Welcome to MasteringAdobe Captivate 2019, Fifth Edition. Since its introduction in 2004, Captivate has been the leading solution for authoring interactive eLearning content. In the beginning, it was a very simple screen-capture utility called FlashCam. In 2002, a company named eHelp acquired FlashCam and turned it into a full-fledged eLearning authoring tool called RoboDemo. In 2004, another company called Macromedia acquired eHelp and changed the name of the product once again. Macromedia Captivate was born. A few months later, Adobe acquired Macromedia and, consequently, Macromedia Captivate became Adobe Captivate.
As the years passed, Adobe released Captivate 2, 3, and 4, adding tools, objects, and features along the way. One of the most significant events in the Captivate history took place in July 2010, when Adobe released Captivate 5. For that release, Adobe engineers rewrote the code of the application from the ground up. As a result, Captivate 5 was the first version to be available on both macOS and Windows. Version 6 was another milestone for Captivate as it was the first version to offer an HTML5 publishing option. More recently, version 8 has introduced the ability to create Responsive Projects, as well as a brand new user interface. A Responsive Project allows you, the eLearning developer, to automatically adjust the layout of your Captivate projects to fit the various screen sizes of tablet and smartphone devices. This makes mobile learning a whole lot easier by creating content that looks perfect on any device.
At the time of writing, the latest version of Captivate is Adobe Captivate 2019. This version introduces many new features and enhancements, including the ability to create Interactive Videos and an exciting new project type for creating Virtual Reality training courses. Other new features introduced in Captivate 2019 include the ability to test your content on an actual mobile device (a feature called Live Preview on Devices) the ability to record your webcam and to change the background of your video (something called the Chroma Key effect) as well as other smaller enhancements.
With all this power only one click away, it is easy to overload your projects with lots of complex audiovisual effects and sophisticated interactions that can ultimately drive the learner away from the primary objective of every Captivate course: learning.
While working with Captivate, never forget that Captivate is an eLearning authoring tool. At the most basic level, it simply means that you, the developer, and your audience are united by a very special kind of relationship: a student-teacher relationship. Therefore, from now onâand for the rest of the bookâyou will not be called the developer or the programmer, but the teacher. The ones who will view your finished applications will not be the users or the visitors, but will be called the learners or the students. You will see that this changes everything.
In this chapter, you will learn about the following topics:
- Discovering the available options to install Captivate
- Seeing the general steps of the Captivate production process
- Exploring and customizing the Captivate 2019 interface
- Working with panels and workspaces
- Viewing the completed sample applications you will work with during the course of this book
Before you can start working with Captivate, you have to download and install the software. In this section, you will discover the three ways that Adobe makes Captivate available to you.
This is the old-fashioned way of obtaining the software. You buy Captivate and get a serial number to activate your installation. The serial number is valid for a specific version of Captivate, and for a specific platform (macOS or Windows) only. Once activated, that version of Captivate is permanently available on your computer. With this option, you get all the functionalities of Captivate, and you can start working on your eLearning projects right away! You also get all the patches and bug fixes for the version you bought. All the step-by-step exercises of this book work flawlessly with the Captivate 2019 perpetual license.
Note
See the Captivate page on the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html.
You can download and use this version of Captivate free of charge for 30 days. This should be more than enough time for you to go through the exercises of this book. However, once the trial period is over, you will not have access to Captivate unless you convert your trial to a licensed version. This can be a perpetual or a subscription license.
Note
Download your Captivate 30-day trial from http://www.adobe.com/go/trycaptivate/.
With this licensing model, you subscribe to Captivate on a monthly basis. This means that you pay a certain amount each month to keep using Captivate. The main benefit of the subscription model is that you automatically get all the updates as they are released. The subscription model is the best way to ensure that you always have access to the latest version of Captivate. Note that the subscription is just another licensing model; the software itself is identical to the perpetual licensing model.
Note
More information on the various Captivate licensing models can be found at http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/buying-guide.html.
Although the Captivate subscription model is very similar to the way Adobe Creative Cloud works, Captivate isâat the time of writingânot a part of the Creative Cloud.
Note
Captivate and the Creative Cloud
If you already have a Creative Cloud subscription, you'll need another subscription for Adobe Captivate.
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The Technical Communication Suite (TCS) is yet another bundle of applications from Adobe. It is designed to create technical content, such as help files and user guides. TCS includes applications such as FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Acrobat Professional, and of course, Captivate. The Technical Communication Suite itself is also available under both the perpetual and the subscription licensing model.
Note
For more information on TCS, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite.html.
Creating content with Captivate is a three-step process, or to be exact, a four-step process. However, only three of the four steps take place in Captivate. That's why we like to refer to the first step as step zero!
This is the only step of the process that does not involve working with the Captivate application. Depending on the project you are planning, it can last from a few minutes to a few months. This step is probably the most important step of the entire process. This is where you create the scenarios and the storyboards. This is where you develop the pedagogical approach that will drive the entire project. What will you teach the students? In what order will you introduce the topics? How and when will you assess the students' knowledge? These are some of the very important questions you should answer before opening Captivate. Step zero is where the teacher's skills fully express themselves.
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Note
Scenario-based training
In this series of posts on the Adobe eLearning community portal, Dr. Pooja Jaisingh shares her experience in creating scenario-based training. These posts clearly stress the importance of step zero, and give you an initial, high-level approach to the Captivate production process. The first post of the series can be found at https://elearning.adobe.com/2012/03/my-experience-with-creating-a-scenario-based-course-part-1/.
At the most basic level, a typical Captivate project is a collection of slides, just like a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. So, your first task when creating a new Captivate file is probably to create a bunch of slides to work with. There are several ways to do this:
- Captivate has the ability to record any action you perform onscreen. You typically use this ability to create software-related interactive training or simulations. You use your mouse to perform actions on your computer, and behind the scenes, Captivate watches and records any action you do using a sophisticated screen-capture engine based on screenshots. Each of these screenshots becomes a slide in your new Captivate project. Using the screen-capture feature of Captivate is covered in Chapter 8, Capturing Onscreen Action.
- Very often, though, the Captivate project you are working on has nothing to do with software-related skills. In this case, you don't need to use screen capture to take screenshots. Instead, you create the slides entirely within Captivate. This is the preferred approach for new training materials that don't require screen-capture capabilities.
- A third solution is to import the slides from Microsoft PowerPoint. You typically use this solution to convert existing training material made with PowerPoint into interactive online training modules, but it is not considered best practice for new training material. Importing PowerPoint slides into Captivate is covered in Chapter 12, Using Captivate with Other Applications.
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This step is the most time-consuming phase of the entire process. This is where your project slowly takes shape to become an actual interactive course module.
In this step, you arrange the final sequence of actions, record narrations, add objects to the slides (such as Text Captions and Buttons), arrange those objects in the Timeline, add title and ending slides, develop the advanced interactions, create the Question Slides for the quiz, configure the quiz reporting options, and so on. At the end of this step, the project should be ready for publication. Sometimes, it can take several rounds of edits until you have a project that is ready to publish.
Note that, for most projects, step one and step two overlap. Unless you use screen capture, there is no clear distinction between step one and step two. It is ok to go back and forth between those two steps when developing your next Captivate project.
Step three is where you make your project available to your learners. Captivate allows you to publish your course modules in a wide variety of formats. The two formats that you will use most of the time are the Flash and the HTML5 formats:
- Flash is the historical publishing format of Captivate. Publishing the project in Flash makes the deployment of your eLearning courses very easy; only the Flash Player plugin is needed. The very same Flash Player that is used to read Flash-enabled websites is all you need to play back your published Captivate projects. The major caveat of this publishing format is that it is not supported on mobile devices. This publishing method is fading out today, as Adobe announced the end of the free Flash Player plugin for the year 2020.Â
- Captivate can also publish your projects in HTML5, which makes the project available on any device, including desktops and laptops, as well as tablets and smartphones. In today's technological landscape, HTML5 has become the preferred format for publishing your online courses for computers and mobile devices.
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Note that some features of Captivate are only available either in Flash or in HTML5. For example, Responsive Projects and Virtual Reality Projects can only be published in HTML5, while a Text Animation object can only be published in Flash. It is very important to know the publishing format you will use before starting the development of a new project.
Note
The end of the Flash Player
In July 2017, Adobe made an announcement that they would no longer develop and maintain the Flash Player plugin beyond 2020, and that they encourage content developers to migrate to HTML5. This is not a surprise, but it stresses the important evolution that HTML5 represents for our industry. It also clearly states that Adobe Captivate is bound to end up as an HTML5-only authoring tool at some point in the future. You can see the original Adobe announcement at https://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2017/07/adobe-flash-update.html and the announcement from the Captivate team at https://elearning.adobe.com/2017/07/flash-the-future-of-interactive-content-for-elearning/.
Captivate can also publish the project as a standalone application (.exe
on Windows and .app
on Macintosh) or as video files that can be easily uploaded to YouTube and viewed on a tablet or smartphone.
Step three will be covered in great detail in Chapter 15, Finishing Touches and Publishing.
In this book, we will cover the three steps of the process requiring the use of Captivate. You will discover that Captivate has specific tools to handle each of these three steps.
Note
Downloading the sample code
Before you start reading this section, it is important that you download the sample files we refer to throughout this book. You can download the sample files for all Packt Publishing books that you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visithttp://www.packtpub.com/supportand register to have the files emailed directly to you.
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You will now discover the Adobe Captivate interface using the following steps:
- Open Captivate.
- If needed, click the
Recent
tab at the top of the Welcome screen. - Click the
Browse
button at the bottom of theRecent
tab of the Welcome screen. - Open the
Chapter01/encoderDemo_800.cptx
file in the exercise folder.
Your screen should look similar to this screenshot:

Note
Cleaning the Preferences
The above screenshot assumes that you have not changed any default of Adobe Captivate 2019. If Captivate does not look the same as in the above screenshot, you can clean your preferences and reset everything to default with the CleanPreferencesMac
(if you are using a Mac) or the CleanPreferencesWin.bat
(if you are on Windows) script located in the /utils
folder of your Captivate installation. This process is described in the following blog article by our friend, Kevin Siegel, available at https://blog.iconlogic.com/weblog/2013/08/adobe-captivate-fastest-cleaned-prefs-in-the-west.html
The default Captivate screen looks very simple and clean. The main area is covered by the Stage (1). The Stage is where you lay out the objects that make up each slide of the project. The objects on the Stage will appear in your course. The objects in the Scrap Area (the grey area around the slide) will not be visible when taking the course. This makes the Scrap Area very useful! It is the perfect place to put instructions, reminders, color schemes, etc. that are used by the teacher when creating the course, but that should not be displayed to the student.Â
At the very top of the screen is the Menu bar (2). The Menu bar gives you access to a wide range of Captivate features.
Below the Menu bar is the main Toolbar of Captivate 2019 (3). The Toolbar is primarily used to insert new slides and new objects into the project, but it also contains important tools for operations, such as previewing, publishing, and saving.
Note
If you have several versions of Captivate installed on your system, a quick look at the Toolbar gives you a hint about which version you are using. If you see the Interactive Video
icon, it means that you are in Captivate 2019, as that icon is new in Captivate 2019!
On the left side of the screen is the Filmstrip (4). It shows the sequence of slides in your Captivate project. The primary use of the Filmstrip
is to let you select the slide(s) you want to work with, but it can also be used to perform basic operations on the slides, such as reordering or deleting slides.
- At the far right side of the Toolbar, click the Properties icon (5).
This action reveals the Properties
inspector. The Properties
inspector is one of the most important components of Captivate. It is used to control and adjust the properties of the selected object.
- Click the
Properties
button on the Toolbar again to hide theProperties
inspector. - Click the
Library
icon located just next to theProperties
icon to open theLibrary
panel.
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The Library
 is another very important component of Captivate. It maintains a list of all the assets (such as images, audio clips, animations, and so on) included in the current project.
- Click the
Library
button on the Toolbar to close theLibrary
. - Click the
Timeline
button that stretches across the bottom of the screen. This action reveals theTimeline
panel.
The Timeline
panel is used to arrange the sequence of objects on the current slide. In short, you use the Timeline
panel to decide when an object appears on the stage and how long it stays visible. This panel is also used to set up the stacking order of the objects. You will learn more about the Timeline
in Chapter 4, Working with the Timeline and Other Useful Tools.
It is possible to open many panels at the same time.
- Click the
Properties
button on the Toolbar to reopen theProperties
inspector.
Both the Timeline
and the Properties
inspector should now be open.
Because the Properties
inspector, Library
, and Timeline
are the most important panels of Captivate, they are only one mouse-click away on the default user interface. However, Captivate contains many other panels that give you access to a myriad of interesting tools. To get the most out of Captivate, you should know how to turn panels on and off.
- Open the
Window
menu.
The Window
menu displays a list of all the panels that are available in Adobe Captivate. Note the checkmark in front of the Filmstrip
, Timeline
, and Library
entries of the Window
menu. This reminds you that these panels and icons are currently visible on the interface.
- Click the
Library
menu item of theWindow
menu. This action removes theLibrary
icon from the Toolbar. - Click the
Window
|Library
menu item again to reactivate theLibrary
icon of the Toolbar and open theLibrary
panel. - Click the
Window
|Slide Notes
menu item to open theSlide Notes
panel.
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The Slide Notes
panel appears at the bottom of the screen next to the Timeline
panel, as shown in the following screenshot:

Let's now open one more panel.
- Use the
Window
|HTML5 Tracker
menu item to open theHTML5 Tracker
panel.
The HTML5 Tracker
panel lists the features and objects used in the current project that are not supported in HTML5. There should be one unsupported feature listed in the HTML5 Tracker
panel (because the transitions between slides are not supported in HTML5).
Note that this panel is floating on top of the interface. This is very different from the Slide Notes
panel you opened earlier that was attached (docked) at the bottom of the interface. Each panel of Captivate is either docked or floating. Also note that in Captivate 2019, it is not possible, by default, to dock a floating panel or undock a docked panel.
The interface is now very different from what it was when you first opened Captivate.
- Quit Captivate without saving any changes made to the open file.
- Reopen Captivate.
When Captivate reopens, you should see the Recent
tab of the Welcome screen by default. There is a thumbnail showing the last open project(s).
- Double-click the
encoderDemo_800
thumbnail to reopen the project.
When the project reopens, note that the default Captivate interface is displayed, even though many more panels were open when you exited Captivate.
Thanks to these little experiments, you were exposed to some important basic concepts about the Captivate interface. Before moving on, let's summarize what you have learned so far:
- The Captivate interface is composed of panels laid out around the main editing area called the Stage.
- The grey area around the Stage is called the Scrap Area. Objects on the Scrap Area do not show in the online course.
- By default, most of the panels are hidden, making the interface simple and clean.
- The
Properties
inspector, theLibrary
panel, and theTimeline
are the most important and most commonly used components of Captivate. This is why they are easily accessible from the default interface. - Some panels of Captivate are not immediately available on the default interface. You must use the
Window
menu to show and hide these panels. - The panels of Captivate are either docked on the interface or floating on top of it.
- When you close and restart Captivate, the interface returns to its default layout.
If you are used to other Adobe tools, such as Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator, the default behavior of the Captivate interface probably looks very different. Luckily, there is a way to make the Captivate interface behave similarly to the interface of other popular Adobe tools. This is called the Advanced Interface Mode:
- Use the
Adobe Captivate
|Preferences
(macOS) or theEdit
|Preferences
(Windows) menu item to open thePreferences
dialog of Captivate. - In the
General Settings
category of thePreferences
, select theEnable custom workspaces/panel undocking
option, as shown in the following screenshot:

- Click
OK
to validate the new option and close thePreferences
dialog. - As indicated in the
Preferences
dialog, restart Adobe Captivate to enable the new option (make sure you don't save the eventual changes made to the file). - When Captivate restarts, double-click the
encoderDemo_800
thumbnail on theRecent
tab of the Welcome screen to reopen the project.
When the project reopens, note that the Properties
and Library
icons of the Toolbar are no longer displayed.
- Go to
Window
|Properties
to reopen theProperties
inspector. - Use the same procedure to reopen the
Library
, theTimeline
, and theÂSlide Notes
panels. - Return to the
Window
menu one more time to activate theHTML5 Tracker
floating panel. - At the bottom of the interface, click the
Timeline
button to reveal theTimeline
panel.
The interface should now look pretty much the same as when you closed Captivate earlier in this chapter.
- Restart Captivate one more time without saving the changes made to the project.
- When Captivate restarts, reopen the project by clicking the
encoderDemo_800
thumbnail on theRecent
tab of the Welcome screen.
In Advanced Interface Mode, the panel layout is always maintained when you restart Captivate. In the next section, you will take a closer look at those panels. But first, let's first have a quick summary of what has been covered in this section:
- To make the Captivate interface behave like the interface of other common Adobe tools, you must switch to the Advanced Interface Mode.
- To enable the Advanced Interface Mode, select
Enable custom workspaces/panel undocking
in the Preferences dialog of Captivate. It is necessary to close and restart Captivate for this change to take effect. - In the Advanced Interface Mode, the
Library
and theProperties
icons of the Toolbar are not displayed. Enabling and disabling panels is done exclusively through theWindow
menu. - In the Advanced Interface Mode, the workspace is always maintained when you restart Captivate.
You already know that Captivate contains a lot of panels and that those panels can be shown or hidden using the Window
menu. In the Advanced Interface Mode, the Captivate interface offers even more flexibility. In this section, you will learn how to move the panels and create a unique custom screen:
- Place your mouse on the black line at the top of the floating
HTML5 Tracker
panel. - Drag the panel to the right and drop it on top of the
Properties
andLibrary
labels in the top right corner of the screen.
When a panel is moved above a possible docking location, a blue outline appears on the screen. Releasing the mouse at that moment docks the panel at the location highlighted by the blue outline.
This action docks the HTML5 tracker
panel with the Properties
inspector and the Library
panel, as shown in the following screenshot:

This first action illustrates how to dock the panels that are initially floating on the interface. You will now do the opposite to illustrate that a panel that is initially docked can be turned into a floating panel.
- Place your mouse on top of the
Library
label on the right side of the screen. - Drag the
Library
panel out of theLibrary
/Properties
/HTML5 Tracker
group and drop it on top of the stage.
The Library
panel is now a floating panel, even though it was docked by default. You have now arranged the panels in a truly unique way. This customized arrangement of your panels is called a workspace.
The Advanced Interface Mode of Captivate allows you to apply your own unique (custom) workspaces. Depending on the project you are working on, the size of your computer screen, your working habits, and so on, you might want to have several workspaces and quickly switch between them. In this section, you will first learn how to reset to the default workspace. Then, you will create and save a new custom workspace.
The default workspace you see when you first open Captivate is called the Classic
workspace, as shown in the top-right corner of your screen:
- Click the
Classic
button at the top-right corner of the screen. - Choose
Reset Classic
in the drop-down menu, as shown in the following screenshot.
After doing this, your Captivate screen reverts to what it looked like when you opened the application at the beginning of this chapter:

The default Classic
workspace is an excellent starting point for defining a custom workspace.
- Use the
Window
|Timing Properties
menu item to activate theTiming
inspector on the right side of the screen. - Select the
Adobe Media Encode CC 2018
 title on the slide and note that theTiming
inspector updates.
Just like the Properties
inspector, the Timing
inspector always shows the properties pertaining to the object you select.Â
- Use the
Window
|Properties
menu item to activate theProperties
inspector. - Drag the
Properties
inspector out of theProperties/Timing
group and drop it on top of theFilmstrip
label on the other side of the screen. This docks theProperties
inspector with theFilmstrip
.
After this last action, your screen should look like the following screenshot:

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This workspace is very practical when you have to precisely define the timing and apply effects to the selected object. You will now save this panel layout as a new workspace.
- Click the same
Classic
button you used earlier at the top right corner of the screen. - Choose
New Workspace
from the drop-down menu. - In the
New Workspace
dialog, name your new workspaceTiming
and clickOK
.
Note that a Timing
button now replaces the Classic
button. You can use this button to switch between the Classic workspace and your own custom Timing workspace!
- Click the
Timing
button at the top-right corner of the screen. - Select the
Classic
workspace in the drop-down menu to reapply the default Classic workspace. - Click the
Classic
button and reapply theTiming
workspace.
This demonstrates how you can quickly switch between your saved workspaces.
You now know all the tools to create custom workspaces. Take some time to experiment with these tools on your own. Try turning panels on and off using the Window
menu. Explore the other panels of Captivate, such as the Question Pool
and the Project Info
. When you feel like you have a great workspace, save it under a name of your choice.
If you ever need to rename or delete a custom workspace, use the following steps:
- Go to
Window
|Workspace
|Manage Workspace
.
Note that the Window
| Workspace
menu displays the same items as the workspace switcher button at the top-right corner of the screen.
- In the
Manage Workspace
dialog, choose the workspace to delete/rename.
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Note that the default Classic
workspace is not listed. This means that this default workspace cannot be renamed or deleted.
- Click the
Rename
orDelete
button. In this example, click theOK
button to close the box without any changes. - Open the workspace switcher one more time to reapply the
Classic
workspace before moving on to the next topic.
You can return to the normal interface mode using the following steps:
- Use the
Adobe Captivate
|Preferences
(macOS) orEdit
|Preferences
(Windows) menu item to reopen thePreferences
dialog of Captivate. - In the
General Settings
category, deselect theEnable custom workspaces/panel undocking
and clickOK
to validate. - Restart Captivate without saving the changes made to the open project.
- When Captivate reopens, double-click the
encoderDemo_800
thumbnail to reopen the project.
Confirm that the Properties
and Library
buttons are back in the top-right corner. This indicates that you are back in normal interface mode.
- Click the workspace switcher button at the top right corner of your screen. It should currently read
Classic
.
In normal interface mode (that is, when the Enable custom workspaces/panel undocking
option of the Preferences
is not selected), only the Classic
workspace can be applied or reset. If you want to use your custom Timing workspace again, you first need to return to Advanced Interface Mode, and then restart Captivate.
Before moving on to the next topic, these are the key points to keep in mind when creating custom workspaces:
- It is necessary to set Captivate to Advanced Interface Mode to dock and undock panels and create new workspaces.
- Use the
Window
|Workspace
|New Workspace
menu item to save the current panel layout as a new workspace. This menu item is also accessible from the workspace switcher at the top right corner of your screen. - Use the
Window
|Workspace
|Manage Workspace
menu item to rename or delete your custom workspaces. - To update an existing workspace, use the
New Workspace
command to give the new workspace the same name as the workspace you want to update. - The default
Classic
workspace of Captivate cannot be deleted or renamed. - In normal interface mode, only the default
Classic
workspace is available.
One of the most recent additions to the Toolbar is the Community
icon. Clicking this icon opens the Adobe eLearning Community portal inside Captivate.
Note
The Adobe Community portal is a website that is available at http://elearning.adobe.com using a standard web browser.
The Adobe eLearning Community Portal is the best place to find information and to interact with other Captivate users. The eLearning Community Portal features the following:
- Blog posts from members of the community.
- Showcases of Captivate course modules.
- A very active forum where you can ask questions and get answers from some of the most influential and popular Captivate users.
- A wide library of video tutorials.
- An agenda of upcoming events, including webinars hosted by members of the Captivate team or members of the community (including us, the authors of this book!).
- And much more!
Performing activities on the eLearning community (such as answering questions, writing blogs/articles, and so on) gives you an opportunity to score points and enhance your level as a product expert. These points can be turned into a wide variety of exciting incentives, including free Captivate licenses and invitations to live events.
Note
See the full listing of levels and incentives at https://elearning.adobe.com/levels/.
From newbies to legends, there is a place for everyone on the eLearning portal!
Now that you know a bit more about the Captivate interface, let's take a look at the sample applications you will build in this book. These applications are designed to showcase almost every single feature of Captivate. Use them as a reference if there is something unclear while you are working through the exercises.
The first application that you will explore is a project that uses the screen capture feature of Captivate to create a screenshot-based course module:
- With the
Chapter01/encoderDemo_800.cptx
file still open, click thePreview
icon on the Toolbar. - From the drop-down list, choose the
Project
item to preview the entire project.
Captivate generates a temporary file and opens it in the floating Preview
pane. Follow the onscreen instructions to go through the project. This puts you in the same situation as a learner viewing this eLearning content for the first time.
This first sample project is called a Demonstration. As the name suggests, a demonstration is used to demonstrate something to the learner. Consequently, the learner is passive and simply watches whatever is going on. In a demonstration, the Mouse object is shown. It moves and clicks automatically. If the learners move their own mouse, it will not affect the content in any way.
This particular demonstration features some of the most popular Captivate objects, including Text Captions, Highlight Boxes, and Smart Shapes. The audio narration was generated by Captivate's Text-To-Speech tool. We have simply typed the narration in the Slide Notes panel, and Captivate turned it into audio files using the voice of a predefined speech agent. You will learn more about audio and Text-To-Speech in Chapter 3, Working with Multimedia.
Another popular feature in Adobe Captivate is the ability to add Closed Captions to the audio narration. You will learn more about Closed Captions and Accessibility in Chapter 13, Creating Accessible eLearning.
- When you reach the end of the project, close the
Preview
pane. - Take some time to take a closer look at the
Preview
icon as shown in the following screenshot:
Â
Â
This is one of the icons you'll use the most during this book and when you design your courses. It has seven options that control which part of the project you want to preview, and how you want to preview it. Note that each of these options is associated with a keyboard shortcut that will be different depending on the system you work on (macOS or Windows). Place your mouse on top of each of the items to see the associated keyboard shortcut in a tooltip.
Note
Previewing a Responsive or a Virtual Reality Project
When in a Responsive or in a Virtual Reality Project, the preview options will not behave exactly as described in the following list because those projects can only be published in HTML5. Responsive Projects will be covered in Chapter 10, Creating a Responsive Project, and Virtual Reality projects will be covered in Chapter 11, Creating Virtual Reality Projects.
Let's now describe the options of the Preview
icon in more detail:
Play Slide
: This option plays the current slide in the Captivate interface. It is the only preview option that does not open the default web browser or a floating preview pane. Because of that, thePlay Slide
option is not able to render all the features of Captivate. Previewing a single slide is a good option to quickly test the timing of the objects.Project
: This option generates a temporary Flash file and plays the entire project in the Preview pane.From this Slide
: This option generates a temporary Flash file. Captivate opens the Preview pane and plays the project from the currently selected slide to the end.Next 5 slides
: This is a great option to quickly test a specific sequence of the project. Captivate opens the Preview pane to play a temporary Flash file containing five slides, starting from the currently selected slide.
Note
You can use theDefaults
category in Preferences to change the number of slides you want to include in the Preview when using this option. To access the Preferences, use theAdobe Captivate
|Preferences
(macOS) or theEdit
|Preferences
(Windows) menu item.
HTML5 in Browser
: Using this preview option, you can see the project in a context very similar to the one that will be used by your learners. It generates the project in the HTML5 format. The project is then played in the default web browser. Note that some features and objects of Captivate are not supported in the HTML5 output. If you plan on publishing your project in HTML5, make sure you use this preview option to ensure that the features, animations, and objects you use in your project are supported in HTML5.Preview in SCORM Cloud
: You can use this preview option to test the reporting features of your course. It generates a temporary HTML5Â file of the project and uploads it to SCORM Cloud. When the upload is complete, you can see your project in a special preview pane, along with a log of all communications exchanged between the LMS and your content. You will learn more about SCORM, LMS, Quiz, and reporting in Chapter 7, Working with Quizzes. Note that this preview option is the only one that is not associated with a keyboard shortcut.SWF In Browser
: This option is very close to theHTML5 in Browser
option described above. The only difference is that Captivate publishes the project in Flash (rather than HTML5) before playing it in the default web browser.
Note
Floating and Modal panels
In Captivate, a panel can be floating or docked. When a panel floats, the tools and switches on the other panels are still active. But when the Preview
panel is open, only the buttons of that panel are active, while the tools of the other panels are no longer active. The Preview
panel is said to be a Modal floating panel because it disables every tool situated on other panels. Also, note that the Preview
panel cannot be docked.
Â
You will now open another sample project. Actually, it is not a real other project, but another version of the Encoder demonstration you worked with in the previous section:
- Use the
File
|Open
menu item to open theChapter01/encoderSim_800.cptx
file situated in the exercises download. - Once the file is open, click the
Preview
icon on the Toolbar and choose theSWFÂ
option.In Browser
- The project opens in the default web browser and starts playing automatically.
Note
You may have to adjust the security settings of your web browser in order to allow playing back Flash content. Please, refer to the user guide of your browser for specific instructions.
This project is made of exactly the same slides and assets as the demonstration you saw in the previous section. When the project reaches slide 3, it stops and waits for you to interact with the course. This is the main difference between a demonstration and a simulation.
In Captivate, a simulation is a project where the learner is active. In a simulation, the Mouse object is hidden, as learners use their own mouse to click around the screen and progress toward the end of the course. The fact that the students are active implies a new level of complexity; the learners can perform either the correct or the incorrect action.
In each case, the course must react accordingly. This concept is known as branching. This means that each student experiences the course module based on their own actions.
- Follow the onscreen instructions and try to perform the correct actions, as described in the demonstration project of the previous section.
- If you ever perform the incorrect action, a red Failure Caption is displayed on the screen. Failure captions are one of the most basic forms of branching. The caption shows only if the student's answer is incorrect.
- On slide 11, you will fill the new width of the video file. Type
400
and press Enter to continue to the next step. - When you are done, close your browser and return to Captivate.
This second sample file features pretty much the same Captivate objects as the demonstration you completed in the previous section. Both typing and mouse actions are replaced by interactive objects. The Mouse is replaced by Click Boxes and a Text Entry Box replaces the typing object on slide 11. These interactive objects can stop the course and wait for the learner to interact. Using the interactive objects of Captivate will be covered in Chapter 5, Developing Interactivity.
Both the Encoder demonstration and simulation are based on the same screenshots. To create these sample courses, the first two steps of the production process described earlier were used:
- In step one (the slide creation step), the actions were performed in the actual Adobe Media Encoder. They were recorded by Captivate behind the scenes.
- In step two (the post-production step), the course was edited in Captivate. Audio and Closed Captions were added, the title and ending slides were created, timing was adjusted, and so on.
- Step three (the publishing step) has not yet been performed on these files.
Video Demo mode is a special recording mode of Captivate that is used to produce .mp4
video files. These files can be uploaded to online services such as YouTube, Vimeo, or Daily Motion for playback on any device (including the iPad, iPhone, and other internet-enabled mobile devices):
- Use the
File
|Open
menu item to open theChapter01/encoderVideo.cpvc
.Â
First, note that a Video Demo project does not use the same .cptx
file extension as a regular Captivate project. It uses the .cpvc
file extension instead. This is the first indication that this project is going to behave differently than the other ones you have worked with so far. In addition to having a specific file extension, Video Demo projects also have their own unique interface, as shown in the following screenshot:

In the preceding screenshot, note the absence of the Filmstrip
panel. A Video Demo project is not based on slides. Actually, it is a single big video file. So the Filmstrip
panel makes no sense in a Video Demo project.
In a video file, interactions are not possible. The file can only be experienced from start to finish in the order defined by the teacher. To use instructional design terminology, a video file gives a linear experience to the learner, while branch-aware interactive projects provide a nonlinear experience where a learner can make choices that change the way the course progresses. Therefore, interactive objects, quizzes, and branching are not available in a Video Demo project.
- Take some time to inspect the rest of the Video Demo screen. Try to spot the other differences between the regular Captivate interface and Video Demos.
- When you are ready, click the
Preview
icon. Surprise! Only two options are available in thePreview
icon! - In the
Preview
dropdown, choose theProject
 option. - Watch the whole video as if you were viewing it on YouTube!
- Click the
Edit
button in the bottom-right corner of the screen to return to the Edit mode. - Close the file without saving it when done.
You have now experienced the Video Demo you will create in Chapter 9, Producing a Video Demo.
You will now preview the next sample application using the following steps:
- Use the
File
|Open
menu item to open theChapter01/takeTheTrain.cptx
file. - Once the file is open, click the
Preview
icon on the Toolbar and choose theHTML5 in Browser
option. - View the course in your web browser, as a student would.
This sample application is very different from the projects you worked with so far because it is not based on screenshots or screen recording. The capture tool of Captivate was not used in this example. Instead, all the slides have been carefully crafted in Captivate.
For its audio narration, this project does not use text-to-speech. Instead, the narration was recorded and polished in an external audio application (Adobe Audition, in this case) and imported to the project.
This course is also much more involved than the Encoder examples. Advanced Actions and Variables are used throughout the project to power the dynamic features, such as the name of the student appearing in the title of slide 4. This course also features the certificate interaction at the very end (only if you pass the Quiz!), an Interactive Video is inserted on slide 23 of the project, and it uses the built-in collection of characters to spice up the training with a human touch! But the most impressive feature of this particular project is probably the Quiz, one of the most important and most popular tools in Captivate.
The project contains seven Question Slides. Six of these are stored in the Question Pool. Each time the project is viewed, three questions are randomly chosen from the Question Pool and displayed to the student. If you want to experiment with this feature, view the sample project a second time. Because we used the Question Pool to generate the questions, you should not be asked the same Quiz questions as when you first experienced the project.
The next sample course you will see is not part of the download that comes with this book. Instead, you will use one of the sample applications that is included in Captivate. Use the following steps to open it:
- Close every open file (without saving) and return to the Captivate Welcome screen.
- Click the
Resources
 tab of the Captivate Welcome screen (see 1 on the following screenshot).
Â
As shown in the following screenshot, you can access various sample files and tutorials right from the Welcome Screen of Captivate:

You will now open one of the sample files provided by Adobe.
- Double-click the thumbnail image on the Welcome Screen to open the
Responsive Learning Sample
project (see 2 in the preceding screenshot). - Click
OK
to clear the message telling you that there are lots of unused assets in the Library.
The project you just opened is a Responsive Project. This means that it can adapt itself to the screen it is viewed on. Note the extra toolbar at the top of the stage. This extra toolbar lets you switch between different devices in order to check how the project is displayed on screens of different sizes.
This action resizes the Stage to the size of an iPhone 6 (375 px by 559 px). As shown in the following screenshot, the elements of the current slide are rearranged to fit the new size of the Stage. Some elements (such as the big image that was on the right side of the stage) have even been completely removed to accommodate the reduced screen real estate of a smartphone:

Â
You will now preview this project in a web browser, using the following steps.
- Click the
Preview
|Project
icon on the Toolbar.
There are a lot of differences in the way you preview a Responsive Project, compared to the way you preview a non-responsive Captivate project:
- Firstly, the
Preview
icon on the Toolbar contains different options than usual (including the all-newLive Preview on Devices
feature) - Secondly, a Responsive Project is always previewed in the default browser installed on your computer and not in the
Preview
pane of Captivate - Thirdly, in the web browser, there is a slider just above the preview to let you change the size of the Stage as you preview your project
All these changes have a single root cause: a Responsive Project can only be published in HTML5. That's why you need a browser to preview the project.
- Preview the whole project in the web browser and use the slider above the preview to change the size of the stage (see 1 in the following screenshot). Note how the elements of the various slides of the project are rearranged on the smaller screen sizes.
- During the preview, also note the very small double arrow icon in the top left corner of the preview (see 2 in the following screenshot). This icon is used to toggle the Table of Contents on and off.
- When the preview is finished, close the web browser and return to Captivate.
To make this project responsive, we have used Fluid Boxes to define the slide layouts for the different screen sizes. You will learn more about Responsive Projects and Fluid Boxes in Chapter 10, Creating a Responsive Project.

The special previewing features of the Responsive Projects let you test the responsiveness of your project during the development phase, but they have one major disadvantage. Because you preview the project using the default browser of your desktop or laptop computer, you can't experience the course on an actual mobile device.Â
New in Captivate 2019 is the ability to preview your project directly on your mobile device. This new feature is called Live Preview on Devices. This is the perfect way of ensuring that all the interactive objects you have used in your course module translate well on a touchscreen. Use the following steps to test it out:Â
Note
The following steps require that you have a Smartphone connected to the same network as the computer you are using to run Captivate. If these conditions are not met, you will not be able to experience that workflow.Â
- In the
Responsive Learning Sample.cptx
file, use thePreview | Live Preview on Devices
icon on the Toolbar.
Captivate publishes a temporary file of the project in HTML5. When done, it opens the default web browser installed on the system and displays a big QR code.
- Use your Smartphone to scan the QR code that Captivate has generated in your Web Browser.
- Enjoy your Responsive Project directly on your mobile device!
The Live Preview on Devices feature makes it incredibly easy and convenient to test your Responsive Projects on an actual mobile device!Â
Adobe Captivate 2019 has introduced a new type of project. Thanks to Virtual Reality (VR) courses, you are able to generate an interactive 360° Virtual Reality environment that will immerse your learners in a specific training situation! VR projects are based on 360° pictures or videos used to recreate an entire environment. You will now experience one such project using the following steps:Â
- Open Captivate or close every open file without saving them.
- Click theÂ
Resources
 tab of the Captivate Welcome screen. - Double-click the
2019 Release â Virtual Reality
thumbnail. - When the project opens in Captivate, use the
Preview
|Project
icon on the Toolbar.
Just like Responsive Projects, VR projects can only be published in HTML5. This is the reason why Captivate displays the project in your default web browser once it has finished publishing the preview.
- When the project is loaded in the browser, click the Play icon to start playing it.
- After the narrated introduction, use your mouse to drag the background image in any direction you like. Don't hesitate to explore the ceiling and floor as well.
You should notice that the background image moves in the direction you drag it! You are in the very center of an entire 360° space! The black circular buttons are interactive hotspots that have been added to the 360° environment using the tools of Adobe Captivate.
- Click the hotspot above the sofa. This displays some text in the 360° environment.
- After a few seconds, the label disappears and you are brought to the second hotspot.
- Click that second hotspot and continue viewing the project as a student would.
- Return to Captivate when done.
The new Virtual Reality projects of Adobe Captivate 2019 make it incredibly easy to create immersive trainings in a custom 360° space based on 360° images or videos. Typical topics for such Virtual Reality courses include virtual tours, safety drills, first responder situations, crisis management, and so on. But, of course, the sky is the limit, and your imagination that will ultimately define what Virtual Reality will be used for.
Note
Experiencing Virtual Reality on your mobile device
Similar to Responsive Projects, you can also use the new Preview | Live Preview on Devices
feature of Adobe Captivate 2019 to preview a VR project on your mobile device. If you have a VR device available, tap the VR icon in the Playbar and put your Smartphone in the VR device to take the VR experience to the next level. Enjoy!Â
Note
Here is a list of certified VR devices by the Captivate engineering team:
- Cardboard
- Google Daydream
- Galaxy Gear VR
- Oculus Go
Â
This is the last sample project for you to experience before wrapping up this chapter. Use the following steps to open and preview this project:
- Open the
Chapter01/Introduction to Fluid Boxes.cptx
file. - Use the
Preview
|Project
icon on the Toolbar to preview the entire project in thePreview
pane of Captivate.
This project has been entirely developed in Microsoft PowerPoint and converted into a Captivate project using Captivate's ability to import PowerPoint slides. You will learn about importing PowerPoint presentations in Captivate in Chapter 12, Using Captivate with Other Applications.
- Use the
File
|Close All
menu item to close every open file. If prompted to save the changes, make sure you do not save the changes to these files.
Note
The filenames on each tab should have asterisks to the left of the name if there are unsaved changes. If there are no asterisks, it means you have saved all the changes.
After viewing these sample applications, you should have a pretty good idea of the tools and general capabilities of Adobe Captivate. Before moving on, let's summarize what you have learned from these sample courses:
- Captivate is able to capture the actions you do on your computer and turn them into slides using a sophisticated capture tool based on screenshots.
- A demonstration is a project in which the learner is passive and simply watches the onscreen action.
- A simulation is a project in which the user is active.
- Audio and video can be imported to Captivate. The application also features Text-To-Speech and Closed Captioning.
- Question Slides can be created in Captivate. These Question Slides can be stored in Question Pools to create random quizzes. Quiz slides can even be added on top of an Interactive Video or embedded into the 360° space of a VR project.
- Other objects that can be included in a Captivate project include Text Captions, Highlight Boxes, Smart Shapes, Images and more.
- Captivate contains many interactive objects. Some of them are able to stop the course and wait for the user to interact.
- A Video Demo is not based on slides. It is a video file that can be published as a standalone
.mp4
file or uploaded to YouTube or other video applications. - Video Demo projects use the
.cpvc
file extension and have a specific user interface. - A Responsive Project is able to adapt itself to the screen on which it is viewed. You can use Fluid Boxes to decide how the elements of the slides of the project should be rearranged on various screen sizes.
- A Virtual Reality (VR) project allows you to recreate an entire 360° environment and to make it interactive using Hotspots and Questions.Â
- For a truly immersive experience, a VR project supports the VR devices that you can use with your Smartphone.Â
- Captivate is able to import PowerPoint slides, making it very easy to convert an existing PowerPoint presentation into an interactive Captivate project.
In this chapter, you were introduced to the four steps of a typical Captivate production process. You toured the application interface and learned how to customize it to fit your needs. Thanks to the Advanced Interface Mode and the Workspace feature, you were able to save your customized interface as a new Workspace and to reapply your custom panel layout anytime you want to.
Finally, you walked through the sample courses that you will develop in this book, giving you a first, high-level overview of the rich set of features of Adobe Captivate 2019.
In the next chapter, you will start crafting the Take the Train project and learn about the basic objects of Adobe Captivate.
The title of the book you are reading is Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019. To truly master a piece of software, we are convinced that you should be introduced to the community that supports it. The Adobe eLearning community portal (http://elearning.adobe.com) makes it easy to be part of the community and to get in touch with the most famous Captivate legends. To further help you, at the end of each chapter, you'll find a Meet the community section, in which we will introduce you to key members of the community. By the end of this book, you'll have the names, blog addresses, Twitter handles, and so on of some of the most influential members. We hope these resources will jump-start your own Captivate career and your involvement in the community.
At the end of this first chapter, let's meet with David Kelly. David is the executive director of The eLearning Guild. He is the guy that goes on stage at all the big eLearning events organized by the Guild in North America. If you ever participate in one of these events, you won't miss him! David is a hero of the worldwide eLearning community and we are very proud to introduce him to you.
David Kelly is the executive vice president and executive director of The eLearning Guild. David has been a learning and performance consultant and training director for more than 15 years. He is a leading voice for exploring how technology can be used to enhance training, education, learning, and organizational performance. David is an active member of the learning community and can frequently be found speaking at industry events. He has contributed to organizations including ATD, eLearn Magazine, LINGOs, among others. David is also known for his curation efforts, especially related to conferences and events for learning and performance professionals.
- Blog:Â http://davidkelly.me/
- Twitter:
@LnDDave
- Facebook:Â https://www.facebook.com/davidkelly.me/
- LinkedIn:Â www.linkedin.com/in/lnddave
- eLearning Guild:Â https://www.elearningguild.com/