The client that I currently work for requires all employees and contractors to be available on a proprietary instant messaging system at all times during working hours.
Category: Captivate
eLearning Weekly has a love/hate relationship with Captivate. It’s fun to read about it, especially since they point out workarounds that might save me some time.
Mobilemind also has some tips on how to avoid breaking SCORM when using Captivate.
Ah… nothing is as beautiful as the majestic Captivate bug in its natural habitat!
Here’s a few other things I’ve learned about this wonderful tool (version 2 in particular):
- Don’ t waste your time trying to double up elements (imate-text, image-image, or text-text) on the same area. It confuses Captivate and just doesn’t work.
- Be careful (and do looots of testing) if you use lots of click boxes on the same slide… they tend to mess up when there are more than one or two.
- If you need to import an animation, turn it into a .swf beforehand to avoid problems. In the past, I’ve tried to use animated .gifs with mixed results.
- Run Captivate by itself – kill as many other applications and processes as you can to avoid crashes (iTunesHelper.exe is not an essential operating system process). Save your work often. Even though you should be doing both of these things already, it’s especially important when working with The Cap.
Stay tuned… I work with this beast on an almost daily basis so I’m sure there will be more tips coming!
[Picture of leaf-cutters by mariandy_gizfel.]
My current Shoap Technical Services assignment requires me to work with Captivate extensively. We use the tool to create walk-throughs of new systems and software, as well as web-based training packages that students can study independently, and at their own pace.