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Information About

Adobe Captivate





Software Information

  Name Adobe Captivate
  Caption Adobe Captivate editing a software simulation
  Developer Adobe Systems
  Latest Release Version 30
  Latest Release Date July 24, 2007
  Operating System Microsoft Windows
  Genre Elearning
  License Proprietary EULA
  Website Adobe Captivate


Adobe Captivate is an E-learning Windows authoring tool to create software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in .swf format. It can also be used for Screencast s, Podcast s, and PowerPoint conversion to Flash files.


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 a smart 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, .SWF, and audio tracks onto any Captivate slide. The SWF output format supports computer platforms such as an Apple Macintosh, Linux Computer, or portable devices that support Flash.

Captivate also supports 508 compliant ( Accessibility ) output and SCORM , AICC (CBT) and PENS (software) to track score data in LMSs (Learning Management Systems).


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. When Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia, they changed the name of the product to Captivate.


VERSIONS


  • 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.


  • 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").



RELATED FILE FORMATS AND EXTENSIONS



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 .


SEE ALSO

Adobe Flash


EXTERNAL LINKS