December 12, 2016
The Planet Captivate Blog
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(3)
December 12, 2016
The Planet Captivate Blog
Bachelor's in Secondary Education (English); Content design/development for 10 years; Captivate since 2016.
Newbie 12 posts
Followers: 8 people
(3)

Welcome to the Planet Captivate Blog!

I’ve been a part of the Adobe Community since the update of Captivate 9 included the Community feature in the main toolbar.  While perusing, I noticed, as with anything really, a variety of users were in the community – from beginner to the uber-advanced.  Additionally, I was recently at the Adobe Learning Summit, and through a variety of introductions, learned that the user-base of Captivate extends in this manner, even beyond the Community.

So, the purpose of this recurring blog will be to focus on the basics of Captivate, including the basics of instructional design in general.  By reading ahead, and continuing to follow this blog, I take it that you either categorize yourself on the beginner side of the spectrum, or are intrigued nonetheless.  So let’s get started.

A Bit About Me – My name is Adam Beardslee, and I have been designing and developing content for a little over three years.  However, I’ve been using Captivate 9 for about six months.  My background is in Secondary Education, and I’m a Corporate Trainer/Instructional Designer/Developer.  In a nutshell, I’m probably a version of, well, you!

A Bit About this Blog – Each blog will focus (for the most part) on one feature of the system or one topic related to theory.  At the end of each blog I’ll pose a challenge for followers to attempt, and reply with their comments/ideas/roadblocks/etc. 

A Bit About You

  • Perhaps you have previous experience with a different authoring tool and may have some old habits that may need breaking.
  • Perhaps you have been developing content primarily by using PowerPoint and are happy to be part of the Promised Land!
  • Perhaps you are new to authoring tools and instructional design theory altogether and are I looking to learn, and share your knowledge with others.

In any case, I’m happy to learn with you as we all progress.

Any questions?  Then let’s get started with our first Feature Presentation

In the Beginning – Choosing the type of Project

I want to point out a feature of Captivate that is great…if used correctly.  If not, it could throw you quite the curve ball, as it did me, thus my choice to include it in this blog.

From PPT Project

“From PowerPoint®” is used to import existing PowerPoint® presentations to be included in a Captivate Project.  While this works nicely, and is fairly self-explanatory, I’d like to point out some things to be aware of prior to import.  Hopefully, these will save you both time and frustration.

  1. When importing a PPT, the PPT becomes part of the background in Captivate. Meaning, you won’t be able to layer Captivate items behind any of the features included in the PPT.
  2. Slide for slide, importing from PPT uses considerably more data, than the same data natively placed into Captivate.
  3. In addition to #2, this can potentially add unnecessary ‘load time’ when launching your finished project.
  4. The Captivate project becomes tied and reliant upon the PPT file. You MUST make sure that the location of the PPT file remains as is.  If you lose the location, you won’t be able to make updates to the PPT slides from within the Captivate project.

My suggestion is to house all content in Captivate, and save the PPT import option for a select few slides, if at all.  I realize that syncing slides that are frequently updated to your project can be beneficial, and I agree with that.  It’s a great feature.  I just wanted to take some time to warn you of the time-traps that potentially lurk with this feature.

I hope you are able to benefit from my mistakes. 

Until next time, Cadets, shoot for the stars and BE the YOND!

Adam

3 Comments
2016-12-16 15:19:43
2016-12-16 15:19:43

You’re so right, Adam. Plenty of gotchas if you don’t pay attention.

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2016-12-13 22:51:22
2016-12-13 22:51:22

Awesome stuff Adam. Nice to see someone jumping right into the deep end.

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2016-12-13 14:22:28
2016-12-13 14:22:28

Congrats on the new blog Adam! Great to see your contributions.

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