How to Create an Adobe Captivate Animation File

Adobe Captivate is screen capture software that is used to create online demonstrations, simulations and tutorials. Once you install Captivate on your computer you can run it to capture images of screens and windows, cursor movement and button clicks. Following the capture, you have the ability to edit the screen capture to add text boxes, highlight boxes, rollover images or text, click boxes, and audio. Adobe Captivate produces output in different formats including Adobe Flash (.swf) movies, Adobe Breeze or an executable file that may be emailed, copied to CD-ROM, or added to a Web site.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PC
• Adobe Captivate

1. Purchase and install Adobe Captivate on your Mac or PC. Open Captivate from your desktop. Notice that the Captivate main menu is slightly different than most software applications; it clearly demonstrates the main tasks you may want to perform.

2. To begin an animated demo select “Record or create a new movie.” The “New movie options” dialog box displays, allowing you to set your capture options. You can choose to capture an entire application window, the full screen (including any and all applications that appear on your screen) or you may set a custom-sized capture window.

3. No matter which option you choose, a red box will display on your screen once you have selected the size and clicked “OK.” For example, if you select “Custom size,” a red box displays on our screen and a smaller control box.

4. The control box allows you to set the width and height of the recording area. Change the width and height to whatever size window seems right for the file you plan to capture.

5. When you’re ready to record your screen movements, click the “Record” button on the control box. When the control box disappears you are in capture mode. From this point on, every movement of your cursor is being captured.

6. If your plan was to create an animated demonstration, simulation or tutorial, perform the steps necessary to demonstrate or teach.

7. When you’re completed capturing your demonstration, click the "Captivate" button on your task bar or press the “End” button on your keyboard.

8. When you end the capture, Captivate automatically saves the movie and opens the editing window. You can preview, edit or publish your animation from this screen.

9. If you believe your captured animation needs to be edited, you can change the timing, add narration, order or add and delete frames. If you believe that your capture was perfect, you can publish it as a Flash movie to a CD-ROM or Adobe Breeze.

Tips & Warnings

• Before beginning to capture screen movement, set your screen resolution to 800 x 600.
• As you use Captivate you may hear the sound of a camera click each time you click you mouse or move a window or screen. This is Captivate telling you that a screen image has been captured.
• Don’t worry if you capture movements that aren’t necessary to your demonstration. You can always delete segments of the animation when you edit the movie.