Captivate is the newly rechristened RoboDemo. Macromedia have retained all those features that made RoboDemo special whilst incorporating some new and interesting features. If you haven't heard of either Captivate or RoboDemo then in a nutshell this product allows you to create animated presentations of live software, whilst also allowing you to do voiceovers as instructional cues. So, creating your own software demos and training programs now becomes even easier.

I had the good fortune to attend the Captivate launch which Macromedia hosted on the internet using Breeze and well, um, Captivate. There were around 30 journalists in attendance, all interacting with the presenter, Silke Fleischer, who gave a dazzling display of the capabilities of Captivate. Needless to say we were all captivated by the performance. My head was immediately buzzing with the power of the product. The e-learning capabilities alone were kinda awe-inspiring.

 

So as powerful as Captivate is it is easy to use as well. It is simply a matter of firing up the program and then pressing the record button, going through the motions of what you want to achieve and pressing the stop button. Upon completion you are presented with a set of storyboards of your keystrokes which are easily editable. So, no need to worry if you miss-key something as you can fix it up later via the storyboards. There is great emphasis on editing with Captivate, in fact, the Macromedia presenter mentioned that she generally rushed through the recording process so she could begin editing and tweaking her presentation programs into shape. You can see the storyboard "slides" in the screen shot above, to edit them you just need to click on the appropriate slide. Notice also the familiar "timeline" feature, sliding the novice user into familiar territory at first glance.

Captivate content is small in file size and high in resolution so it is ideal for rapid application training, user support tutorials, and online product demonstrations. Captivate projects are SCORM/AICC compliant and can be integrated with a Learning Management System (LMS) easily. Combine that with the seamless integration with Macromedia Breeze and Flash MX 2004 and what more could you ask for? Alternate formats I would guess. Well, don't worry because Captivate offers other output formats... For online viewing you distribute content as a SWF file, for CD output you can create an executable, for printable handouts you can use a Microsoft Word document, and there are more. Flexibility and power.

Although Captivate is marketed as a tool for creating interactive simulations and software demonstrations, I think it is much more powerful. Why? Because you can use it to convert Microsoft PowerPoint files to Macromedia Flash files, create tests and assessments, include voice-over narration, edit your audio, develop menus for navigation, and animate text. Its like your own personal Flash developer all tied up in a neat user interface. And, best of all, anyone can use it.

Captivate quite deservedly earns a double thumbs up from me, I haven't been this excited about a new product in a long time. Nice one Macromedia, veeery nice.

I appreciated this software so much I created an award for it. So, let me introduce the inaugural Cyber Aspect Editor's Award, awarded to Macromedia for Captivate 1.0.