Adobe Captivate Article

Using Macromedia Captivate to Retouch Images in Recorded Demos and Simulations

Have you ever worked on an e-learning project, only to find that you need to alter some of the screen action you have captured?

In projects I have completed recently, I found myself in this exact situation. Had I not discovered Macromedia Captivate, I would have had no choice but to either re-record a number of screens or the entire demonstration or simulation again—both of which would have been an extremely time-consuming affair.

In this article I show how you can update your Macromedia Captivate project files using an external image editor and insert new image files into your Macromedia Captivate content. I also explain the way Macromedia Captivate handles mouse movements, which is crucial when performing these tasks.

Requirements

To complete this tutorial you will need to install the following software and files:

Adobe Captivate

• Try
• Buy

Macromedia Fireworks

• Try
• Buy

For the last seven years, I spent the majority of my time creating video-based tutorials for VTC (Virtual Training Company) online and on CD. I've also created tutorials for Macromedia, Adobe Systems Inc., and the leading Macromedia extension developer, WebAssist. Historically I've always used an AVI recording tool to create my demonstrations. One of the problems that plagued me over the years, however, is how to alter the recorded screens.

Below are some examples of when I have found it necessary recapture a screen area:

• The recording application crashes while recording your screen action.
• Artifacts are present on certain frames in your movie.
• An object is present on a screen that shouldn't be there.
• The version of the application you are recording is still in development. You have created the movies and have sent them to the client for approval, only to find that there is a new feature that needs to be included, such as a new entry in a pop-up menu.
• You have an icon somewhere on the screen that needs to be removed, such as another vendor software application.
• The version number of the program has been updated and you need to change it or remove the version number altogether in the demonstration.
• You have typed some text on the screen, only to find that you have spelled a word or phrase incorrectly.

Attempting to change demonstrations using an AVI recording tool can be both a time-consuming and complex task. Most of the time this requires that you record the whole demonstration again. Even if you decide to try to record just the screens that need to be amended, you may still encounter mouse position issues, which you may not be able to resolve successfully.

Why is this such as big deal? The main reason that editing demonstrations created using an AVI recording tool can be an arduous task is the way it captures your screens. Video files created using an AVI recording application are made up of many still images combined sequentially into one file. With video files, each screen with mouse action appears at a number of frames per second (typically a frame rate of between 5 and 10 frames per second), thus creating the illusion of movement.

Video files use a delicate balance of key and delta frames. Key frames contain all the information that is required to display the frame. Delta frames contain only what has changed from the previous frame. Remember that the more movement there is in a video file, the more area of the screen is altered, which results in larger delta frames and, therefore, a much larger resulting file size.

Some AVI recording tools give you the ability to overlay new graphics into your movies. However, because the mouse pointer has to be captured when the screen area is recorded, inserting a new graphic image will typically result in the pointer appearing behind the inserted image, so you are still left having to reshoot your movies!

Capturing Screens Using Macromedia Captivate

Macromedia Captivate uses a completely different approach. In general, when capturing a screen area, Macromedia Captivate takes a series of static screen shots. This means that most of the time you don't have to worry about capturing a screen area again. But what about the mouse pointer? Surely if Macromedia Captivate takes static screen shots, it must include the pointer on each screen shot it takes, right?

Actually, no. Macromedia Captivate does not include the mouse pointer when it takes a screen shot. Instead, during capture, only the position of the mouse pointer (among other things) is stored. Only after you have finished capturing your screens does Macromedia Captivate add a fully editable mouse pointer and curved motion path to your Macromedia Captivate project file. Macromedia Captivate gives you an incredibly flexible working environment.

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