Adobe Captivate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Adobe Captivate editing a software simulation. |
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| Developer(s) | Adobe Systems |
| Stable release | 4.0 / January 20, 2009 |
| Written in | CodeGear Delphi |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | eLearning |
| License | Proprietary EULA |
| Website | Adobe Captivate Homepage |
Adobe Captivate (formerly RoboDemo) is an electronic learning tool for Microsoft Windows which can be used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in .swf format. It can also convert Adobe Captivate generated .swf to .avi which can be uploaded to video hosting websites. For software simulations, Captivate can use left mouse clicks, key presses and rollover images. Adobe Captivate 3 cannot simulate right mouse clicks without editing the files that are generated, but with Adobe Captivate 4, this is now possible.
It can also be used for screencasts, podcasts, and the conversion of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to the Adobe Flash format.
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[edit] Features
Captivate builds and edits interactive software demonstrations, simulations, podcasts, screencasts, games, program demos and lessons. For software demos, it can either record in real time or use an event-based screen capture that snaps a sequence of still images and then builds mouse movement simulations to create the appearance of a running program. By using Adobe Flash Tweening technology, Captivate is able to create screencasts in a much smaller filesize than needed for a real full-motion screen capture movie.
Captivate users can edit Captivate presentations to add captions, clickable hotspots, text entry boxes, rollovers, videos, etc. Authors can edit the content (including mouse pointer path, position, image) and change the timing for each item to appear and disappear. The hotspots can branch to other slides in the presentation, or to outside webpages. E-learning authors can also provide multiple levels of feedback using multiple interactions per slide.
Captivate supports the import of still images, PowerPoint, video, .flv, and audio tracks onto any Captivate slide.
Captivate also supports 508 compliant (Accessibility) output, SCORM, AICC (CBT), and PENS (software) to track score data in Learning Management Systems (LMS).
[edit] History
While the product started out as a pure screen recording utility known as Flashcam (Nexus Concepts 2002), it evolved into an E-learning authoring tool after San Diego-based eHelp Corporation acquired Flashcam and released it as RoboDemo. Eventually, software firm Macromedia acquired eHelp to gain RoboDemo. Shortly before Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia, they changed the name of the product to Captivate.
[edit] Versions
- Adobe Captivate 4 (Jan 2009) New features included SWF commenting, professional project templates, customizable widgets, roundtrip PowerPoint workflow, table of contents and aggregator, text-to-speech functionality, variables and advanced actions, expanded output options, Adobe Photoshop layer support. This version has features for collaboration, extends Adobe Captivate and interacts with other Adobe products like Bridge, Soundbooth, Photoshop, Adobe Device Central, etc. This version of Adobe Captivate is also part of the new Adobe eLearning Suite. Note: There is a bug in aggregator that sometimes interferes with the playback controls of embedded live-action video.
- Adobe Captivate 3 (July 2007) New features included multimode recording, automatic rerecording, XML export/import (XLIFF) for localization, find and replace, audio recording with preview, randomized quizzes, answer shuffle, new question types (sequence/hotspot), PPT import with animations, rollover slidelet, and slide transition effects. This version has an Adobe Captivate logo preloader added to the beginning of all simulations, but this can be changed to a generic preloader. It would eventually be included in the Adobe Technical Communication Suite.
- Adobe Captivate 2 (October 2006) New features included branching view, simulation wizard, library, interaction dialog, zoom, skins and menus, Flash Video (FLV) support, export to Flash 8, step-by-step documentation output, customization options, and PENS.
- Macromedia Captivate (October 2004) New features included timeline, audio editing, demonstration and simulation recording modes, customizable quiz questions, export to Flash MX 2004, smart full motion recording, 508 compliance, SCORM 2004, and Breeze integration.
- RoboDemo 5 and eLearning Edition (Fall 2003 by eHelp Corporation) New features included tighter integration with Flash via FLA and SWF import, full-motion (real-time) recording, SCORM 1.2., video import, multiple copy/paste, undo, shortcut controls, grid, alignment toolbar, filmstrip view, background audio, animated highlighters, and project resize.
- RoboDemo 4 and eLearning Edition (Spring 2003 by eHelp Corporation) New features included AutoText Captions, Animated Text Effects, PowerPoint style interface, publish as email attachment, customize capture key, SCORM, Quiz question slides, support for Questionmark Perception.
- RoboDemo 3 (Fall 2002 by eHelp Corporation) New features included Powerpoint and AVI import, interactive text entry boxes, interactive click boxes, JavaScript options, and scoring.
- RoboDemo 2 (May 2002 by eHelp Corporation) First version with major FlashCam bug fixes (therefore it was called version "2").
[edit] Related file formats and extensions
| Ext. | Explanation |
|---|---|
| .avi | .avi files are a Microsoft video format. Captivate files can be output to .avi format. |
| .cp | .cp files are Captivate project files which can be edited with the Captivate software. |
| .swf | .swf files are completed, compiled and published files that cannot be edited with Adobe Flash. However, many '.swf decompilers' do exist. Attempting to import .swf files using Flash allows it to retrieve some assets from the .swf, but not all. |
| .fla | .fla files contain source material for the Flash application. Flash authoring software can edit FLA files and compile them into .swf files. Proprietary to Adobe, the FLA format in no sense counts as "open". |
| .flv | .flv files are Flash video files, as created by Adobe Flash, ffmpeg, Sorenson Squeeze, or On2 Flix. |
| .qml | XML file to make Captivate content interoperable and trackable with Questionmark Perception. Basis for QTI. |
| .cprr | XML file to store users action when recording scripts during re recording feature.This file can be used to automatically imitate users action in another session of Adobe Captivate recording. |
| .cpdt | Captivate design template files. |
| .cptl | Captivate project template files. |
| .aggr | Captivate Aggregator File. Aggregator is a new application that is installed along with Adobe Captivate 4. It can take multiple Captivate modules and publish an aggregated course with a Table of Contents |
| .crev | Captivate Review File. With Adobe Captivate 4, a project can be reviewed in a collaborative way. This file is published when a project is sent out for review. Another review application can open this file and can accept comments which can be seen in the main Captivate window. The Review Application is an Adobe AIR application and can be installed on any machine without requiring Adobe Captivate license. |
[edit] Comparable software
Camtasia Studio and Wink, MadCap Software Mimic are similar programs available for Windows and Linux. Wink is freeware that allows for export to EXE, PDF, HTML, or PostScript as well as SWF. These programs can only generate screen recordings and are typically not used for interactive simulations.
[edit] See also
- Camtasia a similar proprietary software
- ActivePresenter a similar software
- Camstudio the original software which led to Adobe Captivate, now still open source
- Comparison of screencasting software
- Adobe Flash
- Screencast
[edit] External links
- Adobe Captivate Accessibility
- Adobe Captivate Developer Center
- Adobe Captivate Exchange
- Adobe Captivate homepage
- Adobe Captivate team blog
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