Editing Adobe Captivate Projects
Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
Editing Adobe Captivate projects
After recording your Adobe Captivate project, you may want to make some changes before publishing. For example,
you may want to insert titles, add instructional text as captions, or fine-tune the timing and position of the mouse
pointer.
Adobe Captivate includes a comprehensive set of tools for editing your finished projects. In this guide, you explore
some basic editing skills and gain more control over the look and pace of your finished Adobe Captivate
simulations.
Adding and deleting slides
Adobe Captivate offers a variety of options for adding slides to a project, including recording new slides or
importing slides from another project. Let’s say you’ve recorded an Adobe Captivate project only to realize you
need to record a few more slides. In this case, you probably don't want to re-record the entire project.
When importing a slide from another project, you can import the slide only, without its objects (cursor, captions, and
so on), you can import the objects without the slide, or you can import both the slide and its objects.
To record new slides for the project:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project you want to edit.
2. Start the application you want to record.
Ideally this application is still open and sized as it was
when you first recorded the project.
3. Click Record on the Main toolbar (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Record button
You need to indicate where in the project to record the
new slides. The new slides will appear after the slide
you select (Figure 2).
4. Select a location to record the new slides.
You also need to select the application to record.
Figure 2 Location for new slides
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
5. Use the pop-up menu to select the application or
window to record (Figure 3).
6. Select the Snap To Window check box (Figure 4).
7. Click OK.
The recording area adjusts to fit the current size of the
Figure 3 Select the application to record
application window, as indicated by the red border.
8. Select the same recording mode you used when
capturing the original slides for the project.
You can also select panning and narration settings if
needed for the selected recording mode.
9. Click the Record In Selected Mode button.
(big red circle)
Figure 4 Snap to Window check box
10. Perform your on-screen actions.
Adobe Captivate captures a screen shot every time you
perform an action, such as selecting a menu or clicking a
button.
11. When you finish recording, press the End key.
The newly recorded slides are inserted after the slide
you selected.
To import slides from another project:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project you want to edit.
2. Click File, click Import, and click Slides/Objects
(Figure 5).
The Import Adobe Captivate Project dialog box appears.
3. Locate and select the project that contains the slides to
import, and click Open.
Figure 5 File menu
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
The Import Project dialog box appears, showing every
slide in the project (Figure 6). You can use the
horizontal scroll bar in the dialog box to locate the slides
you want to import and use the pop-up menu below each
slide to indicate what to import.
4. Click Clear All to begin with no slides or objects
selected.
5. Select the slide(s) to import.
6. Use the pop-up menu to indicate whether to import the
slide only, the objects only, or both (Figure 7).
Note: If you choose to import objects only, you can
Figure 6 Import Project dialog box
designate the slide in the target project you want to place
the objects on (Figure 8).
7. Click OK.
The slide is added to the open project.
Figure 7 Import pop-up menu
Figure 8 Place Objects On pop-up menu
To delete a slide:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project you want to edit.
2. Select Storyboard view or Edit view.
3. Right-click the slide you want to delete and select Delete
Slide from the context menu (Figure 9).
4. If asked to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
The slide is deleted. You can delete multiple slides in
Storyboard view by selecting the first slide, holding
down the Ctrl key, and selecting the additional slides.
With the group of slides selected, right-click and delete
the slides.
Figure 9 Context menu
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
Adjusting slide timing
The pacing of your slides can have a big impact on comprehension and learning. For example, learners need enough
time to read captions and instructional text before the slide advances.
To adjust slide timing from the Slide Properties dialog box:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project.
2. Select Edit view.
3. Double-click the slide you want to edit.
The Slide Properties dialog box appears (Figure 10).
4. Change the duration of the slide by using the Display
Time box.
The display time is listed in seconds. The maximum
amount of time a slide can appear is 1 hour (3600
seconds).
5. Click OK.
Figure 10 Slide Properties dialog box
To adjust slide timing from the Timeline:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project.
2. Select Edit view.
3. Select the slide you want to edit.
In the Timeline, the slide duration is controlled by the
object named Slide (Figure 11).
4. To shorten or lengthen the duration of the slide, position
the mouse pointer along its right edge until the resize
pointer appears (Figure 12), and then drag.
Figure 11 Slide object in the Timeline
As you drag, the duration of the slide changes, as shown
on the object in the Timeline.
Figure 12 Resize pointer
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
© 2009 Adobe Systems Inc.
Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
Adjusting the pointer in a software simulation
In Adobe Captivate projects, you have complete control over the appearance of mouse pointer movements. You can
edit the path and change the style of the pointer. You can even hide the pointer for a given slide or for the entire
presentation.
To change the mouse pointer:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Select the slide you want to edit.
You can select a new pointer from the Project Pointers
or the Current Theme Pointers submenus.
3. Click Slide, click Mouse, click Project Pointers, and
then select a new pointer (Figure 13).
Note: To change the mouse pointer for every slide in the
project, first display the Slide menu and select Use
Current Mouse Pointer For All Slides. Then select a new
mouse pointer from the Project Pointer or Current
Figure 13 Project pointers
Theme Pointers submenu.
To change the start or end point of a recorded pointer path:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Select the slide you want to edit.
3. Position the mouse pointer over the start or end of the
recorded pointer path on the slide until the pointer turns
into a hand (Figure 14).
4. Drag the pointer to a new location on the slide.
This moves the start or end point of the pointer path on
the current slide. When you change the end point on a
slide, you also move the start point of the pointer path
on the next slide.
5. After adjusting the position of the pointer, preview the
project to make sure the pointer movements flow
smoothly from slide to slide.
6. Click Preview and click Play This Slide to see your
Figure 14 End of the recorded pointer path
changes (Figure 15).
Figure 15 Preview button
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
To align pointer paths across slides:
Positioning the mouse pointer consistently from one slide to the next can be difficult. To solve this problem, you can
automatically align the mouse pointer to exactly the same position as the previous slide or next slide in the project.
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Select the slide you want to edit.
3. Right-click the mouse pointer and click Align To
Previous Slide or Align To Next Slide. (Figure 16).
4. Click Preview and click Play This Slide to see how the
mouse pointer is aligned between slides.
Figure 16 Context menu
Adding caption text to slides
You can use text captions to focus the learner’s attention on easily overlooked details. Text captions can “speak” to
the learner. Some recording modes automatically add text captions while recording your project, but you can also
add them manually during editing.
To add caption text manually:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Select the slide you want to edit.
3. Click Insert, click Standard Objects, and click Text
Caption (Figure 17).
The New Text Caption dialog box appears (Figure 18).
4. On the Text Caption tab, type the text for the caption.
Use the settings in the dialog box to format the text
caption, including the style of the caption box, font, size,
and color.
Figure 17 Insert menu
Figure 18 New Text Caption dialog box
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
5. Click the Options tab (Figure 19).
Every object in Adobe Captivate has a unique name.
You can edit the name assigned to the caption box and
adjust the timing and transition of the caption (how and
when the caption appears and disappears).
6. Click the Audio tab (Figure 20).
The Audio tab includes controls for recording and
attaching audio to the caption.
7. Click the Size And Position tab (Figure 21).
You have precise control over the caption’s size and
position on the slide. You can simply drag a caption on a
slide, but by using the Size And Position tab, you can
place captions in exactly the same position across the
Figure 19 Options tab
entire project.
Figure 20 Audio tab
Figure 21 Size And Position tab
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
8. Click OK to accept the changes.
The new text caption appears on the slide (Figure 22).
You can size and position the caption as needed.
Figure 22 Text caption added to the slide
Adding title or heading text to slides
Sometimes you will want to add text other than captions to your slides. For example, you may want to create a title
or heading. To do this, simply add the text as a transparent caption.
To add plain text to slides:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Click to select the slide you want to edit.
3. Click Insert, click Standard Objects, and click Text
Caption.
The New Text Caption dialog box appears.
4. Display the Caption Type pop-up menu and click
Transparent (Figure 23).
5. Type the text, format the text as needed, and click OK.
The text appears with a transparent background.
Figure 23 Caption Type pop-up menu
Adding images to slides
You can incorporate images into projects in a variety of ways, including using them as logos, splash screens,
pointers, backgrounds, and buttons. You can add images in the following formats: SWF, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG,
BMP, ICO, EMF, POT, or WMF. Adobe Captivate even contains a gallery of buttons, sounds, and animations (in
SWF format) for you to use in your projects.
You can also import a Photoshop (PSD) file into your Adobe Captivate project, while preserving Photoshop
features. You can select and import separate layers of the PSD file, or you can flatten selected layers and import
them as a single image. Each imported layer is treated as a separate image within the Adobe Captivate project. In the
library, each imported layer is stored in PNG format as a separate object in the Images folder.
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
To add an image to a slide:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Select the slide you want to edit.
3. Click Insert and click Image (Figure 24).
The Open dialog box appears.
4. Locate the image you want to insert, select it, and click
Open.
If the image is larger than your project area, you may be
asked to fit the image to the slide or crop the slide.
Cropping cuts off the edges of the image to fit and
center the image on the slide. Resizing reduces the
image size to fit in the project area.
The image is added to the current slide. You can drag
the image to position it on the slide. You can also resize
the image by dragging the corner handles.
For more precise size and positioning or to change other
Figure 24 Insert menu
image properties, you can open the Image dialog box.
5. Double-click the image to open it in the Image dialog
box.
The Image dialog box appears (Figure 25). On the
Image tab, you can adjust the image transparency and
background color of the image. You can also reset the
image to its original size or crop the image.
Figure 25 Image dialog box
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
6. Click the Options tab (Figure 26).
The Options tab enables you to edit the unique name of
the image object. You can also adjust the timing and
transition (how and when the image appears and
disappears).
7. Click the Audio tab (Figure 27).
The audio tab includes controls for recording and
attaching audio to the image.
Figure 26 Options tab
Figure 27 Audio tab
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
8. Click the Size And Position tab (Figure 28).
You have precise control over the image’s size and
position on the slide.
9. Click OK to accept the changes.
Changes you made are applied to the image (Figure 29).
Figure 28 Size And Position tab
Figure 29 Edited Image added to slide
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
Inserting images as new slides
You can insert an image as a new slide in your Adobe Captivate project. Image slides can be useful in many types of
projects. For example, students may create a digital narrative that uses images to tell a story.
To insert an image as a new slide:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project and select Edit view.
2. Click to select the slide that is directly before the
location of the new image slide.
When you insert the image, the new slide will go after
the selected slide.
3. Click Insert, click Other Slide(s), and then click Image
Slide (Figure 30).
Figure 30 Insert menu
The Open dialog box appears.
4. Locate and select the image, and then click Open.
If the image is larger than your project area, you may be
asked to fit the image to the slide or crop the slide
(Figure 31). Cropping cuts off the edges of the image.
Resizing reduces the image size.
5. Click Fit to Slide or Crop.
The new slide is added to the project. If the image is
larger than the project it is cropped or sized to fit in the
center of the new slide.
Figure 31 Resize/Crop Image dialog box
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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Adobe Captivate step-by-step guide
Spell checking a project
You can check the spelling of most text that appears in your Adobe Captivate project, including captions, slide
notes, slide names, text animations, and quizzes.
To check the spel ing in a project:
1. Open the Adobe Captivate project.
2. Click Project and click Check Spelling (Figure 32).
If Adobe Captivate finds a word it doesn’t recognize, the
Check Spelling dialog box opens (Figure 33) and the
word appears in the Not In Dictionary text box. You
have several options.
• Ignore Once ignores this instance of the
unrecognized word.
Figure 32 Checking spelling
• Ignore All ignores all instances of the unrecognized
word.
• Add To Dictionary adds the unrecognized word to
your personal dictionary.
• Delete removes the unrecognized word.
• Change replaces this instance of the unrecognized
word with text you type in the Not In Dictionary text
box or with text you select in the Suggestions list.
• Change All replaces all instances of the
unrecognized word in the same manner.
Once you make a selection, the spell checker continues
until it finds another unrecognized word. A message
informs you when the spell checking is complete.
3. Click OK to close message.
Figure 33 Check Spelling dialog box
The default dictionary used to check spelling is English. If you need to change the language, click Options to open
the Options dialog box and then select a new language from the Main Dictionary Language pop-up menu.
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Editing Adobe Captivate projects
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