Product Review : Macromedia Captivate v1.0 - Captivating Performance

chillibreeze writer — Moa Longkumer

Click to see a sample captivate quiz created using Captivate 2.0

The market for application-simulation and demo-creation software is more or less dominated by two names: The software giant Macromedia, and the relatively newer Qarbon. Their current flag-ship products in this field make it a hard choice for users to decide which to actually use. Both, Macromedia’s recent release – Captivate and Qarbon’s Viewlet Builder 4, have large and loyal followings. Both output in Flash (SWF) format. Both have their strong and weak aspects and it boils down to the individual’s preference. Likewise the subject is highly debatable and I’d like to add my little bit to the mayhem. Recently, I ran a side by side evaluation of Captivate and Viewlet Builder 4 and this short article will follow the spirit of a product comparison (in general), also note that there are indeed other tools of a similar genre (perhaps better, but at a fearsome premium) and we’ll review them when the opportunity arises.

Macromedia Captivate

Interestingly enough, the simulation and demo market already had well entrenched and somewhat pioneering players, years ago. Qarbon, established in 1997, pioneered and originated the patented viewlet technology. The eHelp Corporation came up with RoboDemo and though it appeared primitive in comparison to present e-learning tools, it was a start. Macromedia probably saw the potential and acquired eHelp in late 2003. By then RoboDemo was already in its 4th release. Macromedia saw to the release of RoboDemo5. It was well received by users and the e-learning industry. RoboDemo however, wasn’t without its bugs- most of it in form of complaints from users who wanted it to get simpler and…well…user friendlier. I’d hazard a guess that Macromedia found the bugs affecting its branding. They did put in a good effort and came up with Captivate v1.0 – overhauling and replacing RoboDemo. The major overhaul has been mostly for the better. Captivate 1.0 as it turns out, is in my opinion, one of the best tools I've used for creating rich and complex tutorials, simulations and e-learning demos. On acquainting myself with Captivate, I found myself on very familiar ground, as I’m reasonably well acquainted with music production applications like Cakewalk Sonar and Cool Edit Pro, and what I liked about them was the linear track layout of its elements. Captivate follows the same principle and this is what makes it so intuitive and user friendly (at least in my opinion). I found myself churning out small but fairly complex demos and simulations within an hour of installation.

Qarbon Viewlet Builder 4

Though relatively lesser known, Qarbon, since it’s inception in 1997, has been making significant contributions in the field of application-simulation, and e-learning technology. It pioneered and originated the use of viewlet technology. “Viewlets are powerful, easily implemented, Flash enabled animated presentations that enhance the effectiveness of online marketing, employee training and customer support”. Credit must also go to Qarbon for inventing the screen-capture animation process. I must admit, I’d never heard of Qarbon and its products until a few months ago, when the need arose to make some simulations, and I must say it’s quite a package. The whole interface is very neat simple and well laid-out. My only beef against Viewlet Builder 4 would be its track layout or its lack thereof. Other than that, minor limitations like being able to support only one text box or bubble per slide (or perhaps I missed something), Viewlet Builder is a first-class product.

Usability at a glance

Both Captivate and Viewlet Builder exist with the same general goal in mind–to produce Flash based application demos/simulations/tutorials and interactive presentations with minimum effort. Both meet up to this very well, though their respective approaches are slightly different.
Both are memory hogs too, and opening or publishing the larger files are excruciatingly time consuming.
Both offer a very similar set of functions and features.
Both allow you to set screen size for screen capture mode and even capture portions of the screen which you can define. Screen capture can be done either by hot key or by mouse clicks–this has to be set before you begin. For convenience both mouse click and hotkey can be set to be used together.
Viewlet Builder unfortunately, is unable to capture ‘drag and drop’ events – I wasn’t even able to capture it manually in steps because the hot key doesn’t capture when the mouse button is pressed. To be able to do this you need to get hold of ViewletCam, which again costs a tidy bundle. With this additional ware, you’ll be able to capture all screen activity like a ‘movie’.
With ViewletCam you can even record Power Point Presentations and publish to Flash. Captivate goes further by dispensing with the recording all together- you can simply import Power Point files directly and safely publish in Flash format.

A closer look at Captivate’s usability

Macromedia’s Captivate scores higher in many counts. Firstly all elements discussed above are integrated seamlessly in a single package. Captivate, it seems, is more intelligent. You needn’t play around with additional ware. Mouse clicks or hot keys are the standard mode of capture, and the best part is events like drag and drop are automatically captured as a ‘movie’. This has the added benefit of spontaneity, particularly when capturing real-time demos with narration. It also means your file size remains reasonable in size since other than automatic capture of drag actions, the rest are captured as slides. One interesting feature in Captivate is it automatically generates captions and appropriate bubbles for common Windows menu operations. It does take the monotony out of putting up dialog and caption elements on your slides. Captivate also allows you to import Power Point Presentations without having to record them. This is definitely the quicker way of going about it. Need to do more than that? You can simply import movies in .avi format (mind the codecs!) and use it in your project. You can define even the frame rate to suit your requirements. Another feature I like in Captivate is the small library of text and shape animations in Flash. These can be applied anywhere in your slides, and leaves a lot of room for creativity. You however, get bored really quick with the smallness of the library. Hopefully, supplemental libraries will be made available soon.

Captivates biggest plus (at least for me) is its linear track layout. It is very slick and offers unparalleled flexibility since you can visually observe the placement of each caption, image, or any other element, on the time line. Altering is simply a matter of clicking on the required track and dragging it to the appropriate spot on the time line. For more precision, you can zoom the time line to display milliseconds! The slide preview function is great but again gets buggy when previewing animations. I hope they’ll tidy that up in time. Audio tracks can be imported and also recorded in .wav and mp3, but is limited to a single track. Continuous background music if needed can be added in the publication stage. Other elements can be added without limit (I assume), the only limitation being your processor’s power.

Which is better?

Viewlet Builder and Captivate are built with the same end in mind and the choice is indeed difficult. Both are SCORM and AICC compliant, making them great tools for the e-learning industry. In the case of Viewlet Builder only the Professional version supports this. Both are capable of producing effective interactive quiz interfaces. Captivate has purpose-made functions for this. In addition, since Captivate is made by the same folks who invented Flash, you can actually export captivate project files to Flash MX for further development and enhancement.

So which is better?

Well, that’s the fundamental question since the dawn of time (I’m getting carried away) and the answer is ‘both’, because I’d mentioned earlier that it boils down to the individual’s preference. I like Captivate, not because Viewlet Builder is worse, but because it suits my mindset and needs. I’m sure there’ll be a ton of folks who will be inclined to differ in their opinion. Fair one. As regards learning curve, I’d place both in the ‘very easy’ category, with Captivate a wee notch beyond Viewlet Builder, because of its intuitive track layout. So in a nut-shell, my short experience with the two applications left me with a pair of opinions, which I must reiterate, is only mine. Viewlet Builder is ideal for quick and simple no frills solutions, while Captivate is designed for a more comprehensive approach. So finally, it’s the user that matters. Cost wise, both are fairly close - though I regard the Macromedia deal to be somewhat better. As usual, one measly single-page article will not be able to cover everything there is to know. Download the trials they’re worth the trouble. Let me end my rambling.

Quite appropriately, Captivate has captivated me.

You can examine pricing details and download trials on their respective websites:

http://www.qarbon.com/download/ - For Qarbon Products. The trials are fully functional versions, which display a prominent (pretty-looking) watermark till you purchase and activate.

http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/ - For Macromedia Products. The Captivate trial is a fully functional non-crippled, 30-day trial. No watermark.

—About our writer:

Moa Longkumer writes for Chillibreeze

"Byline? what Byline?"
Moa is the born loser who, every once in a while, gets to tinker with new software and write reviews, if and when he's not feeling too lazy.

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