Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have been using this program full time since Aug 2009 developing thousands of slides, on numerous topics. The following is my ongoing journal. I foresee using this program for several more months before the product cycle ends...
Pros
1. Capturing a procedure is done fairly well. See item 12 below in the cons section. However, the output leaves a lot to be desired. If your presentation has a certain look and feel that you would like to match the raw capture is going to require editing - a lot of editing.
2. The on-board quiz/test generator is very easy to use and links to an LMS if one is setup to accept the data.
3. Setting up conditionals in the program for data-gathering and program manipulation is easy (provided you know what variables you would like to use and have a clear understanding of if...then statements).
4. Importing audio is easy. However, it must be edited and its final form before importing it to captivate. See items 7 and 19 in the cons section.
5. Rescaling of a project from one dimension to another, i.e. 800*600 to 1024*768 is very successful without distorting or compensating aspect ratio for the objects contained within.
6. The animation option is useful with the standard animations available, but they are limited and rather generic looking. Without an animation tool for creating/editing animations this feature is somewhat useful but limited in its applicability.
7. The ability to export the output in several output formats is a plus. However, the usefulness of these formats is condition specific.Cons
1. Captivate is operationally difficult to use.
2. Sometimes Captivate will not publish html/swf files with file names (title) exceeding more than a few characters - behavior is inconsistent. No Adobe documentation on file naming exists within the product manual or help files.
3. Over all object positioning and alignment in the development window is tedious. After custom alignment has been performed objects may move without prompt. Causes a great deal of rework.
4. Button object alignment using the text button feature appears normal in the development file but "may" be disjointed in the published version. Auto-align does not necessarily fix it.
5. Sometime hyperlinks to external files from within an .exe fail - inconsistent.
6. Sometimes hyperlinks revert to default file locations.
7. Open File or URL feature - This feature does not work as advertised. Sometimes designators to another file/url that are supposed to open in the current window fail. The current program just stalls and no action takes place. The only method I have been able to count on consistently is to designate that the file be opened in a new browser.
8. "Text to Speech" feature is to robotic sounding for final audio production.
9. The audio editing capabilities of Captivate are too rudimentary for audio editing.
10. Object orientation is limited to upright - no rotating of objects within the development environment.
11. Presentation Slide audio only appears on one time line. Additional audio must be created, removed, and reattached to other objects on the page if the audio is to be associated to an object event and not to timeline position.
12. The default TOC feature is clumsy unless you anchor it to a specific position.
13. Captured procedures require a great deal of editing and timing adjustment to be useful mid-stream in a presentation. Not as straight-forward as advertised.
14. Users must wait for captivate generated html pages (final output) to fully load before clicking any object of the page will stall and must be reloaded.
15. The global setting feature is great, unless you apply it.
16. The lock slide/object feature is slow to respond if using more than a few objects (20 or more) on a slide.
17. Roll-Over images, Roll-Over text, and the zoom area features are difficult to manage once more than a few instances are needed.
18. The over-all limit to 45-50 slides per presentation is a serious limitation for developing complex topics. Exceeding this causes many performance issues during and after development. Development file size that exceeds a few megabytes seems to cause the program to behave inconsistently. Source files are prone to crashing, and are generally unrecoverable.
19. Sometimes (often) saving a file fails but the program doesn't crash, it just closes. The Adobe Connect Pro user community recommends copying the slides to another file and save the new file.
20. Audio elements or queues sometimes have an inordinate amount of pops, static and clicks.
21. Hyper linking to files outside of a captivate file does not guarantee navigation back to the original file, and does not guarantee that the file will return to the last page viewed from the hyper-linked page.
22. The in-development review feature doesn't really show all the elements of a slide as it is intended. Review requires fully loading one of the simulated options or actually publishing the file to see if it functions as expected.
23. The Flash video option is useless without a flash generator/editing program to support it.
24. Sometimes, zooming into a slide when editing will render the file unusable.
25. Sometimes slide objects become unusable and must be replaced. If a slide object cannot be deleted the slide must be completely recreated.
26. Slide editing becomes increasingly sluggish as numerous elements are added to the slide.
27. Once an object has been created it may not be editable. Sometimes an object will accept a modification of settings, but not reflect those changes in the working or final version.
28. Font scripts in some text boxes are cut off by two or three pixels. The phenomenon seems to be largely absent if a text box is created and not adjusted for font size, color, or position. Of course there are adjustments for each of these properties and not being able to customize the properties without causing a flaw in the final product is in contradiction to the very existence of the property adjustment!
29. Button pause features do not necessarily pause slide audio!
30. Scripts and variables for custom interactions are very difficult to use. The scripting dialogue is inadequate, it does not behave predictably, and there is very little documentation on the topic available from either adobe or the public domain. Without this feature, complex navigation feedback is impossible.
31. The program locks up quite often. No matter whether you save often or not, just a few minutes of work in captivate is a lot of lost work. So, unless you're in the habit of saving after every single action you have performed, you will lose some work every time you use captivate.
32. When using the preview feature (F8) the program will occasionally stall. It's a waiting game. The program may restart after a few minutes (6-10) if you're lucky. This behavior is inconsistent. Wednesday Jan 6th around 9AM, program locked up for 15 minutes when running a preview. The same file had been being used for preview without any disruption in process prior to the malfunction. Same file acted normally until Friday the 8th when the program locked up again on a different file. This event started at 8:45AM. The condition is maintaining itself at 9:08AM. Program is now active again at 9:10 AM. Using the preview feature again at 10:05 AM. The program has stalled and is still inactive at 10:14 AM. At 10:18 AM the program is still inactive. At 10:24 AM the program is still inactive. At 10:30 AM the program is still inactive. At 10:35 AM the program is still inactive. At 10:41 the program is still inactive. Program cleared and started responding again at 10:46 AM. Tuesday, January 12, 2009: I started the F8 preview three times this morning and each of the two first times the preview opened, functioned normally and closed. I initiated a third time at 9:05 AM and it has stalled taking my system hostage for the last 18 minutes. The program released itself at 9:24 AM.
33. When adding an image to a slidelet the first attempt at configuring the new image in the slide may appear fuzzy or out of focus in the development window and the final output after publishing. Usually redoing the image add work will clear up the focus. While this isn't usually a crisis, it does require that the developer do the same task twice on a regular basis.
34. File/slide progress can be stilted from a non-identifiable cause. After developing numerous slides with similar elements one slide started pausing after .1 seconds, and remained in this mode for the entire progress of the slide. Nothing I could find with any single element of the slide had the property to allow for this type of behavior. The only way to get the slide to progress was to continually click the play button. It was possible to skip the slide by forcing advance using the customized buttons, but the only way to see the entire contents in the timeline for the slide was in .1 second increments - like watching a film one frame at a time. Resolution: created a whole new blank file, imported all existing slides and objects from offending file into new blank file. Problem solved...
35. Linking programs together is problematic. When developing a project I had decided to use the linking feature that would allow the end of one file to prompt the opening of another. But somewhere in the development process the feature stopped working - yes at one time it worked flawlessly. Now none of the files will...Read more›
Click Here to see more reviews about: Adobe Captivate 4
With Adobe Captivate 4 software, you can rapidly author professional eLearning content with advanced interactivity, software and scenario simulations, quizzes, and other engaging experiences--no programming or multimedia skills required. Boost your productivity with templates and collaboration workflows. And deliver content virtually anywhere by publishing to Learning Management Systems and Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro software.
Go Beyond Screen Capture to Author Rich eLearning Experiences
Screen recording and demosCapture and record screen activity and effortlessly synchronize audio and video.
Software simulationsDevelop and deploy engaging computer simulations and skill assessments.
Scenario-based trainingRapidly develop soft-skills training with complex branching scenarios.
PresentationsDesign engaging, interactive Adobe Flash Player compatible and multimedia presentations online.
QuizzesCreate and deploy interactive tutorials and randomized quizzes with randomized answer options.
ScreencastsCreate informal learning content such as podcasts and screencasts.
Top New Features
SWF commenting Accelerate content creation cycles with real-time reviews in Adobe Captivate Reviewer. Reviewers can add comments to your SWF files while playing them without having Adobe Captivate installed, and comments will be imported to the appropriate slides in your project.
Text-to-speech functionality Keep learners tuned in to your content thanks to automatic voice-over functionality that turns text to high-quality speech in a few clicks. Need to change the text? Just click once to update the audio.
Expanded output options Embed Adobe Captivate movies in Adobe PDF files to enliven text-based instructional content, or embed your movies in Adobe Flex content using ActionScript 3.0 publishing. Output AVI files for streaming on the web or publishing to YouTube.
Adobe Photoshop layer support Preserve layers in imported Adobe Photoshop (PSD) files so you can easily edit or animate individual image areas for just the right effect.
Customizable widgets Create more compelling learning experiences by including widgets such as games and question types. Widgets can be created in Adobe Flash Professional software, easily shared via the Adobe Exchange, and customized to meet your content needs.
Roundtrip PowerPoint workflow Leverage existing Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 (PPTX format) slides in your projects. Import slides with audio and interactivity, easily update the content, and keep your PowerPoint and Adobe Captivate files in sync with the dynamically linked import option.
Variables and Advanced Actions Use Variables to personalize the learning experience by using learner-provided data, such as the learner's name, throughout a scenario. Use Advanced Actions to further configure and modify the experience by enabling conditional actions, or more than one action in an interaction.
Professional project templates Use enhanced project templates that make it easy for subject-matter experts to contribute instructionally sound content without compromising structure.
Streamlined workflows and enhanced usability Enjoy workflow and usability enhancements, including inline editing of text captions; support for panning to optimize viewing on small screens and devices; and support for right-clicking in simulations.
Table of Contents and Aggregator Enable learners to easily navigate through content and track their progress with a multilevel Table of Contents. Also, use the new Aggregator to combine multiple content modules to create a complete eLearning course.
Top Reasons to Buy Adobe Captivate 4
Rapid content development Get started quickly with a friendly user interface, built-in tutorials, and the ability to create software training by recording any application. Add audio by converting text to speech in a few clicks.
Efficient collaboration Collaborate effectively with features like templates, which enable team members to contribute content without modifying a project's design, and the new Adobe Captivate Reviewer, an Adobe AIR application that lets reviewers enter comments directly on your SWF files.
Easy SWF file creation Keep learners engaged with smoothly integrated audio, video for Adobe Flash Player, and rich interactivity. Adobe Captivate automatically generates a SWF file--complete with a preloader, playback controls, voice-over, and table of contents--from slide-based content, which can be e-mailed or delivered via websites, blogs, intranets, and online help systems.
Roundtrip PowerPoint workflow Leverage existing Microsoft PowerPoint slides in your projects. Import slides with audio and interactivity, easily update the content, and keep your PowerPoint and Adobe Captivate files in sync with the dynamically linked import option.
Rich media and image support Create engaging eLearning experiences by incorporating images, animations, audio, and video in multiple file formats. Use the built-in library to quickly access and manage project media files, drag and drop objects from the library onto slides, or import libraries from other projects.
Complex interactivity without programming Increase content effectiveness by easily adding interactivity, including quizzes with scoring, branching, and different kinds of interactive elements. Enhance content with Variables, Advanced Actions, and new customizable widgets such as games, charts, and new question types.
Integration with eLearning applications and SCORM- and AICC-compliant Learning Management Systems Leverage existing resources by integrating simulations with other eLearning tools. Adobe Captivate supports SCORM 2004, SCORM 1.2, and AICC, and offers one-click publishing to Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro software.
Robust assessments Create quizzes from a large variety of question types, and improve assessments by randomizing questions from a question pool. Shuffle answers at runtime to display multiple-choice options in a different order each time.
Custom controls, templates, and Skins Develop and customize captions and playback controls to match corporate identity or an application's interface. Create eye-catching Skins with tables of contents to display any set of Adobe Captivate projects.
Support for multiple formats, including AVI and PDF Author once and generate multiple file formats for easy distribution. Output to AVI for viewing on YouTube and a variety of mobile devices; embed Adobe Captivate movies in Adobe PDF files; and more.
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