CaptionTiming

"I inserted a caption with some small text. I changed the display time for this caption as '5 Seconds'. I preview the project and everything looks fine. Oops, I made a small mistake in the caption. I double-click and edit it. I press OK. Oh! the caption timing is reset to 3 seconds!!! Bug in captivate??? ".

If you have faced this scenario OR facing it, then let me start by saying that this is not a bug. And I will be courageous enough to say that this a captivate feature. Yes, this is "Auto Calculate Caption Timing" where Captivate tries to determine the time for an caption depending on the length of the text. So, if the Caption has long text, then it will be displayed for longer duration, and if the text is short then it will stay at 3 secs. You can choose not to have this behavior.

Go to 'Project' menu. Notice the 'Calculate caption timing' option. It is checked by default. Uncheck it and try editing the caption again. You will notice that the caption time remains what you had set it to before starting the editing.

This option is somewhat hidden and doesn't get good mention in the Help documentation, where it is tagged as ' Setting caption speed automatically'. We will get it corrected this time :-)

Posted by Ashish Garg at 6:47 PM | Permalink

Very soon, we are kickstarting the beta for the next release of Adobe Captivate. We want as many of you as possible to actively test and help shape a rock-solid release.

If you are interested, please fill in the Prerelease Interest Form on the Adobe site. We need a broad cross-section of testers - across industries, varying backgrounds and experience, non-users to beginners to experts - virtually anyone who believes Adobe Captivate has the potential to be a part of their toolkit.

So fill in the Prerelease Interest Form and be a part of our beta program!

Posted by at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There has been a great deal of confusion about the Update for Adobe Captivate 3. Sorry for all the trouble caused. I hope the following resources should clear the confusion.

1. In most cases, where AUM has not been disabled at installation time, the update would automatically be detected and you'll get a message asking for permission to download and install. If you agree to download, the patch is automatically downloaded and installed.

2. In cases where AUM was disabled at installed time, the automatic download wouldn't work. The update can be downloaded from Adobe Captivate Downloads web page on adobe.com.

3. The Adobe Captivate Downloads web page has details on the patch and an FAQ for most questions.

4. Details of the patch are also available at the Developer Center article.

If you have any further queries, please add them as comments on this blog post.

Posted by at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'll be speaking at the European eLearning Summit 2008. The conference will take place at the Nottingham University from August 19-21.

From the conference site -

"Built on the history of the popular EuroTAAC Authorware and eLearning conference, EeLS is bigger and better than ever before. With quality presentations from eLearning professionals sourced from across Europe, EeLS has detailed and up-to-date information useful to all eLearning professionals, from Educational Designers and Developers, through to managers, educators and corporate planners."

I am speaking on "Creating Engaging Learning Experiences using Adobe Captivate" on the last day of the conference. I am also a co-speaker on "Tips and Trick for Advanced Adobe Captivate users" along with Mark Fletcher. More details

See you there.

Shreeram

Posted by at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)