Basic Captivate Training (per participant)
Online Training: $895.00 (one day), 1350.00 (two day)
Classroom: $895.00 (one day), 1350.00 (two day)
________
Learn while you develop Captivate Training (per participant)
This training option is best suited for participants
who want to learn through hands-on-training. You develop your own content that you can use in your video library immediately.
Online Training, Classroom, or Onsite: $3995.00 (4 days)
*You develop 3 "real" training videos with audio for your organization during these training session. We know it's not cheap but it's worth it.
________
Custom Development Addons (can be added to 1 day or 2 day training courses)
Add a "Developing for Handheld Devices" module for the iPhone, Blackberry, or Google Android ($399.00)
Develop a real training video(s) for your organization during the training session. (599.00 per video)
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About the Adobe Captivate Training Course
The Adobe Captivate training course teaches participants to build software demonstrations and interactive training, assessment simulations. Using a task-based approach, participants learn the key features of Captivate and apply best practices throughout the creation of an in-class project. Participants also learn how to create, maintain and update projects.
After Training Support
Six months of support is provided to all participants at no extra cost. Participants can communicate with their instructors by telephone, email, and receive immediate impromptu support through our remote desktop training tool.
Course Outline
Unit 1: Developing a Content Development Plan
This sections teaches you the basics required to plan your training development project. At the end of this section you will have a complete development plan that you can use for your projects.
Analyzing your Audience
- Bandwidth Considerations
- Analyzing your Resources
- Analyzing your Constraints
- Screen Resolution
- Instructional Design
- Linear or Interactive flow
Defining your Objectives
- Overall Training Objectives
- Activity Objectives
- Task Objectives
Creating a Content Outline
- Instructional Design for your Project
- Defining Modules
- Chunking Content
- Understanding Linear and Interactive Paths
- Interactive Module Access Points
Writing a Two-column Script
- Understanding the communication column and the Actions Column
- Writing to be Heard
- Associating Narrative and Screen Actions
- Writing for Team Development
- Defining your audio file name in your script
Creating a Storyboard
- Developing a Key Frame Storyboard
- Identifying Major Transitions
- Communicating Transitions and Actions
Defining Interactivity
- Creating an Interactive Flowchart
- Understanding Linear and Interactive Content
- Maintaining a Users Attention
- Planning to Create Multiple Paths - Branching
- Structuring your Captivate Movies
Unit 2: Recording A Software Demonstration
- Describing the Workflow Process
- Record your project
- Edit the content
- Publish and deliver
- Showing the Macromedia Captivate Workflow
- Recording Your Project
- Preparing to Record an Application
- Recording a New Movie
- Describing New Project Options
- Application/Custom size/Full screen
- Blank movie/Image movie
- Describing the Recording Window/Recording Options
- Selecting the Recording Mode/Demonstration Mode/Assessment Simulation Mode/Training Simulation Mode/Custom Mode
- Describing Full Motion Recording
- Describing the Change Recording Keys
Walkthrough 2-1: Recording a Software Demonstration
- Describing the Preview Project Options
- Play this slide (F3)/Movie (F4)/From this slide (F8)/Next 5 slides (F10)/ In Web Browser (F12)
- Describing How to Save Your Project
- Walkthrough 2-2: Previewing and Saving Your Project
- Exploring Captivate's Working Environment
- Storyboard view/Edit view/Menus/Toolbars/Timeline/Filmstrip
- Introducing the Storyboard View
- Introducing the Edit View
- Introducing the Menu Bar, Toolbar, Timeline, and Filmstrip
- Describing Slides
- Working with Blank and Colored Slides
- Describing the Slide Properties Dialog Box
- Using the Color Dialog Box
Walkthrough 2-3: Inserting a Blank Slide
- Labeling Slides
- Reordering Slides
- Using the Filmstrip
Walkthrough 2-4: Accessing, Labeling, and Reordering Slides
- Lab 2: Recording a Software Demonstration
Unit 3: Working With Text Captions
- Describing Text Captions
- Describing the Auto-Generated Text Captions
- Editing Text Captions
- Inserting New Text Captions
- Resizing Text Captions
- Inserting and Stacking New Text Captions
Walkthrough 3-1: Editing, Resizing, Moving, Inserting and Deleting Text Captions
- Changing Caption Properties
- Changing Caption Type
- Choosing a Transparent Background
Walkthrough 3-2: Changing Caption Properties
- Working with Pointer Paths
- Showing Pointer Paths
- Choosing Project Pointers
- Changing Mouse Size
- Showing or Not Showing Mouse
- Walkthrough 3-3: Changing Pointer Paths and Project Pointers
- Lab 3: Editing and Inserting Captions
Unit 4: Working With The Timeline
- Describing the Timeline
- Changing Caption Timing
- Changing Object Timing
- Changing Slide Timing
- Describing Major Components of the Timeline
- Using the Playhead to Preview the Timeline
- Scrubbing the Timeline
- Walkthrough 4-1: Working with the Timeline
- Changing the Order of Object Layers
- Example of Stacking Three Text Captions
Walkthrough 4-2: Changing the Stacking Order
- Lab 4: Working with the Timeline
Unit 5: Working With Images And Objects
- Inserting Images
- Using Images as Logos, Splash Screens, Pointers and More
- Importing Many Graphic Formats
- Describing the New Image Dialog Box
- Resizing Images
Walkthrough 5-1: Inserting and Resizing Images
- Aligning Images
- Working with Image Stacks
- Aligning with Show Grid
- Using Various Tools to Align Images
Walkthrough 5-2: Inserting and Aligning Images
- Describing the New Image Dialog Box
- Setting Image Properties
Walkthrough 5-3: Setting Image Properties
- Stacking Images/Objects
- Bring to Front/Send to Back/Bring Forward/Send Backward
- Sending Image to the Background
- Merging Images/Objects
Walkthrough 5-4: Stacking and Merging Images
- Describing the New Image Dialog Box - Audio Tab
Walkthrough 5-5: Adding Sound to a Specific Object (optional)
- Lab 5: Inserting and Aligning Images
Unit 6: Finishing Touches and Publishing Your Project
- Inserting Text Animation
- Changing Text Animation Effects
Changing Font Attributes
- Describing the New Text Animation Dialog Box
- Walkthrough 6-1: Inserting Text Animation
- Inserting Animation
- Adding Animation Files
- Describing the New Animation Dialog Box
Walkthrough 6-2: Inserting Animation
- Changing Highlight Box Properties
- Describing the Highlight Box Dialog Box
Walkthrough 6-3: Changing Highlight Box Properties
- Checking the Spelling of Your Project
- Text Captions, Slide Notes, and other text
- Walkthrough 6-4: Checking the Spelling of Your Project
- Setting Project Preferences
- Describing Movie Preferences Dialog Box
- Start and End Project
- Selecting a Playback Control
- Creating an Interactive Menu
- Customizing the border of your Captivate Movie
Walkthrough 6-5: Setting Project Preferences
- Publishing Projects
- Creating Publishing Templates
- Flash files (SWF)
- Macromedia Breeze Server
- EXE Files
- E-mail
- Handouts - Word document
- Web using FTP
- Publishing Project as a Handout
- Publishing Project to a Flash (SWF) File
Walkthrough 6-6: Publishing Your Project
- Exporting From Captivate to Flash
- Lab 6: Finishing Touches and Publishing Your Project
Unit 7: Recording Software Demonstration With Audio
- Referring to Appendix A - Planning A Captivate Project
- Using the Systematic Approach
- Planning Your E-learning Projects
- Similarity and differences between demonstration and simulation
- Record a demonstration of a software procedure with audio that
instructs the viewer on that is being shown
- Record same procedure as a software simulation to test the viewer - create a multiple path simulation
- Recording a Custom-sized Project
- Describing Custom Size Option
- Describing the Recording Window
Walkthrough 7-1: Recording Custom-sized Software Demonstration
- Describing Audio Features
- Record audio at the same time as the movie
- Add a background track that plays for the duration of the movie
- Add sound to an individual slide
- Add sound to a specific object, such as a caption, click box, highlight box, or button
- Recording Audio While Creating a Project
- Scripting Your Project
- Recording Audio Tips
- Setup
- Sound card settings
- Audio recording software settings
- Microphone placement
- Microphone technique
- Audio editing
- Add audio files to Captivate
- Give audio definition
- Describing The Record Audio Dialog Box
- Importing Audio
- Importing Background Audio
- Benefits of Importing Background Audio
- Previewing Audio
Demonstration 7-1: Recording and Playing Audio Files
- Editing Audio Files
- Editing Audio to Correct Narrative Mistakes
- Benefit - No Re-recording Necessary
- Describing the Edit Audio Dialog Box
- Describing the Movie Preferences Dialog Box
- Describing the Advanced Audio Management Dialog Box
- Demonstration 7-2: Deleting, Importing, and Editing Audio Files
- Publishing Project To A Flash (SWF) File
Walkthrough 7-2 - Publishing Your Project
- Day 1 Summary
- Lab 7: Recording a software demonstration and importing audio
Day 2 - Course Outline
Unit 8: Recording A Simulation With Interactivity
- Describing Your Software Simulation
- Recording Options Dialog Box
- Describing the Custom Recording Dialog Box
Walkthrough 8-1: Recording a Software Simulation
- Describing Click Boxes
- Modifying Click Box Captions
- Inserting Click Boxes
- Using the Click Box Dialog Box
- Using Click Box - Options Dialog Box
- Using the Success Caption
Walkthrough 8-2: Inserting Text Captions and Editing a Click Box
- Importing PowerPoint Slides
- Describing the PowerPoint Slide Options Dialog Box
- Describing the Insert Slides Dialog Box
- Moving Slides on Filmstrip
Walkthrough 8-3: Importing PowerPoint Slides
- Inserting Buttons
- Describing the New Button Dialog Box
- Using the Button - Options Dialog Box
- Walkthrough 8-4: Inserting Buttons
- Inserting Text Entry Boxes
- Describing New Text Entry Box Dialog Box
- Using Shortcut Key Dialog Box
- Using Text Entry Box - Options Dialog Box
- Moving and Resizing Text Entry Box
Walkthrough 8-5: Inserting Text Entry Boxes
- Lab 8: Recording a Software Simulation
Unit 9: Inserting Rollover Captions And Images
- Explaining Differences Between Rollover Captions and Images
- Describing Rollover Captions
- Contains of Text Caption and Rollover Area
- Using New Rollover Caption Dialog Box
- Changing the Rollover Area and Rollover Caption
- Changing Rollover Area Properties
- Walkthrough 9-1: Inserting Rollover Captions
- Describing Rollover Images
- Consists of Image and Rollover Area
- Using the New Rollover Image Dialog Box
- Using the Rollover Image Options Dialog Box
- Walkthrough 9-2: Inserting Rollover Images
- Lab 9: Inserting Rollover Captions and Images
Unit 10: Inserting Question Slides
- Planning for Questions
- Control over what happens when users answer question correctly or incorrectly
- Describing the Question Types
- Fill in the Blank
- Likert
- Matching
- Multiple Choice
- Short Answer
- True/False
- Using Interactive Elements
- Using the Question Types Dialog Box
- Using the True/False Question Slide
- Using True/False - Options Tab
- Using True/False - Reporting Tab
- Using the Reporting Options
- Using the Weighting Option
Walkthrough 10-1: Inserting a Question Slide
- Describing Branching
- Creating Branching
- Branching With Questions
- Using Multiple Choice Question Slide
- Using the Multiple Choice - Options Tab
- Using Multiple Choice - Reporting Tab
- Testing the Question Slides
- Walkthrough 10-2: Creating Multiple Paths
- Establishing Reporting Options With Other Interactions
- Buttons, Click boxes, and Text entry boxes
- Reviewing Your Score Results
Walkthrough 10-3: Establishing Reporting Options with Other Interactions
- Lab 10: Inserting Question Slides
Unit 11: Using E-learning Features
- Describing E-learning Benefits
- Create demonstrations and simulation that automatically integrates with LMS
- Manage all your student data in one application
- Determine the percentage of correct responses
- Describing Learning Objects
- Describing a Learning Management System
- Describing Features and Functions of an LMS
- Using an LMS
- Sending Data to the LMS
- Defining AICC and SCORM
- Describing Data Tracking and Content Packaging
- Organizing Quizzes
- Using the Quiz Manager - Reporting Tab
- AICC
- SCORM
- Questionmark Perception
- Authorware
- E-mail
- Using the Quiz Manager - Quiz Tab
Walkthrough 11-1: Using the Quiz Manager
- Describing the Manifest File
- Using the Manifest Dialog Box
Walkthrough 11-2: Creating a Manifest File
- Creating a PIF
- Publishing Your Project
- Accessing the ZIP File
Walkthrough 11-3: Publishing Your Project
- Lab 11: Using E-learning Features
Unit 12: Updating Your Projects
- Recording Additional Slides
- Using the Record Additional Slides Dialog Box
- Using the Recording Window
Walkthrough 12-1: Recording Additional Slides
- Importing Slides From One Project to Another
- Using Import Project Dialog Box
Walkthrough 12-2: Importing Slides from One Captivate Project into Another
- Importing PowerPoint Slides
- Describing the PowerPoint Slide Options Dialog Box
- Describing the Insert Slides Dialog Box
- Moving Slides on Filmstrip
Walkthrough 12-3: Importing PowerPoint Slides
- Inserting Text Animation
- Describing the New Text Animation Dialog Box
Walkthrough 12-4: Inserting Text Animation
- Checking the Spelling of Your Project
- Checking the Timing of Your Project
- Describing the Major Components of the Timeline
Walkthrough 12-5: Checking the Spelling and Timing of Your Projects
- Lab 12: Updating Projects
Unit 13: Resizing And Publishing Projects
- Planning to Publish Your Projects
- Setting Project Properties
- Using the Movie Properties Dialog Box
- Setting Playback Preferences
- Using the Move Preferences Dialog Box
- Selecting a Playback Control
Walkthrough 13-1: Selecting Project Properties and Preferences
- Resizing Your Project
- Resizing your Project - Options
- Resizing your Project - Best Practices
- Using the Move Resize Dialog Box
- Walkthrough 13-2: Resizing Your Projects
- Analyzing Bandwidth
- Using the Slide Summary Analysis
- Using the Graph Analysis
- Using the Movie Summary Analysis
Walkthrough 13-3: Using the Bandwidth Monitor
- Publishing Projects
- Publishing Project to a Flash (SWF) File
Walkthrough 13-4: Publishing Your Projects
- Lab 13: Resizing your Project
Unit 14: Using MenuBuilder
- Introducing the MenuBuilder
- Using MenuBuilder
- Creating a MenuBuilder Project
- Using the MenuBuilder Dialog Box
- Using the Project Wizard
- Selecting a Template
- Adding Text Items
- Linking to Macromedia SWF Files
- Using Advanced Settings Dialog Box
- Setting Project Options
Walkthrough 14-1: Creating a MenuBuilder Project
- Previewing the MenuBuilder Project
- Exporting MenuBuilder Projects
Walkthrough 14-2: Previewing and Exporting MenuBuilder
Class Summary
- Lab 14 (Optional): Creating a MenuBuilder Project
Reference Material
Appendix A: Planning a Captivate Project
- Planning Your Project
- Using Various Project Elements
- Showing the Macromedia Captivate Workflow
- Describing the Workflow Process
- Using the Systematic Approach
- Analyzing Your Audience
- Analyzing Your Resources
- Analyzing Your Constraints
- Using Storyboards
- Storyboarding Your Project
- Scripting Your Project
- Planning to Create Multiple Paths - Branching
- Developing a Style Guide
- Using a Project Template
- Developing Your Project
- Recording Tips
- Using the auto recording option
- Setting an appropriate screen resolution
- Turning off your desktop wallpaper
- Turning off your desktop icons
- Removing themes and nonstandard colors
- Removing color gradients
- Performing action to record slowly
- Describing Full Motion Recording
- Review Options
- Describing the Change Recording Keys
- Manual Capture
- Full Motion Recording
- Publishing Your Project Captivate Training Tips
Tip July 13, 2010: What new in Adobe Releases Captivate 5
Adobe Captivate 5: New User Interface for Easier Develop of your Captivate Training
The new interface is similar to other Adobe CS4 and CS5 products. You can customize the layout of panels in the Captivate Workspace to suite your training development needs. The Captivate 5 Property Inspector is similar to other Adobe CS4 and CS5 products and it’s extremely helpful when developing your Training content. You can also use the paste board/scratch area and have training content off the screen, or partially on the screen.
Adobe Captivate 5: Share your Captivate Training Files and Reviews through Acrobat.com
Adobe has integration Captivate 5 and Acrobat.com, while now allows you to send Captivate review files to Acrobat.com for a Shared Review. Your Captivate Training files are accessible to team members across the internet, and you will be able to track changes from you remote location.
Adobe Captivate 5: Animate your Captivate Objects
You can now animate your Captivate Training object with the Captivate Effects panel. Adobe Captivate provides pre-built animations that you can use by simply choosing the effect from a menu and setting the timings. You can play multiple effects in your Captivate Training Projects in sequence or play them at the same time.
Adobe Captivate 5: Open Multiple Projects from the Same Captivate Project
Similar to other Adobe CS4 and CS5 products, you can now have multiple projects and Captivate Libraries open at the same time. You can now copy and paste assets between multiple Captivate training projects, and drag and drop library elements from different files.
Adobe Captivate 5 has a new file extension: “.CPTX”
Adobe Captivate 5: Object Styles
You can now use styles for your Captivate Training Objects, which speeds up your Captivate Training Development even more. Formatting options of objects include Text Format, Character, Fill & Stoke, and Transition. You can also setup styles for your Quiz question elements and include your progress indicator. After making changes to your Captivate Styles changes will flow throughout your entire Captivate training project. Styles are managed through the Object Styles Manager which is a new feature of Captivate 5.
Adobe Captivate 5 allows you to use Acrobat.com to Track & Report your Captivate Training Projects
You can now track your Captivate Training courses without a learning management system. Adobe has created the Adobe Captivate Quiz Results Analyzer. Now with your Acrobat.com account you can track and receive reports on your Captivate Training Projects. You can also download a CSV file containing your report data.
Adobe Captivate 5 has Multi-Video format Support
With Captivate 5 you will now be able to use the following video formats: FLV, F4V, AVI, MP4, MOV and 3GP. We’ll add more about this later.
Adobe Captivate 5 now has Master Slides
Captivate 5 allows you to set up a layout with all customized elements and create Master slides. You can have multiple master slides in a project and create new slides based on Master slides. When you
update a Master slide element, all slides based on that Master slide change. This is a huge advantage when working with Captivate Templates as you have more global control over your project and corporate development.
Captivate 5 allows video to Span over multiple slides
Unlike Captivate 4, where video could not play over multiple slides in your Captivate Training Project, Captivate 5 allows video to play over many slides and you can time your video using the Video Timing panel, which gives you control over when your video plays and the timing of other Captivate events.
You can also place video on your Table of Contents using the Video Timing Panel. Your Table of Contents slides down to display a video for the slide and then slide back up once the video is complete.
Captivate 5 has an Expanded Asset Library
Now you have more options for your training content. You have a larger set of prebuilt widgets, playbars, skins, stock animations, images, text captions, and buttons.
Captivate 5 has a new Screen Recording Workflow
When you start recording your training with Captivate you now have a countdown indicator and an interface to start a recording. Adobe has also improved quality of panning and the quality of your Captivate Recordings have also improved.
Captivate 5 has an Audio Recording/Editing Workflow
There a new Captivate recording window which will help you edit you audio more easily and it will speed up your audio production. You can also work more closely with your closed captioning.
Tip December 16, 2009: Understanding Captivate's Full Motion Recording Option
When you record screen actions using Captivate's automatic modes (Demonstration or one of the Simulations), clicking your mouse or pressing [print screen] on your keyboard results in a screen capture.
However, if you need to capture complex procedures like drawing, moving or resizing an object, you can use Full Motion Recording (FMR). Assuming you have not disabled the FMR mode, and that you are recording a lesson in an automatic recording mode, all you need to do to create an FMR is drag your mouse during the recording process.
When you finish the recording process, any slides containing FMR videos will contain a movie camera icon when viewed on the Edit tab. The FMR will play like an animation within your project-a movie within a movie.
Note: If you have disabled FMR mode, you can manually create FMRs by pressing [F9] on your keyboard during the recording process and then dragging your mouse. Pressing [Fl0] will stop the FMR recording.
Setting your Full Motion Recording Options for Captivate Training
1. Captivate should be running (no projects should be open). In addition, the Recording stage window should be open and contain a folder called New Folder.
If the Recording stage window does not have a folder, you can easily create one now by choosing File > New > Folder.
2. Set the FMR Preferences.
- using Captivate, choose Edit > Preferences
- from the Recording category, select Settings
from the Automatically use full motion recording for area at the bottom of the dialog box, select Drag and drop actions and Mouse wheel actions. By selecting Drag and drop actions, dragging your mouse during the recording process will result in an automatic FMR video being recorded for you.
In addition, scrolling by using the mouse wheel (if your mouse supports this feature) will automatically result in an FMR.
- click the FMR settings button. The Full Motion Recording Preferences appear.
- ensure your options match the picture below
By selecting Show mouse, the video you record will include a mouse pointer.
The Disable hardware acceleration was left deselected. According to Adobe, leaving this option off will result in a higher FMR quality. You would turn this option on if you were recording videos from media players such as Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or QuickTime to prevent a blank screen from being recorded. when in doubt, leave the option off and test a few FMRs for quality.
The SWF Conversion was set to 32 Bit. Most computers have video set to 32 bit, which offers the widest range of colors on the monitor. If you were to select 16 bit, you would end up with a smaller FMR, but a smaller range of colors - and a lower-quality video.
The FMR Mode in the picture above was set to Video, which will result in the highest-quality SWF you can get from your FMR (and the largest file size). You could elect to use Application or smaller SWF size, both or which would result in a lower-quality FMR and SWF. When in doubt, you could use Safe mode and captivate would calculate your available system resources and create the best possible FMR.
Tip November 26, 2009: Making the audio volume equal throughout your Captivate Training videos
If you use Captivate's slide-by-slide method to record audio for your Captivate Training video, your audio volume may vary. It's difficult to manually equalize the audio level by going to each slide separately and adjust the volume. To make the audio equal throughout your captivate training project, use this technique.
To make the audio volume throughout your Captivate Training Video equal:
1. From your Captivate menu select Audio > Edit > Project. The Edit Audio Timing Dialog appears.
2. Click inside the audio timing area, and use the "Ctrl A" key to select all of the audio throughout your Captivate Training project.
3. Now select Adjust Audio, check the Normalize checkbox, and click Okay. This will make all of your audio levels equal.
Tip November 24, 2009: Understanding Resolution and Recording Size in your Captivate Training Videos
As you develop your Captivate Training video, every click you make with your mouse will result in one screen capture.
Before you record, you should be aware of two things that control how sharp and how large your Captivate screen captures will be: display resolution and recording area.
Understanding Screen Resolution in Captivate Training
A computer monitor is measured in pixels (a pixel is a little square that is the basic component of any computer graphic). If a monitor is set to show more pixels, it is known as increasing the resolution. At a higher resolution, graphics and text will look sharper. but smaller. The fewer pixels you request, the lower the resolution, and larger the-screen elements appear.
If your computer is set to a high resolution (such as 1280x1024) when you record your Captivate Training video, a user viewing your published project at a lower display resolution (such as 800 x 600) will have to scroll significantly to see the action you recorded.
However, if your computer is set to a lower display resolution (such as 1024x768) when you record your project, a customer with a higher screen resolution will have no trouble viewing your project. However, if you record your projects at the lower screen resolution, you may not be happy with the appearance of the screen icons and fonts (they may be too big and not as sharp as they would appear at the higher screen resolution).
Understanding Recording Area in Captivate Training
The Recording Area is not the same thing as display resolution (although the two settings are constantly confused). The display resolution is set via the Windows Display control panel.
The Recording Area is set from within Captivate and is the physical amount of the screen that you will be capturing during the recording process.
There are several preset sizes available within Captivate from 220 x270 up to 1024 x 768, and you can specify your own.
With so many choices, what should you do? We recommend that you set your display resolution to 1024x768. And we recommend that you set your Captivate recording Area no larger than 800 x 600 if possible.
Now there are a number of additional concerns that you might would to consider before setting your recording area, but if you're unsure, use a recording area no larger than 800 x 600 pixels. Your Captivate Training viewers will thank you.
Tip November 15, 2009:Determine your Captivate Training Specifications Ahead of Time
Although we believe that Captivate Training Videos should never be a slave to the technology, the reality of our modern workplace is that the IT departments of many companies place stringent restrictions on what you're allowed to do from a technical perspective. You may be forced to present your Captivate Training videos on a particular computer display setting, browser type, or audio environment etc., while abandoning all others. Make sure that you find out the policies of your particular situation so that you can safely work within the confines of those rules.
Keep in mind that some of these restrictions may not always be explicit, meaning that you're going to have to involve some other people. While some of you may be employed in an academic or small business situation where you're the sole decision maker (at least when it comes to producing video content), chances are that you're creating Captivate Training Videos as part of a larger team effort. Be certain to include the decision makers from IT management, and anyone else who has a stake in the content you're producing. Before recording a single frame of video on a new project, do make sure that you reach a consensus on the following points.
Method of deployment for your Captivate Training Videos
Ask Certain Questions: Will these Captivate Training Videos be posted to your web site? The corporate intranet? Will CD-ROMs be created? What about a DVD for viewing on console televisions? These decisions will affect your video dimensions as well as the output format of your final production. And, whether online or on CD, it's never too early to start planning your menu navigation.
Maximum file size or bandwidth requirements. It's especially important to clarify this if your organization will be hosting these Captivate Training videos on its servers. If you're deploying on CD-ROM, then you should try to compute how much space, on average, each of your planned Captivate Training Video is allowed.
Captivate Training Video dimensions
Smaller video dimensions generally mean smaller file sizes. Larger video dimensions mean better visibility, but a corresponding high file size, plus the risk of those with smaller monitors not being able to view your creation without scrolling (bad) or scaling your content (even worse).
Will the Captivate Training videos be narrated? Unnarrated video titles don't necessitate the hassle of setting up audio equipment, but you'll see a corresponding need for captions and text callouts. Narrated videos should ideally have a script in place prior to recording, so that you can appropriately time the recording of your segments. In fact, as you'll see, effective scripting and storyboarding is a good idea regardless of narration.
While Captivate Training Videos are used for all kinds of purposes, training is one purpose that Captivate is very strong in. In the work that we do for our clients, more often than not they engage us to create an online tutorial, knowledge base video, or some other form of training. This can run the gamut from some quickie "Getting Started" videos (to give new downloaders a leg up) to a polished, menu-driven CD-ROM, complete with comprehensive tutorials on every aspect of the software, which can then be sold (or given) to those customers who have already made their purchase.
Tip November 14, 2009:Why build Training videos with Captivate
Captivate Training videos can serve to augment traditional stand-up training or, in certain instances, replace it entirely. While nothing's as good as being there, Captivate Training Vidoes, with its capacity for video narration (so that you see the face of the trainer, hear the voice, and see the screen simultaneously), actually comes pretty darned close. Captivate Training videos also have the following advantages over traditional stand-up training:
Captivate Training Videos never tire of repetition. If users don't understand something, they can always go back and view it again.
Captivate Training Videos are scalable. Deploy your training content to 10 people or 10,000, without a lot of extra time, effort, or money.
Captivate Training Videos travel better than people do. If you have 20 different people who require training in 20 different locations around the world, there's no need to summon them to one spot in order to deliver training.
Captivate Training Videos are always available. Unlike trainers, who have a scheclule to keep, training videos are always at the ready, even at 3 a.m. If the trainees decide they've had enough for the day, they can come back to it the following day (or week) with no worries.
Captivate Trainng Videos are hassle-free. Stand-up training involves scheduling, reserving a classroom, and communicating with both the trainer and trainees to make sure everyone shows up at the appointed time. Not to mention the coffee and donuts. The logistics of video deployment are quite a bit simpler. Your Captivate Training Videos can act as a "front line of defense." People in the IT support department love training videos because they know that those users who never read documentation might just take the time to watch a video. In fact, many companies build whole video reference libraries of solutions to common problems. When they receive an e-mail from a frantic customer or colleague, they can simply send a link to the appropriate video along with the tag, "Contact me again if you have any additional questions." Simply Captivate Training Videos can handle the training jobs no one else wants. I've heard of several companies who now use training videos as part of their standard new employee orientation, helping them to teach the more mundane aspects of the job, such as requisitioning office supplies or filling out a timecard. Not placing this training burden on your staff means not having to remove them from their normal duties every time you bring on someone new.
But chances are I'm preaching to the choir here - after all, you probably wouldn't have come to Pentext if you didn't already know that Captivate Training video content excels as a training device. So, let's move on to devising the best training program we possibly can. These tips are arranged in no particular order; they're mainly here to get you thinking about your audience and the information you want to convey to them before you sit down to forge your masterpiece.
People understand a Captivate Training video better when words are presented as verbal narration alone, rather than both verbally and as on-screen text (redundancy principle).
This should already be familiar to those of you who have had to sit through a dull PowerPoint presentation where the host "presented" by reading all the bullet points off the screen. If we replace those bullet points with a chart, an animation, or a screen video, comprehension can be enhanced. Filling up the screen with narration text can waste a good opportunity for engaging the brain with visual media. There are a few exceptions to this principle, such as when introducing unfamiliar terms, or when the audience members are hearing impaired or nonnative speakers of your language. In those cases, you'd want to reinforce narration with text. Fortunately, Captivate Training offers text callouts as well as captioning to address these situations.
People learn better when Captivate Trainings is presented in bite-sized chunks (segmentation principle).
For our purposes as video content providers, this principle has a profound impact on how we split up our content. For tutorial videos, I typically find that three to five minutes for each "chapter" works best. As you work your way through the book, I'11 show you techniques for dividing your content automatically, and even creating a clickable table of contents, so that your users can seamlessly navigate your segments.
People learn better when Captivate Training is presented using clear outlines and headings (signalling principle).
When utilizing Captivate Training, the signalling principle is instructive in a number of ways. First, it illustrates the importance of using title screens to announce your content. People seem to have an innate need to know what to expect. Title screens help to convey this information.
The running time and duration displayed in the Captivate Training video's control bar aid in this as well, by informing the audience how long the video has been playing and, more importantly, how far they have to go. The users can then plan accordingly depending on how much free time they have in their day.
People learn better when Captivate Training is presented in a conversational style rather than a formal one (personalization principle).
I think most people know this from experience on a conscious level, but I still see countless Captivate Training videos where the narrator is as stiff as a board. It's usually the result of committee review where any shred of the creator's personality is systematically removed for the sake of "professionalism." This is a mistake. When narrating your Captivate Training video segments, you need to stay warm and approachable, which includes both your terminology and your tone. It is possible to be both informal and professional at the same time. It can be a balancing act, of course, but the rewards are great if successfully executed.
People learn better when on-screen text is presented near any corresponding images in your Captivate Training video (spatial contiguity principle).
This principle comes into play when placing callouts in your Captivate Training video.
People learn better when any extraneous information is removed (coherence principle). This is definitely something you want to be cognizant of while recording. Remember to keep the focus on the material you want to convey, and eliminate everything else. If your Windows desktop is going to be recorded at any point, change your desktop to a solid color. Move any nonessential icons out of the recording area. Close any renegade windows. You want to make your Captivate Training recordings as clean as possible. In addition to trimming out all the junk mentioned above, take care not to add irrelevant words, sounds, pictures, or music, as these can actually serve to hinder the audience from absorbing the Captivate Training material.
People learn better from animation and narration than animation with explanatory on-screen text (modality principle).
Of all the human senses, Captivate Training video presentations typically engage two: sight and hearing. These are individual receptors, or pathways into the brain, and the reason that multimedia learning is successful has to do with the brain's efficiency at receiving information from both these pathways at once. But there can be bottlenecks, as the modality principle demonstrates. By presenting animation, and then adding written narration (as opposed to audio) on top of that, you're overloading one of the pathways, while the other one goes completely unused. When crafting your videos, it behooves you to balance the load. People learn better when animation and narration are synchronized than when they're asynchronous (temporal contiguity principle).
When the Captivate Training video and audio are synchronized, the learner tends to more strongly build connections between the words and the picture, thereby improving their ability to form an accurate mental representation of the content you're trying to get across.
The design of Captivate Training Video presentations can have different effects on people based on their prior knowledge, visual literacy, and spacial aptitude (individual differences principle). This is a fancy way of saying that everybody's different, particularly in terms of how they experience (and have experienced) the world.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" Captivate Training video experience that will appeal to eyeryone. But by following some of the principles above, your chances of truly getting the content across to your audience are actually quite good.
Tip November 13, 2009:Recording Techniques your Captivate Training Videos
Here are a few handy tips for recording your training video once you've moved past preparation and into recording. While these techniques clearly do not fall under the category "prep-work," their use specifically for training merits a spot in this chapter.
Recording Techniques for your Captivate Training Videos
Captivate Training Videos should guide the user through the use of the software with little effort required on their part as possible. Particularly if your Captivate Training video has a lot of mouse movements, or click activity, don't depend on attention-gettings such as mouse highlights, visual clicks, text callouts, and zoom and pan techniques. The key to creating clear Captivate training videos is to keep them short, chunk steps into well organized communication sets (even in the same training video), and create a rhythm that will help to clarify your training information.
Your Captivate Training Videos Should be short and well paced
The pacing of your Captivate Training videos can vary widely depending on its purpose. Unlike marketing video communication, which are fairly fast paced to keep the viewers attention while conveying the core benefits of the product in the 30 seconds to two minute long video clips. Captivate Training Videos need a much more relaxed pace, which would allow your training participants to comprehend your training information When running your audience through the procedural steps of executing a task on the computer, it's remarkably easy to Captivate Training video will be. This is particularly important if you're likely to have non native speakers of your language viewing your training videos. If so you'll want to be especially careful with the pacing and remember to slow down the the pace of your narration as well.
Don't Get Mired in the Details
Avoid the temptation to merrily skip from field to field in the program you're recording, explaining every little thing along the way.
Provided you've done a thorough assessment of your target audience, you probably have a decent sense of their general level of technical savvy as well as their pre-existing knowledge (if any) of the application(s) featured in your video. You can use this information to help you decide how granular you want to be in explaining the different aspects of the software. Rarely will you need to explain every field in every tab of every dialog box, or how to perform basic functions within Windows. For example, even novice computer users know how to close windows, open files, and select icons. If you make a point of tell ing them, "you'll need to double-click the program's icon in order to open it," then you're wasting valuable time, and you risk boring most of your users into exiting the video.
Set Specific Goals for your Captivate Training Video
It is my recommendation, regardless of video type, that you have certain predefined goals outlined before recording or even scripting begins. These goals need to be as specific as possible.
Bad example:
To take users through the new features of the software.
Good examples:
To show users how they can draw attention to certain words by utilizing the italic,bold, and underline commands.
To Help users to move projects from their desktop to their laptop computers by first exporting a project on one machine, and then importing it on another.
Tip October 5, 2009:
Add Efficiency to your Captivate Training Videos by using the Captivate Library
Captivate helps you to keep track of your resources or assets in the Library. You can store your audio, images, and FLV files in the Library. You notice that if you're capturing screens as part of your training development, the Library will also store all of the images used as backgrounds to your slides.
As a Captivate Training Developer, reusing and efficiently accessing your resources and development assets is key to your rapid development. You can view the library from Library Item in the Window menu. By default the Captivate Library helps you to organize your content in folders name Audio, Background, Images, Media and Presentations. If you would like to customize your library even further, you can
Now you can easily use the library to import your training resources and assets. This is an easy way to add audio to your slides if you're using audio recording and editing software outside of your Captivate software.
You can also use the library from other Captivate Projects, by using the Open Library button and browsing to the Captivate Project with the Library that you want to use. You can also get multiple details about your Captivate library resources, like dates, size, and usage. It's also a good Idea to clean up your resources from time to time by using the "Select Unused Items" feature. Using your Captivate Library is an easy way to speedup the development time of your Training Projects.
Tip October 4, 2009:
Using Captivate Question Pools in your Captivate Training Project
What are Captivate Questions Pools?
Captivate Question Pools allow you to create a pool of questions, which you can categorize and use in your Captivate Training Project. Once you create a pool of questions in your Captivate Question Pool Manager, you can create a random Question Slide in your Captivate Training project that displays one of the question in your Question Pool randomly. Of course with one slide, training users will only see would of your questions during a single sitting. Typically would would want to do some project planning before developing this type of Captivate Quiz scenario.
Creating Question Pools in your Captivate Training Projects
If you create seven question in your Captivate question pool, an you only have one random question slide in your Captivate Training Project, any one of those seven questions can be displayed to a participant viewing your Captivate Training project. If you want training users to complete all seven questions, you must create seven random question slides in your Captivate training project.
Random question slides will not repeat the same question in your question pool during a single viewing, and your questions will be displayed randomly during each viewing of your Training Project.
Tip October 3, 2009:
Using Variables in your Adobe Captivate Training Videos
You can use variables in your Captivate Training modules to act as placeholders for data. When your Captivate Training video plays, or when a user inputs data into your Captivate Training, variables can be associated with this information, collecting or displaying data for further use.
Once you have captured user data in your training video, you can provide feedback to the user, create more advanced actions and configure Captivate widgets. All objects in your Captivate Training can use variables. This included text captions, Captivate actions, Widgets, navigation in your Captivate Training videos, and any of your Captivate Training videos that use Javascript. You can create two types of variables in your Captivate Training videos.
System Variables in your Captivate Training
System Variables allow you to capture date from your computer and use it through scripting in your Captivate Training videos. You can use Movie Control Lists variables, MovieInformation Lists variables, MoveMetaData Lists variables, System Information List Variables, and Quizzing Lists variables.
User-Defined Variables in your Captivate Training
User Defined Variables store data that is used or update in your Captivate Training videos. You simply create a unique name and a unique value corresponding to the text that is stored in it. When the value in your Captivate training video is modified, the changes are reflected throughout your Captivate training project.
Variables help you to save time, maintain consistency and decrease errors in your Captivate training project.
See the complete list of Variable on the Adobe Captivate Blog.
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helping you develop online training videos
