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Adobe Captivate
What Is Adobe Captivate?
Over 80% of the Fortune 500 companies use Adobe Captivate as their trusted eLearning tool. Take advantage of flexible licensing and affordable pricing options that satisfy the requirements of everyone from individuals to large enterprises.
Who Uses Adobe Captivate?
Designed for businesses of all sizes, it helps manage images, videos, themes, layouts, fonts, slides, motion effects, closed captions, and more to create e-learning projects.
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Reviews of Adobe Captivate
Alternatives Considered:
Adobe Captivate is the Cornerstone of My eLearning Business
Comments: I started using Adobe Captivate with version 2. It was okay but obviously there was room for it to improve. At the time of writing this review, Captivate is on version 11 and it has matured into a robust solution. I will continue to use it for all my professional eLearning work for as long as they continue to make it available.
Pros:
I have been using Adobe Captivate since the mid-2000s. Each release has brought new and innovative features that allow me to continue to impress my clients. Features like virtual reality and interactive video make Adobe Captivate the industry leader in eLearning Authoring tools
Cons:
A complicated piece of software means that the learning curve is steep but the reward is that in return it does so much.
A powerful player in the e-learning arena
Comments: While I am just jumping into the platform as my current job requires it over other software platforms, I am impressed. Having used the entire Adobe CC and other e-learning software, this platform is not difficult to transition into.
Pros:
Having used many products for developing e-learning, Captivate is among the top-tier development programs but has a high cost to entry. The platform is powerful and has a lot of nuances that allow for digging deep into options for developing truly custom courses and user experiences.
Cons:
While you can dig deeply into advanced interactions, data reporting, etc, the learning curve is immense to begin to understand elements such as advanced actions, keywords, etc. Variables become buried and are not as easy to manipulate as in Articulate Storyline, but they are buried for very good reason in that you can actually do more in Captivate than with its rival program with such features. If I am to further nitpick, I am not excited by the filmstrip display for slide storyline. This is a feature I love in Articulate's e-learning in that non-linear branching is highly encouraged whereas the linear filmstrip does little to entice users to develop complex learning opportunities, reinforcing the linear death by slides commonly seen in virtual learning.
Alternatives Considered:
Creating "how to videos" for enterprise learning
Comments: This is a very functional application for making videos. I prefer it versus tools like Camtasia when making instructional videos.
Pros:
Easy to segment video into pieces. Imagine using Power Point slides but each slide contains video/sound. Much easier to manage than other tools that record straight through. You can record each segment, apply graphic elements as desired. It integrated easily with other Adobe audio products for enhanced audio editing. Captivate does include limited audio editing tools, just enough to be handy.
Cons:
I found the application would crash every now and then. Nothing I could not work around, but strange to have to experience that in today's world.
The software for content creation and training simulation.
Comments: Adobe Captivate is the software that has helped me as an assistant trainer in my training and learning activities.
Pros:
One of the features that I like is the recording of demonstrations. You can record screen demonstrations to show learners how to perform certain tasks.
Cons:
The feature that I like the least is the limited range of interactivity options. I feel that they could have added more functionality to provide greater diversity in interactive elements.
Alternatives Considered:
Adobe Captivate - What you'd expect from an Adobe product
Comments: I've authored over 300 courses with Adobe Captivate in the last 6 years and overall, I'm very satisfied with the product. For all its faults, it's really forced me outside my box and helped me learn a lot about instructional design.
Pros:
Adobe Captivate allows you to author amazing and beautiful coursework if you don't mind spending a little extra time to learn some coding. The product is fairly intuitive and it has a lot of capabilities. It's a very deep and robust product.
Cons:
To really get the best out of Captivate, you do need to spend quite a lot of time learning about creating variables, some beginner coding, and occasionally some javascript. You can make the program do whatever you want, but it takes a lot of patience and, sometimes, some wonky workarounds.
