Software Simulations and Video Demos in Captivate 2019

Captivate has always been an option for recording your screen and automatically generating different types of eLearning based on those recordings. But did you know that it also records video demos?

As a freelancer, I often have some flexibility and discretion on which tool I use to do a project. I have used Camtasia for screen recording videos since 2011. I've also created videos with Captivate for some projects, when certain aspects of a project suggest that it would be a more efficient tool for the job. But I hadn't ever tried the video demo functionality until recently.

Let's take a look at the different demonstration and simulation options before detailing the video demo option.

Demonstrations and Simulations

Captivate includes four different modes for recording software demonstrations and simulations. Each of the first three options build on what the previous option accomplishes:

• Demonstration - does not include interactivity, but creates slides for each "step" in your recording
• Assessment Simulation - adds automatically generated click boxes, with options for success and failure captures, as well as text entry fields to check the learner's ability to perform the task
• Training Simulation - adds hints for when learners aren't sure what to do
• Custom - choose from the text caption, mouse movement, highlight, click box, and text entry box options from the other modes

Before you record a demonstration or simulation, you can set Global Preferences to customize your recording and resulting slides.

• Language for automatically generated captions
• Sounds for camera (as a cue while you record) and keystrokes (included in the audio of the produced project)
• Automatically moving new windows inside the recording area
• Smoothing the mouse movements

​In addition to these global preferences, you can set the style of objects to use for text, success shapes and captions, failure shapes and captions, hint shapes and captions, highlight boxes, text entry boxes, rollover areas, and smart shapes. These work in conjunction with your Object Style Manager to set the type, font style, size, color and other aspects of the items that will be generated in addition to individual screen shots. Use these options to save lots of time in getting the project to look how you want it to look.

Captivate makes it simple enough to start recording with just a few clicks, so even beginners can get a successful recording right away. However, as a robust tool, there are many nuances and steps to finessing a recording process that we're not going to cover in this blog post.

Video Demos

​When you create a new project in Captivate, one of the options is to record a Video Demo. New to Captivate 2019, is the ability to add recording a webcam so you can quick picture-in-picture and add that personal connection. While talking and recording both yourself and your screen actions is an ambitious undertaking, there are several options for recording and editing.

The Video Demo option in Captivate records a smooth motion video rather than individual slides like it does for demonstrations and simulations. 

Unlike some aspects of Captivate, there's not much need for addressing complicated settings before you start recording. You choose the working folder location and whether or not to record mouse movements. In the recording window, you select the size and whether to snap to the application window, region or a custom size. You also choose whether to include panning, audio, and the webcam. (So you don't have to be talented enough to record yourself and the screen at one time after all.)

But Captivate doesn't exactly record what you do in real time, which provides some interesting options for modification. 

• You can add a simple pan and zoom, controlling the scale, speed and size/position of the zoom. You also have some limited options for moving these effects on the video timeline.
• You can add transitions to the intro and outro. The transitions include cross stretch, push, spin, split, dissolve, fade to, wipe and page turn, with direction options on each effect. You can also split the video to add the option to include transitions in other parts of the video.
• There are options to trim and mask selected areas of your video. 
• If you included mouse movements, you can edit them by changing the pointer or doubling the size, showing or hiding the mouse through different areas of the video, and smoothing the mouse path movements. You can also reduce the speed of the mouse movements before the click and choose a visual indicator for the mouse click.

For the separate recording from the webcam, you can resize and re-position it, but you can't crop it. If set up before you start recording, you can pick a different background, though I found it didn't do a great job of cutting me out from my office surroundings. Maybe if I had a backdrop with greater contrast or a green screen, that would look better.

When you end your recording, it plays automatically, with a tiny button labeled Edit to access the editing features. You can also process and upload the video to YouTube directly from here if you don't need to edit it. 

However, in addition to the editing options listed above, you can add text, shapes, highlight boxes, images, animation and characters to the video. You'll publish it to your computer with options for controlling the video quality (like frames per second). You'll end up with an MP4 file that you can use just like any other MP4 file. Or you can import the CPVC (Captivate Video Composition) project directly to a slide, working it into a bigger eLearning project.

The Interactive Video options to use overlays and return to a position in the video from elsewhere via bookmarks (such as for quiz remediation) introduce some great possibilities for learning. These are new as of Captivate 2019, but that's a topic for another day.