Sequencing Screen Captures in Edit Mode

[mje3794]

I've used Camtasia alot and am transitioning to Captivate. To test recording and editing in Captivate, I recorded one minute of screen activity to simulate capturing an application demo. When I end the recording, it converts the recording to thumbnails and puts them in Storyboard mode but also chunks it into slides that I can not sequence in Edit Mode. I get 10 seconds chunks and I can't figure out how to put them together to make one sequence. Do I have a wrong setting? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Captiv8r]

Hi mje3794 and welcome to our community

Yes, Captivate operates differently than Camtasia. Captivate takes a screen capture at different times, then stitches those together and combines them with mouse movement to provide the illusion of full motion.

Give it a chance and it will hopefully become clearer. If you want, you can rearrange your Film strip similar to the Camtasia/Windows Movie Maker layout across the bottom of the screen. Maybe that will help it make more sense.

Cheers... Rick

[mje3794]

Thanks for the welcome, Rick. In working with it more this morning, I see that when you preview it, everything falls into place and the sequencing occurs from slide to slide. You're right it is a little different and it will take some geting used to. Thanks for your quick response. Matt

[jengraph]

Hello,

I am looking into both Camtasia and Captivate, I'm a new user to these programs but very familiar with Adobe graphics programs so I know I can catch on pretty quick especially after learning to use Flash. My question is why you are converting over from Camtasia to Captivate, what are the differences you have found between the two. My boss stress that audio quality has to be excellent when creating tutorials. Any suggestions/advice between two programs?

Much appreciated.

Jennifer

[Captiv8r]

Hi Jennifer and welcome to our community

This isn't intended to slam or highlight either product, only to point out differences.

Camtasia captures full motion from the onset. Captivate captures individual screen shots and places them on slides. Captivate does do full motion capture, but it's not intended to be used like Camtasia's is. For example, you would never want to surround Windows Media Player using Captivate and record a five minute video. But you could do this with Camtasia. (copyrights notwithstanding)

Camtasia allows text captions, but you have to add them after the fact. Captivate can add these things automatically. Captivate wins with these hands down, as there is more variety and they look more polished and professional.

Captivate has only two different output types. .SWF and .EXE. Camtasia offers a wider selection. Including .FLV (Flash Video) , .AVI (Audio/Video Interleave, .WMV (Windows Media), .QT (QuickTime), .RM (RealMedia).

The Camtasia Timeline represents the entire project. Captivate's Timeline is per slide.

Camtasia has some neat transitions you may use, but you have to split the movie manually and it takes a bit of getting used to. Captivate has a few transitions for slides, but the process seems more intuitive. At least to me.

Captivate offers three "levels" of audio. Background track, Slide and Object. Camtasia essentially has two and seems a bit rigid as opposed to Captivate.

Both products offer quizzing functionality. However, Captivate's seems more robust and easier to use. At least it does to me.

Both products record the screen, but as near as I can tell, Camtasia is unable to record like Captivate does, where you end up with a simulation. You may certainly add Flash hotspots later, but Captivate does it for you.

Those are just a few differences I noted. There are many more. Hopefully this helps give you an idea. Personally, while both products do essentially the same thing (record the screen) I easily see a need to have both.

Hopefully this was helpful... Rick