WooHoo! Captivate 3 is announced!

Good news. I can't wait to have a taste of it.

I only bought Captivate 2 two weeks ago so how does the upgrade work ? Can i keep Captivate 2 on my machine and if i buy an upgrade also Captivate 3 ?

Also i saw the demo from Webassist...

http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/productinfo/product_demos/presentation_software/

The way the bullet points fly onto screen, does anyone know if thats a Captivate 3 feature or simply something in Flash which is imported into Captivate 3 ?

Not sure about adobe in particular, but many companies offer a grace period
if you bought a release prior to a new version being released.


"psj3809" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:f827kr$9k4$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Great news but a bit annoyed as i bought my copy of Captivate 2 just two
weeks
> ago ! Do feel someone from Adobe should have perhaps told me the new
release
> was going to come out soon as it seemed it would come out much later this
year.
>
> How does the upgrade work ? Can i keep Captivate 2 on my machine and if
i buy
> an upgrade also Captivate 3 ?
>

all i can say is the squeaky wheel most often gets the grease.

call them and voice your concern. they just might qualify you for the new version.

at that point, you would sign an agreement to destroy your captivate 2 copy.

but ya gotta call to get that type of service (though don't quote me and obviously i'm in no position to provide guarantees). i doubt they'll come find you.

Thanks. Thinking about it i want to keep using Captivate 2 at the moment as the client i'm working for has that version.

Want to also use Captivate 3 to get the latest features to see what its like though, catch 22 !

Something is hosed on the Adobe website. Any clicks on the FAQ, Upgrade Center, etc... leave my browser (both IE and Firefox) just sitting there.

I wish Adobe would just post a simple "What's New/Updated" link someplace. It would make it easier for me to justify the upgrade if I didn't have to hunt down the differences myself.

mike

We here of Brazil are already spreading the communities on the launch, certainly the best piece of news


Fabio Oliveira

The XML input/output looks really cool. If it does what I think it will
do!!!


"Captiv8r" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:f81s48$plh$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hi all
>
> Looks like Adobe has announced Captivate 3 will possibly begin shipping
as
> early as next month!
>
>
>
http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070722005012/adobe-introduces-ca
> ptivate.html
>
> I see Adobe is now accepting preorders.
> http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
>
> Cheers all... Rick
>

quote:

---

Originally posted by: Newsgroup User
The XML input/output looks really cool. If it does what I think it will
do!!!

I don't know much about XML.... what do you think (or hope) it will allow you to do?

Been in the shadows too much lately... I wonder if the full motion recording is "fixed".

Quote from the email I recieved....
"Rapidly develop screen recordings and simulations
With Adobe Captivate 3, you can quickly capture your screen video
once and then generate three fully editable projects: a
demonstration, a practice simulation, and an assessment—all in one
single recording session!

Provide effective quizzes with question randomization
Adobe Captivate 3 now supports question randomization from question
pools. You can even apply answer shuffle and select from new
question types.

Get the most from Adobe Captivate
Find out about more new features such as Rollover Slidelet and
Microsoft PowerPoint® format animation import and experience other
uses of Adobe Captivate that will spur your own creativity and
imagination. Adobe Captivate empowers you to create many different
content types with flexible deployment options—without having to
learn Flash®. "

Does anybody else think $299 is way too expensive for an upgrade between versions 2 and 3? Especially when you look at the list of differences between those two versions?

$299 sounds right to me for upgrading from 1 to 3, but I would think that upgrading between 2 and 3 would be about half that!

The list of features is very nice. I wonder if the ability to right-click a mouse button has been added (I didn't see it, but hope springs eternal).

I would like to see a more reasonable upgrade price from version 2 to 3. I think $299.00 is a bit excessive.

I'd also like to see the package bundled in something like the Adobe Creative Suite.

TPK

Hello Rick!
Do you know if there is a known issues or bugs list that has been updated to reflect the fixes included with this build of Captivate? (Or something similar to the pdf files that Nvidia puts out when they release a new driver series.) I feel I can talk management into a couple of copies if there is.

-Shnoogins

i think if this thing ever got packaged into the CS series you would see an onslaught of gawdy, unnecessarily loud and colorful elearning spread across the web. lol

You think $299 is expensive for an upgrade which it is, feel for us in Europe who have to pay basically the dollar equivalent but double it.

Eg the upgrade for Captivate 3 is 287 pounds (not dollars) so its nearly double what you pay !

I do hope the 'send results by email' is fixed as theres training on the website on how to do this but it doesnt work.

Also hope that you can copy questions instead of having to create them by hand time after time as you cant duplicate question slides and i hope the annoying button on the results page wont take 10 seconds to move forward to the final page !

On the plus side the new question type (image) looks very good and of course the XML is excellent

I don't think many of us UK users will upgrade at that price! I won't.

Rick and other pre-release testers - are you guys out of NDA yet and able to talk about the new features?

If this does what it says, I will certainly be upgrading

http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/productinfo/upgrade/

************
Animation effects
Create professional-looking learning content with support for animated slide transitions and Microsoft PowerPoint animations. Adobe Captivate 3 imports PowerPoint (PPT) files while converting PowerPoint slides into SWF files and retaining the animation effects.
*************

Right now, as irritated as I am with V2 crashing left and right, the main feature I'd be looking for is STABILITY and the ability to capture a larger recording without the software choking.
I have a 12-slide demo that crashes every time I try to end the recording session right now, in demo mode with auto captions.
Grrrrrrr.....

The bit about the menus not working after an animation import until you click on a library object is also buggy.

Features are great but dependability is the foundation.

I'm definitely going to upgrade. =) - that is, if I can convince my employer.

Have been stuck with Captivate 1 for a while now, and am drooling over the close-captioning possibility. Heh...

I guess the question slide possibilities are something I will test more, since they are more dynamic now. Earlier I have been avoiding this and used it for demo-purposes only.

August was a great surprise, though. I didn't think it'd come out 'till at least November.

Gimme, gimme! =)

Does it allow recording a scrolling webpage without making work-arounds such as putting boxes at the bottom of the screen that advance to the next screen? The ability to import PDFs would solve this problem.

XML would let you have a document that is external to the outputted swf that
could change captions without having to recompile. It's like a variable,
but in an external document.

It could be something as simple as a copyright year.

You would have a reference in the captivate piece to look to the xml
document for the current year.

When the year changes, you could simply change the year in the document,
instead of recompiling.

It would be super useful if you need to reproduce the same piece for
different organizations with slightly different language.

I'm not sure how it would handle narration if you have audio...



"hughbetcha" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:f82s2e$5bq$1@forums.macromedia.com...
>

quote:

---

Originally posted by: Newsgroup User
> The XML input/output looks really cool. If it does what I think it will
> do!!!
>
> I don't know much about XML.... what do you think (or hope) it will allow
you
> to do?
>
>
>

Is anyone else deeply concerned about Adobe's rapid fire software version release policy?

Captivate 2 was only released last fall, and already they are releasing Captivate 3 at a huge cost to upgrade (I think I should get a free upgrade!!!). Two releases per year of ALL Adobe software products is quite hard on my budget! Gee I only purchased Captivate 2 about 7 months ago at the time it was released. I see Captivate 2 as being quite buggy and Captivate 3 is likely predominantly a bug fix. What about a vendor's obligation to provide bug fixes through software version updates. Instead, Adobe releases a totally new version and charges an arm and a leg for it. Not just Captivate, I fear Adobe is on a totally uncontrolled new version release schedule for all their software products, at the customers expense!!!

I guess my question is, is this Captivate 3 REALLY a new release, or a bug fix version? If so, surely Adobe could have waited 6 more months and released Captivate 3 as a fully functioning bug free Captivate 2! They also released a non-Vista compatible version of Captivate 2 at a time when other vendors were releasing Vista compatible products in anticipation of MS Vista!

Hey Adobe, take a lesson from Microsoft! A new release every 3-4 years, and free version updates/bug fixes in between!

I am extremely disappointed in Adobe.

Suzan

Hi David,

I totally agree that this would be extremely useful and something that I would encourage you to submit using the Feature Request/Bug Report Form

In the meantime you might like to take a look at one of my blog postings which offers a basic workaround to this. I should point out that this does require you to own Flash, however it is a one way you can work integrate XML into Adobe Captivate
Adding XML data in Adobe Captivate Projects

HTH

Regards,
Mark

Hello psj3809,

quote:

---

The way the bullet points fly onto screen, does anyone know if thats a Captivate 3 feature or simply something in Flash which is imported into Captivate 3 ?

---

This sample takes advantage of Captivate 3's ability to import PowerPoint transitions as animations. You can even specify how the project should advance On mouse click or automatically.

Another cool feature that this sample contains is the Rollover Slidelet. As Adobe's messaging states - Using Rollover Slidelet's you can provide additional just-in-time information on Adobe Captivate 3 slides by displaying rich media content such as images, text, audio, and video when the learner moves the mouse over a hot spot.

To see this in action in the WebAssist Sample advance to Slide 13. You'll notice that some of the screen regions are highlighted. Clicking inside on say the date range region will display the Rollover Slidelet where a new animation will be played.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,
Mark (WebAssist Training Manager)

captivate 3 will need to do more than enhancing the quiz function (which is effectively non-existent in my opinion) or allowing the import of powerpoint animation.

powerpoint is garbage. there's a reason we're here using adobe products!

give me integration with the creative suite apps, the palettes from illustrator, etc etc.

don't turn this into powerpoint 2.0...it can be SO much more.

Anyone know if "Full-Motion" recording is still the same old? Or should I just stick with Camtasia for that? ;) Also, if anyone knows what has and has not been fixed as far as major issues.... Thanks!

Three hundred dollars for bug fixes and functionality which should have been included in version 2 to begin with. AWESOME!

I'm hoping that it's already there per this bullet in the new features:

http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/productinfo/features/

XML file export and import for easy localization - Simplify the localization
process of projects; export captions to a text or XML Localization
Interchange File Format (XLIFF) file. Import the translated text file into a
copy of the original project file.


"macrofireball" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:f86v8f$6da$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hi David,
>
> I totally agree that this would be extremely useful and something that I
would
> encourage you to submit using the
>
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=5
>
> In the meantime you might like to take a look at one of my blog postings
which
> offers a basic workaround to this. I should point out that this does
require
> you to own Flash, however it is a one way you can work integrate XML into
Adobe
> Captivate
>
>
http://macrofireball.blogspot.com/2007/07/adding-xml-data-in-adobe-captiv
ate.
> html
>
> HTH
>
> Regards,
> Mark
>

I'm not sure that I agree that powerpoint is garbage, but, I do hope the
import mechanism does more than just import a 'snapshot' of each slide. It
would be much more useful if it could record the text on a powerpoint slide
as separate text objects in Captivate.

We have a lot of folks send us powerpoint that we convert to captivate. But
that process is completely manual.

"keithroby" <krobideau@upi.umaryland.edu> wrote in message
news:f87evl$p2s$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> captivate 3 will need to do more than enhancing the quiz function (which
is
> effectively non-existent in my opinion) or allowing the import of
powerpoint
> animation.
>
> powerpoint is garbage. there's a reason we're here using adobe products!
>
> give me integration with the creative suite apps, the palettes from
> illustrator, etc etc.
>
> don't turn this into powerpoint 2.0...it can be SO much more.
>
>
>

Is there a trial/demo version available for download? Or does that usually come after the release? Thanks

Hi Mark,
Do the PowerPoint animations come over as seperate SWF objects or does the whole slide just come over as one big honkin' SWF? PowerPoint is handy for creating simple animations very quickly without the learning curve of Flash. Articulate can export them to Flash, but if Captivate can import the animations as separate objects, that would be really useful. (I'm NOT holding my breath)

Also, the import/export of XML. If I export the captions to XML, translate them, can I just put the XML in the same folder or do I have to import in and create a whole new simulation/animation? I'd like to be able to send a project to another country, have them update the XML and not have to buy Captivate to recreate the simulation.

Thanks,
mike

quote:

---

Originally posted by: macrofireball
Another cool feature that this sample contains is the Rollover Slidelet. As Adobe's messaging states - Using Rollover Slidelet's you can provide additional just-in-time information on Adobe Captivate 3 slides by displaying rich media content such as images, text, audio, and video when the learner moves the mouse over a hot spot.

To see this in action in the WebAssist Sample advance to Slide 13. You'll notice that some of the screen regions are highlighted. Clicking inside on say the date range region will display the Rollover Slidelet where a new animation will be played.

---

Hi, i really do like your movies on the adobe site. Just a question about the sidelets though. I went to slide 13 and audio started playing with a new animation on one of the items i rolled over, if i then moved my mouse it disappeared so i then rolled over another section. Several times a few audios were playing at the same time. Is this a bug of Captivate or something in the actual program ?

Sorry i'm not being picky i just want to make sure this feature works okay !

I must admit i thought there might be more features.

I'm surprised there isnt an easy way of adding text/graphic effects, i know we already have Flash text and effects but something similar to what Authorware had. Eg you select a piece of text or a graphic and can then apply an effect to it, reveal to right or mosaic or venetian blind etc. It would have been great if you could do that in Captivate.

Also perhaps there is a way, but often i have to build a screen in Captivate and want to create say a brown border at the bottom to put a logo/page 1 of 7 text on etc. To save memory i import a 5 x 5 pixel block of brown and then obviously stretch it. If i want to cover up something on a screen grab which was a mistake i import a 5 x 5 block of white and then stretch it over the thing i want to hide.

Its a pity there wasnt some internal tool to do this, eg add standard blocks of colour ? Bit like an ultra-basic Paint tool.

Is there an easier way to do this rather then creating a 5 x 5 block of white to import and then stretch over what you want to cover etc ?