Captivate allows you to simultaneously create software simulations in all the three available modes:
- Demo: Demonstrate a software procedure. The user is not required to perform any action.
- Assessment: Test the user's knowledge of a procedure. Only inform the user if the step was incorrectly carried out.
- Training: Guide a user through a software procedure. The user is required to perform the steps in a procedure but with guidance at every step.
Let's create a short software simulation of the steps required to create a new PowerPoint presentation. We will simultaneously create the simulations in the three available modes.
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To end your simulation:
- On Windows, click the End key on your keyboard
- On MAC, click the Captivate icon in the top bar
As soon as you end your simulation, Captivate comes to the foreground again.
A new project is created for each of the simulation modes:
- untitled_demo1.cptx
- untitled_assessment1.cptx
- untitled_training1.cptx
To see the difference between the three projects that Captivate has created for us, let's preview them.
Demo: As the simulation progresses, the pointer moves across the screen. The area around the clicked part of the screen is highlighted. Also, text captions display indicators as the area is clicked. The simulation without any user intervention.
Training: You need to perform each screen task. In our project, the first screen task is to click File. The simulation will wait until you perform this task. If you hover the pointer over the File menu, a hint is displayed. If you click elsewhere on the screen, a failure caption tells you where you need to click. When you click the correct location, the simulation progresses to the next step.
Assessment: You need to perform each screen task. In our project, the first screen task is to click File. The simulation will wait until you perform this task. Because this is an assessment mode, you are not provided with hints if you hover the pointer over the File menu. If you click elsewhere on the screen, a failure caption tells you where you need to click. When you click the correct location, the preview progresses to the next step.
In the previous section, we created software simulation projects from scratch. However, you can also insert software simulations at any point within an existing project.
Let's insert a short software simulation in Demo mode of the steps required to create a new PowerPoint presentation.
When you create a software simulation, Captivate creates a project that uses slides and objects that can be easily manipulated.
You can rearrange the slides, insert slides between the steps in a simulation, you can edit the properties of objects, and change the hints and error captions that are displayed. In a Demo project, you can even change the path of a mouse.
Besides the above editing changes, you can also use Captivate's timing feature to adjust the timing on a slide.
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In the downloaded files folder, navigate to the samples subfolder and open:
create-software-simulation-demo.cptx
Note:
It is not mandatory that you download the project file that ships with this tutorial. You can still follow along with the steps in this procedure. However, you will need to create a Demo software simulation project Captivate.
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Let's quickly preview this slide.
In the toolbar, click Preview and then choose Play Slide.
As you step through the simulation of an application while creating a software simulation, Captivate sets the time for which a slide is displayed to the user.
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After making changes to the text caption, let's again check the slide.
In the toolbar, click Preview and then choose Play Slide.
Notice, that the preview duration is the same as in step 2 above. However, since we have changed the contents in the text caption, we need to increase the duration for which the slide is displayed to users.
Let's use Captivate's Timeline panel to adjust the timeline for this slide and the object on the slide.
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Let's quickly discuss how each of these objects is represented on the timeline:
Mouse: Appears on the slide after about half a second and will continue to be displayed on the slide for the remainder of the slide duration (3s).
Text_Caption_3: Displayed on the slide for its entire duration.
Highlight_Box_3: Displayed on the slide for its entire duration.
The Timeline is not just informational. You can change the time duration for any of the objects on a slide. You can even change the time duration for the slide itself.
Let's change the time duration of the slide to 8 seconds. That should be enough time for the user to read the updated caption.
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Hover the pointer over the right edge of the selected object and when the cursor changes into a double-sided arrow, drag the edge to the end of the slide.
Finally, we need to adjust the timeline for the mouse. The pointer needs to be displayed until the end of the slide duration. However, we also need to ensure that it displays for the same duration (3s) as previously. So, let's not increase the duration for the mouse. Let's move it to the end of the slide duration.
Let's preview the procedure we completed.
In the toolbar, click Preview and then choose Project.
Notice how the slide that we changed above now remains for longer. Also, the mouse appears on the screen later.
The timeline is a useful tool when you want to make changes to the content on a slide in a software simulation project.
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