In this first part of a two part video tutorial, I cover the procedures for recording your software simulation. Make sure you watch the second part to see how I edit my recordings. Prior to starting your recording, it’s important to take certain preparation steps to make sure you are truly ready to record.
- Script out your steps – Practise your steps so you know exactly what you’re going to record.
- Run Captivate as an administrator – I generally run Captivate as an administrator anyway but this is one of those functions that really demands it.
- Run the application to be captured from your primary display – When I’ve tried to record applications on my second monitor, Captivate fails to capture all the screen shots and mouse movements. This is a known bug with Captivate.
- Know your keyboard shortcuts – While I don’t use all the shortcuts, it’s important to know where on your keyboard you need to press to activate certain functions.
- Reset your defaults – In case you have changed your settings make sure that everything is setup to record the right kind of recording for your own situation.
In this second part of a two part video tutorial, I cover the procedures for editing your recordings and preparing them for your learners. Make sure you watch part one to find out how you get to where this video tutorial begins.
Great tutorial.
You’re welcome
Paul, how do I set-up Captivate to run as an administrator? I appreciate your guidance.
If you’re running Windows you can right click on c:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Captivate 2017 x64/ AdobeCaptivate.EXE and select properties. On the Compatibility tab check “Run this program as an administrator” and there you go.
Thanks for the tip!
You are welcome Met-her
When creating software simulations, do you have recommendations about naming conventions for organization purposes to help with content curation later? Knowing when something was created, whether or not it needs to be updated and finding all the relevant files to be able to update quickly and easily is something I’m curious if you have any best practices to share. Thanks again Paul.
Because I’m usually the designer and the developer I don’t always spend the appropriate amount of time ensuring that things are labeled properly for the next guy – I am the next guy. But my advice would be to label all your objects within a course. For example, I might make a Next button but it’s label is Smartshape_121 or something like that. Later when you wish to hide or change the state of that button from an advanced action are you going to remember Slide_21_Next_Button or are you going to remember Smartshape_121.
With the files themselves I usually stick with the LMS Course codes followed by either a series of version numbers or dates (whatever is the norm for the client). Course codes are better because the name of the course can change over time. I once had a course called Stamping Out Workplace Violence which eventually became Creating Respect in the Workplace. Since the course code doesn’t change over time there is no need to rename files or folders.
I guess even if you are also the developer and the designer you should proceed from the assumption that someone else may someday pick up your work where you left off. May as well make it as easy for him or her.
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