Educating
people on new products or services is more
important today that at any other time in history.
It is the information age, where new data is
arriving at a logarithmic pace. Too fast for some,
not fast enough for others, but important to
organizations and those individuals tasked with the
responsibility of disseminating new information –
the trainer.
Corporate training traditionally involves someone standing at the front of a group of people, using slideshows and printed materials to present the information. One difficulty the trainer faces is the same a journalist faces: identifying the target audience. I have seen too many coworkers leave a training session because the level of information was not adequate for their needs and they were frustrated they had to stop work to attend the class. They just wanted to have the ability to go though information at their own pace – not faster or slower because of other people in the room.
Another important factor about training is cost. Traditional classroom training requires resources - at the office or offsite – which are expenses, bit are necessary when people must attend training in a classroom. And when employees are not being productive doing the tasks they are paid to do, it costs the company time and money. Providing training materials a person can read during downtime (waiting for code to compile, waiting for someone to return a call or email, or during a break) lets people do their work, remain productive, and still learn what the organization believes is important. A real win-win scenario.
In the past 10 years, many organizations found that the internet is idea to present information about products and services to their customers. Businesses, educational organizations and government agencies found that online content was a highly effective and efficient medium to disseminate information. This alone is a good reason to consider Adobe’s Captivate 3 product to create interactive training systems, so let’s get started with the product review.
Getting Started
Captivate requires Windows 2000 SP2 or later, XP with SP2, Vista Home Premium/Business, Ultimate or Enterprise, at least a Pentium IV CPU, 512 MB RAM, a DVD-ROM, 700 MB drive space, and internet access is useful. I installed the software from a disk instead of downloading the file, and ran it on an HP laptop running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.
The test laptop hardware was a 2GB CPU, 1.25GB RAM and a 100 GB hard drive. The installation process was simple and error-free. One directory was created under C:\Program Files\Adobe: Adobe Captivate 3.
Using the Product
I launched Captivate 3 and spent just a little time getting familiar with the user interface. I had used an earlier version of Captivate, and even though it had been over 1 ½ years since I’d seen the product I had no problems using the new version. I like how the desktop is organized. Easy to create a new project or open an existing quiz, practice, demonstration or assessment. Nice.
To start my tests, I previewed the Sample Soft Skills project, which is an excellent (but short) course on interviewing. This sample presents information, provides periodic multi-conditional branching test questions, and uses audio and video content. This sample is nice when introducing and demonstrating interactive training to a client, and it is a good template users new to Captivate can utilize to create similar coursework for their own first presentations. Now back to testing the product.
I selected Record or Create a New Project at the main screen that opened a second project options screen. The options were:
Software Simulation – create an Application, Custom Size and Full Screen
Scenario Simulation – Project Wizard and Create a New Simulation from a Template Other – Blank Project, Image Project, Import from PowerPoint, and Create Project from a Template.
I chose Other – Create Project from a Template. The two templates included with the software were Sales Pitch Training and Software Training – excellent, as both topics are principle reasons businesses would use this product.
I created two test projects – 1 for sales and the other on software training. After creating a project using a template, the Captivate project screen is displayed and it has three tabs: Storyboard, Edit and Branching. The Storyboard tab shows the project (17 slides for the Software Training template) displayed in the same sequence the slides are displayed when run. The slides are rearranged by drag-and-drop – nice and simple – and edited by double-clicking, which changes to the Edit tab. This is the place to modify existing or add new content or slides to a project.
To modify the properties of a slide, select the Slide Properties button in the Edit screen while the slide is displayed. You can change the background, set the time to display the slide, set slide transition and quality, and add audio content for that slide. You can add notes to each slide, and while the notes don’t display during presentation, they do help keep things organized. Very nice.
To change content of a slide, double click on that area and use the popup. It was easy to add rollover images, animations and Flash videos. It is also easy to duplicate or delete slides from the project. While it is easy to create new blank projects, I think organizations using Captivate will find it more efficient to create and reuse templates, with their standard logos, fonts and color schemes.
I have discussed using it at several clients that have training needs and it has been well-received. I didn’t need to contact Adobe’s Technical Support for help, as the product and online help information was more than adequate for my needs. I will continue to recommend this product to other clients in the future.
Conclusion
Custom, interactive training where people can learn something at their own pace only make sense. Whether an employee uses interactive materials during the work day, before or after work or over lunch, while traveling, or during an evening at home, self-paced learning is effective and efficient.
Captivate 3 comes as a stand alone package or as part of the Adobe Technical Communication Suite, which include Captivate 3, RoboHelp7, FrameMaker 8 and Acrobat 3D. People can view Captivate presentations with a web browser with Flash player 7 or later, so propriety standalone display software is not required.
Positives
I believe people learn better when they use simulations and scenario-based training systems. I liked the included templates, found it easy to add written material and audio content to slides, and found the support for notes for each slide quite useful when dealing with multiple projects for different audiences. Being able to see slide branching for a project is huge – a real plus for web developers or desktop publishers transitioning to this software.
I like the release enhancements that improve the quiz system (pooling, answer shuffling), appreciate the support for current Microsoft technologies, and like how easy it is to create a quick demo. There were a number of times in the past where I spent long hours in the evening creating a demo for presentation to management, and the ability to do a quick demo would have been a huge timesaver. Improving support for MS PowerPoint is a good idea, since universities and businesses use the product for presentations.
The product is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Captivate projects can be exported to Flash, and the SWF files can be used with other products (like Dreamweaver and Acrobat) that support that file format.
Negatives
I prefer Word 2000 or 2003, but was surprised it took Adobe so long to provide support for Office 2007 and Vista, even though many companies have delayed implementing Vista on a company-wide basis, the lack of support for Word 2007 could have been a concern for some companies.
I would like to see more project templates, including useful ones for education and government users. I would also like to run Captivate 3 on one of my computers running Mac OS X. Yes, the Captivate presentations themselves will run on a Mac browser with Flash reader 7, but I would like to have the ability to create new presentations natively on Mac OS. Maybe for the next release…
Recommendation
Definitely recommended. This is a good produce for companies and educational facilities to provide interactive training materials, the software is easy to use and does not require programming or scripting knowledge to use (although those skills can be used to enhance a project), and the new features (in addition to Office 2007/Vista support) make it well worth the cost. If there are desktop publishing and/or online help needs, the Technical Communication (with Captivate 3, FrameMaker 8, RoboHelp7 and Acrobat 3D) is a true bargain. I will continue to recommend this product to current and future clients, as it does a nice job and is simple yet powerful.
Review By
Mike Hubbartt
Corporate training traditionally involves someone standing at the front of a group of people, using slideshows and printed materials to present the information. One difficulty the trainer faces is the same a journalist faces: identifying the target audience. I have seen too many coworkers leave a training session because the level of information was not adequate for their needs and they were frustrated they had to stop work to attend the class. They just wanted to have the ability to go though information at their own pace – not faster or slower because of other people in the room.
Another important factor about training is cost. Traditional classroom training requires resources - at the office or offsite – which are expenses, bit are necessary when people must attend training in a classroom. And when employees are not being productive doing the tasks they are paid to do, it costs the company time and money. Providing training materials a person can read during downtime (waiting for code to compile, waiting for someone to return a call or email, or during a break) lets people do their work, remain productive, and still learn what the organization believes is important. A real win-win scenario.
In the past 10 years, many organizations found that the internet is idea to present information about products and services to their customers. Businesses, educational organizations and government agencies found that online content was a highly effective and efficient medium to disseminate information. This alone is a good reason to consider Adobe’s Captivate 3 product to create interactive training systems, so let’s get started with the product review.
Getting Started
Captivate requires Windows 2000 SP2 or later, XP with SP2, Vista Home Premium/Business, Ultimate or Enterprise, at least a Pentium IV CPU, 512 MB RAM, a DVD-ROM, 700 MB drive space, and internet access is useful. I installed the software from a disk instead of downloading the file, and ran it on an HP laptop running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2.
The test laptop hardware was a 2GB CPU, 1.25GB RAM and a 100 GB hard drive. The installation process was simple and error-free. One directory was created under C:\Program Files\Adobe: Adobe Captivate 3.
Using the Product
I launched Captivate 3 and spent just a little time getting familiar with the user interface. I had used an earlier version of Captivate, and even though it had been over 1 ½ years since I’d seen the product I had no problems using the new version. I like how the desktop is organized. Easy to create a new project or open an existing quiz, practice, demonstration or assessment. Nice.
To start my tests, I previewed the Sample Soft Skills project, which is an excellent (but short) course on interviewing. This sample presents information, provides periodic multi-conditional branching test questions, and uses audio and video content. This sample is nice when introducing and demonstrating interactive training to a client, and it is a good template users new to Captivate can utilize to create similar coursework for their own first presentations. Now back to testing the product.
I selected Record or Create a New Project at the main screen that opened a second project options screen. The options were:
Software Simulation – create an Application, Custom Size and Full Screen
Scenario Simulation – Project Wizard and Create a New Simulation from a Template Other – Blank Project, Image Project, Import from PowerPoint, and Create Project from a Template.
I chose Other – Create Project from a Template. The two templates included with the software were Sales Pitch Training and Software Training – excellent, as both topics are principle reasons businesses would use this product.
I created two test projects – 1 for sales and the other on software training. After creating a project using a template, the Captivate project screen is displayed and it has three tabs: Storyboard, Edit and Branching. The Storyboard tab shows the project (17 slides for the Software Training template) displayed in the same sequence the slides are displayed when run. The slides are rearranged by drag-and-drop – nice and simple – and edited by double-clicking, which changes to the Edit tab. This is the place to modify existing or add new content or slides to a project.
To modify the properties of a slide, select the Slide Properties button in the Edit screen while the slide is displayed. You can change the background, set the time to display the slide, set slide transition and quality, and add audio content for that slide. You can add notes to each slide, and while the notes don’t display during presentation, they do help keep things organized. Very nice.
To change content of a slide, double click on that area and use the popup. It was easy to add rollover images, animations and Flash videos. It is also easy to duplicate or delete slides from the project. While it is easy to create new blank projects, I think organizations using Captivate will find it more efficient to create and reuse templates, with their standard logos, fonts and color schemes.
I have discussed using it at several clients that have training needs and it has been well-received. I didn’t need to contact Adobe’s Technical Support for help, as the product and online help information was more than adequate for my needs. I will continue to recommend this product to other clients in the future.
Conclusion
Custom, interactive training where people can learn something at their own pace only make sense. Whether an employee uses interactive materials during the work day, before or after work or over lunch, while traveling, or during an evening at home, self-paced learning is effective and efficient.
Captivate 3 comes as a stand alone package or as part of the Adobe Technical Communication Suite, which include Captivate 3, RoboHelp7, FrameMaker 8 and Acrobat 3D. People can view Captivate presentations with a web browser with Flash player 7 or later, so propriety standalone display software is not required.
Positives
I believe people learn better when they use simulations and scenario-based training systems. I liked the included templates, found it easy to add written material and audio content to slides, and found the support for notes for each slide quite useful when dealing with multiple projects for different audiences. Being able to see slide branching for a project is huge – a real plus for web developers or desktop publishers transitioning to this software.
I like the release enhancements that improve the quiz system (pooling, answer shuffling), appreciate the support for current Microsoft technologies, and like how easy it is to create a quick demo. There were a number of times in the past where I spent long hours in the evening creating a demo for presentation to management, and the ability to do a quick demo would have been a huge timesaver. Improving support for MS PowerPoint is a good idea, since universities and businesses use the product for presentations.
The product is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Captivate projects can be exported to Flash, and the SWF files can be used with other products (like Dreamweaver and Acrobat) that support that file format.
Negatives
I prefer Word 2000 or 2003, but was surprised it took Adobe so long to provide support for Office 2007 and Vista, even though many companies have delayed implementing Vista on a company-wide basis, the lack of support for Word 2007 could have been a concern for some companies.
I would like to see more project templates, including useful ones for education and government users. I would also like to run Captivate 3 on one of my computers running Mac OS X. Yes, the Captivate presentations themselves will run on a Mac browser with Flash reader 7, but I would like to have the ability to create new presentations natively on Mac OS. Maybe for the next release…
Recommendation
Definitely recommended. This is a good produce for companies and educational facilities to provide interactive training materials, the software is easy to use and does not require programming or scripting knowledge to use (although those skills can be used to enhance a project), and the new features (in addition to Office 2007/Vista support) make it well worth the cost. If there are desktop publishing and/or online help needs, the Technical Communication (with Captivate 3, FrameMaker 8, RoboHelp7 and Acrobat 3D) is a true bargain. I will continue to recommend this product to current and future clients, as it does a nice job and is simple yet powerful.
Review By
Mike Hubbartt
Adobe Captivate 3.0 Software Review