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Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019
Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019

Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019: Build cutting edge professional SCORM compliant and interactive eLearning content with Adobe Captivate , Fifth Edition

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Profile Icon Dr. Pooja Jaisingh Profile Icon Bruyndonckx
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.6 (10 Ratings)
eBook Jan 2019 770 pages 5th Edition
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€22.99 €32.99
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Dr. Pooja Jaisingh Profile Icon Bruyndonckx
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€22.99 €32.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.6 (10 Ratings)
eBook Jan 2019 770 pages 5th Edition
eBook
€22.99 €32.99
Paperback
€41.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€22.99 €32.99
Paperback
€41.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m

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Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019

Getting Started with Adobe Captivate 2019

Welcome to Mastering Adobe 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 on–and for the rest of the book–you 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

Getting Captivate

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.

The Captivate perpetual license

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.

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.

Download your Captivate 30-day trial from http://www.adobe.com/go/trycaptivate/.

The Captivate subscription

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.

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 is–at the time of writing–not a part of the Creative Cloud.

Captivate and the Creative Cloud
If you already have a Creative Cloud subscription, you'll need another subscription for Adobe Captivate.

Captivate in the Technical Communication Suite

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.

A first look at a typical production workflow

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!

Step zero – the pre-production phase

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.

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/.
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Key benefits

  • Build responsive, interactive and highly engaging eLearning content with Adobe Captivate 2019
  • Build Virtual Reality eLearning experiences with Adobe Captivate 2019
  • Assess your student knowledge with interactive and random quizzes
  • Seamlessly integrate your eLearning content with any SCORM or xAPI compliant LMS

Description

Adobe Captivate is used to create highly engaging, interactive, and responsive eLearning content. This book takes you through the production of a few pieces of eLearning content, covering all the project types and workflows of Adobe Captivate. First, you will learn how to create a typical interactive Captivate project. This will give you the opportunity to review all Captivate objects and uncover the application's main tools. Then, you will use the built-in capture engine of Captivate to create an interactive software simulation and a Video Demo that can be published as an MP4 video. Then, you will approach the advanced responsive features of Captivate to create a project that can be viewed on any device. And finally, you will immerse your learners in a 360o environment by creating Virtual Reality projects of Adobe Captivate. At the end of the book, you will empower your workflow and projects with the newer and most advanced features of the application, including variables, advanced actions, JavaScript, and using Captivate 2019 with other applications. If you want to produce high quality eLearning content using a wide variety of techniques, implement eLearning in your company, enable eLearning on any device, assess the effectiveness of the learning by using extensive Quizzing features, or are simply interested in eLearning, this book has you covered!

Who is this book for?

If you are a teacher, instructional designer, eLearning developer, or human resources manager who wants to implement eLearning, then this book is for you. A basic knowledge of your OS is all it takes to create the next generation of responsive eLearning content.

What you will learn

  • Learn how to use the objects in Captivate to build professional eLearning content
  • Enhance your projects by adding interactivity, animations, and more
  • Add multimedia elements, such as audio and video, to create engaging learning experiences
  • Use themes to craft a unique visual experience
  • Use question slides to create SCORM-compliant quizzes that integrate seamlessly with your LMS
  • Make your content fit any device with responsive features of Captivate
  • Create immersive 360° experiences with Virtual Reality projects of Captivate 2019
  • Integrate Captivate with other applications (such as PowerPoint and Photoshop) to establish a professional eLearning production workflow
  • Publish your project in a wide variety of formats including HTML5 and Flash

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Jan 31, 2019
Length: 770 pages
Edition : 5th
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789807301
Vendor :
Adobe

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Product Details

Publication date : Jan 31, 2019
Length: 770 pages
Edition : 5th
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789807301
Vendor :
Adobe

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Table of Contents

16 Chapters
Getting Started with Adobe Captivate 2019 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Standard Objects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Multimedia Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with the Timeline and Other Useful Tools Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Interactivity Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Crafting the Graphical Experience with Styles and Themes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Quizzes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Quizzes
Introducing the Quiz
Creating Question Slides
Inserting the first Question Slide
Using the Multiple Choice question
Understanding the basic question properties
Working with Partial Scoring
Branching with Question Slides
Discovering the other options of the Quiz inspector
Customizing the feedback messages
Importing Question Slides from a GIFT file
Importing Question Slides from a CSV file
Deleting the Question Slides
Inspecting the CSV file
Importing the CSV file in Adobe Captivate
Creating CSV files for importing in to Captivate
Working with Matching questions
Working with Short Answer questions
Working with True/False questions
Adding the remaining Question Slides
Working with the Fill-in-The-Blank question
Working with Hotspot questions
Working with Sequence questions
Creating surveys with Likert questions
Previewing the Quiz
Understanding the Quiz modes
Understanding Pretests
Exploring the Quiz Preferences
Setting the passing score of a Quiz
Working with Question Pools
Inserting questions in a Question Pool
Inserting Random Question Slides in the project
Styling the elements of the Question Slides
Reporting scores to an LMS
Understanding SCORM, AICC, and xAPI
Enabling reporting in Captivate
Reporting options at the Question Slide level
Reporting other types of interactions
Setting up the project-level reporting options
Creating a SCORM manifest file
Testing your SCORM enabled projects with SCORM Cloud
Working with Knowledge Check Slides
Using the object states to customize the feedback messages
Creating the Correct feedback message
Using Knowledge Check Slides with Interactive Video
Summary
Meet the community
Rod Ward
Tristan Ward
Contact details
Capturing Onscreen Action Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Producing a Video Demo Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating a Responsive Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Virtual Reality Projects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Captivate with Other Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating Accessible eLearning Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Variables and Advanced Actions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Variables and Advanced Actions
Working with Variables
System and User-defined Variables
Exploring System Variables
Generating text dynamically
Using User-defined Variables
Creating a User Variable
Capturing values with Text Entry Boxes
Using User-defined Variables to dynamically generate text
Working with Advanced Actions
Using Standard Actions
Using a Button to mute and unmute audio
Step 1 – Creating the Mute button
Step 2 – Finding out which action to create
Step 3 – Creating the Action
Step 4 – Assigning the Action to an event
Using Conditional Actions
Extra Credit – Creating a Closed Captions toggle button
Using Shared Actions
Programming a conditional Button
Step 1 – Creating the necessary variables
Step 2 – Creating the Shared Action
Step 3 – Using and reusing the Shared Action
Reusing the Shared Action
Reusing Shared Actions across projects
Hiding and showing objects using Advanced Actions
Geolocation in Adobe Captivate
Inserting an extra slide
Detecting the location of the learner
Creating a custom Geolocation variable
Altering content based on the learner's location
Enabling Geolocation capabilities
Working with JavaScript in Adobe Captivate
Generating random feedback messages with JavaScript
Creating Captivate Variables
Creating pools of messages
Creating the pickMessages() function
Understanding the Common JavaScript Interface for Adobe Captivate
Displaying random feedback messages
Extra Credit – Randomizing feedback messages in the Quiz
Summary
Meet the community
Damien
Mark DuBois
Contact details
Finishing Touches and Publishing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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Dee Arr Dec 11, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
My background is mostly in PowerPoint and a smattering of Camtasia, so when my company approved for me to have this software, I searched for a book to train me and settled on this one.Why did I choose “Mastering Adobe Captivate 2019?” When I was deliberating between this and other books, it was the author’s credentials that sold me. Dr. Pooja Jaisingh has experience putting together eLearning courses and is a senior learning evangelist at Adobe. Who better to teach Adobe Captivate?Dr. Jaisingh does not teach in generalities. This is not a book where it runs through and defines everything and tells us how each button and slider work. There are files to download and she walks you through putting together a training. For those of us with little or no knowledge about software that might be similar, this is an excellent way to teach us. Right from the start, it is a hands-on approach. At first the author walks us through everything step-by-step. The next time she tells you to perform the actions, which forces you to remember or perhaps to look back to jog your memory. Either way, YOU are doing the work and the repetition helped me to cement the knowledge in my memory.Readers/learners who have experience with similar software programs might be tempted to work on your own projects, substituting them for files the author tells you to download. If you can do that, great! If not, you might consider working through Dr. Jaisingh’s training files to see how the software performs before moving on to personal projects.I have read enough of the book (and worked through the training exercises) that I am ready to dive in and work on my first project. While I will undoubtedly have to refer back to the book, but working the training I not only learned the program but where I need to go when I get stuck (and I made it easier on myself with constant hightlighting). I paid about 50% more to have the paperback, but my learning style is to read/underline/do, so it worked out for me. You may be satisfied with a Kindle version, which will save you a few bucks. Either way, this book is worth the cost. What I’ve learned is that the software is amazing, and the author has certainly helped to quickly get me up to speed so I can begin creating. Five stars.
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Rich VanDeventer Mar 29, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Normally, I like reference books more than learn-by-example books. However, because this book is a mix of both, I like it a lot. It takes one example of elearning and works you through it from beginning to end utilizing virtually every aspect of Captivate 2019. The book is 735 pages, so it contains a ton of information. It took me several weeks to work my way through it.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Pamela Pierce Mar 31, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is written by an Adobe teacher and is excellent. I've read the other Captivate 2019 books and find this to be the best.
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Andy Feb 25, 2021
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
this is an extensive reference book on Adobe Captivate. It is not intended to be read cover to cover, but serves as an excellent reference regarding all of the nuances of Captivate.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Pamela Manning Jun 14, 2021
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Awesome book! It is very easy to understand and they give great examples. You actually build a course from start to finish using this book. I highly recommend it.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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