Captivate vs Alternatives

[JDSAmy]

I am in the process of getting by boss to approve the purchase of Captivate to use with RoboHelp for training purposes. She wants me to research the alternatives before she will approve the purchase. Does anyone know if the alternatives to Captivate such as Camtasia, TurboDemo, or Viewlet Builder work with RoboHelp?

[johndaigle]

Hi, JDSAmy!
RoboHelp supports most multimedia formats, including
.ASF, .AU, .avi., .MID, .MP3, .MPEG, .MOV, .MPG, .RA, .RM, ,.SWF, .WAV, .WMA,.WMV (always wanted to use that emoticon)
Of those, Flash (.swf) is the most pervasive and I believe most of the alternatives you mentioned support Flash.

I'm prejudiced because I teach Adobe Captivate. However, since Flash is the widest supported format for compatibility of web delivery, it just makes sense to use the easiest tool, supported by the creators of the Flash format. It also provides a lot more "scalability" regarding eLearning features that would allow you to expand in to the future.

I am writing an article for the Adobe Developer Network which will be published in the next month or so. It's titled, "It's showtime as Adobe RoboHelp 6 co-stars with Adobe Captivate 2" (sorry for the showbiz exhuberance ) I'll also be presenting this paper at the STC Annual Conference in Minneapolis May 13-16 in case you're going.

Also, from the published roadmaps regarding the future of RoboHelp and Adobe Captivate, it's clear the future holds even more integration and mutual support in the near future.
Hope this helps,
John