# Recording movies with a template

You can use Captivate project templates to create a new movie. After you have created a movie in Captivate, you have the option to save the movie as a project template. Because templates can be used numerous times, they can save you time and help you maintain consistency.

Note: Templates are particularly effective if you have specific movie preferences you want to use repeatedly. Simply create a blank movie, set preferences, save the blank movie as a template, and create a new movie with the template by following the steps below.

If you want to create a movie without using a template, see Recording movies.

#### To use a template to create a new movie:

1. Open Captivate.

2. On the Start Page, under Other movie types, select Create a movie from a template.

The Open dialog appears showing the contents of the Captivate Templates folder (C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Captivate\Templates).

3. Select the template you want to use and click Open. If the template you want to use is not listed, click Browse to navigate to the template. (Captivate templates have the file extension .cpt.)

The Template Options dialog appears.

4. Select the option to add new slides to the end of the movie or before a selected slide, and click OK.

The Recording window appears. Captivate uses a default capture area of 640 x 480 pixels.

5. (Optional) From the Optionally, select a window you would like to record pop-up menu, select an open window to record.

6. (Optional) Select Record narration to record audio as you record the movie. For details, see Recording audio
   .

7. (Optional) Click Options to set a wide variety of recording options, including the capability to automatically capture screen shots and automatically generate text captions.

8. (Optional) If necessary, change the position of the window. To do this, move the mouse over the red frame until a four-point arrow appears, and then drag the entire window to a new position. You can also click Snap window to fit inside the red recording area to quickly change the size of the window you are recording to match the size of the red capture area.

9. When you finish setting options, click Record.

10. Captivate begins recording the onscreen action.

If you are automatically recording the movie (that is, you selected the Enable auto recording option in step 7), Captivate automatically captures a screen shot every time you perform an action, such as selecting a menu, clicking a button, or typing text.

If you are manually recording the movie (that is, you did not select the Enable auto recording option in step 7), click the Print Screen button (or other designated capture key) to capture screen shots.

Use whatever is within the red recording area (for example, an application, a website, and so on) as if you were demonstrating your actions to someone. If you have sound enabled on your computer and the option is activated, you will hear a camera shutter sound when screen shots are captured.

Note: When recording an onscreen action, it is best to perform the action more slowly than you would normally. For example, if you are recording keyboard action, type text slowly.

11. When you finish recording, click the End button (or other designated key) to end recording.

The slides are generated and your new movie appears in Captivate Storyboard view.

Tip: If you need to pause recording, press the Pause/Break key. To restart recording, press the Pause/Break key again.