7 (Win & Mac) Show objects style manager

Shift+F8 (Win), Command + , (Mac) Preferences dialog box

Shift+F9 (Win), Shift+Command+F9 (Mac) Actions dialog box

Shift+F10 (Win), Shift+Command+F10 (Mac) Table of contents

Shift+F11 (Win), Shift+ Command+F11 (Mac) Skin Editor panel

Shift+F12 (Win), Shift+Option+F12 (Mac) Publish the file

Shift+A (Win & Mac) Insert Animation placeholder

Shift+F (Win & Mac) Insert Flash video placeholder

Shift+R (Win & Mac) Insert rollover caption placeholder

Shift+O (Win & Mac) Insert rollover image placeholder

Shift+C (Win & Mac) Insert Text Caption placeholder

Shift+V (Win & Mac) Insert video place holder

Shift+M (Win & Mac) Insert Image placeholder

Shift+Q (Win), Option + Q (Mac) Insert Question slide placeholder

Shift+X (Win & Mac) Insert Text Animation placeholder

Shift+Alt+A (Win), Shift+Option+A (Mac) Show Audio Management panel

Shift+Alt+W (Win), Shift+Option+W (Mac) Close all the open projects

Shift+Alt+O (Win), Shift+Option+O (Mac) Insert recording slide placeholder

Shift+Alt+P (Win), Shift+Option+P (Mac) Import Photoshop file

Shift+Alt+S (Win), Shift+Option+A (Mac) Show Speech Management panel

Shift+Alt+V (Win), Shift+Option+V (Mac) Paste as Background

Shift+Alt+Up, Down, Left, Right Arrows (Win), Shift+Option+Up, Down, Left, Right Arrows

Shift+Control+A (Win), Shift+ Command+A (Mac) Add an animation object

Shift+Control+B (Win), Shift+Command+B (Mac) Add a new button

Shift+Control+C (Win), Shift+ Control+C (Mac) Add a new text caption

Shift+Control+D (Win), Command+Shift+D (Mac) View slide properties

Shift+Control+E (Win), Shift+Command+E (Mac) Insert a new zoom area

Shift+Control+F (Win), Shift+Command+F (Mac) Insert an FLV file

Shift+Control+H (Win), Shift+Command+H (Mac) Hide/show slide

Click the object, click a resize handle, and use these options to resize the object in the selected direction by 10 pixel

Shift+Control+I (Win), Shift+Command+I (Mac) Decrease the indent

Shift+Control+J (win), Shift+Command+J (Mac) Insert a blank slide

Shift+Control+K (Win), Shift+Command+K (Mac) Add a new click box

Shift+Control+L (Win), Shift+Command+L (Mac) Insert a highlight box

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Shortcut key Action

Shift+Control+M (Win), Shift+Command+M (Mac) Add a new image

Shift+Control+N (Win), Shift+Command+N (Mac) Add a new animation slide

Shift+Control+O (Win), Shift+Command+O (Mac) Add a new rollover image

Shift+Control+P (Win), Shift+Command+P (Mac) Import PPT

Shift+Control+Q (Win), Shift+Q (Mac) Insert a question slide

Shift+Control+R (Win), Shift+Command+R (Mac) Insert a rollover caption

Shift+Control+S (Win), Shift+Command+S (Mac) Save the project with different name

Shift+Control+T (Win), Shift+Command+T (Mac) Insert a text entry box

Shift+Control+U (Win), Shift+Command+U (Mac) Insert the mouse

Shift+Control+W (Win), Shift+Command+W (Mac) Insert a widget

Shift+Control+X (Win), Shift+Command+X (Mac) Insert a text animation

Shift+Control+Y (Win), Shift+Command+Y (Mac) Copy the background

Shift+Control+Z (Win), Shift+Command+Z (Mac) Insert Slidelet

Shift + Control + Alt + B (Win), Shift+Command+Option+B (Mac) Show Branching View

Shift+Control+Alt+S (Win), Shift+Command+Option+S (Mac) Insert an image slide

Shift+Control+Alt+E (Win), Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac) Show/Hide effects panel

Shift+Control+V (Win), Shift+Command+V (Mac) Insert stencil slides

Shift+Control+G (Win), Shift +Command+G (Mac) Edit gradient

Magnification shortcuts

Shortcut key Magnification level

Control+1 (Win), Command + 1 (Mac) 100%

Control+2 (Win), Command + 2 (Mac) 200%

Control+3(Win), Command + 3 (Mac) 300%

Control+4 (Win), Command + 4 (Mac) 400%

Control+ - (Win), Command + - (Mac) Zoom out

Control++ (Win), Command + + (Mac) Zoom in

Control + 0 (win), Command + 0 (Mac) Best Fit Zoom / Center Align Workspace

Shortcut keys for recording

The following table lists the default shortcut keys used during recording. These shortcuts should be used only after you start the recording process. The same keys function differently when you are editing a project.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Shortcut key Action

Control+R (Win), Command + R (Mac) Start/record new capture project

Control+Alt+O (Win), Command+Option+O (Mac) Record additional slides

End (Win), Command+Enter (Mac) Stop recording

Delete (Win & Mac) Delete the current selection

Pause (Win), Command+F2 (Mac) Pause or resume recording

Print Screen (Win), Command +F6 (Mac) Capture a screenshot manually

F4 (Win & Mac) Preview project

F3 (Win & Mac) Preview single slide

F2 (Win & Mac) Edit caption text

F12 (Win & Mac) Preview project in browser

F4 (Win), Command+F4 (Mac) Auto panning

F3 (Win), Command+F3(Mac) Manual panning

F7 (Win), Command+F7(Mac) Stop panning

F9 (Win), Command+F9 (Mac) Start Full Motion Recording

F10 (Win), Command+F10 (Mac) Stop Full Motion Recording

F11 (Win), Command+F11 (Mac) Snap recording window to mouse

F12 (Win), Command+F12 (Mac) Toggle mouse capture

Change shortcut keys for recording

1 Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Preferences dialog box, select Keys from the Recording menu.

3 To change keys, click once in one of the text boxes and, on the keyboard, press the key or key combination you want

to use. For example, click inside the To Stop Recording text box and then press Shift+Alt+4. The key combination you entered now appears in the To Stop Recording text box. You can use almost any key, including the Control, Alt, Shift+Control, and Shift+Alt keys. For example, you could change the stop recording key to Alt+R.

Panels

To show or hide panels, select Window and then select the name of the panel.

Filmstrip Displays a thumbnail view of the slides in the project in the order of their appearance. For more information,

Filmstrip.

see

Question Pool Displays a thumbnail view of the slides in question pools from where quiz questions are randomly

picked at run-time. For more information, see

Master Slide Displays the slides that define background and common objects, such as logos, headers, and footers for

Grids

The Snap To Grid option helps you position objects accurately on a page. A grid is a set of lines to which the objects “stick” when the Snap To Grid feature is enabled. When you bring an object close to a grid line, the object snaps to the line much in the same way as iron sticks to a magnet. For example, you can stack objects accurately one above the other using a grid.

Work with grids

• Select View > Show Grid. The grid is displayed as a matrix of dots on the slide.

• Select View > Snap To Grid.

• Select View > Snap To Object

Snap To Object is applicable only when you are drawing objects on a slide and not when you are editing or moving them. When both Snap To Grid and Snap To Object options are selected, the Snap To Object option takes precedence.

Change the dimensions of a grid

1 Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Preferences dialog box, select General Settings from the Global menu.

3 Change the Grid Size value. The smaller the value, the smaller is the gap between the dots in the grid.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Filmstrip

The Filmstrip displays all the slides in the project in the order in which they appear when published.

You can change the order of a slide by dragging it to a new location within the Filmstrip. To select multiple slides, hold down the Shift or Control key when clicking on slides. To select all slides, press Control+A.

To change the size of the thumbnails in the Filmstrip, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) on any slide, select Filmstrip, and then select Small, Medium, or Large.

If a slide has a label (short title) assigned, the label appears under the slide. It might be easier to move slides and jump to a specific slide if you have assigned labels instead of just using the slide number.

A Slide Label B Slide Number

A handycam icon appears at the bottom of slides if the slide was recorded in:

• Video Demo mode

• Full Motion Recording (FMR) mode. You can record in the FMR mode by pressing F9 (to start FMR) and F10 (to

end FMR) while doing Automatic or Manual recording.

If a slide has an audio file associated with it, the audio icon appears at the bottom of the slide. You can click the sound icon

If a slide is locked, the lock icon appears on the upper-right corner of the slide. You can click the lock icon to unlock the slide.

If a slide contains mouse movement, the mouse icon appears at the bottom of the slide. You can click the mouse icon to modify some of mouse properties. For more information on mouse properties, see Change mouse properties.

to show a menu with sound options such a Play, Import, and Edit.

Disable confirmation messages

Confirmation messages appear when you perform important, and often permanent, actions in Adobe Captivate. The confirmation messages give you an opportunity to reconsider your decisions when deleting information or changing key attributes.

If you find that certain messages are not necessary for the way you work or are slowing down your work, you might want to disable them.

1 In an open project, select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Category panel, select Global > General Settings.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

3 Click Confirmation Messages in the General Settings panel.

4 In the Confirmation Messages dialog box, deselect the options for which you do not require confirmation messages.

Customizing the workspace

You can create a custom workspace by rearranging and resizing document windows and panels. You can save the customized workspaces and switch between them.

Rearrange document windows

When you open more than one file, the Document windows are tabbed. To rearrange the tabbed Document windows, drag and drop the window’s tab to the new location.

Move panels

• To move a panel, drag it by its tab.

• To move a panel group, drag the title bar.

As you drag the panels, you see blue highlighted drop zones, areas where you can drop the panels. If you drag to an area that is not a drop zone, the panel floats freely in the workspace.

Note: The position of the mouse pointer, rather than the position of the panel, activates the drop zone.

Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while moving a panel to prevent it from docking. Press Esc while moving the panel to cancel the operation.

Dock and undock panels

A dock is a collection of panels or panel groups displayed together, generally in a vertical orientation. You dock and undock panels by moving them into and out of a dock.

• To dock a panel, drag it by its tab into the dock, at the top, bottom, or in between other panels.

• To dock a panel group, drag it by its title bar (the solid empty bar above the tabs) into the dock.

• To remove a panel or panel group from a dock, drag it out of the dock by its tab or title bar. You can also drag it into

another dock or make it free-floating.

• To resize a panel, move the mouse over the edges of the panel. When double-sided arrow appears, drag the panel to

the required size.

Add and remove panels from docks

If you remove all panels from a dock, the dock disappears. You can create a dock by moving panels to the right edge of the workspace until a drop zone appears.

• To remove a panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) its tab and then select Close, or deselect it from

the Window menu.

• To add a panel, select it from the Window menu and dock it wherever you want.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Stack floating panels

When you drag a panel out of its dock but not into a drop zone, the panel floats freely. The floating panel allows you to position it anywhere in the workspace. You can stack floating panels or panel groups so that they move as a unit when you drag the topmost title bar.

• To stack floating panels, drag a panel by its tab to the drop zone at the bottom of another panel.

• To change the stacking order, drag a panel up or down by its tab.

Note: Be sure to release the tab over the narrow drop zone between panels, rather than the broad drop zone in a title bar.

• To remove a panel or panel group from the stack, so that it floats by itself, drag it out by its tab or title bar.

Resize panels

• To minimize or maximize a panel, panel group, or stack of panels, double-click a tab. You can also single-click the

tab area (the empty space next to the tabs).

• To resize a panel, drag any side of the panel when the mouse cursor turns into an arrow.

Collapse and expand panel icons

You can collapse panels to icons to reduce clutter on the workspace. In some cases, panels are collapsed to icons in the default workspace.

• To collapse or expand all panel icons in a column, click the double arrow at the top of the dock.

• To expand a single panel icon, click it.

• To resize panel icons so that you see only the icons (and not the labels), adjust the width of the dock until the text

disappears. To display the icon text again, make the dock wider.

• To collapse an expanded panel back to its icon, click its tab, its icon, or the double arrow in the panel’s title bar.

• To add a floating panel or panel group to an icon dock, drag it in by its tab or title bar. (Panels are automatically

collapsed to icons when added to an icon dock.)

• To move a panel icon (or panel icon group), drag the icon. You can drag panel icons up and down in the dock, into

other docks (where they appear in the panel style of that dock), or outside the dock (where they appear as floating, expanded panels).

Save customized workspaces

By saving the current size and position of panels as a named workspace, you can restore that workspace even if you move or close a panel. The names of saved workspaces appear in the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

1 Go to Window > Workspace > New Workspace.

2 Type a name for the new workspace, and click OK.

Any changes that are made to the workspace are saved automatically. To revert to the default state of a workspace, select Window > Worksp a c e > Res e t [Workspace Name].

Switch workspaces

Select a workspace from the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Rename and delete workspaces

Se l ec t Win d ow > Wo r ksp ace > Mana g e Wor k spa c e.

• To rename a workspace, select the workspace and click Rename.

• To delete a workspace, select the workspace and click Delete.

Branching panel

The Branching panel (Window > Branching View) provides a visual representation of all links between the slides in a project and lets you quickly edit those links. Using this panel, you can analyze and interpret how the slides in a project are interlinked.

The Branching panel is particularly helpful when creating instructional materials containing question slides and specifying different paths for right and wrong answers. For example, you can set one action (such as “Go to the next slide”) when a user supplies a correct answer, and you can set a different action (such as “Jump To Slide”) when a user supplies an incorrect answer. Using the Branching view, you can easily make changes to the branching design.

You can also export the Branching view of an existing Adobe Captivate project into a BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG, or a GIF file.

Panes in the Branching panel

Preview pane

This pane is at the bottom of the panel and displays all the slides in the project. If the pane is not visible, click the arrow at the bottom of the panel.

The rectangle in the pane indicates the slides that are currently displayed in the main pane. To bring a different set of slides into the main pane, click and move the rectangle to the required area.

Main pane

This pane is at the center of the panel and is the main area where you interpret and edit the branches in your project. The arrows between the slides indicate how they are related to each other.

Black Arrow Indicates that the slide from which the arrow originates does not have any interactive object. During

runtime, after this slide's duration elapses, the next slide (to which the arrowhead points) appears.

Green Arrow Indicates that the slide from which the arrow originates contains an interactive object. When users click

this object during runtime, the slide to which the arrowhead points appears.

Red Arrow Points to the slide that appears when users fail to click an interactive object on the slide from which the

arrow originates.

When you click an arrow, a pop-up appears and shows the name of the object that links the slides.

Options in this pane:

Create Slide Group Combines the selected slides into a single group. For more information on grouping slides, see

Grouping slides using the Branching view.

Expand Slide Group Displays all the slides belonging to the selected group. The slides in a group are by default in a

collapsed state.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Workspace

Collapse Slide Group Combines the expanded slides of a group back into a group.

Remove Slide Group Ungroups the grouped slides.

Export Branching View Export the Branching view as a BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG, or a GIF file using the dialog box that

appears.

Zoom Zooms the main view in or out based on the value selected in the list or the slider.

For more information on using this pane for editing the slide links, see Editing the links between slides.

Unlinked slides pane

This pane lists all the slides that are not linked to any slide in the project. If this pane is not visible, click the arrow on the left of the panel.

Editing the links between slides

To change the linkage of a slide, double-click the thumbnail of the slide, and in the pop-up that appears, choose an option in the Action (Success) list.

To change the linkage of an interactive object, double-click the thumbnail of the slide, and click the object. In the popup that appears, choose an option from the Action (Success) and Action (Failure) lists, and click the Save icon.

For example, consider Slide 1 has a button. When users click the button, Slide 4 must appear and when the button is not clicked (Failure), Slide 23 must appear. Using the pop-up box, you can specify the slides for success and failure events accordingly. If the target slide (Slide 23) contains an interactive object that brings the users back to Slide 1, a reverse-link to Slide 1 appears below the slide.

The Action (Success) and Action (Failure) lists show the following options:

• Go to the Next Slide

• Go to the Previous Slide

• Jump to Slide

To assign other actions such as send an email or open a URL or a file, use the Property Inspector of the slide. The Advanced Interaction panel (Project > Advanced Interaction) helps you view all the interactions in the project.

Grouping slides using the Branching view

1 Click in the panel (not on any slide), hold down the mouse button, and move the mouse over the slides you want to

group.

A rectangular marquee appears and the selected slides are highlighted with a bold border around them.

2 Click the Create Slide Group icon. A single group slide appears in the panel.

• To expand the group, click the arrow on the group slide, or select the group slide and click the Expand Slide

Group icon.

• To ungroup the slides, select the group slide and click the Remove Slide Group icon.

Note: Use the Property Inspector to name the group slide. For more information, see Name slide groups and mark them.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 3: Creating Projects

Create projects

Create a project to include software simulation

You can create an Adobe Captivate project by recording events in an application or screen area on your computer. The following modes of recording are available.

Automatic Recording

Adobe Captivate captures screenshots automatically and places them in separate slides. For more information, see

Automatic recording.

Manual Recording

You can manually capture screenshots using this option. The chosen set of screenshots appears sequentially in separate slides after the recording is complete. For more information, see

For more information, see Record video demonstrations.

Manual recording.

Create a project from PowerPoint presentations

You can import an entire PowerPoint presentation, or only selected slides into an Adobe Captivate project. Each PowerPoint slide is imported as a separate slide in the Adobe Captivate project. You can later edit the PowerPoint presentations from within Adobe Captivate.

Create a project from images

Projects created from images can be viewed as a slideshow. Each image is imported into a separate slide.

1 Select File > New Project > Image Slideshow.

2 In the New Image Slideshow dialog box, set the dimensions of the project.

3 Click OK, and select the images that you want to add to your project.

4 If the Resize/Crop image dialog box appears, set the following options:note: You see the Crop/Resize dialog box only

when an image exceeds the height or width limits of the project. If you are inserting more than one slide, only those images that exceed the dimension limits are displayed in the dialog box.

Fit To Stage Resizes the image to fit the dimensions of the slide.

Crop Displays a bounding box with dimensions corresponding to that of the project. Resize the handles of the box

to select the area that you want displayed on the slide. If you selected Constrain Proportions, Adobe Captivate maintains the height-to-width ratio of the bounding box.

Zoom You can zoom in and zoom out of the image by moving the slider. Alternatively, you can choose from a list

of standard zoom sizes from the menu.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

Constrain Proportions Maintains the height-to-width ratio of the bounding box used to crop the image. This option

is enabled only when you choose to crop the image. When you disable this option, resize the bounding box, and enable the option again; the new dimensions are used thereafter to calculate the ratio.

In addition to the above options, you can also set tone controls (brightness, sharpness, and contrast) and adjust color ranges (alpha, hue, and saturation). You can also flip or rotate the image.

Create a project starting with blank slides

You can start with a blank project, and then import slides or images from PowerPoint presentations, images, or other Adobe Captivate projects. You can also add a software demonstration, or interactive simulation by recording additional slides.

1 Select File > New Project > Blank Project.

2 Select a preset size in the Select list, or specify a custom width and height for the project.

3 Click OK.

The default theme is applied to the new project. The theme contains a set of master slides that you can use for title, content, and question slides. For more information, see

Themes.

Create template-based projects

Adobe Captivate templates allow you to improve consistency across similar projects or modules of a project and reduce the effort required to create new projects.

Create a storyboard and workflow

No matter what project you want to create, it is helpful to do some planning before you start taking screenshots. Consider first what you want the user to do, learn, or achieve as a result of viewing your project. Defining this goal allows you to create a comprehensive plan for success. Once you have defined the action you want the audience to take, you can create the “core” of the project.

Every movie tells a story. A storyboard is a written version of that story either in the form of text or graphics. It tells you whether you have a clear understanding of what you are about to present to your audience. You can use the 5W, 1H rule adopted in journalism to get your story straight—who, what, when, where, why, and how.

You can create a workflow readily when you have a storyboard in place. A workflow is the flow of information in a project that follows the rules you create for it. For example, you can have a nonlinear presentation in which you can move back and forth between slides, skip slides, or set rules for slide sequence. Defining the workflow in advance helps you complete your project earlier, with minimal changes during the editing cycle.

If your project includes a great deal of text (captions), a script is the best place to begin. Scripts use text-based pages. They are like pages in a book: logical, sequential, and containing as much detail as you care to provide.

Create project templates

When you want to create similar projects or similar modules in a project, use project templates to ensure consistency and save time. Project templates are especially useful when multiple authors are working on different project modules or on similar projects.

Project templates help achieve the following:

• Consistency across Adobe Captivate projects.

• Reduced development time for multiple projects due to reuse of design.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

• Reuse of project preferences across multiple projects.

In a collaborative environment where the designers work separately from the people creating the content, designers use templates to ensure consistency across projects. Content developers do not have to worry about the workflow of the project, the various standards involved, or the creation of the layout. All they have to do is follow the instructions in the template and provide the required content in the relevant placeholders.

Creating a repository of templates requires a disciplined effort involving all stakeholders. However, the effort pays for itself over time in terms of reduced development time for projects.

An Adobe Captivate project template consists of the following:

• Slides with placeholders for various Adobe Captivate objects

• Placeholders for the following:

• Recording slides

• Question slides.

• Master slides. For more information on Master Slides, see Master slides.

You can define and use object styles along with the project templates to ensure a uniform appearance for your projects.

When you create a project using a template, the placeholders in the template are marked with a placeholder icon. The icon disappears when you insert an object into a placeholder.

Note: The placeholder objects are not visible when you preview or publish a project created with a project template.

In addition to placeholders, you can add all Adobe Captivate objects and supported media to templates. The template serves as a ‘stencil’ only. Users can change the objects and placeholders without any restriction when creating a project from the template.

To make a project template more effective, add slide notes providing information or instructions. Include information on the recommended types and properties of objects, media, or slides that users are to insert in the placeholders.

1 Select File > New Project > Project Template.

2 Specify the dimensions of the project template, and click OK.

3 Set preferences for the template using the Edit > Preferences dialog box. The preferences are automatically applied

when you use the project template to create a project.

4 Choose the look and feel for projects based on the template by clicking Themes > Themes. The Themes bar appears.

Click the required theme from the Themes bar.

You can also modify the theme to suit your requirements. For more information on themes, see Themes.

Note: If you do not want to use themes, you can create your own layouts by inserting placeholder objects on the slides (Insert > Placeholder Objects).

5 To insert placeholders for slides, select Insert > Placeholder Slides, and choose the type of slide placeholder.

6 Insert other Adobe Captivate objects, and required media.

Best practice is to add all objects or media that do not change from project to project (for example, a logo) as actual objects. Use placeholders for objects or media that are specific to the project.

7 Save the file. The file is saved with a .cptl extension.

Create projects from project templates

1 Select File > New Project > Project From Template.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

2 Navigate to the template file and click Open.

3 Double-click the placeholder and do the following:

• For placeholder objects, use the respective dialog box to add objects to the placeholder. The placeholder is

converted to a concrete object.

• For recording slide placeholders, double-click the placeholder slide to start recording.

• For question slide placeholders, double-click the placeholder slide to insert a question slide.

More Help topics

Microsoft PowerPoint

Images and rollover images

Responsive Project Design

With a single project, you can design and create content in multiple layouts for devices. You can also preview using Adobe® Edge Inspect across devices.

Create content using three breakpoints such as Primary with a viewport of 1024x627, Tablet (iPad) with a viewport of 768x627 and Mobile (iPhone) with a viewport of 360x415. Preview the output using play slide in respective device layouts. Publish the content as HTML5.

Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 enables you to drag and drop objects with a seamless experience across all the three breakpoint views in responsive projects.

For information on View-specific properties of Responsive project, see View Specific Properties

Align panel can be invoked through Window menu.

Creating Responsive Project

1 After launching Adobe Captivate 8, Click first thumbnail, Responsive Project and Click Create.

2 Alternatively, you can choose File > New Project > Responsive Project

3 Click the Primary, Tablet, and Mobile icons in the Responsive Project layout to navigate through the different

breakpoints.

You can view the Responsive Project area divided into three unique breakpoints: Primary, Tablet, and Mobile as shown in the three individual screenshot views below. Each breakpoint area is a unique authoring space.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

Adaptive design (Smart positioning)

You can see sliders available at the beginning and end of each breakpoint.

By default, the three breakpoints are available for you to author content.

If you create content, say for Phablet or any device bigger than the viewport size of the mobile layout, you can increase the size by just dragging the Slider.

Note: Any size above the default viewport size would assume the next higher viewport layout. For example, if you want to have the mobile viewport as 450x450 instead of the default values. In such a case, since this size is higher than the Mobile and lesser than Tablet, it would assume the layout of Tablet.Smart positioning is allowed in between break points. Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 enables you to preview the projects with seamless experience in between breakpoints. In other words, users do not experience any time lag in preview of output while traversing from one view to another view in between break points. .

Responsive Themes

In Captivate 8, 9 new Themes are available apart from default themes: white and black.

Customize Theme colors

You can choose the Preset Theme Colors or customize Theme Colors to make your own color schemes.

1 From the Toolbar, click Themes > Theme Colors

2 Choose any one of the Preset Theme Colors from Select Theme Color drop-down and clickCustomize. Customize

Theme Colors window appears as shown below:

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

3 Choose the component for which you want to change the colors. You can change the colors of each component of

slide such as Title, Skin, Sub Title, Slide BG.

4 You can pick the color with the help of Shades, or Swatches, or Color Picker or Eyedroppertools.

5 Click the title of the Preset Theme and use your own title name.

6 Click Save. Now, you can see your customized Theme color displayed in the drop-down list.

You can use Settings wheel icon, to Manage the theme colors: Delete, rename.

Device height

Set different backgrounds in different views through inclusion/exclusion of objects.

You can also set the device height for each layout by selecting the Device Height check box which is on the top corner (adjacent to Properties). If Device Height is selected, you can see the blue border for each layout as shown in below screenshots for Mobile layout.

Slide Height can be linked to Device Height by clicking the link icon next to Slide Height in Properties window as shown in the screenshot below. Change the slide height for specific view or for all views.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

Slide Height

Adobe Captivate 8 introduces a brand new and unique provision to you to customize the height of viewport as per the device height.

Viewport height is the page layout height for Primary (Desktop), Tablet, and Mobile. You can adjust this height to fit any specific device height with the help of Slide Height option in Properties.

Customizing Slide Height

Let us assume the viewport height and device height for mobile layout is 415. Consider a case where the device height is 500, you can adjust the viewport height by moving vertical device height slider till you reach 500. By default, the device height is linked with Slide Height. You can de-link it by clicking the link icon next to Slide Height value in Properties Inspector.

In this case, all the content inside viewport height is visible in mobile device, by default. So, this provision enables you to develop content accurately in the layout to match the device height.

Suppose, if the height of viewport is bigger than the device height, then the content beyond device height is visible to the end user with the help of a scroll bar in the device.

Set Default Caption Colors

You can set different default caption Text colors for each of the three breakpoint views.

1 Choose Edit > Object Style Manager

2 Select Default Caption Style

3 In Text Format, Click drop-down box adjacent to Break Points and choose Primary, Tablet or Mobile.

4 Choose the color for each break point.

Capture support for interactions

You can capture the interactions across all views and set autofocus for a specific interaction area in views. Set one smart shape as background image in Responsive project and you are allowed to set crop area for background image in different views.

Questions and Results slides, along with Master Slides are supported seamlessly across all the views in the Responsive Project.

Responsive properties and Themes are applicable for Question slides. Overridden styles will be indicated by a star symbol in Sample Text area of Properties Inspector.

Responsive capture

Responsive playbar

Make playbar controls responsive. From Windows>Skin Editor, you can create a customized skin by changing the play bar controls and saving the changes as a theme. Now, you can make those play bar controls to appear differently in Primary, Tablet and Mobile views.

Customize cpMobilePlaybar variable to view different play bar controls in each of the Primary, Tablet and Mobile views outputs.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

1 Go to Playbar Location:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 8 x64\en_US\Gallery\Playbars\HTML\cpPlaybarMobileStep text

Note: The location may vary as per the installation directory in your pc.

2 Create a backup for the playbar you would like to change.

3 Open the playbarScript.js file

cp.responsiveButtons = { //"ButtonName": [Primary,Tablet,Mobile], "Rewind": [true,true,false], "Backward": [true,true,true], "Play" : [true,true,true], "Slider": [true,true,false], "Forward": [true,true,true], "CC" : [true,true,true], "AudioOn": [true,false,false], "Exit" : [true,true,true], "FastForward": [true,true,false], "TOC" : [true,true,false] };

4 If you want each of the play bar control buttons to appear in Primary, Tablet and Mobile views, change the above

code as [true,true,true] for all the buttons. Save and close the file.

For example, if you want the "Slider" to appear only in Tablet and Mobile views, then make the code as below:

"Slider" : [false, true, true]

Note: In case you want a different playbar to be responsive, you can follow the same procedure mentioned above but you have to copy the responsive function in the js file first.The first preference will be given to the checkboxes in skin editor. If they are not selected, then irrespective of the value of true or false that button will not appear in the playbar.

5 Re-launch Captivate and the play bar will be updated.

Responsive capture (Responsive simulation)

Create a single screen capture that can be used across multiple screens and devices. Adobe Captivate allows you to choose the portion of the screen capture you wish to display on smaller screens.

1 Open a Captivate Responsive Project

2 Click Slide > Software Simulation

Record Additional Slides window appears.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

3 Choose the slide after which you want the recorded slide to be inserted and click OK.

Screen Capture screen window appears.

4 Select recording type as Automatic or Video demo or Manual and click Record to capture the screens.

Note: Use manual recording when you want to pick and choose a few screenshots during the recording process. When you record using automatic recording, Adobe Captivate captures screenshots automatically and places them on separate slides. Automatic recording is the most commonly used recording method in Adobe Captivate.

5 In Responsive Project, click Mobile view.

The screen capture re-aligns itself and appears as below:

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

6 You can observe that the background is skewed.

In Adobe Captivate 8, you have an option to use portion of background image in Mobile view.

7 In Properties Inspector, click Use portion of background image. You can move the slide capture to the background

portion of your choice.

Now, you can notice the difference from previous view.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

Drag and drop interaction

Adobe Captivate 8.0.1 supports drag and drop interactions for Responsive projects.

Drag-and-drop interactions provide an interesting and engaging way of assessing your users’ knowledge. This interaction lets users answer questions by dragging and dropping objects in the designated areas or objects.

A drag-and-drop interaction involves a drag source and a drop target. Users drag the drag sources and drop them onto drop targets.

In responsive project, you can invoke drag and drop interaction wizard by choosing Insert > Launch Drag and Drop Interaction Wizard. You can also choose Interactions > Drag and drop as shown in the snapshot below:

All the features of drag and drop interaction in Responsive projects are similar to the blank projects as well. For information how to create a drag and drop interaction, various features of the interaction and best practices see

and-drop interactionDrag-and-drop interaction

Drag-

View Specific Properties

View-Specific Properties

Apply view specific properties by controlling the size, position, and characters of the object. Create objects in one view and make them visible or invisible to other views.

You can also make the objects view specific. For example, you can create objects A, B, and C in Primary breakpoint view. But, you would not want to use B in Tablet and C in Mobile breakpoint views. You can achieve this in Responsive Project by moving o bject B out of slide into scrap area in Tab let vi ew. An d, by moving o bject C int o scrap area in Mo bile view.

Alternatively, to make the object appear in only one view, right-Click the object, and choose Exclude from Other Views as shown in the screenshot below:

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

Applying View Specific Properties

1 Create a Responsive Project and add couple of Smartshape objects in the Primary breakpoint slide

2 Switch to Tablet and Mobile breakpoints and observe You can view the same objects of Primary view in Tablet and

Mobile views

3 Click the object to highlight it and click Properties > Position tab In Position tab, you can see the object positions

drop-down boxes highlighted such as Top, Left, Bottom, Right, Height and Width.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

4 Click the drop-down boxes for each position and choose the value types such as %, px (for pixels) and relative %

(relative to the overlay objects).

5 Now, customize the object position and size in each view differently. You can observe the borders of positions

highlighted in respective colors of the view breakpoint colors.

Consider a case where you created a smart shape in Primary view and customized its position in Tablet view. Object Height and Width properties borders appear in Primary view breakpoint color and rest of the properties appear in Tablet view breakpoint color.

Sample screenshot is shown below:

Add any two objects to the slide. In Position tab from Properties, click Checkbox adjacent to Smart Position to view the dimensions and links to other objects. Knowing the distances from the slide borders enables you to design

accurate flowcharts and other drawings.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

Object Position

Smart Position Use this option if you want to follow an object instead of stage in the project.

% Choose this unit if you want object dimension or position to be a percentage of Stage width or height.

Pixel Choose this unit if you want object dimension or position to be a percentage of Stage width or height.

Auto Choose this unit to maintain aspect ratio.

% Relative Choose this option to maintain the overlay position. Appears only to height-related properties.

Relative Top can work as function of width but not as function of height. You can also use % Relative to link objects.

Min-Max

Fix the minimum and maximum size of objects so that they do not rescale across device views. This is especially useful for images such as logos, which need to look consistent and be legible at all times.

In Responsive project, you can set the Minimum Height, Minimum Width, Maximum Height, and Maximum Width for the objects.

1 Click any object

2 From Position Tab of Property Inspector, Click the arrow button adjacent to Advanced

3 Set the Minimum and Maximum position values.

Themes

Themes help your project look better with coordinated colors, well-planned layouts for slides, fonts and effects. When you create a project, a default theme is applied to the project. You can change the theme by choosing one of the preloaded themes that are shipped along with Adobe Captivate. You can customize a theme, save it as a different theme, and reuse it for other projects.

Constituents of a theme

Each theme consists of the following:

• Master slides (a minimum of seven)

• Main master slide, prefixed with the name of the theme

• Content master slide

• Question master slides (5 numbers)

• Object styles. For example, the 'Woody' theme contains styles such as Woody caption style, Failure, and Success

captions.

• Skin and TOC settings related to the theme

• Recording defaults

For a description about these slides, see Master slides.

You can modify each of these component of a theme. For more information, see Customize a theme.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

The Themes bar (Themes > Themes) shows a representative content master slide of a theme.

Templates and themes

The difference between templates and themes is that templates decide 'when' and 'where' content (including media) is to be placed while themes decide how the project looks. For example, consider that you want a standard approach to all the elearning courses developed by your team. You require a pretest followed by content and then a post-test. You can c reat e a templ ate w ith th e required t ype of slide pl aceho lders an d also decide t he nu mber of slid es that ea ch of these sections contain.

On the other hand, if you need an aquatic theme for the project background with coordinated colors for the slides, you apply a theme.

The recommended workflow is to use a theme within the project template. By doing so, you can ensure that the projects based on the template use a standard theme.

Apply themes

Click Themes > Apply Theme, and then select a theme (CPTM file).

A visual representation of a theme is shown in the Themes bar. To view the bar, click Themes > Themes. The Themes bar appears at the top of the workspace. Use the drop-down at the top of the Themes bar to filter the themes or browse for more themes.

For Adobe Captivate to apply themes effectively, ensure that you use uniform styles for objects. For example, all text captions can be of a one single style.

You can apply themes to projects directly or use them in project templates for a standard look and feel.

When you apply a theme to a project:

• For each slide in the project, Adobe Captivate compares the linked master slide layout with those on the master

slides in the theme you apply. If a matching layout is found, the slide is mapped to that master slide. If a match is not found, Adobe Cativate creates a new master slide and then maps the slide.

• Objects, layouts, skin editor, and TOC that use default settings of the existing theme are mapped to the respective

default styles in the applied theme. Any overrides to these elements are not retained in the project.

When you copy and paste a slide into another project, the theme of the target project is applied to the slide. If the slide contains objects and layouts that were overridden, the overridden settings are retained.

When you record a software simulation in a project, default captions and highlight boxes are mapped to the corresponding styles in the project theme.

Customize themes

You can customize a theme by editing the constituent master slides, object styles, skin, and TOC settings.

For information on customizing:

• Master slides, see Master slides.

• Object styles, see Object style.

• Theme settings in the skin of a project, see Skins.

• Theme settings in TOC, see Table o f c ontents ( TOC ) .

• Recording defaults, see Set recording preferences.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Creating Projects

To save a customized theme, click Themes > Save Theme. Themes are saved as CPTM files.

Reuse themes across projects

1 I f you have modified a theme, save the changes by clicking Theme > Save Theme. The themes are saved as CPTM

files.

Changes to master slides, object styles, skin editor, and TOC theme settings now become a part of the saved theme.

2 Open the project in which you want to reuse the theme.

3 Click Themes > Apply Theme, and browse for the theme (CPTM file) that you saved earlier.

Enable backup file creation

Adobe Captivate creates a backup file for your project when you save it. When you re-save the project, the changes are saved to the backup file too. The backup file is saved with a .bak extension.

If your project file gets corrupt, use the backup file to recover your project. Rename the backup file using a .cptx extension, and open it. Changes that you made after the last save, however, are not reflected in the backup file.

The provision to create a backup file is enabled by default in the Preferences dialog box. You can choose to disable the option if it interferes with the speed of saving the project.

Note: The size of the backup file might be larger than that of your main project.

1 Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Preferences dialog box, select General Settings from the Global menu.

3 Select Generate Project Backup.

Customize the project size

When you start creating a new project, you are prompted to choose a predefine size for the project. You can also specify a custom Width and Height for your project.

If you want to reuse the custom size frequently, you can save the project size and assign a name to it. By doing so, you get to choose the custom size from the Select menu the next time you create a project.

1 In the New <type of project> Project dialog box, click Customize. The Custom Project Size dialog box appears.

2 Click New and type a name for the custom size. For example, “Size for Adobe Projects.”

3 Specify the height and width.

4 Click Save and then click OK.

The saved custom size now appears in the Select list of the New <type of project> Project dialog box.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 4: Recording Projects

Record video demonstrations

1 Click Video Demo on the Welcome screen. Or, click File > Record New Video Demo.

The recording window, marked by a red box, and the recording options appear.

2 Click Screen Area or Application based on what you want to record and specify the associated options:

Screen Area Select this option when you want to capture all events that occur within an area on the screen.

Custom Size Select this option if you want to customize the dimensions of the recorded project. You can choose

from a list of standard sizes, or define a custom size. The selected application is automatically resized to fit inside the boundaries of the recording area. Best practice is to have a clear idea of the dimensions of the project before you start recording it.

Full Screen Select this option if you want to set the size of the recording window to the size of your computer

monitor. The entire computer screen is treated as the recording window. If you work on dual monitors, you can choose the monitor that you want to use for recording. Recording in this mode can potentially produce very large projects and output file sizes due to the large screen resolution on monitors.

Application Select this option to specify the application which you want to record. The Select The Window To

Record drop-down lists all the open applications on your computer. Click the required application from this list.

Application Window Select this option if you want to record the entire application window. The dimensions of the

application are not altered. The recording rectangle is resized to fit the application.

Application Region Select this option if you want to record defined areas in an application. For example, if you are

recording a window that has three frames, the recording window snaps to individual frames when the mouse moves over them. The dimensions of the application are not altered. The recording rectangle is resized to fit the defined area in the application.

3 Do one or all of the following:

• Select a panning mode if you want the recording window to follow your movements across the screen. For more

information, see

Panning.

• If you are adding narration during recording, select the type of audio input. In the patch for subscription and

Adobe Software Assurance customers, you can select System Audio to record audio from your computer's speakers, for example, the sound you hear when error messages pop-up. For more information, see

(Cp 7).

System audio is not supported on Windows XP.

System audio

• To change the default settings that Adobe Captivate uses when recording a video demo, click Settings. For more

information on customizing recording preferences, see

4 Click Record.

5 Press End key (in Windows) or Cmd + Enter (Mac OS) when you have completed the recording.

Set video recording preferences.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Note: Alternatively, on Windows, click the task icon or the system tray icon to stop recording. On Mac, click the dock icon or the status bar icon.

The preview of the recorded video appears and starts playing. You can do one or all of the following:

• Publish the recorded video as an MP4 file and save it on your computer. To do so, click . For more information,

see Publish video as an MP4 file.

• Directly publish the video to YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook. To do so, click . For more information, see

Publish video to YouTube.

• Edit the video in Adobe Captivate and enhance it by adding captions, PIP videos, and pan and zoom effect. You can

then publish the video to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or save it as an MP4 file.

To edit the video, click Edit. See Edit videosfor more information.

Edit videos

You can enter the video editing mode by clicking Edit in the video preview window.

A .CPVC file opens in Adobe Captivate. You can now edit the video to split or trim it, add effects, audio, and the following objects:

• Te xt c a pti o n s

• Highlight boxes

• Images

• Smart shapes

• Mouse

• Animation

• Picture-In-Picture videos (PIP video)

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

See Noninteractive Objects and Media for information on adding these objects.

A .CPVC file is slightly different from the regular Adobe Captivate project or a CPTX file. The following table summarizes these differences:

CPTX file CPVC file

Is based on a 'slide' paradigm. After recording, you can see the individual slides in the Filmstrip.

You can edit every slide in the Filmstrip by clicking them. You can edit the video clip to cut, copy, or trim it between two points

You can insert both interactive and non-interactive objects. You can insert only the non-interactive objects, text captions and

You can insert quizzes. You cannot add quizzes directly. You can create a separate CPTX

You can preview the whole project, the current slide, or specific slides. You can preview either the whole project or the current frame on

Is not based on the 'slide' paradigm. Af ter recording, the file contains a single video clip that you can see in the Timeline.

using the Video Editing options in the Properties.

highlight boxes.

project with assessments, publish the CPVC files as MP4 files, and insert into the CPTX project.

stage.

Properties of a video demo project

Click anywhere on the stage outside the recorded video to view the properties of the video demo in the Property Inspector.

Stage Click to change the fill color of the project background. You can also apply gradient fills or pattern fills for the

background. For more information on gradient fills, see

Background Click <<browse icon>> to select an image as the background. This background is visible on the frames

that do not contain the recorded video. For example, you split the video and insert objects such as a text caption between the video clips. The background is applied to the frame with the text caption.

note: If the image you choose is larger than the dimensions of the video frame, the Resize/Crop Image dialog box appears. Choose appropriate options to continue.

Apply gradient fillsand Apply texture fills.

Start Time Indicates from which point in Timeline the video is published. By default, the value is set to the beginning

of the video clip.

End Time Indicates until which point in Timeline the video is published. By default, the value is set to the end of the

video clip.

Use Start Time and End Time options to publish a portion of the video. For example, if the total length of the video is 60 seconds, you can publish a portion of the video from 10 to 45 seconds.

Properties of recorded video clips

Name Type a unique name for the video clip.

Audio Specify the transition, edit, or remove the audio associated with the video clip. See Add audio to a video

projectfor more information.

Properties of PIP videos

Name Type a unique name for the video clip.

Shadow Click to apply shadow to the video clip. Choose the direction and a preset or customize the shadow effect by

clicking Custom. For more information, see

Apply shadows to objects.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Reflection Click to apply reflection to the video clip. Click the required preset. For more information, see Add

reflection to objects.

Tra nsf orm Resize the dimensions of the video clip or modify the position of the clip by specifying X and y values. You

can also rotate the clip by specifying an angle.

Click Video Demo on the Welcome screen. Or, click File > Record New Video Demo.

The recording window, marked by a red box, and the recording options appear.

Audio Specify the transition, edit, or remove the audio associated with the video clip. See Add audio to a video

projectfor more information.

Timeline in video projects

The Timeline in video projects is different from CPTX projects in terms of how objects and videos are grouped:

• In video projects, unlike CPTX projects, all objects are placed in a single layer in the Timeline

• PIP videos and recorded video clips are placed in different layers

• Audio and recorded video clips are placed in the same layer

Add pan and zoom effect

The pan and zoom effect helps you draw users' attention to a specific area or an action in the video. For example, in a software simulation, you can pan the screen to a group of icons and then zoom in closer to a specific icon.

1 Play the video file using the Play button in the Timeline.

2 Pause (click the play button again) at the point where you require the pan and zoom effect.

3 Click Pan & Zoom in the Timeline. The Pan and Zoom icon appears in the video clip and the Pan & Zoom panel

appears.

The Pan & Zoom panel displays the frame at the point you chose in the video.

To move the pan and zoom point to a different location on the video clip, drag-and-drop the icon.

4 To specify the area to be magnified, resize the blue box around the frame using the handles. Then, drag-and-drop

the box to the required position on the frame. The smaller the box, the greater is the magnification.

You can also specify the magnification value in terms of percentage using the Scale slider or box.

5 Use the Speed slider to specify how fast Adobe Captivate has to zoom in.

To delete a pan and zoom point, click the icon in the timeline and press the Delete key.

Apply transitions to video

1 Click the transition icon that appears at the beginning and end of the video clip.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

2 Choose a transition effect from the Transitions panel. To see a preview of a transition effect, hover your mouse over

the effect.

3 In the Speed list at the top of the Transition panel, click the required speed for the transition.

To remove the transition effect, click the transition icon, and click No Transition from the Transitions panel.

Split recorded video clips

You can split the video clip to insert separator text or videos (PIP). For example, you can split the video clip to insert a summary of what users learnt until that point in the video.

When you split a video clip, the resultant clips continue to exist on the same layer in the Timeline.

Here's an example of how you can insert separator text between two parts of a video clip:

1 Click the video clip in the Timeline.

2 Click to play the video and click the icon again to pause at the point where you want to split the video.

3 Click Split in the Timeline. The Timeline now shows two video clips.

Note: Other objects, such as, text captions or highlight boxes in the project are also split along with the video clip. Preview the video to adjust the timing of these objects.

4 Drag-and-drop the second clip to create space for the text that you want to insert.

5 Click Insert > Text Caption. The default text caption appears on a separate layer on the Timeline.

6 Drag-and-drop the text caption in the Timeline and position it so that it corresponds to the space between the two

parts of the video clip.

7 Preview the project to check the timing of the text caption.

Note: The text caption appears as a separate frame or a slide. The background of this screen is the one that you set for the video project. To change the background, drag-and-drop the stage anywhere outside the video, and then click Stage in the Property Inspector.

You can make the transition between the video clips interesting by adding effects. When you split a video clip, a transition icon appears at the split point in the Timeline. Click the icon to choose an effect from the Transitions panel.

Note: Each video clip has a transition icon at the beginning and end. If you move the second video clip, another transition icon appears at the beginning of the clip. When you merge the transition icons by placing the video clips adjacent to each other, the transition effect used in the subsequent video clip is retained.

Trim video clips

You can trim video clips to cut unwanted portions of the video.

1 Click the video clip in the Timeline.

2 Click to play the video and click the icon again to pause at the point where you want to trim the video.

3 Click Trim in the Timeline. Start and end markers that define the region for trimming appear on the video clip.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

4 Click or to move the start and end trim markers to the current playhead position. You can also click and drag

the trim markers left or right to choose the portion of the video clip for trimming.

Note: Objects, such as, text captions or highlight boxes that are within the cross section of the trim markers are also cut along with the video clip.

5 Click Trim in the Timeline.

Two separate video clips appear with transition icons. Click the icon to choose a transition effect.

Add audio to a video project

You can record or import an audio clip (WAV or mp3 files):

• As background audio for the entire project (Audio > Import to > Background; Audio > Record to > Background).

• As background or narration for any PIP in the project. Click the PIP in the Timeline, and then click Audio > Import

To > PIP, or Audio > Record To > PIP.

• As video narration to individual video clips in the project. Click the video clip, and then click Audio > Import To >

Video Narration, or Audio > Record To > Video Narration.

If you have split a video clip into multiple clips, you can add separate audio clips to each video clip. To do so, rightclick the video clip, and choose Record To or Import To.

You can record audio as narration for the entire project at once using Audio > Record To > Project Narration.

For information on editing audio, see Edit audio.

Edit mouse points

Click the mouse icon and modify the properties in the Property Inspector:

1 Click Edit > Edit Mouse Points. The mouse icons appear on the video clip in the Timeline indicating the frames that

have mouse actions.

2 Click the mouse icon and modify the properties in the Property Inspector:

Options Choose the required pointer. Click Browse for any pointers stored on your local disk.

Double Mouse Size Choose to double the size of the pointer.

Show Mouse Toggle to show or hide the mouse action. When you hide the mouse action, the mouse icon is still

visible on the video clip. However, when you play the video, the action from the previous mouse point to the hidden one is not visible.

Smoothen Mouse Path By default, the mouse path is rough, traced by the actual movement of the mouse during

recording. Select this option to make the mouse path smooth either using a straight line or a curve.

Reduce Speed Before Click Select this option to slow the mouse movement down before the click occurs. This

option is useful for a long mouse path that moves quickly and stops suddenly.

note: This option appears only if you have selected Smoothen Mouse Path.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Show Mouse Click Adds a visual click effect to the mouse movement.

Default Displays a quick, small burst of color when the user clicks the slide. You can select a color for the color burst.

Custom Select this option to use a SWF file as a visual click effect. Adobe Captivate includes two effects you can use.

Test them by clicking the pop-up menu, selecting one, and then clicking Play. View the effect in the small preview window on the right.

3 To apply the modified properties to multiple mouse points in the video, click and click one of the options.

Insert mouse actions

In addition to the mouse actions that you capture while recording the video, you can insert new mouse actions into the video.

1 Click the video clip in the Timeline.

2 Click to play the video and click the icon again to pause at the point where you want to insert a mouse action.

3 Click Insert > Mouse. A pointer appears on the frame at the playhead point. Adobe Captivate plots the mouse

position based on the coordinates derived from the previous and the subsequent mouse points.

4 Drag-and-drop the pointer to the required place on the frame.

5 Edit the properties using the Property Inspector. For details on the different properties you can edit, see Change

mouse properties.

Recording additional video

1 In the CPVC file, click Insert > Video Recording.

For information on recording video from within CPTX files, see Insert videos in CPTX files (Cp 6).

2 Select the recording options and the area you want to record, and click Record.

The new video clip appears after the existing video clips on the Timeline.

Publish video projects

Publish video as an MP4 file

1 In the full screen mode, click . In the CPVC file, click File > Publish.

2 Specify a title for the project.

3 Specify a folder in which the project must be published. By default, the project is published in the folder specified

in the project preferences.

4 Click one of the options in the Select Preset list.

Adobe Captivate automatically sets the video settings based on the option you select. If necessary, you can customize the settings by selecting the Customize Video Settings check box.

After publishing a project as an MP4 file, you can do the following:

• Upload it to the device stores or to YouTube. You can also share the video over social media, such as Twitter and

Facebook. See

Publish projects as MP4 filesfor information.

• Distribute the file to your users as a stand-alone video over email or host it on your web server.

• Stream or embed the MP4 file using Flash.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Publish video to YouTube

In the full screen mode, click . In the CPVC file, click File > Publish to YouTube.

See Upload projects to YouTube directly from Adobe Captivatefor more information.

Publish a specific portion of the video

1 Drag-and-drop the black start and end markers to define the portion of the video you want to publish.

You can also specify the Start and End time in the Property Inspector. Click anywhere on stage outside the video to view the Start and End time.

2 Do one of the following actions:

• Click File > publish to publish the portion of the video as an MP4 file. See Publish video as an MP4 filefor more

information.

• Click File > Publish to YouTube to publish the portion of the video directly to YouTube. See Upload projects to

YouTube directly from Adobe Captivatefor more information.

Insert videos in CPTX files (Cp 6)

Click the Record additional slides icon ( ), and then click Video Demo in the recording options.

The recording video appears in the Filmstrip with the webcam icon.

To edit the video, click the slide, and then click Edit Video Demo in the Property Inspector. For information on editing videos, see

Click Exit at the upper-left corner to save the changes to the video file and return to the CPTX file.

Edit videos.

Insert video demonstrations in CPTX files (Cp 7)

1 Save your video demonstration as a CPVC file.

2 Open the CPTX file in which you want to insert the video demonstration.

3 Click the slide after which you want to insert the video demo, click Insert, and click CPVC Slide.

4 Browse and select the CPVC file you want to insert.

The Property Inspector displays all the properties of the CPVC file. To edit the video, click Edit Video Demo. The CPVC file is opened for editing. After completing the edits, click Exit to return to the CPTX file.

If you edit the CPVC file by directly opening the file in Adobe Captivate, you can update the video included in all CPTX projects. To do so, right-click the CPVC file name in Adobe Captivate Library (Media > Video), and click Update.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Pause while recording projects

You can pause while recording an Adobe Captivate project. Any action performed after a project is paused is not recorded.

1 Open Adobe Captivate and begin recording a new project or slide.

2 When you want to pause recording, press the Pause/Break key (on Windows) or Cmd + F2 (on Mac OS) on the

keyboard. When you want to restart recording, press Pause/Break or Cmd + F2 again.

Note: You can change the keys that you want to use for pausing or resuming projects in the Preferences dialog box.

Record software simulations

1 Select File > Record New Software Simulation. The recording window appears.

2 Click Screen Area or Application.

Application Sel ec t th is op tion if yo u want to speci fy the a ppl icat ion wh ich you wan t to r ecor d as part o f yo ur pr oje ct .

In the Select Application menu, select the application that you want to record and select one of the following:

Custom Size Select this option if you want to customize the dimensions of the recorded project. You can choose from a list of standard sizes, or define a custom size. The selected application is automatically resized to fit inside the boundaries of the recording area. Best practice is to have a clear idea of the dimensions of the project before you start recording it.

Application Window Select this option if you want to record the entire application window. The dimensions of the application are not altered. The recording rectangle is resized to fit the application.

Application Region Select this option if you want to record defined areas in an application. For example, if you are recording a window that has three frames, the recording window snaps to individual frames when the mouse moves over them. The dimensions of the application are not altered. The recording rectangle is resized to fit the defined area in the application.

Screen Area Select this option when you want to capture all events that occur within an area on the screen.

Custom Size Select this option if you want to record your project using a specific dimension. You can choose from a list of standard sizes, or create your own custom size window.

Full Screen Select this option if you want to set the size of the recording window to the size of your monitor screen. The entire computer screen is treated as the recording window. If you work on dual monitors, you can choose the monitor that you want to use for recording. Recording in this mode can potentially produce very large projects and output file sizes due to the large screen resolution on monitors.

3 Click Automatic or Manual in the Recording Type area. For more information, see Automatic recording, and

Manual recording.

4 Do one or all of the following:

• Select a panning mode if you want the recording window to follow your movements across the screen. For more

information, see

Panning.

• If you are adding commentary during recording, select the type of audio input.

• To change the default settings that Adobe Captivate uses when recording, click Settings at the bottom of the

recording options. For more information on customizing recording preferences, see

5 Click Record.

Set recording preferences.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

6 If you have selected Manual recording, press Print Screen (Windows) or Command+F6 (Mac) every time you want

to take a screenshot during the procedure.

7 Press End key (in Windows) or Cmd + Enter (Mac OS) when you have completed recording.

Note: Alternatively, on Windows, click the task icon or the system tray icon to stop recording. On Mac, click the dock icon or the status bar icon.

The recorded slides are now inserted in a new Adobe Captivate project.

For a demonstration of the recording process, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_recordtutorial_en.

Record additional slides for existing projects

1 Open the project in which you want to record additional slides.

2 Click the Record Additional Slides icon ( ).

3 In the Record Additional Slides dialog box, select the slide after which you want the recorded slides to be inserted

and click OK.

The recording window appears.

4 Set the recording options and click Record.

Note: You can record a video as an additional slide by selecting Video Demo in the recording options.

The newly recorded slides are inserted into your project after the slide you selected.

You can also add slides by importing them from other Adobe Captivate projects or PowerPoint presentations.

Mark slides to revisit after recording

Sometimes, while recording simulations, you may click an option that you initially did not plan for. This action can result in unwanted slides in your recorded project. To locate such unwanted screen captures later after recording the entire project can be an arduous task, especially if you have many slides.

To locate the slides you want to delete or revisit in a recorded project, press Ctrl + Shift + Z while recording. For example, if you click an option on the screen and realized that it was a wrong action during recording, press Ctrol + Shift + Z.

The slide that corresponds to the action is marked with an Undo marker and is hidden in the project.

The Undo marker is basically a transparent text caption on the slide. If you want to retain the slide, select the caption, and press Delete. Also, right-click the slide, and click Show Slide to unhide the slide.

Note: Note: You can change the keyboard shortcut for the undo marker in Preferences (Edit > Preferences > Recording > Keys (Global)).

To edit the slide, right-click on the slide in the Filmstrip and click Show slide. To delete the marker, click it and press Delete.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Recording tips

The following tips and tricks can help you create Adobe Captivate projects quickly and easily, while also giving you professional, high-quality results:

Use automatic recording as far as possible Even for projects that need a few manually generated screenshots, consider

automatic recording. Set the autorecord option, but press Print Screen (Windows) or Command+F6 (Mac) whenever you want to take an extra screenshot. This method is effective if you are recording a website that contains many popups, frames, and special effects. Adobe Captivate plays a camera shutter sound each time a screenshot is automatically captured. To generate a screenshot at a place where you do not hear the sound, press Print Screen to manually take a screenshot.

For example, if you are recording Microsoft Internet Explorer, there can be dynamic HTML or Flash menus that appear only when the mouse rolls over them. Adobe Captivate does not automatically capture the change that occurs on mouse rollover. Press Print Screen to manually capture the change.

Go slowly when recording, particularly when recording websites in Internet Explorer Perform actions more slowly

than you would normally during recording. It is especially important to go slowly when capturing actions on a website in Internet Explorer. If you are manually recording, ensure that each web page is loaded before capturing a screenshot.

Wait for the camera shutter sound During autorecording, wait for the shutter sound before performing another action.

If you are manually recording, Adobe Captivate captures screenshots each time you press a designated key or key combination. The default capture key is the Print Screen key. Each time you want to capture a screenshot, press the Print Screen key; you'll hear the camera shutter sound.

Set recording preferences

Adobe Captivate uses a default set of preferences for panning and other settings when recording or creating projects. You can customize these preferences using the various options available in the Preferences dialog box.

Panning

Use panning when you want the recording window to follow the movement of your mouse pointer across the screen. Panning helps you capture events across a large screen even when the recording window is smaller than the size of the screen.

The following panning options are available in Adobe Captivate:

Automatic Panning The recording window automatically moves along with the pointer whenever you move the mouse

during recording.

Manual Panning You must manually move the recording window to the area where the next event takes place. In all

other respects, It is like the automatic panning option.

Set global recording preferences

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, select Settings from the Recording menu.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Option Description

Narration Records audio as you record the project. You cannot enable camera

Actions in real time Record actions using their actual speed.

Camera sounds A “camera shutter” sound is played whenever a screenshot is captured

Keystrokes Records keyboard actions like typing text on the screen. Adobe

Hear keyboard tap sounds Determines whether keyboard press sounds are audible during

Recording Window The red border of the recording window is not displayed during

Task Icon Hides the task icon during recording.

System Tray Icon Hides the system tray icon during recording. This icon is the small

Move new windows inside recording area Adobe Captivate automatically moves any new window during

sounds or keyboard tap sounds when you have chosen narration for a project.

during recording. It is helpful to turn on this sound so you know exactly when a screenshot is captured, especially when using the autorecording feature. The camera sound is not included in the finished project.

Captivate records keyboard input, but does not create a slide for every character that is typed.

recording. The keyboard press sounds are not included in the finished project.

recording.

This option is available only on Windows.

Adobe Captivate icon that is displayed in the system tray in the lowerright corner of the computer screen. Use this option if you do not want to record the icon when recording the project.

recording into the recording window. Use this option when recording an application in which many dialog boxes open as you use the application.

Drag and drop actions Adobe Captivate switches automatically to video mode when

Mouse Wheel Actions Adobe Captivate switches automatically to video mode when

recording drag-and-drop actions.

recording mouse movements.

Set video recording preferences

Adobe Captivate automatically captures some actions in the video mode during autorecording. You can choose to disable this feature in the Preferences dialog box. You can also set options to optimize the size of the video SWF file and set the color mode for the video file.

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, select Video Demo from the Recording menu.

Option Description

Show mouse in Video Demo Mode Displays mouse movements when the video is played.

Working folder Location of the generated temporary video file on your computer.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Change keyboard shortcuts for recording

You can choose your own keyboard shortcuts for actions that are involved when recording a project using the Preferences dialog box. For example, the End key (in Windows) or Cmd + Enter (Mac OS) is used to stop recording a project in Adobe Captivate. You can change that by entering a different key in the dialog box.

1 Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Preferences dialog box, select Keys - (Global) from the Recording menu.

3 Click inside the field that you want to change.

4 Ty p e t h e ke y b o a rd shortcut.

Set Preferences for the different modes

Some of the options for recording modes are disabled in Adobe Captivate. The reason for disabling the options is based on the logic for recording in that mode. However, you can still enable some of the options if you have a special requirement.

For example, one wouldn't usually add text captions in an assessment movie. So, the options for text captions are not enabled in Adobe Captivate. You can enable them in the Preferences dialog box if you have a special requirement.

1 Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Preferences dialog box, select Modes from the Recording menu.

3 In the Mode menu, select the recording mode you want to customize. Then, choose the objects you want to be

inserted automatically during recording:

Option Description

Add Text Captions Automatically creates captions based on user and system actions

Convert Tool Tips To Rollover Captions Automatically converts any tool tips on the screens you are capturing

Use Smart Shapes Instead of Captions Inserts the specified smart shape for captions.

Show Mouse Location And Movement Displays mouse movements during autorecording.

performed during autorecording. The text captions use the labels in the application to describe a step. For example, if the user clicks File in the menu bar, a text caption with the text, “Select the File menu” is created automatically.

to rollover captions. Tool tips are small floating text windows that appear when the mouse hovers over buttons. This option is not selected by default for any of the recording modes.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Option Description

Add highlight boxes on click Automatically adds a highlight box around the area where the mouse

Add Click Boxes On Mouse Click

is clicked.

• Automatically creates click boxes whenever you click screens you

are autorecording.

• Enables or disables the hint, success, and failure captions.

• Sets the number of times the user can click before the movie moves

to the next slide.

• Enables cursor display when the user moves the mouse over the

mouse areas

Automatically Add Text Entry Boxes For Text fields

• Automatically creates text entry boxes whenever you click text

boxes you are autorecording.

• Enables or disables the hint, success, and failure captions.

• Sets the number of times the user can enter text within the same

text entry box before the movie moves to the next slide.

Note: The options mentioned in the table are enabled or disabled based on the recording mode you have chosen.

Change recording defaults for objects

Adobe Captivate uses a default set of styles when inserting objects such as text captions and highlight boxes during recording. You can change these default settings using the Preferences dialog box.

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, select Defaults from the Recording menu. Change the styles for the objects as required.

To create a new object style, click Create New Style and create a new style in the Object Style Manager.

More Help topics

Automatic recording

Manual recording

Tex t c apt i ons

Highlight boxes

Types of recording

Automatic recording

When you record using automatic recording, Adobe Captivate captures screenshots automatically and places them on separate slides. Mouse, keyboard, or system events are the common triggers for capturing screenshots. Automatic recording is the most commonly used recording method in Adobe Captivate.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

In the recording options (File > Record New Software Simulation) , you choose one of the following autorecording modes:

• Demonstration mode

• Training mode

• Assessment mode

• Custom mode

Depending on the mode, one or more of the following objects are added automatically during the recording. You can change recording preferences for the various modes. The descriptions for the various modes assume that you have not changed the default recording preferences.

Tex t C aptions Text captions are used to point out certain areas on a slide, explain concepts, or provide users with

additional information. Text captions can be created automatically or manually. If you are autorecording a project, you can have Adobe Captivate automatically create text captions. Text captions are generated for the various mouse and keyboard events.

The text captions use the labels in the application to describe a step. For example, if the user clicks File in the menu bar, a text caption with the text, “Select the File menu” is created automatically. You can later edit the captions to your requirements. When the user views the movie, the actions performed during recording are displayed along with the captions

Text Entry Boxes Text entry boxes are Adobe Captivate objects that require user input. During recording in some of the

modes, text entry boxes with default hint, success, or failure captions are added to the slides. You can later edit the text in these captions.

Click Boxes A click box is an object in Adobe Captivate that designates an area around the place where the mouse was

clicked during recording. Click boxes help users try out an application or website using the movie. After viewers click a click box, you can have the project perform different actions. For example, the project resumes playing, opens a new project, or opens a specific website.

Highlight boxes Highlight boxes are transparent, colored rectangles that can be placed over areas on a slide to draw

attention to the area. You can edit the formatting, color, transparency, and size of all highlight boxes. If you automatically record a project or slides, Adobe Captivate creates a highlight box for the area on which a mouse event occurs. If you have an existing project, you can also add highlight boxes manually.

Demonstration mode

Use the demonstration mode when you want to demonstrate a procedure or feature. The movie produced in this mode however, does not provide any scope for user interaction. The user can only passively view actions that were performed when the project was recorded.

When recording a movie in the demonstration mode, Adobe Captivate does the following:

• Adds text captions using the labels of the controls in the application. For example, if the user clicks File in the menu

bar, a text caption with the text, “Select the File menu” is created automatically.

• Adds highlight boxes to highlight those areas where the mouse is clicked.

• Adds text that is typed manually during the recording.

See Record software simulationsfor more information.

Training mode

Use the training mode when you want the user to try the procedure during the movie. The movie moves to the next slide only after the user has performed the previous action correctly.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

When recording slides in training mode, Adobe Captivate does the following:

• Adds click boxes at places where the user must click the mouse.

• Adds text entry boxes for user input. The failure and hint captions are added to each text entry box.

See Record software simulationsfor more information.

Assessment mode

Use the assessment mode when you want to test how well the user has understood a procedure. You can set a score for every correct click. You can also set the number of times the user can attempt a procedure. When the user fails to click the right option in the number of attempts provided, the movie moves to the next step. The user does not get any score for the failed attempt.

When recording slides in assessment mode, Adobe Captivate does the following:

• Adds click boxes at places where the user must click the mouse.

• Adds text entry boxes for user input. The failure caption is added to each text entry box.

See Record software simulationsfor more information.

Custom mode

Use the custom mode when working on a project where you need a mix of features available in the other modes. This mode allows you to achieve the highest level of customization in Adobe Captivate. Using the custom mode, you can create a project that is part demo, part training, and also includes assessment. None of the Adobe Captivate objects are added by default during recording in the Custom mode.

For example, let us consider a movie meant for training the user on editing a file. In the first few slides for simpler tasks like opening the application and opening the file, you can retain the slides created in the demo mode. When you move to the slides describing the procedure for editing, you can add the various objects with which the user can interact. Finally, you can provide for assessment slides at the end of the project.

See Record software simulationsfor more information.

Multimode recording

When you record an Adobe Captivate project, you can choose to record in more than one mode. Multimode recording helps you save time when working on projects that require outputs in more than one autorecording mode.

See Record software simulationsfor more information.

Manual recording

You c an cr eat e a pr oje ct man ual ly by ta kin g scre ens hots duri ng re cord ing . Us e manual r ecor din g when you want to pi ck and choose a few screenshots during the recording process. The procedure can get tedious for complicated procedures involving many steps.

See Record software simulationsfor more information.

More Help topics

Tex t c apt i ons

Highlight boxes

Click boxes

Last updated 10/13/2014

Recording Projects

Tex t e ntr y b oxes

Set recording preferences

Recording in sync

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 5: Slides

Slide notes

You can add slide notes and convert them into an audio file using the text-to-speech converter in Adobe Captivate. You can also convert slide notes to closed captioned text. Unlike slide notes, closed captioned text appears on the slide during runtime.

You can also use slide notes to communicate with users who do not have any audio equipment or are hearing impaired. Slide notes are a good location for adding extra information about a slide, such as numerical details, supporting materials, or footnote text.

Add slide notes

1 Select Window > Slide Notes.

2 In the Slide Notes panel, click the + icon to add a new slide note.

3 Ty p e t h e s lide notes

Slide notes can act as instructions for developers or as reminders for unfinished items. Notes are not displayed when the movie is played.

Slide notes are automatically imported when you import slides from Microsoft PowerPoint.

If you export your project to Microsoft Word to create handouts, you have the option to include slide notes in the document. This can be useful when you want to add extra information for reviewers when you publish the project as a Microsoft Word document.

Convert slide notes to speech or closed captioned text

You can convert text in the slide notes into an audio file using text-to-speech software from NeoSpeech™. The following voices from NeoSpeech are supported in Adobe Captivate:

• Kate: English female voice

• Paul: English male voice

• Bridget: British English female voice

• Julie: US English female voice

• Chloe: Canadian French female voice

You can install NeoSpeech using the Adobe Captivate installation CD or download it from the Adobe website. For detailed instructions on how to install NeoSpeech, see

Note: You can also use third-party voices or the voices installed with your operating system. See Using third-party voices

for speech text.

Install text to speech converters.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

When you use NeoSpeech voices, you can modify different aspects of the narration using the native NeoSpeech tags.

www.adobe.com/go/learn_neospeechtags_en to know how you can tweak the speed, pitch, and volume of

See NeoSpeech voices.

When you convert text to speech, the audio file is inserted into the corresponding slide. Multiple slide notes are merged into a single audio file and appear on the Timeline as a single object. You can also convert slide notes in the panel to closed captions in a single click.

The audio file pauses at locations where you have inserted commas or periods in the slide notes.

When you play the movie:

• The slide notes are read aloud to the user.

• The closed caption text on the slide is displayed to the user.

1 To convert the slide notes to audio:

a Select the check boxes in the text-to-speech column and corresponds to the notes you want to convert to audio.

b Click Text-to-Speech.

c In the Speech Management dialog box, select a speech agent and click Generate Audio.

To convert additional text to speech, click the + icon, type the text, and then click Generate Audio.

Note: When you edit a slide note, you must click Generate Audio again for the changes to be applied.

2 To convert the slide notes to closed captions:

a Select the check boxes in the closed captions column and corresponds to the notes you want to convert to closed

captions.

Note: The closed captioning check boxes are greyed out if you the slide does not contain an audio. If a slide contains video closed captions and then you add audio closed captions, the latter takes precedence.

b Click Closed Captioning.

c Click the + icon to add additional closed captions. Click the ‘-’ icon to remove closed captions.

d To time a closed caption, click the header of the caption that displays the start and end time, and drag the

playhead in the audio clip.

e Click CC Project Settings to change the font, size, color, background, and the number of lines in which the

captions must be displayed.

f To enable the display of closed captions in the published projects, go to Project > Skin Editor, and click Closed

Captioning.

The ‘CC’ button appears in the playbar. While playing or previewing the project, click the ‘CC’ button to view the closed captions.

Install text to speech converters

If you have not installed the text-to-speech software during installation, do one of the following:

• Install using the Adobe Captivate installation CD. Re-run the installation CD and do one of the following:

• (Windows only)Click Install Text To Speech Voices in the autoplay options.

• Run the .exe (Windows) or the .app (Mac) file in the Add-ons/NeoSpeech Text To Speech Voices folder on the

installation CD.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

• Download the installer from one of the following appropriate locations:

• Windows 32-bit: http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp8_win32_voices_installer

• Windows 64-bit: http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp8_win64_voices_installer

• Mac: http://www.adobe.com/go/Cp8_mac_voices_installer

If you have problems installing the text to speech software, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_ttsmac_en.

Using third-party voices for speech text

You can purchase voices from third-party vendors and use them seamlessly in Adobe Captivate.

Note: Ensure that these voice comply with your operating system’s speech APIs.

Install the voices on your computers using the installers provided by the vendors. The new installed voices get listed in the Speech Agent list of the Audio > Speech Management dialog box.

Resolving the, “unable to decode and import the selected wav - mp3 file” error

This error might be displayed when you are using Adobe Captivate on Windows Vista. You must register the Adobe DLL to fix this error.

1 Close Adobe Captivate.

2 Run Command Prompt in the admin mode.

3 Enter the location of the directory where you have installed Adobe Captivate.

4 Run regsvr32 NSAudio.dll. The message, “Registration of DLL successful” is displayed.

5 Right-click Adobe Captivate in the Program Files menu, and select Run As Administrator.

Add speech text to multiple slides

You can add speech text to multiple slides using the Speech Management dialog box. To add variety to the movie, you can choose different speech agents for different slides. For example, you can use a male voice and a female voice for alternate slides.

1 Select Audio > Speech Management.

2 In Speech Management dialog box, select the slides to which you want to add the slide notes, and click the + icon.

3 Type the slide notes in the highlighted areas.

4 To generate audio for the slide notes:

a Select the slide notes to be converted to audio.

b In the Speech Agent list, select the voice that you want to use for the audio.

c Click Generate Audio.

Note: When you edit a slide note, you must click Generate Audio again for the changes to be applied.In Adobe Captivate 8, two more new voices have been added as James and Yumi.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

Disable closed captions in a slide

You can prevent closed captions from appearing when the movie is played. Clear the check boxes in the closed captions column corresponding to the notes in the Slide Notes panel.

Delete slide notes

To delete slide notes, click next to the arrow that corresponds to the slide notes and then click the ‘-’ icon.

Add slides

Adobe Captivate offers a wide variety of options for adding slides to a project, including recording, importing, and copying. You can add different types of slides such as blank, image, quiz, or animation.

Record additional slides for a project

There may be cases in which you record an Adobe Captivate project and begin working at the slide level, only to realize that you need to record a few more slides. In this case, you probably don't want to rerecord the entire project but just a few actions. Adobe Captivate allows you to do this by recording new slides and inserting the slides in an existing project. For more information, see

Record additional slides for existing projects.

Copy slides from other projects

1 In an open project, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide to copy. To select multiple slides, press

Shift or Control on the keyboard, click the slides, and then right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS).

2 Select Copy.

3 Open the Adobe Captivate project in which you want to paste the slides.

4 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide after which you want the new slide or slides to appear.

(For example, if you want to paste the copied slide as Slide 6 of your project, click the slide currently labeled Slide 5.)

5 Select Paste.

You can also copy Advanced Actions and Shared Actions associated with the slides. To do so, copy the objects and slides referenced from within these actions along with the slide to which the actions are assigned.

Enable rescaling of slides during import

Adobe Captivate can automatically resize the content of imported slides according to the dimensions of the project to which the slide is being imported.

1 Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 Select General Settings from the Global menu.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

3 Select Rescale Imported/Pasted slide.

Duplicate slides

Duplicating slides is an easy way to expand your projects. For example, if you carefully design a slide with a certain background color, layout, caption, and highlight box, you can simply duplicate that slide and change some of the elements or text to add more information to your project.

Master Slides are another way of achieving uniform look and feel for multiple slides.

❖ In an open project, do one of the following:

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide to copy and select Duplicate.

• Select a slide and press Control+D.

To select multiple slides, press Shift or Control on the keyboard while clicking the desired slides. To select all slides, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) on a slide and select Select All Slides.

The slide or slides you selected are duplicated and placed in the project. You can edit and work with the new slides just like the original slides.

Insert blank slides

1 In an open project, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide after which you want the new blank

slide or slides to appear.

2 Select Insert > Blank Slide.

The new slide is added to your project. You can edit and work with the new slide just like other slides in the project.

Insert new or stencil slides

‘Stencil’ slides are those that inherit the master slide associated with the slide that you select.

1 In an open project, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide after which you want the new slide to

appear.

2 Select Insert > New Slide.

A new ‘stencil’ slide appears in the Filmstrip. You can edit the slide as required. You can also associate a different master slide using the Property Inspector (General > Master Slide list).

Insert images as slides

Image slides are slides that have an image inserted into their background.

1 Open an Adobe Captivate project.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide after which you want the new image slide or slides to

appear.

3 Select Insert > Slide > Image Slide.

4 Browse to and select the image that you want to import in the Open dialog box.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

5 If the image that you are trying to import is larger in dimensions than that of your slide, the Resize/Crop Image

dialog box appears. Do one of the following:

Fit To Stage Resizes the image to fit the dimensions of the slide.

Crop Displays a bounding box with dimensions corresponding to that of the project. Resize the handles of the box

to select the area that you want displayed on the slide. If you selected Constrain Proportions, Adobe Captivate maintains the height-to-width ratio of the bounding box.

Zoom You can zoom in and zoom out of the image by moving the slider. Alternatively, you can choose from a list

of standard zoom sizes from the menu.

Constrain Proportions Maintains the height-to-width ratio of the bounding box used to crop the image. This option

is enabled only when you choose to crop the image. When you disable this option, resize the bounding box, and enable the option again; the new dimensions are used thereafter to calculate the ratio.

In addition to the above options, you can also set tone controls (brightness, sharpness, and contrast) and adjust color ranges (alpha, hue, and saturation). You can also flip or rotate the image.

Insert slides from a PowerPoint presentation

You can add PowerPoint slides to the end of a project or within a project.

1 In an open project, select Insert > Slide > PowerPoint slide.

2 Select a PowerPoint presentation and click Open.

3 Select Import Slides and Insert After The Selected Slide Below to add new slides after the slide you select from the

list and click OK.

4 In the Convert PowerPoint Presentations dialog box, do the following:

• Clear the Include check box of a slide to exclude from importing.

• Clear the Linked check box to remove the linkage to the source PowerPoint file.

• Specify how the slides must advance: Automatically or upon the click of mouse.

Insert animation slides

You can insert a SWF, AVI, or animated GIF file as a new slide.

Note: Adding animation as a slide is most appropriate with larger animation files.

1 In an open project select Insert > Slide > Animation Slide.

2 Navigate to the animation file you want to insert (SWF, AVI, or animated GIF) and click Open. The animation slide

is generated and added to the project.

It is important to set the correct frame rate. All imported animation files play at the rate selected in the project Preferences dialog box, regardless of the rate prior to when the file is imported. The default setting is 30 Flash frames per second and is appropriate in most cases. You may need to change the rate if you are embedding your Adobe Captivate SWF file in another SWF file that has a frame rate different than 30.

When you create an animation slide, the amount of time the slide is displayed in the project automatically defaults to the length of the animation file itself. For example, if the animation file that you use to create a new animation slide is only 1.2 seconds in length, the animation slide appears for 1.2 seconds. To change the duration of the slide, click the slide in the Filmstrip, and in the Property inspector, enter a new number of seconds in Display Time. Or use the Timeline to change the slide display time.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

Change slide order

To reorder slides, select them and drag them to the new position in the Filmstrip.

You can select multiple slides by pressing Shift or Control on the keyboard while clicking the desired slides. To select all slides, select Edit > Select All.

Delete slides

Deleting a slide permanently removes the slide from the project.

❖ Do one of the following:

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide you want to delete, and select Delete from the menu.

• Select the slide, and press Delete.

Edit slides

Use the Property Inspector (Windows > Properties) of the slides to edit them.

Change background color of slides

By default, the slides use the background color that is set in the corresponding master slides.

1 Select the slide (s) in the Filmstrip. To select multiple slides, hold down the Ctrl or the Shift key while selecting the

slides.

2 In the Property inspector, clear the Use Master Slide Background check box.

Now, the background set in the project preferences is used as default.

3 To use a background other than the one set in the project preferences, clear the Project Background check box and

click the Stage color palette.

4 Do one of the following:

• Select a color for the background.

• Click to apply a gradient fill. For more information on gradients, see Apply gradient fills.

• Click to apply a pattern or an image as the background fill. For more information on using pattern fills, see

Apply texture fills.

Using images in the background

By default, the slides use the background that is set in the corresponding master slides.

1 Select the slide (s) in the Filmstrip. To select multiple slides, hold down the Ctrl or the Shift key while selecting the

slides.

2 In the Property inspector, clear the Use Master Slide Background check box.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

3 Click the browse icon below the Background area.

• If the library does not contain any image, you will be prompted to browse for the image. Navigate to the location

of the image, select it, and click Open.

• If the library already contains images, you will be prompted to choose an image from the library. Select an image

and click OK. To use an image that does not exist in the library, click Import in the Select Image from Library dialog box.

Editing background images

Click the edit icon in the General section of the slide’s Property Inspector. Edit the required attributes of the image in the Resize/Crop Image dialog box.

Add plain text to a slide

As you edit a project, you may want to add some text to the slide but not have the text appear as a text caption over the slide. There is an easy trick you can use to add plain text to a slide: simply add the text as a transparent text caption.

1 Open the slide on which you want to insert the text caption.

2 Select Insert > Standard Objects > Text Caption.

3 In the Property Inspector, select Transparent as the Caption Type in the General area.

Note: If you create a transparent caption, avoid underlining text. Underlined text might affect the quality of the text.

Edit text recorded on a slide

When you record text being typed, a new slide is created for every line break. Each line of typed text is treated as a single object and appears as a separate layer on the Timeline. You can replace text recorded on a slide with new text along with typing effects. For example, if you have recorded text being typed in an editing program and you want to change the recorded text on the slide later, you can use this option.

Before you record text being typed, ensure that the option to record keystrokes has been enabled. For more information,

Set global recording preferences.

see

1 In an open project, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the Typing layer in the Timeline, and select

Replace With Text Animation.

2 In the General area of the Property Inspector, select one of the options in the Effect menu.

3 Click Properties, type the replacement text on the slide, and then click OK.

The text on the slide is replaced with the entered text. In the Timeline, the typing text object is replaced with the text animation object, and the overwritten text appears on the object in the Timeline.

Label slides

It is easier to identify and keep track of slides using their label instead of their slide number. The label of the slide appears under the slide.

To label a slide, open the slide and enter a name for it in the Label text box of the Property Inspector.

Move to a specific slide

To jump to a specific slide, type the number of the slide in the Application Bar at the top of the Workspace.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

Group slides

When the number of slides becomes unmanageable, you can group them. By expanding and collapsing groups, you can view subsets of the slides instead of all slides at once. Groups also provide a useful overview for the project, and they provide a convenient way of deleting or hiding multiple slides at once (for example, slides that you don’t want to publish).

To help associate slides with their group, you can mark grouped slides with the same border color. The color is not displayed when the project is run.

Create a slide group

1 In an open project, click a slide that you want to group, and use Control-click or Shift-click to select the other slides

for the group.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and select Group > Create.

The selected slides are grouped into a single group slide with their numbers and descriptions displayed on it.

Name slide groups and mark them

1 Click the group slide in the Filmstrip.

2 In the Property Inspector, type a name for the slide group in the Title text box. This title appears at the bottom of

the grouped slide.

3 From the Color palette, select a color for the border of all the slides in the group. This color is not displayed when

the project is run.

Expand or collapse a slide group

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the group slide and select Group > Expand or Group > Collapse.

A faster way is to click the arrow icon on top of the group slide.

Ungroup slides

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the group slide and select Group > Remove.

Hide slides

Adobe Captivate allows you to hide an individual slide in a project; the slide stays in the project but is hidden from view when the project is played. This option is useful in several situations, such as if others are reviewing the project, but information on certain slides is changing so you want to hide the slides until they are correct.

Hide slides

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a slide and select Hide Slide. The slide is dimmed in the Filmstrip and the eye is displayed at the bottom of the slide.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

To show the slide, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and select Show Slide or click the eye icon at the bottom of the slide in the Filmstrip.

Include or exclude hidden slides when publishing handouts

1 In an open project, select File > Publish.

2 Select Print on the left panel.

3 In Type, select Handouts.

4 In the Handout Layout Options area, select Include Hidden Slides.

5 Click Publish.

Lock slides

Adobe Captivate gives you the option to lock individual slides. When you lock a slide, all objects on the slide can be viewed but not edited. This feature is useful if you want to send your project to others for review but do not want them to make changes to objects.

You can tell that a slide is locked by looking for the small lock icon. This icon appears below a locked slide in the Filmstrip.

❖ In an open project, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide you want to lock and select Lock Slide.

To select multiple slides, press Shift or Control on the keyboard while clicking on the required slides. To select all slides, Edit > Select All.

Master slides

Master slides define background and common objects such as logos, headers, and footers for your slides. They provide a uniform appearance for your entire project.

All the artefacts on a master slide, such as, objects and placeholders reflect on the slide that is linked with the master slide.

A group of master slides make up a theme. For more information on themes, see Themes.

When you create a blank project or a project from template, Adobe Captivate uses the default (Blank) theme. A theme contains the following types of master slides:

Main master slide The main master slide is the first slide in the Master Slide panel. The name of this slide is the same

as the name of the theme. Objects and background color of this master slide appear on all other master slides. Each theme has one main master slide.

Content master slides Contains layouts and objects that you can use for content slides, for example, a Title master slide

can be used for the title of the project. A theme can contain one or more content master slides.

Question master slides Each theme contains a separate master slide for the following question types:

• Matching

• Hot spot

• Likert

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

• Other question types: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true-false question, short answer, and sequence questions

• Result slide

Each question master slide contains placeholder questions, answers, and captions with the style related to the theme.

Each slide, except main master slide, contains placeholders for different objects such as text caption, images, or a generic content placeholder. A content placeholder lets you insert any of the following:

• Te xt c a pti o n

• Text animation

• Image

• FLV or F4V video (event video)

• SWF animation

You can insert new quiz and content master slides or edit an exiting slide to suit your requirements.

Viewing master slides

1 Select Window > Master Slide.

2 To view and edit a master slide on stage, select it in the master slide panel.

Master slide panel

The Master slide panel displays all master slides your project has. Unless you have added additional master slides, the Master Slide panel displays the slides associated with the current theme of the project.

Ti me li ne

There is no timing information for master slides. The timeline for a master slide helps only to order, lock, or hide the objects added to it.

Adding a master slide

To add additional master slides, do one of the following actions:

• Insert > Quiz Master Slide and then choose the required type of slide

• Insert > Content Master Slide

Though a project contains multiple master slides, you can link a slide to only one master slide.

Use the Property Inspector (Window > Properties) to:

• Label the master slide: Specify a unique label in the text box.

• Provide background color: Deselect Project Background and then select a color from Stage.

• Insert background images: Click the Browse icon to select a background image.

Add objects to master slides

You can insert the following standard objects to a master slide:

• Te xt C apti o n

• Rollover Caption

• Rollover Image

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

• Highlight Box

All other standard objects are disabled.

You c a n a ls o ins er t t h e f ol low in g:

• Text Animation

• Wi d ge t

• Image

• Animation

• FLV/F4V files (event video)

Note: You cannot add audio to a master slide.

You can add placeholder objects on a master slide. While authoring, you can double-click the placeholders on the slides based on the master slide and insert appropriate content.

To add objects to a master slide,

1 Select the master slide in the master slide strip.

2 Add objects in the same way as you do in the slides in your project.

Using master slides

When you work on your project slides, use the Property Inspector (Window > Properties) to:

• Link to a different master slide: In the Master Slide drop-down list, make appropriate selection. You can also apply

a Master Slide to a group of slides.

• Display master slide objects on top of the objects in your slide: Check Master Slide Object on Top.

Note: Objects on the main master slide are always below the objects on other master slides in the Z-order.

Master slide maintains its own timeline. Therefore, master slide objects are not shown on the timeline of the linked slide. You cannot adjust the timeline of master slide objects or change their Z-order on a project slide timeline.

• Use master slide background: Select this option to use background color or background image from master slide.

Editing Master slides

Objects on a master slide can be modified only on the master slide. The objects cannot be selected or edited on the slide that inherits the master slide.

On the slides in the Filmstrip, you can edit or delete the placeholders that are inherited from a master slide.

Reusing Master slides

• Duplicate master slide: Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and then select duplicate.

• Copying contents: Select the contents and then click copy.

• Import/Export: You cannot import or export master slides, but you can copy and paste them across projects.

• Import/Export to XML/Microsoft Word: Like the content on your project slides, you can import/export the master

slide content to XML and Microsoft word.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

Slide properties

You can set the properties for a slide using the Property inspector (Window > Properties).

Properties panel

Label The name of the slide. The slide label appears under the slide in the Filmstrip. It is a good practice to name slides.

When multiple users are working on the same project, naming slides helps to identify them easily.

Accessibility C lick to open the Sli de Ac cessibi lity d ialog box, w hich lets you a dd or type in text that can be read to users

with disabilities who use screen readers. You can import slide notes to enable accessibility for them. For more information, see

Master Slide Select the master slide that must be linked to the slide.

Master Slide Objects on Top

Select to place the objects in the master slide on top of other objects on the slide.

Use Master Slide Background

Select to use the background of the master slide as the slide background.

Add accessibility text to slides.

Project Background

Select to use the background settings in the project preferences for the slide. This option is available only if you deselect the Use Master Slide Background option.

Stage

Click the box to access the color palette and choose a background color for the slide. You can also apply a gradient fill or a pattern fill to the background.

Note: This option is available if you have not selected project or master slide background.

Background Select to change the background image on the slide by selecting an image from the project’s Library. This

option is available when Use Master Slide Background option is not selected.

Quality Select the quality level for the slide: Low (8-bit), Optimized, JPEG, and High Quality.

Note: Selecting the Optimized, JPEG, or High Quality format may increase the file size and the time needed to download your project. You should only use a format other than Low (8-bit) when appropriate.

Display Time Use to change the duration for which the slide plays. The maximum value is 1 hour (3600 seconds).

Tra nsi tio n Select a transition effect for the slide. Transition effects make the slide transition interesting and eye-

catching.

Action options

You can define the navigation options every time the user views a slide or moves away from the slide. The On Enter menu displays the actions that you can set for the slide when it is displayed. The On Exit menu displays actions that you can set when the user exits the slide. The following list describes actions available in both the menus:

Note: The options Go To Previous Slide, Go To Next Slide, Go To Last Visited Slide, Jump To Slide, and No Action are available only in the On Exit menu.

When you copy an object, actions associated with the object, such as Play Audio, Enable, and Disable are also copied.

Continue The movie moves to the next defined action.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

Open URL Or File A web browser opens with the specified web page if the user has Internet connectivity. Alternatively,

you could open a specified file for the user.

Open Another Project Opens the specified Adobe Captivate project.

Send E-mail To A draft of the default e-mail editor opens with the e-mail address specified in the To field.

Execute JavaScript Adobe Captivate runs the specified JavaScript.

Execute Advanced Actions Adobe Captivate runs the script written using the application.

Execute Shared Action Lets you associate the object with a shared advanced action. If you choose this option, select a

shared action from the drop-down list and click {P} to edit the parameters.

Play Audio Adobe Captivate plays the specified audio when the slide is played. The duration for which the audio is

played is equal to the duration of the slide or the selected audio file, whichever is shorter. If users perform any action on the slide, for example, pause the slide, the audio stops and does not play again.

Note: If you use multiple Play Audio actions in Advanced Actions, only the audio corresponding to the first Play Audio action is played.

Show The specified object is made visible

Hide The specified object is hidden from the user.

Enable The specified object in the project is enabled. This option is available only for interactive objects.

Disable The specified object in the project gets disabled. This option is available only for interactive objects.

Assign A new value is assigned for a variable.

Increment The value of the specified variable is incremented accordingly.

Decrement The value of the specified variable is decremented accordingly.

Exit The movie exits.

Pause The movie pauses.

Toggle The value of the specified variable toggles from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 0.

Show TOC The TOC gets displayed.

Show Playbar The playbar gets displayed.

Hide TOC The TOC gets hidden.

Hide Playbar The playbar gets hidden.

Lock TOC The TOC gets locked. Clicking a topic in the TOC does not navigate users to the topic.

Unlock TOC The TOC gets unlocked.

Apply Effect When the user performs the required action, the effect associated with the specified object is applied.

Go To The Previous Slide The movie moves to the previous slide.

Go To The Next Slide The movie moves to the next slide.

Go To The Slide Last Visited The movie moves to the previously viewed slide.

Return To Quiz Takes users back to:

• The last attempted question slide if users answered it incorrectly or skipped the question.

• The question after the last attempted question slide if users answered the question correctly.

Jump To Slide The movie moves to the specified slide.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Slides

No Action Nothing happens when the user exits the slide.

Audio options

Fade In [#] Seconds Specifies the time for audio to fade in to full volume.

Fade Out [#] Seconds Specifies the time for audio to fade out to silence.

Loop Audio Plays the audio file continuously till the slide exits.

Stop Background Audio Stops playing any background audio associated with the slide.

Add Audio Displays the Slide Audio dialog box that you can use to record audio for the slide.

Slide transitions

Transitions are special effects that appear when one slide changes to another. Transitions signal the end of one slide and the beginning of another.

1 In the Filmstrip, click the slide for which you want to add a transition effect.

2 In the General area of the Property Inspector, select one of the effects from the Transition list.

3 If you want to apply the transition to all slides, select multiple slides in the Filmstrip and specify the required

transition effect.

Tips for introductory slides

• Add sound. Adobe Captivate makes it easy to add sound to projects, and sound is very powerful in an introduction.

You can add existing sound files or record your own voice-over. You can include a welcome message or play some appropriate music.

Adobe Captivate contains a gallery that has buttons, sounds, and animations (in SWF format) for you to use in your projects. By default, the gallery is stored in the following location when you install Adobe Captivate: C:\Program

Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 6\Gallery (on Windows); /Applications/Adobe Captivate 6/Gallery (on Mac OS).

• Use special effects. If you are going to use special effects in your project, why not start off with them? Special effects

(such as fading, for example) create a polished and professional look right from the start.

• Use animated text. For an easy and impressive introductory slide, use the Adobe Captivate animated text feature.

This is a fast way to create a sophisticated look for your project.

• Use captions strategically. Add multiple captions to your introductory slide and then carefully set their timing so

they fade in and out, one at a time.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 6: Adding and Managing Objects

Web objects

Overview

You can insert Webobjects into the slides using Objects > Web. Type the URL in the Address bar of Property Inspector and the web page appears in theWeb object container. You can also click folder icon adjacent to Address bar, and fetch the local content into the web object container.

Webobjec ts is the nativ e objec t now. You can brow se OAM f ile (Adob e Edg e An imate ), p df, and zip fil es. Us e Aut o Lo ad option to enable Autoloading of file in Output. If Auto Load is not enabled, user needs to click Play button to view the object.

Create web object

1 From the toolbar, choose Objects>Web as shown below:

2 Enter the url for web object in Address bar. You can also browse for OAM, pdf, and zip files by clicking the folder

icon adjacent to the address bar.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Note: For any additional help, click the blue colored i icon.

Select the Auto Load option if you wish to load the object automatically in output. By default, auto load option is selected when you create web object. In edit mode, after loading the object user needs to mouse over the object to start viewing the content.

If the auto load option is not selected, in the output you need to click the Play button to view the content.

Choose to show the web object in slide or in new browser window by clicking the Display in drop down.

For display in slide,

Border Select this option, if you wish to view the border for the web object.

Scrolling Select this option, if you wish to view the scroll bar when the content of object is bigger than the container.

Loading Animation Select this option if you want any animation within the web object to load.

For display in new browser window,

Default Choose this if you want to view the web object with default browser settings.

Full Screen Choose this option if you want to view the web object in full screen.

Custom Choose this option if you want to view the web object within your customized width and height

dimensions. Click the blue-colored values corresponding to width and height and specify your preferred values.

Embed code support

Click Embed code radio button if you would like to embed any web oject such as a video file. You can paste the embed code at the text area.

For example, you can see the embedded video in mobile view when you paste the following embed code:

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

You can change the height and width of the embedded video by changing the size of web object container. Video maintains its width by following the width of the web object container and maintains its aspect ratio for height.

Note: When you zip the published content, ensure that the index.html file is not in any of the internal folders, else it does not load as expected.

Object style

Object style is a set of visual attributes, such as color and font. Objects in a project automatically inherit the styles defined in the theme applied to the project.

You can do the following with object styles:

• Customize object styles by modifying the predefined style attributes

• Import or export custom object styles from one project to another

• Search for objects that use a specific style

Customize object styles

1 Go to Edit > Object Style Manager.

2 From the list of objects, select the object for which you want to customize the style.

Note: Runtime Dialog is for the messages that are displayed when users click the Submit All button. For more information on Submit All, see

3 Click Clone, and then enter a name for the custom style.

4 Specify the style properties, and click OK.

Submitting all answers simultaneously.

5 To apply the style to an object, select the object and then select the object style from the Properties panel.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Editing object styles

Edit object styles using the Properties panel

The changes made to the object styles using the Properties panel are applied only to the selected instances of an object. When an object style is modified using this panel, the name of the style is prefixed with a '+' mark. This mark indicates that the style is now in an overridden state.

• Click to apply the changes to objects that use specific styles. Click to merge the changes into the style. To

replace any overridden instances of the style in the project, select Replace Overridden Styles.

• Click to create a style that contains the modifications.

Edit object styles using the Object Style Manager

1 Go to Edit > Object Style Manager.

2 From the list of objects, select the object whose style you want to edit.

3 From the list of styles, select the style you want to edit.

4 Modify the properties of the style as required.

5 Do either of the following:

• To apply the changes and continue working with the Object Style Manager, click Apply.

• To apply the changes and exit the Object Style Manager, click OK.

The changes made to the object styles using the Object Style Manager are applied to all instances of the object. However, instances of objects that are in the overridden state (indicated by a ‘+’ mark in the Properties panel) are not updated with the changes. To update such objects, select the objects and click

in the Properties panel.

Export, import, and delete object styles

❖ Go to Edit > Object Style Manager.

• To export, select an option in the Export drop-down list and then click Export. Select a location to store the

object style (in .cps format).

• To import, click Import and then select the .cps file that corresponds to the required object style.

• To delete, select the style to delete. Select a style to replace the current style, and then click OK.

Finding objects with specific styles

1 Go to Edit > Find And Replace. The Find And Replace panel appears.

2 Select the type of object in the Search In drop-down list.

3 Select the style in the Style drop-down list.

4 Do either of the following:

• To find the objects that use the specified style one after the other, click Find Next.

• To find all the objects in the project that use the specified style, click Find All. The search results are grouped

slide-wise in the Find And Replace panel.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Rotate objects

You can apply a 2D rotation to objects on a slide. 2-D rotation is turning of an object by an angle about a fixed point, which in Adobe Captivate is the center of the object.

You can rotate all objects except the following:

• Slidelet

• Mouse

• Answers for question slide objects

• Zoom destination and Zoom source

1 Click the object that you want to rotate. A rotation symbol appears at the top handle of the object.

2 Click the symbol and move the mouse in the direction. While you move the mouse, Adobe Captivate displays a

dotted-line preview of the position of the object on the stage.

3 Release the mouse button when the object is positioned in the required angle.

Alternatively, select the object on stage, and specify the angle of rotation in the Property Inspector (Transform accordion > Angle).

When you rotate objects with text, the text is also rotated along with the object.

To reset the rotation angle to 0°, double-click the rotation symbol.

Note: The rotation is not applied to animations and slide videos while they are played on stage. Adobe Captivate applies the rotation appropriately in the project preview and published output of the project.

Object rotation and object effects

You can rotate objects through object effects too. If you apply a rotation object effect to an already rotated object, it rotates further when the effect gets triggered.

For example, consider that you have rotated a rectangle by 45°. You then apply the rotation object effect to the rectangle, and specify the angle as 30°. You time the effect such that it gets triggered 2 seconds after the slide begins and lasts until the end of slide.

When the project is played, the rectangle is rotated by 45° for the first 2 seconds. For the rest of the slide, the rectangle is rotated by 75°.

Rotation of objects in a slidelet

The rotation of objects within a slidelet is limited by the boundaries of the slidelet. This means, if you rotate an object and a portion of it potentially protrudes out of the slidelet boundary, then the rotation does not take effect.

Resize and reposition objects bypixel

You can change the X and Y coordinates and the width and height of the objects in the Transform area of the Property Inspector.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Object effects

Object effects help you quickly draw users' attention to the required objects on a slide. To see the effects that you can apply to objects, select an object, go to Window > Effects, and click

For a detailed description of these effects, see this post on Lieve Weymeis’s blog.

You can create effects in Adobe Flash and use them in Adobe Captivate. For more information, see Creating custom

effects in Adobe Flash.

For an overview of object effects, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_cp_objecteffects_en.

Showing and hiding the Effects panel

Go to Windows menu, and then click Effects.

Options on the Effects panel

Effect Properties Properties of an effect that is applied to an object.

Live Preview Mode Shows how the object effect looks when the video is played.

Animation Trigger The trigger for a specific object effect. The triggers can be time-based or event-based. Object effects

with the time-based trigger are applied after the previous object is played. Object effects with event-based triggers are applied when specific events occur, such as, a click of a button or an entry to a specific slide.

For a specific object, you can apply effects with both time-based and event-based triggers. Object effects with eventbased triggers take precedence over effects with time-based triggers.

Creating event-based animation triggers

1 Select the object that is the base for the event. For example, to apply an effect to an object after a specific slide begins,

select the slide.

2 In the Actions panel, select Apply Effect in the On Enter or On Success drop-down lists.

3 In the Object Name drop-down list, select the object to which you want to apply an effect.

An event-based animation trigger for the selected object is created and listed in the Effects panel. You can choose the event-based trigger while applying an effect to this object.

Applying effects to objects

1 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and then select Effects.

2 In the Animation Trigger drop-down list, select a trigger for the effect. By default, the time-based trigger is selected.

To apply the object effect when a specific event occurs, create an event-based trigger, and then select it in the Effects panel.

3 Click and select the effect to apply to the object. To use an already saved effect, click Browse and locate the XML

file that corresponds to the effect.

You can create a sequence of effects by applying multiple effects to a single object.

4 Click Live Preview Mode to preview the effect on the object. Click Edit Mode to return to the editing mode.

5 To apply the effect to multiple objects, click and select either

• Apply To All Items To apply the effect to all objects that belong to the object type.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

• Apply To All Items Of Same Style To apply to all objects that use the same object style.

Defining motion paths for objects

1 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Effects.

2 In the Animation Trigger drop-down list, select a trigger for the effect. By default, the time-based trigger is selected.

To apply the object effect when a specific event occurs, create an event-based trigger, and then select it in the Effects panel.

3 Click , select Motion Path, and then select the type of motion path you want to apply.

4 Click the symbol that appears at the right corner of the object. The direction of the motion path indicated by an

arrow appears.

5 To change the direction of motion, click the arrowhead and drag it in the new direction.

Modifying object effects

Use the Effect Properties panel in the Effects panel to modify the properties of an object effect. To show or hide properties, change the default values, or the range of values, edit the <effect_config> section in the XML file of the object effect. The XML files for the default object effects are at <Installation folder>/Gallery/Effects (Windows) \Applications\ Adobe Captivate 6\Gallery\Effects (Mac OS).

Creating custom effects in Adobe Flash

You can save the classic tweens as XML files in Flash and then use the effects in Adobe Captivate. To select and apply an effect created in Flash, select the object, click

You can create the effects with any default duration you want. For a 30 fps project, an effect with 60 frames has a default duration of 2 seconds.

To make the parameters of the effect available on the user interface for editing, edit the XML file to specify the required parameters. These parameters appear on the left side of the Effects panel.

To enable editing of parameters:

1 Open the XML file and in the Keyframes element, identify the property that you want to make available for editing

on the user interface.

This property typically has a numerical value assigned to it. For the list of properties that the Keyframes element can contain and their description, see

2 Change the numerical value of the property in the Keyframes element to a string.

3 Add a new element, effect_config to the XML file. In this element, add a config_item element for every property that

you want to make available for editing on the user interface. For details on the elements and attributes that you can add in this element, see

4 In the config_item element (child of effect_config), add the attribute property_value.

5 Specify the string that you assigned to the property in step 2 as the value for this attribute.

6 Add the other attributes, such as type and default_value. For more information, see XML elements for effects

configuration parameters.

XML elements for effects configuration parameters.

www.adobe.com/go/learn_cp_flashactionscript_en.

in Window > Effects panel, and then click Browse.

7 Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 to enable editing for as many properties as you want.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

XML elements for effects configuration parameters

The hierarchy of the effect_config element is as follows:

<effect_config> <config_item> <effect_property type="number" property_value="BLUR_X" default_value="50"> </config-item> <config_item> <effect_property type=”list” property_value="QUALITY" default_value="1"> <list_items> <list_item> </list_item> </list_items> </effect_property> </config_item> <config_item> <effect_property type="color" > <effect_sub_property> </effect_sub_property> </effect_property> </config_item> </effect_config>

Element Attribute Val ue Typ e Description

Table 1.

effect_config effect_type motion_path Use this attribute to

config_item display_name String Specify the name of

effect_property property_value

This attribute is mandatory.

String Specify the value of

display the handles for editing the x and y coordinates of the motion path.

the configuration item (property) displayed to users on the Effects panel.

the configuration item. This value must be the same as the one that corresponds to the appropriate property in the ‘Keyframes’ element.

For example, in the Glow.XML file (Gallery > Effects > Filters), the Keyframe element contains BLUR_X as the value for blurX. To make the value of ‘blur’ editable from the user interface, add BLUR_X as the property_value in the effect_config element.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Element Attribute Value Type Description

default_value Number Specify the default

valid_range

Syntax: valid_range="{{0,255 }}"

type

This attribute is mandatory.

number Use this type to

Number Specify the range of

value displayed on the user interface.

values applicable for the configuration item. For example, valid_range="{{0,255 }}" indicates that the lowest value is 0 and the highest is 255.

You can specify the attribute ‘modifiers’ to modify the value specified on the user interface.

indicate that the configuration item is a number. You can specify the following attributes with this type:

• valid_range

• increment

• modifiers

• decimal_places

list Use this type to

indicate that the configuration item is a drop-down list. You can specify the following attributes with this type:

• name

• value

color Use this type to

indicate that the configuration item is to be associated with a color palette. You can specify the following attributes with this type:

• rgb

• alpha

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Element Attribute Value Type Description

bool Use this type to

seperator Use this type to

increment Number Specify the value by

indicate that the configuration item is a Boolean. The configuration item is associated with a check box.

The default value can be true or false.

separate the configuration items with a horizontal space on the user interface.

This type can be used only for the config_item element.

which the parameter must be incremented when you click the parameter value, hold-down the mouse button, and move the mouse.

modifiers

Syntax: modifiers= "{offset:0,multiplier:0 .01}"

decimal_places Number Specify the number

• offset

• multiplier

Number Use this attribute to

modify the value specified on the user interface. Use Offset to increase or decrease the value specified on the user interface. To decrease the userspecified value, use a negative number as the Offset.

Use multiplier to multiply the value specified on the user interface by a number.

This attribute can be used with the type ‘number’ only.

of decimal places to be allowed for the configuration item. For example, a value of 3 allows you to specify 0.001 and not

0.00001.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Element Attribute Value Type Description

list_item

(child of effect_property and list_items)

effect_sub_property

(child of effect_property)

name String Specify the name of

the list item(s).

value Number Specify the value

that must be posted back to the Keyframes section when users select a list item.

rgb Use this attribute to

specify the default hexadecimal RGB number. For example, specify rgb=”ff0000” for red.

This attribute is valid for the type ‘color’ only.

alpha Number Use this attribute to

specify the default transparency of the color.

This attribute is valid for the type ‘color’ only.

Best practices for creating effects in Flash

• Ensure that the FPS of the Flash application you are creating for effects is 30.

• Ensure the value of ‘property_value’ in the effect_config section of the effect file (XML file) is the same as that of the

one in the Keyframe section.

• Break a single effect into multiple effects if the number of parameters is more than five. You can then create a

sequence of these effects to achieve the desired result.

• Avoid exporting an effect created using frame by frame animations in Flash. You cannot achieve the desired results

when such effects are used in Adobe Captivate.

Instead, create effects using classic tweens and import these tweens into Adobe Captivate.

• Group the effect parameters by keyframes. You can use the ‘seperator’ type to group related properties.

• Check if the XML file of the effect exported from Flash is valid, before using it in Adobe Captivate. To do so, open

the XML file in a browser or an XML editor.

Saving and deleting effects

1 Click in the Effects panel.

2 Browse to the location where you want to save the effect or the effect sequence, and click Save. The effect sequence

is saved as an XML file.

3 To delete an effect, select the effect, and then click .

After saving an effect sequence, you can apply it to another object in the project.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

When you use the effect sequence again (at least once) in the project, it becomes available in the Advanced Actions dialog box.

Note: However, when you apply the effect sequence using this dialog box, the result of the effect may differ. For example, the duration of the effect does not get scaled proportionately based on the object's timeline. See

www.adobe.com/go/learn_introtoeffects_en for more information.

Managing objects with the MainOptions toolbar

The Main Options toolbar contains the following icons to help you manage objects:

• Cut, copy, paste, delete, and duplicate

• Record additional slides for the current project

• Record audio

• Record background audio

• Collaborate (using Acrobat.com)

• Bring selected object to front

• Send selected object to back

• Bring selected objects forward in z-order

• Send selected objects backward in z-order

• Snap to object

• Show/hide grid

• Snap to grid

Merge objects into a slide

You can merge any object that you create and place on a slide, including images, captions, click boxes, highlight boxes, text entry boxes, and buttons. Merging permanently removes the interactivity of the object, making it an image of the object.

The merging feature is useful in several situations. For example, suppose you import a large image into a slide that contains other objects. You can merge the image into the slide so that it becomes a static background for the other objects. You can also make text a permanent part of a slide by creating a transparent text caption and then merging the caption.

1 Open the slide that contains the object you want to merge.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object that you want to merge into the slide, for example, an

image, caption, or click box.

3 Select Merge Into Background from the pop-up menu.

4 The object is merged into the slide.

Note: Merging objects in a slidelet into the background will merge the object into the slidelet background.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Manage Library objects

View objects in the Library

1 Select Window > Library.

The Library panel appears.

2 Open a folder (Audio, Backgrounds, Images, Media) to view the objects in that category.

3 Click an individual object to display it in the Library preview pane.

In addition to viewing image files, you can play audio and animation files in the Library preview pane.

Reuse an object listed in the Library

1 Select Window > Library.

2 In the Library panel, expand the folder for the category of object you want to reuse.

3 Click the object that you want to reuse and preview the object in the preview pane.

4 Drag the object to the selected slide or slidelet. The object becomes a part of the slide or slidelet depending on where

it is placed.

Note: After you copy the object to the slide, editing the properties of the object will not affect other instances of that object in the project.

Reuse an object in a different project Library

1 Select Window > Library.

2 In the toolbar of the Library panel, click the browse icon.

3 Navigate to, and select, the project that contains the objects you want to reuse and click Open.

The library for the other project opens in a separate and expandable window.

4 Click to select the object that you want to reuse.

5 Drag the object to the selected slide stage or to the appropriate folder in your current project Library.

The new objects now appear in your current project Library, even if you dragged them directly onto a slide. You can reuse them as many times as you want.

Note: After you open the Library of another Adobe Captivate project, that project stays in the Open Library menu. You can quickly access that project Library at any time.

Delete unused objects from the Library

1 In the Library panel (Window > Library) of your project, click . The unused items are highlighted in the Library.

2 Click .

More Help topics

Adobe Captivate Library

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Group objects

To work with your projects faster, you can group objects on a slide. Grouping lets you move, rotate, or edit multiple objects as if they were a single object. For example, you select a group and apply a shadow effect. Changes made to the group are applied to all the objects in the group at the same time.

1 Hold down the Shift key (on Win) or Command key (on Mac) and click the objects that you want to group. You can

also select existing groups to combine them into a single group.

Note: Nested grouping is not supported in Adobe Captivate.

2 Click Edit > Create Group.

3 In the Property Inspector, specify a name for the group, if required.

A new ‘folder’ (for example, Group_1) comprising the grouped objects is created in the Timeline.

When you hover your mouse over an object in a group, the outline of the group is marked with dashed-lines.

When you select an object for grouping, all related objects also get grouped. For example, if you select the ‘Success caption’ associated with a click box, failure, hint captions and the click box are also grouped.

You cannot group the following objects:

• Slidelet

• Mouse

• Audio

• Question items and answers

On question slides, you can group only objects, such as, highlight boxes and buttons.

You can ungroup a group of objects and group them again as necessary.

Object groups and z-order

The ‘group’ folder in the Timeline is created on the layer of the object with the hightest z-index. In the ‘group’ folder, the objects are stacked with the descending order of z-index (from top to bottom of the Timeline).

You can change the z-order of the grouped objects in one of the following ways:

• Right-click the object stack, click Arrange, and choose the appropriate option.

• Drag-and-drop the object stack at the required level (z-index0.

Ungroup objects

• To ungroup all objects in a group, click the group, and then click Edit > Ungroup.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

• To remove a specific object from the group, click the group and then click the object. Right-click on the object, and

click Remove From Group.

Edit object information using the Advanced Interaction panel

The Advanced Interaction panel (Project > Advanced Interaction) provides an overview of all interactive objects in your project. The objects are grouped slide-wise.

This panel contains the following information that helps you analyze the actions and properties associated with the interactive objects:

Slide/Object This column shows the slide number and label, or the type of object.

Instance Name This column shows the name of the object’s instance.

On Success This column shows the navigation that follows the slide if the user successfully completes an object’s action.

For more information, see

Attempts This column shows the maximum number of attempts you have set as a limit for an interactive object.

Project navigation using interactive objects.

On Failure If an object or slide has the possibility of failure (for example, if an incorrect answer is selected in a multiple-

choice question), this column shows where the slide leads after failure. For more information, see

using interactive objects.

Shortcut View and edit keyboard shortcuts for a slide or object in this column.

Time Limit This column shows the time limit for specific objects.

Points This column shows the total points associated with each scoreable object or question slide.

Ad d To Total indicates the total value if scored objects are included in the total points.

Include In Quiz Indicates whether the interactive object carries a score for the overall project quiz.

Report Answers Indicates whether or not your project quiz scores are integrated with a learning management system

(LMS).

Objective ID and Interaction ID These columns contain the ID numbers, if you assign them, for integration with a

learning management system (LMS).

Note: To make reviewing the project information easier, click the print icon to print the tabular view of the interactions in the panel.

To edit the properties of objects:

1 In an open project, select Project > Advanced Interaction, or press F9.

The Advanced Interaction panel appears, populated with a collapsible list of all interactive objects in the project.

2 Filter the list by clicking the buttons at the top of the dialog box that correspond to the object types that you want to

view.

Note: You can choose to filter by all scorable objects, click boxes, text entry boxes, buttons, questions, or hidden slides.

Project navigation

3 Click a slide title or object to select it. The Property Inspector of that object appears and lets you edit the properties.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Copy, paste, and duplicate objects

After you have created an object, you can copy that object and paste it onto the same slide, a different slide in your project, or several slides in your project at the same time. This can save you a great deal of time, especially if you create intricate objects with specific sizes, colors, and formatting.

You can also copy and paste objects between different projects.

Note: To reuse media objects that appear in the Library, simply drag the object from the Library onto the slide.

When objects from a slide are copied into a slidelet, the following properties of the objects are modified:

• If timing for the object is specified as Rest Of Slide or Rest Of Project, it is changed to Rest Of Slidelet.

• The option Synchronize With Project loses its validity for FLV files.

Copy an object to a different slide

1 Open the slide that contains the object.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Copy.

3 Open the slide to which you want to copy the object.

4 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide and select Paste.

Copy an object to multiple slides

1 Open the slide that contains the object.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Copy.

3 In the Filmstrip, select the slides to which you want to copy the object. Hold down the Shift key and click consecutive

slides, or hold down the Control key and select any slides, even if they are not consecutive.

4 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a selected slide and select Paste.

Copy objects from other projects

You can copy and paste objects from other projects. This strategy can save you a great deal of time. For example, suppose you have created a detailed object in another project. Simply copy and paste the object into any new projects you create.

Note: To reuse media objects from another Adobe Captivate project, open that project Library from within your current project Library. Then drag objects directly onto a slide or into the current project Library for easy reuse.

1 Open the Adobe Captivate project that contains the object you want to copy.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object, and select Copy.

3 Open the Adobe Captivate project to which you want to add the object copied in the previous steps.

4 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the slide to which you want to add the object.

5 Select Paste.

You can also copy Advanced Actions and Shared Actions associated with the objects. To do so, copy the objects referenced from within these actions in addition to the parent object to which the actions are assigned.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Duplicate objects

Duplicating objects is an easy way to reuse content. For example, you can duplicate a detailed caption and change some of the text to quickly add more information to your project.

Note: To reuse media objects that appear in the Library, simply drag the object from the Library onto the slide.

1 Open the slide that contains the object you want to duplicate.

2 Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the object and select Duplicate.

The object you selected is duplicated and the new object is placed on the slide. You can edit and work with the new object just like the original object.

In Cp 7, hold down the Control key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) and drag the object to duplicate.

Controlling the visibility of objects

You can hide an object on a slide, and define conditions that must be satisfied for the object to be displayed.

The following example illustrates how to hide an image on a slide until the user clicks the Show Image button.

1 Select Insert > Image to insert an image on the slide.

2 In the Property Inspector, type a name for the image in the Name text box. For example, My_Image.

3 Clear the Visible check box.

4 Select Insert > Standard Objects > Button.

5 In the Action area of the Property Inspector, select Show in the On Success list, and then select My_Image in the

Show list.

When you play the movie, the image appears only when you click the button.

Change the display order of objects

Adobe Captivate lets you add multiple objects, such as captions, highlight boxes, animations, or images to slides. You specify the order in which objects appear. Use the Timeline to precisely adjust the timing of all objects on a slide.

1 In an open project, navigate to the slide that contains the objects whose order you want to change.

2 Change the order and timing of objects as required.

For example, move the mouse over the left or right edge of an object on the Timeline until the resize cursor appears. Then drag the edge left or right to change when and for how long the object appears.

If you have an object that currently appears at the same time the slide appears, but you want a slight delay, move the mouse over the center of the object on the Timeline until the hand appears; then drag the entire object so the left edge aligns with 2s (a 2-second delay) or 4s (a 4-second delay) in the header.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

3 If you have two overlapping objects on the slide, specify the object you want to appear frontmost by setting the

stacking order. To change the stacking order, move objects to the back or front of the slide Stage. The key point to remember is that objects at the back of the Stage appear behind other objects. Use one of the following methods to set the stacking order:

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) an object on the slide and select one of the object order

options. If necessary, Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) other objects on the slide and adjust their order.

• In the Timeline, move the pointer over an object until the hand appears. Then drag the object up or down to

change its position in the stacking order. Moving an object higher in the stacking order moves it to the front of the Stage. Moving an object lower moves it to the back of the Stage.

Note: If the order for a slidelet is changed, the objects it contains are also moved back or forward along with the slidelet.

Apply shadows to objects

You can apply shadow effects to all objects in Adobe Captivate, including the placeholder objects. You can also apply shadow effects to objects on Master Slides.

1 Select the object on the slide. You can also select multiple objects by holding down the Shift key (Windows) or the

Control key (Mac).

2 In the Property Inspector, click Enable in the Shadow accordion. The shadow is applied to the object with default

settings. If you have applied a shadow to any object before, those shadow settings are applied by default.

3 To modify the shadow, do one or both of the following actions:

• Click one of the options in the Direction check list.

• Click one of the preset options, or specify the required properties, such as, color (with transparency), distance,

blur, and angle.

Note: You can modify these properties even after selecting a preset.

4 To apply the effect to multiple objects, click and choose one of the options.

Apply shadows through object effects

Select the object and click Add Effect > Filters > DropShadow in the Effects panel (Windows > Effects).

If you apply a shadow to an object using both Property Inspector and Effects panel, both settings are applied based on the effect's timeline.

For example, consider that you have applied a gray color shadow to a rectangle using the Property Inspector. You then apply the shadow object effect to the rectangle, and specify the color as green. You time the effect such that it gets triggered 2 seconds after the slide begins and lasts until the end of slide.

When the project is played, the gray shadow is displayed for the first 2 seconds. After 2 seconds, both gray and green color shadows are displayed for the rest of the slide.

Here are the differences between the two methods of applying shadows to objects:

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Through Property Inspector Through Effects panel

The shadow is applied to the object instantly. The shadow is applied based on the timeline of the shadow effect.

The shadow is visible to you at edit time, on stage. The shadow is not visible during edit time. You can see the effect

The shadow can be merged with the slide background by clicking ‘Merge with Background’.

applied during the preview or in the published output.

The shadow cannot be merged with the slide background.

Align objects

Align multiple objects on a slide

If you have multiple objects on a slide, Adobe Captivate can automatically and perfectly align the objects for you. This is an easy way to create precise and professional-looking project slides.

You have many options for aligning objects both vertically and horizontally. Some of the alignment options depend upon the location of the anchor object. The anchor object is simply the first object you select. You might want to select the largest object or the object that appears first as the anchor object. So that you can easily identify the anchor object, it appears with white resizing handles, while any subsequent objects you select appear with black resizing handles.

The alignment is based on the registration point of an object, which is the upper left corner of the surrounding box of the object. This point is constant in Adobe Captivate and cannot be changed. In objects with thick strokes, the registration point is in the center of the strokes. For more information on registration points, see We y me i s .

this blog by Lieve

1 Open the slide in which you want to align the objects. The slide must contain multiple objects.

2 Select Window > Align.

3 Select the objects on the slide by holding down the Shift key and clicking the individual objects.

4 Do one of the following:

• Click an alignment option on the alignment toolbar.

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the selected objects, choose Align, and select the appropriate

option from the pop-up menu.

The x (horizontal) and y (vertical) coordinates of the mouse are automatically displayed in the lower-right corner of the Adobe Captivate project window as you move the mouse. Knowing exact coordinates can help you place objects in a precise location on a slide. When aligning objects, it can be helpful to display the grid.

You can move objects using only the keyboard. Select an object and press an arrow key on your keyboard to move 1 pixel at a time. To move an item by the number of pixels defined in the grid, select an object and press Control+arrow key.

To change the height or width of an object by 1 pixel, hold Alt and press an arrow key. Similarly, hold Alt+Shift and an arrow key to change the size 15 pixels at a time.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Align objects using smart guides (Cp 7)

Smart guides appear as dotted lines when you drag objects to reposition, resize, or rotate them. Smart guides are vertical or horizontal lines through the center of an object. Based on these guides, objects that you drag are aligned with the nearest object within the threshold distance.

<<image>>

Note: Smart guides do not appear when you try to reposition or resize objects using keyboard.

Smart guides are enabled by default. To disable smart guides, click View > Show Drawing/Smart Guides.

Aligning objects on the Timeline

The Timeline lets you align objects easily. For example, you can align objects to the playhead, the start of a slide, the end of a slide, another object, or a point in time.

Display the Adobe Captivate Timeline

1 In an open project, double-click a slide that contains objects you want to align.

2 If it is not open already, show the Timeline by clicking the splitter bar. To expand the Timeline, click the display

arrow. You can also open the Timeline from the View menu by selecting the Show Timeline option, or using Control+Alt+T.

Align an object to the playhead

When you sync an object to the playhead, the object moves to the location of the playhead in the Timeline.

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) an object on the Timeline and select Sync With Playhead.

Align an object to the start of a slide

• Click an object on the Timeline and drag it to the left side of the Timeline.

Extend the playing time of an object to the end of a slide

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) an object on the Timeline and select Show For Rest Of Slide.

Align an object to a point in time

• Click an object on the Timeline and drag it to the left or right so that the left edge of the object bar aligns with the

correct time in the header.

For example, if you have a caption that currently appears at the same time the slide displays, but you want a slight delay, drag the caption so that its left edge aligns with 2s (a 2-second delay) or 4s (a 4-second delay) in the header.

You can select multiple objects and move them at the same time. Hold down the Shift key and click objects to select consecutive stacked objects in the Timeline or to select nonconsecutive objects, hold down the Control key and click the objects to move.

You can adjust the zoom level of the Timeline easily. Click in the Timeline ruler and spin the mouse wheel on your mouse to increase or decrease the zoom level.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

Align objects with the grid

Adobe Captivate contains an optional grid that you can display while working on individual slides. The grid lets you more accurately place and position objects on a slide.

You can also select the Snap To Grid option if you want objects that are placed near grid lines to automatically “snap” to the nearest lines.

Display the grid

Select View > Show Grid in an open project.

The grid, a light pattern of dots, appears on the slide.

Align objects with grid lines

Select View > Snap To Grid in an open project.

To test the snap-to-grid behavior, add an object such as a highlight box to the slide, and then move the box. As you move the box, it automatically lines up with the grid lines.

Change the grid scale

1 In an open project, select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate > Preferences (Mac OS).

2 In the Category panel, select Global.

3 In the Grid Size field, enter a new value for Grid size. Larger numbers display fewer grid lines; smaller numbers

display many grid lines for more precise object placement.

Add reflection to objects

You can add reflection to all objects and placeholders, except the following:

• Mouse

• Click box

• Rollover area

• Zoom area

• Rollover slidelet

• Text animation

• Zoom destination

• Answer items in question slides

1 Select the object on the slide. You can also select multiple objects by holding down the Shift key (Windows) or the

Control key (Mac).

Last updated 10/13/2014

Adding and Managing Objects

2 In the Property Inspector, click Reflection in the Shadow & Reflection accordion. The reflection is added to the

object with default settings. If you have added a reflection to any object before, those reflection settings are applied by default.

3 To modify the reflection, click one of the preset options.

4 To add reflection to multiple objects, click and choose one of the options.

Note: To get object reflection in the published output, choose Flash Player 10 or later in the publish settings.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Chapter 7: Noninteractive Objects and Media

Smart shapes

Smart shapes include many categories of readily-available shapes such as arrows, buttons, or basic shapes. You can insert and modify such shapes quickly and easily in your Adobe Captivate projects.

You can also convert smart shapes to rollover or any freefrom shapes. You can use smart shapes as buttons too. See Use

smart shapes as buttonsfor more information.

You can configure a standard look and feel for smart shapes using the Object Style Manager (Edit > Object Style Manager). See

Object stylefor more information.

Note: You can search for smart shapes, and text within them, using the Find dialog box.

Insert smart shapes

1 Click the slide on which you want to insert the smart shape.

2 Click Shapes on Toolbar and click a shape of your choice. The mouse pointer turns into a ‘+’ mark.

3 Click and drag the mouse on the stage to draw the smart shape.

4 Adjust the shape using the white and yellow handles.

Edit smart shapes

1 To convert a smart shape to a freeform shape, right-click the shape, and click Convert To Freeform Shape.

Black handles appear on the outline of the shape.

2 Click a black handle to see a bezier curve that lets you transform the line into a curve. You can also change the

position of the point by clicking and dragging the black handle.

3 Click anywhere outside the shape to save the edits.

To edit the shape again, right-click the shape and click Edit Points.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Noninteractive Objects and Media

To use a smart shape as a rollover shape, right-click the shape, and click Convert To Rollover Shape.

Customize smart shapes

Customize shapes and reuse them across different slides and projects with ease. Use Hover statewith fill for color/gradient/image.

For more information, see Customize smart shapes

Flip smart shapes

Click the smart shape and drag one of the handles in the desired direction. For example, to flip an arrow to left, click the handle at the tip of the arrow head and drag it all the way to the left so that it flips along the Y-axis.

You can also flip smart shapes using the flip options - flip horizontal ( ) and flip vertical ( ) - in the Transform accordion of the Property Inspector.

Apply gradient fills

Use gradient fills to blend colors to create various effects. You can apply gradient fills to slides and drawing objects. You can also choose a gradient fill for projects’ background (Preferences > Global > Defaults > Background color).

1 Select the slide or the drawing object to which you want to apply the gradient fill.

2 In the Property Inspector, click the Stage (for slides), or the Fill (for drawing objects) box.

3 Click at the top of the box.

4 Click a preset in the preset row.

Observe that the selected slide or the object changes dynamically on the stage to reflect the changes you do the gradient fill.

5 To edit the colors, click the color stops and choose the required color.

Note: For drawing objects, set the transparency for the colors (in percentage) using the option adjacent to the Fill palette in the Property Inspector.

To delete a color stop, click it and press the Delete key on your keyboard. You can even drag the color stop out of the gradient box.

6 To reverse the positioning of colors, click the Reverse Colors icon.

7 Choose the direction for the gradient from the Direction row.

8 Click the Linear Gradient icon for a linear gradient, or click the Radial gradient icon for a radial gradient.

9 Click a pattern in the Pattern list.

Last updated 10/13/2014

Macromedia Captivate - 8.0.1 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Legal notices

Contents

Chapter 1: What’s new

What's New in Adobe Captivate 8.0.1

What's new and changed

App packager integration

Convert captions to smart shapes

Responsive drag & drop

Custom shapes & line support

Publish projects as exe files

Other enhancements

Symmetrical editing

Apply position properties across all views

Apply text and text properties across all views

Color coding

Project size

Smart positioning between breakpoints

Export responsive views captions to single Word or xml file

Autoscaling of interactions in responsive project views

Automatic linked files inclusion in output

Swatch manager

Lock individual objects

fx symbol for objects in timeline

Color tool tip

Chapter 2: Workspace

Undoing and redoing actions

Toolbars

Rearranging the Object Toolbar

Timeline

Show or hide the Timeline

Rearrange the Timeline panel

Change the zoom level of the Timeline panel

Change the order of object layers

Hide objects during editing

Timeline for slidelets

Lock objects

Set time for objects and slides using the Timeline

Preview a slide using the playhead

Shortcut keys

Magnification shortcuts

Shortcut keys for recording

Change shortcut keys for recording

Panels

Grids

Work with grids

Change the dimensions of a grid

Filmstrip

Disable confirmation messages

Customizing the workspace

Rearrange document windows

Move panels

Dock and undock panels

Add and remove panels from docks

Stack floating panels

Resize panels

Collapse and expand panel icons

Save customized workspaces

Switch workspaces

Rename and delete workspaces

Branching panel

Panes in the Branching panel

Preview pane

Main pane

Unlinked slides pane

Editing the links between slides

Grouping slides using the Branching view

Chapter 3: Creating Projects

Create projects

Create a project to include software simulation

Create a project from PowerPoint presentations

Create a project from images

Create a project starting with blank slides

Create template-based projects

Create a storyboard and workflow

Create project templates

Create projects from project templates