First Impressions and Wishes of Captivate 7

Nick Leffler|June 3, 2013|6 Comments
Captivate 7 Icon

Adobe Captivate 7 was released Monday the 3rd of May 2013 with very little known about its coming. Until the day of the release, I had actually heard very little about its release date even though I had previously researched it.

My biggest like about the new release is that if you’re a subscription member, you don’t have to do anything except download it. The thing I like least is that it seems to be playing catch-up in many areas.

If you read on, don’t expect a review or even an in-depth analysis of all the features. Expect my first thoughts on the product and where I’m hoping Adobe will eventually bring the product.

[box type=”note”]These comments are based off the Mac version if you see inconsistencies.[/box]

Captivate 7 Icon

Number One Feature

This isn’t a feature that’s unique to Captivate 7 but it’s needed, the ability to embed Edge Animate animations into your project. I haven’t played with it yet but I’ve been waiting for this.

Creating a seamless environment that’s cross-platform compatible is important even though it’s difficult (or impossible) to simply take content from Captivate and port it directly to mobile formats.

Some Other Great Stuff

  • Having some of the HTML5 bugs ironed out is great, and important.
  • Previewing directly to the browser in SWF or HTML5 is great, big time saver.

Needed Feature

I’m sure there’s a lot of features I will think of over time, but the number one feature that comes to mind is one learning, much the same that the big push these days is for one web.

What do I, or they, mean by one web?

Don’t have a special web site for the mobile version of your web site. This is mostly seen these days in the form of responsive web design, or a web site that adjusts its content based off the device screen size the viewer is using. I will write more about this shortly.

Admittedly this can’t be applied to all learning, but it would be a good start for making Captivate content really fit the push that Adobe is making into being relevant everywhere.

It’s impossible for Captivate to be relevant everywhere as it is, but hopefully with the expansion of their Edge line of products, something will spill over into Captivate eventually.

Biggest Time Waster So Far (Edited)

There seems to be a bug in the Advanced Actions screen. In 6, I can change Advanced Actions and save them by clicking save. That button seems to be missing, at least in the Mac version. Tonight as I was working on a project I found it necessary to close the window to get the Save dialog box.

Certain Advanced Actions refused to save their name change also, I’m stuck with the original name.

Edit: The previous two paragraphs can be ignored as far as bugs go. It’s a bug in my head and not the program in both cases. This is what happens when a workflow changes (even a small one) and I try to work late at night. Check out Sankaram’s comment so you know what I mean.

Thanks Adobe Evangelists and support for being so quick and thorough. Another plus for Adobe. Those that use rapid development tools seem to be very lucky, support that goes along with these tools is next to none.

Conclusion

That’s it so far on Adobe Captivate 7, as I use it I’m sure I will post a bit more on it. Also, by no means is this an endorsement for Captivate. I use many tools in my tool-box, Captivate is just one of those tools.

The subscription model doesn’t hurt though to make it easily accessible to the masses without a large investment that most people simply don’t have.

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6 thoughts on “First Impressions and Wishes of Captivate 7”

  1. Hi Nick, Save button in Adv Action dialog has been changed to “Save As Action”. Is this disabled in your case? We want to know more about Adv Action name change issue also. You can mail me at sankaram at adobe dot com. We will try to resolve it.
    ~Sankaram

    • Thanks for the comment Sankaram, I took a look this morning at a project on Windows Captivate 7 and you are correct, the “Save As Action” button does light up when I make a change. I don’t recall this being the case on the Mac version but I will have to double check this evening. I will let you know what I find.

      One thing I can say for sure is Adobe Captivate’s support is on top of it, thanks for a quick reply. I will update you later on this.

    • Hi Sankaram, I’ve updated the article based on your comment and my research. It was a late night bug in my head 🙂

      One thing I did notice that you may want to take note of is that when I modify an advanced action, go to another advanced action, then close the window, I’m not prompted to save the changes. The changed advanced action is not modified. Feel free to contact me if you’d like additional information.

      • Hi Nick, Thanks for the update. I need more information on What scenario Save dialog is not prompted?

        ~Sankaram

  2. Hi Nick, thanks for sharing your first impressions. I think it might help your understanding of the new Advanced Actions paradigm to explain that there are some significant changes both to the interface and to what you can do with Advanced Actions. Simply put, you can now save advanced actions, copy and paste them, but also save them into your library as templates.

    Because Advanced Actions often make changes to some object or item on the slide. When you save a new Advanced Action as a template, you need to define which item types are required and give them placeholder (variable) names. This will then be used to prompt you for similar objects on the new slide in the same or new project in which you use the templatized script.

    Here’s a video Dr. Jaisingh has provided that gives a nice example of how these new ‘shared actions’ work.

    If you’re looking for a great place to discuss this or other new features in Adobe Captivate 7, I’d encourage you to join the discussion at http://captivate.adobe.com/ our GetSatisfaction forum.

    –Allen

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