Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Adobe Captivate 2 in anger

No this isn’t a rant about problems with Adobe Captivate 2, far from it. I have just finished creating my first real-world project, the WebAssist.com solution recipe PayPal Websites Payments Pro. Using any piece of software on a real project (opposed to testing the software during the development cycle) can be a daunting experience. Does the software live up to it’s expectations? Do the new features really improve the user’s workflow and most importantly when used under normal working conditions does the application remain stable?

Well, in the case of Adobe Captivate 2 I am happy to say that this project the program performed really well. I am still amazed at how quickly Captivate 2 saves project files, even those that during development consisted of over 140 slides still saved in a fraction of the time they used to in Captivate 1 and, as for the new Library feature – well you’re going to have to wait a little while longer before I talk about that one.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm in Captivate hell right now. I'm trying to do some full motion captures of Audacity and import audio over it. The swf files are only about 2-3MB but my computer can't process it and the audio and full motion sputters. My computer has 512MB. The full motion captures are only 15-25 seconds longs. What is the problem? Help!

macrofireball said...

Hello there,

I would really need to see the project file before I could make any assessment of why this might be happening, would that be possibe?

Anonymous said...

Macrofireball,

Thought you'd want to know that there's an editing glitch in the demo. "if the shopper elects to continue" (repeated twice)

Thanks for shaing your experiences!

David-

macrofireball said...

Hi David,

Many thanks for the heads up on the editing glitch, I'll sort that one out ASAP.

Best,
Mark

Anonymous said...

I'm working feverishly in Captivate 2 and when I click on any toolbar option; File, Edit, View, Insert, etc. the drop down window disappears before I can select File>Save or Insert>Animation. I have to hope it will appear long enough that I can read the keyboard shortcut! Even after I reboot, the problem eventually comes back.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I am experiencing the same problem. This happens when I insert or work with flash animations that are implemented throughout my project.

I figure this could have something to do with me having installed captivate 1 as well on my computer, as my colleague isn`t experiencing this issue...

Greets

Anonymous said...

Ooh, you have Captivate 1 and Captivate 2? Have you had any problems with projects that you created in Captivate 1, then used Captivate 2 to edit/update them?

macrofireball said...

Hi there,

Take a look at my Friday, June 01 2007 post. Here I talk about one of the biggest upgrade issues I have encountered with Adobe Captivate.

Regards,
Mark

Anonymous said...

I find that the menus disappear when I import any flash content into my files. By clicking on an item from the library window then this fixes them from disappearing.

Little tip is to only use the Demonstatration mode to record simultations and not the live recorder. Use this in combination with the f12 key and a little tidying up and you've got a nice smooth tutorial. The mouse actions are automated and can be removed or timestretched. You can also create click areas to pause the movie to create interactive content. Lovin it!!