A Powerhouse of Possibilities – Unleash Your Creativity with Captivate 2019

Hello, all. If you’re anything like me, getting excited about any Captivate release is a regular occurrence. However, with the latest major version of the software, Captivate 2019 proves to make your job easier, refine your skills as an educator/designer/developer/etc., and no doubt, wow your audience. In this post I’ll be highlighting the top 5 (among many others) new features and enhancements, selected by me as those I see immediately impacting my work. My top 5 are ordered by the […]

Publish for Devices – PhoneGap Login Won’t Work

Hello. I am trying to publish for devices (app), but am unable. I have an AdobeID, but am unable to log in at the PhoneGap Login prompt (below). No matter what I try, I can not get beyond this error. I have the PhoneGap Desktop app installed, am running Captivate 2017, and also have a PhoneGap Build account (below). Any help is greatly appreciated, as I’m not sure if it’s an issue with PhoneGap, Adobe, or both, or somewhere else […]

‘Tis the Season for the GIFT of Captivate

Hello, everyone! With the holiday’s officially upon us, and the countdown to Christmas underway (at least in my house!), I thought now would be the perfect time to talk about a special little surprise found in Captivate. And quite fittingly enough, it’s called GIFT, or General Import Format Technology to be precise. But me? I’m sticking with GIFT. That said, let’s take a quick look at the words that define the acronym to get a better understanding for what it […]

Video Games and Instructional Design

For this post I’ll be talking about video games and their impact on instructional design. This idea came to me earlier today while playing Mario Kart Wii with my son. At 36, I’m three decades older than Avery, but as I watched him play, I couldn’t help but find a new appreciation for the Mario Kart franchise that I, too, played when I was younger, in that it serves as a great generational equalizer. You may have another game that […]

Zero to Sixty with Advanced Actions

The Question: Just how fast do advanced actions execute themselves? The Answer: At times, I’ve found myself pondering that same question. And to find the answer, I set out to test it in the real world. My process, and findings are below. First, I have no doubt that executing a single advanced action would happen too quickly to measure. So, I decided to execute a lengthy list of actions (60 in all, thus the aptly named title of this blog). […]

Become a Captivate Swatch-buckler in No Time!

Hello, all! I recently realized that when creating a project in Captivate, it can be rather burdensome to find just the right colors to match your full brand spectrum. Thankfully, Adobe Captivate has you covered! Follow these simple steps to customize the built-in Swatch Manager, and make the default palette walk the plank! 1. Open a Captivate project file. 2. From the top menu bar, select Window, and scroll down to Swatch Manager. The default should look like this. 3.  […]

The Planet Captivate Blog – 2017 Initiatives

The Planet Captivate Blog Hello, all!  In this installment I’d like to extend my blog beyond the screen and into the real world, and share a bit of what my company is doing to help better engage our learners during training and to help them retain what information is most relevant to their job, all while saving precious time.  And spoiler alert:  Most of what drives these initiatives is a direct testament to Adobe Captivate. You can read about it […]

Captivate 2017 – Brief

Hello, all.  From what I’ve read of the recent comments, many have already touched on the overviews of most of the new features and enhancements that the 2017 version offers. So, in this piece, I’d like to comment on the Fluid Boxes in particular.  I attended the Adobe Learning Summit in late 2016, and these were part of the Sneaks portion of the summit.  When I first saw them, they blew my mind (in part because of the hiking themed […]

The Planet Captivate Blog – Cognitive Load

Welcome back, Cadets, and Happy New Year! In this post, I’d like to focus our attention on the theory side of things.  In particular, a topic whose importance in the eLearning arena was really brought to my attention by a colleague of mine named Jim Garland.  Jim, spending several years working in the eLearning industry, has helped open my eyes to countless considerations that differ from my background as a traditional secondary educator. However, one topic that Jim has helped […]

The Planet Captivate Blog

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, […]

Increase Efficiency by Tricking the Brain during Development

Hello, all.  I am submitting this Case Study under the definition with which I use the term, and that is to research a bit through lessons learned, tie certain experiences together, and present a recommendation, for those interested, to consider applying to their development/design process.  That said, here goes.  One day, a few months back, I was watching an episode of Brain Games on NatGeo.  For those who are unaware of the show, in a nutshell, it’s a ‘sciencey’ show […]

Adobe Learning Summit

Hello, everyone.  I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on my experience at the Adobe Learning Summit 2016.  I went with the hopes that I’d learn tons of new things, and meet a ton of great people.  Both true!  But on top of that, I came back with so much excitement for what it is that we do each and every day…develop content for our learners.  One session in particular, was from Lucas Blair, called “Gamify the Learner […]