Top Ten Tips for Creating Effective software demonstrations with Captivate

A post dedicated to Camtasia ScreenCasts, titled Top Ten Tips for Creating Effective ScreenCasts by Myers, caught my attention.
So I decided to write a similar post dedicated to Adobe Captivate (I used a lot in the past months for a project).
Here it is my tips :

Top Ten Tips for Creating Effective software demonstrations with Captivate

1. Before Starting with Captivate

• Choose the screen resolution you want to use before recording
• Evaluate which Record Options works with your project (Application,Custom Size, Full Screen)
• Consider the screen resolution of your final target when you start recording
• Find a clean and noiseless enviroment to make your recordings

2. Before Recording with Captivate

• Click "Snap red recording area to fit selected window" button
• If you want to record audio, check the Record Narration box
• Have a last check if the Recording size is correct
• At last make a test for checking the volume level of your voice
• Add author's name,company or other info opening the Movie Proporties (File > Properties). They will be showed when the users click on the Info icon on the toolbar of your final movie
• Close all your programs to improve your machine's performance
• Clean up your desktop, especially if you use the full screen Recording mode

3. Pick the right Microphone

• Keep your mouth a hand far away from your mic
• To avoid pops, position the mic upper-left or upper-right of your mouth
• Experiment with your position and volume
• Experiment with the proximity effect (when you eat the mic like Guns&Roses singer)
• For a better result you can record you voice usign an audio tool, add effects and then import the final audio into Captivate
• An USB Mic could be enough but don't try to spend less than 80-100 $
• Consider a Bluetooth hands-free Mic

4. Customize Recording Option

• Click the Options button in the Record specific window
• Define the language Captivate will use for the labels
• Define or Customize (click on Edit settings button) the Caption objects appereance
• Choose the Recording Mode : Demonstration, Assessment Simulation or Training Simulation
• Check the checkboxes if you want to Hide recording window, hide task icon, hide system tray icon, move new window inside recording area
   

• Bookmark on del.icio.us
• Digg this site
• Technorati: Flash Lite/Mobile

5. During the Recording phase

• Keep notes while recording. They will help you in the Editing phase
• Be confident with your audience
• Handle with your errors. Do not start from the beginning or do not stop when you make a mistake. Continue recording.  You'll make the correction after finishing the recording phase, in the Editing mode of Captive

6. Customize your Recording in the Edit mode

• Quickly record or edit audios to slides clicking  on the audio icon at the bottom-right side of the slide (see  figure)
• You can change settings (timing, transiotion) and look&feel for all your captions in one click. Double click  on a  Caption and the Text Captions widnow opens. Select the check box "Apply properties to all captions in the movie"
• The same works for Highlight Boxes :)
• Optimize cursor icons and movements (under Slide > Mouse >  Project Pointers) . They helps users to follow the action

7. Optimize before publishing

• Use the Bandwidth monitor to have the detailed information (and graph) for all the movie slides (under View menu)
• Insert alternative text to be compliant with Accessibility guidelines (Section 508). You can add alternative text to your slides  via Slide menu > Properties and click on the Accessibilty button
• Check the timing of each slide. Pay attention to full motion captured slide.
• Often use the Preview menu on the Tasks toolbar to monitor your movie. Instead waiting for a preview for the full movie, you can see a preview for the next 5 slides starting from selected slide.
• Edit Audio and correct mistakes
• Before starting speaking add some silence at the very beginning of your slide
• Check your text using the "Check Spelling" option under Movie menu

8. Publish your Captivate movie

• Use Captivate Loading Screen to automatically preload the entire movie before playing
• If you don't need to make your movie 508 compliant, uncheck that option to reduce file size
• In order to reduce file size set Audio Quality option  to Medium Qaulity. I found it great (for my purposes of course)
• You can create a movie-trial that expires after a date check the option Movie Expiration Date
• In order to reduce file size set JPEG Image Quality option to 65% (or whatever you want, but keep it lower than 75%)

9. Export your movie in different formats

• Captivate exports for Flash. You can export movie in FLA format and then open it in Flash IDE
• You can export for using the demonstration in Breeze
• You can export only the Text Caption of your movie
• You can publish a Workouts in Word format (DOC)
• You can publish an executable file (EXE format) as standalone

10. Captivate Unleashed

• Create a Menu Builder Project to handle multiple-movies presentation
• Create Quiz to interact with the users (Movie > Quiz Manager)
• You can import a presentation from Powerpoint and then edit it into Captivate (File > Import/Export > Powerpoint presentation)

Comments

[Anne DeFelice]

I am finding Menu Builder very difficult to use, because once you create it you can't add to the tree. Is there a newer version than the one I have? (version

thanks,
Anne DeFelice
Fidelity Technical Training SErvices

[Mauri]

Captivate automatically starts the film, how can i say that when the page loads it stops the swf file?

tranks in advance