Top Tips for Adobe Captivate Productivity

Have you ever found yourself endlessly repeating the same type of revisions on multiple Captivate slides?  If so, then these top tips will come in handy for boosting your efficiency in Adobe Captivate.  If you start using them in the early stages of developing a Captivate project, you will make your slides come together much quicker. Another benefit is that you will achieve a much look more consistent look with minimal effort.

TIP #1:  Make global setting changes in your Captivate projects by editing the Preference settings.

How: 

Go to Edit > Preferences

Advantages:

If you make changes to these preferences when no file is open, then all new Captivate projects will have the new settings.  If a file is open, then the settings you update will only be reflected in the current file.  Some common settings to tweak are the default save locations, default slide duration (Figure 1), and default object durations.  If you are doing software simulations, then go to the Recording section.  Here you can choose default options for keyboard tap sounds, camera sounds, the video color mode, and what objects you want to be added to the stage during your recording sessions.  No longer will have to select these for each recording session.  For example, I often turn off the automatic addition of Failure captions for click boxes and text entry boxes during the Assessment Simulation mode.

TIP #2: Use the Master Slide to create Content layouts for your major slide types.

How: 

Go to Window >  Master Slide

Advantages:  

The Master Slide area allows you prep default content that is needed on all slides or multiple slides in your project. The top master slide on the left hand side panel is called the Main Master.  The smaller indented ones underneath it are called Content Masters (aka. second tier masters) (Figure 2).  They control the look on specific slides where they are the chosen layout.  Changes made on the top Main Master layout are automatically applied to all indented Content layouts.  For example, if a new background color is picked on the Main Master, every content layout will have that background color.  The Blank layout (Figure 2 Pt. A) operates a little bit differently than the other Content Masters. It is designed to suppress the inheritance of objects from the Main Master, so that you have always have a slide layout that truly stays blank.  For example, if the company logo is put on the Main Master, it will not be shown on the all Content Masters except the Blank content layout.

TIP #3:  Use the Object Style Manager to change the default look of slide objects.

How: 

Go to Edit >  Object Style Manager

Advantages:

Often we use the Properties Panel to customize the default look of standard objects on the stage to specific colors, fonts and font sizes that help us achieve the exact look we want.  Instead use the Object Style Manager to change the default look of objects so they immediately have the settings we want when we add them to the stage.   In Figure 3, the default look of the Text Caption style is being modified.  The Object Style Manager can also be used to create new styles with unique names by cloning a style and then renaming the clone.  Use the export and import buttons (Figure 3 Pt. A) to move styles between projects.

TIP #4:  Use “Save Changes to Existing Style” to quickly update the style that you have customized on the stage

How:   

After you make a customization to the look of an object on the stage, go to the Properties panel. Click on the tiny menu button next to Style Name (Figure 4 Pt. A).  In the drop down menu that appears, select “Save Changes to Existing Style” (Figure 4 Pt. B).

Advantages:

By selecting, “Save Changes to Existing Style”, the style of that object is updated without even having to go to the Object Style Manager (see Tip #3).  As a result, the look of that particular object will be automatically changed throughout the project.  Additionally any time a new instance of that object of that type is added to the stage it will be ready to go with the desired look.  However, please be aware that this action may not affect individual objects whose styles have already been customized using the Properties panel.  This is because direct formatting edits are considered style overrides.  A quick way to know if a style is in an overridden state, is to see if the style name listed in the style name box start with a plus (+) followed by the style name.  To update such overridden objects, select the object and click “Reset Style” in the Properties panel (Figure 4 Pt. C).

TIP #5:  Create  and Share Custom Themes

How: 

Go to Themes  > Save Theme As…

Advantages:

Themes help you get a consistent design. Themes contain master slide layouts, object styles, skin and TOC settings, and recording defaults.  When you start a project, you are using the default theme.  In a normal install of Captivate it is called the “White” theme.  Captivate provides a few more additional built-in themes under the Themes drop down menu on the toolbar.    Use these built-ins as a starting point and then make modifications to your liking in the Master Slides area (Tip #2), in the Object Style Manager (Tip #3), in the color set and in your TOC setting and recording defaults.  Save your modifications as a custom theme with a unique theme name by going to Themes >  Save Theme As.  The file extension of a theme file is cptm.  Once created, your custom theme will be viewable under Themes drop down list on the main toolbar to reuse on multiple projects (Figure 5).  If a colleague needs to use the custom theme you created, save the theme to a shared location and then tell your colleagues can browse to the theme from the Theme drop down.  Another bonus of themes is that Captivate makes it extremely easy to switch themes in the middle of a project just by applying a new theme.

TIP #6:  Create  and Share Template files

How: 

Go to Save As >  Save as type: Captivate Template File (*.cptl)

Advantages:

Templates help you start a project with prefilled in slide content, already imported media, and ready to go Advanced Action scripts, and question pools.  Create templates when you need a particular framework for your course setup.  For example, maybe you need some common slides to use in multiple courses or you have a navigation menu that cannot be placed on Master Slides.  Since Themes live inside template files, it is a good idea that before you save and share a template file to have created a Custom theme inside it.   The extension of a Captivate template file is cptl.

Templates must be chosen at the start of a Captivate file.  Choose File > New Project >  Project from Template and then navigate to the template file.    The template file will open with an unsaved name of Untitled1.cptx.  Save as you normally would with a unique name to that particular project.