Adobe Captivate Article

Rapid e-learning – Part 2: Using Adobe Captivate 2 content with Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server and Adobe Presenter

Including Adobe Captivate simulations in Adobe Presenter

Inserting Adobe Captivate files

Including a Adobe Captivate Flash file in your presentation is very easy. Publish to the Flash (SWF) file format in Adobe Captivate and insert the SWF file on the slide inside your PowerPoint presentation. It’s a good practice to create an introduction either on a slide in PowerPoint or a content slide in Adobe Captivate to prepare viewers for the simulation or demonstration. It is especially important when using simulations. You must let your learners know that they are expected to interact with the content.

The following example gives you an example of how you can enhance PowerPoint presentations with interactive content.

Run Simulation: Example of Interactive Adobe Captivate Simulation (2:20 minutes)

Note: During the simulation, you will need to complete the steps for each dialog box for the simulation to continue.

To insert an Adobe Captivate file, use the following steps.

1. Open your Microsoft PowerPoint presention.
2. Select Insert Flash from the Adobe Presenter menu inside PowerPoint.

3. Browse to the SWF file you published from Adobe Captivate and click the Open button.

   Note: This step inserts a placeholder for the Adobe Captivate content into the PowerPoint presentation, but there is one small catch. If the Adobe Captivate Flash file has the same background color as your PowerPoint slide, it will not be visible immediately after you inserted it. Trust me, it’s there, but you won’t be able to see it on the screen until you click it. Click the middle of your slide and it will appear selected, outlining your inserted content. If you’re really having a hard time finding it, click F5 (View Show), advance to the slide, and then the inserted Adobe Captivate Flash file appears and stays visible.

4. If you have captured your content at 720 x 540, resize the inserted Flash object to cover your entire PowerPoint slide (simply drag the circular grapples on the corners). If you captured the content at a different size, ensure that you keep the same proportions to avoid distortions.

Note: Adobe Presenter will not track data from embedded scored Adobe Captivate simulations.

Controlling the playback of demonstrations

A synchronized audio track drives most Adobe Presenter files and determines when to trigger and change animations. Left to its own devices, an Adobe Presenter file continues playing past the Adobe Captivate Flash file without ever stopping. There are two simple techniques you can use to give the user time to view or interact with the imported content:

• Sequence content within a presentation for continuous playback
• Stop the playback and add an advance by the user option

Continuous playback for use with demonstrations

Demonstrations typically play content in a linear fashion and do not require viewer input; viewers simply navigate using playback controls. By default, Adobe Presenter includes playback controls that allow the viewer to control the PowerPoint slides. For demonstrations, you can set up Adobe Presenter to control your embedded Adobe Captivate file.

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
2. Insert your published Flash file in your presentation slide (See inserting Adobe Captivate Files).
3. Select Presentation Settings from the Adobe Presenter menu in PowerPoint.

4. Click the Flash Files tab.

   

   Figure 10. The Flash Files tab

5. Select the check boxes for the Flash files you want to control through the Adobe Presenter playbar.
6. Click OK.

If you choose this option, the playback controls of your Adobe Captivate Flash file are inactive inside the Adobe Presenter file and any action the user selects from the Adobe Presenter playbar (play/pause, stop, or scrub) will also affect the embedded Adobe Captivate content. This is especially effective if you are using Adobe Captivate to develop a linear demonstration that has a set duration. If this is your approach, publish a version of your Adobe Captivate file without playback controls.

To publish an Adobe Captivate Flash file without playback controls, use the following steps:

1. Open your Adobe Captivate project.
2. Select Publish from the File menu in Adobe Captivate.
3. Select Flash (SWF) as your output option.
4. Click the Preferences button.
5. Select the Playback Control tab.
6. Use the pop-up menu to select None for the Position.
7. Click OK.
8. Click Publish.

To prevent the Adobe Presenter file from advancing to the next slide before the Adobe Captivate demonstration has finished playing, set up the correct slide time by inserting a silence into the slide.

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.
2. Select Audio Editor from the Adobe Presenter menu in PowerPoint.
3. Place the cursor in the location in the waveform where the slide with the Adobe Captivate content starts. Select Insert > Silence and enter the duration of your Adobe Captivate Flash file. (To find the duration of your Adobe Captivate content, open your project in Adobe Captivate and select the Storyboard view which displays movie information or select View > Bandwidth Analysis > Movie Summary.)
4. Press the OK button, save your changes, and close the audio editor.

Stopped playback for use with simulations

Simulations require the learner to interact with the content, and typically contain click boxes, keyboard shortcuts, and/or text entries. They allow the learner to actually practice the tasks and are very effective since most people learn by doing. If the goal of your Adobe Presenter file is to train viewers to complete certain tasks or procedures, use simulations instead of or in addition to demonstrations.

Since simulations require user input, you won’t know how long the slide needs to be available for the viewers to complete all steps. You can simply stop the Adobe Presenter file at the slide that contains the simulation. This gives the viewer time to complete the procedure and then continue to the next slide by clicking the Play button in the Adobe Presenter file play bar.

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.
2. Insert your Adobe Captivate file (See inserting Adobe Captivate Files).
3. Select Slide Properties from the Adobe Presenter menu in PowerPoint.

4. Select the slide that contains your Flash file.

   

   Figure 11. Select the slide that contains your Flash file

5. Click the Edit button.

   

   Figure 12. Option to have user advance manually

6. Select the Advance by user option.

An Adobe Captivate file that is inserted in Adobe Presenter will start playing as soon as the slide, where it was inserted, loads. There is no need for the viewer to manually start the playback of the Flash file.

It is up to you if you want to provide the learner with playback controls in the simulation or not. Since the interactions in the simulation guide the learner through the Adobe Captivate Flash file, playback controls may not be necessary. You also should not select the “Controlled by the presentation playbar” option in the Presentation settings as this will inhibit the user from being able to interact with the simulation beyond the time specified on the slide.

Since you had to choose the option Advance by user, it is a good idea to add information on your last slide in Adobe Captivate that reminds users to click the Play button in the Adobe Presenter play bar to continue.

Figure 13. If Advance by user is selected, viewers press the play button in the Adobe Presenter playbar to continue

View Demo : Inserting Adobe Captivate into Adobe Presenter

Note: In the middle of the demonstration, it will ask you whether you would like to view the steps for simulation or demo first. After viewing one option, you can view the other. Once you have viewed each, you can close the Adobe Captivate demonstration window.

Speed (Frames Per Second)

The playback speed for Adobe Presenter is 30 frames per second (fps) by default. Adobe Captivate uses the same frame rate by default but allows you to change the frame rate. To ensure synchronized playback of your audio, the frame rate of your Adobe Captivate project needs to match 30 fps. To check or change your frame rate, use the following steps before publishing from Adobe Captivate:

1. Open your Adobe Captivate project.

2. Open the Publish dialog and select Preferences.

   

   Figure 14. The Publish Preferences dialog button

3. Set the number in the field Frames per second to 30.
4. Click OK and publish the file.

Controlling the playback size of an Adobe Presenter file

An Adobe Presenter file plays inside a scalable browser window. The highest quality playback for Adobe Captivate 2 content is when the Flash file is not scaled. If you captured your content at the recommended Adobe Presenter – Full Slide size of 720 x 540 pixels, you can use simple JavaScript to prevent the Adobe Presenter file from scaling. The following basic sample HTML code contains a script you can use in the page that contains the link to your published Adobe Presenter file.

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- Begin
function NoScale(theURL) {
window.open(theURL, '', 'left=0, top=0, width=1020, height=650, directories=no, toolbar=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, status=no, location=no');
}
//  End -->
</script>
</head>
<body>
<a href="javascript:void(0);" onClick="NoScale('index.htm');">My Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server</a>
</body>
</html>

Simply change the index.htm with the actual hyperlink to your published Adobe Presenter file presentation. The JavaScript opens the browser window at a size where the inserted Adobe Captivate Flash content will not be scaled and displayed at the actual size of 720 x 540 pixels.

Where to go from here

In this article, you learned how to use your Adobe Captivate 2 content within Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server and Adobe Presenter. Leveraging Adobe Captivate 2 content in Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server is a fantastic way to increase the level of interactivity with your viewer. The techniques outlined here will allow you to quickly deliver some amazing training courses and meetings.

There is also a wealth of getting started resources for each product in the Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server Resource Center and the Adobe Captivate Developer Center, or if you're not already familiar with Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server, you can view the primer on building content in Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server.

View Presentation Primer: Building Content in Adobe Acrobat Connect Enterprise Server (15:20 minutes)

Likewise, when you download and install Adobe Captivate, tutorials on the start page explain how to create your first Adobe Captivate project. You can also find a wealth of information in the Adobe Captivate online help system.

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