What I (dis)like in Captivate 5.5

 
A lot has been published already about the 'big' new features of the release 5.5: publishing to YouTube, gradients, shadows, rotate, Quiz templates. In this post you'll find my list of less obvious new features that are however very useful. And I will also mention what I do not like of course!

What I like

  • When you import Object Styles with the same name as existing styles in the active project, now you are the one who decides what should happen! In version 5.0 Captivate decided, with or without your consent, that the imported styles should get another name (and added a number to that name). And I do never like the situation where an application is deciding for me. Now you get a dialog box 'Overwrite existing style' with a warning and a choice (see screenshot): either you answer Yes to overwrite the existing style, which means that all objects with that style will immediately be updated, or you answer No and will get the same situation as in version 5.0. I like this changed feature, not only because I'm a control freak, but because it is a real time saver when you want quickly to change a number of styles for all objects in a project at once.

  • If you use Slide video, and have to synchronize the video with other objects on the slide, you'll probably use F3 (or the buttons on the Timeline) to play/pause the slide. In previous versions, when pausing the video jumped back to its first frame, now it stays on the frame where you pauses, which makes it much easier to sync of course.

  • New Project Info Panel: when Captivate 5.0 was release a lot of users did complain about missing the global project information, available in previous releases in the StoryBoard view: resolution, number of slides & frames, hidden slides, total project time.... The Adobe team added this information with the patch (released December 2010) to the Preferences dialog box, Project Information.  You will still find this project information in the Preferences, also directly available using the File, Project Info option. But the total project time was given in seconds. In CP5.5 there is a new Project Info panel (see first image in the Picture Gallery), providing the same information, but properly 'translated' to minutes (or hours if necessary)  and it has a Refresh button! This means that you do not have to preview the project before having access to all information (like in CP4), just click the Refresh button to update the information.
    I do regret that this new panel is not available in the default Classic Workspace, because I think some users are always using that workspace. But it is in the all the other workspaces, in the group docked to the right side of the stage. Moreover I believe more valuable information could be included such as the framerate (fps), filesize (CP-file), Audio and Video settings,etc. Perhaps you have more ideas about information for the panel, please take the time to fill in a feature request (Feature request).
     
  • New Effects Workspace: in CP5.0 I created a similar customized workspace like this one, but now it is available out of the box. At the bottom of the stage both the Effects and the Timeline panels are visible which makes it easier to create and synchronize Effects (see second image in the Gallery).

  • Alpha setting is now removed from the swatches dialog box and in the Fill&Stroke accordion of the Properties panel for objects. It drove me nuts that I always had to open twice the dialog box, once to choose the color, and once to change the alpha. Quite a lot of mouse clicks less now. Have a look at the third image in the Gallery.

  • Small ergonomic improvements to the interface: colors of the bars on the Timeline are now more apparent, in the Effects panel, the tiny 'fx' symbol has a Text indication 'Apply Effects'. Both are visible in the second image that shows the bottom dock of the Effects Workspace.

  • In the dialog box for Advanced actions, type conditional action, the operator "is equal to" is now top of the list, which is more logical since it is often used. But I hoped for more enhancements in this dialog box.

  • I do love the added Reporting possibilities by using another SCORM template: being able to report from a PDF (eLS 2.5 only I believe) is great, and the template SendTrackingDataAtEnd is really improving student's experiences if a lot of students are taking an assessment at the same moment because it will not 'overload' the LMS with data.

  • Great news: the system variables cpQuizInfoPointsscored and cpInfoPercentage are now updated after each score obtained by user, almost immediately (after Submit click, or click on the interactive object)! This means that now you can use those system variable at each moment to give feedback to the user. In versions 5.0 they were only populated on the Score slide. If you wanted the score obtained and the percentage, you had to calculate the total score in a user variable, using the system variable cpQuizInfoLastSlidePointScored that was (and still is) updated after each question slide. 

  • Same system variables will now be updated with scores of scored objects as well (click boxes, buttons, Text Entry Boxes), so that it has the same value as the Total Score and the Percentage, visible on the default Score slide. In 5.0 cpQuizInfoPointsscored/cpInfoPercentage had only the total score/percentage for the question slides, not for the other scored objects, whereas the score shown on the default Score slide did take into account all scored objects. This was rather confusing.

  • Reviewer is now functional on Windows-OS in another language than the available Captivate languages. This is very important for me, because most of my colleagues have a Dutch OS, and Captivate is not available in Dutch. Now I'm able to send them files to review,  great!

Changes I do not like:

  • The "button" widget, a static widget in Captivate 5 had unique properties:  although it was static, it had a pausing point (at 6,5secs) and it allowed to attach actions, mostly navigational. This was THE workaround to add navigation to Master slides and question slides, that do not accept interactive objects like normal buttons. I blogged about those possibilities: 'Using the button widget: some ideas'.
    This button widget has disappeared in Captivate 5.5, it has been replaced by a static and an interactive version. The interactive one has the only advantage over default buttons that it has a little bit more formatting, but cannot be used on master slides/question slides because it is interactive. The static version can still be used, but... it will not pause anymore which is frustrating when using on master slides/question slides. So if you still have version 5.0, please keep the original button widget, it will be functional in CP 5.5.
    Another reason for my dislike: I have to update my blog post....

    Will keep you informed, because my intuition tells me that this 'dislike' will soon be solved by the Adobe team. They rock!

    For those who share my opinion about this new static widget, here is a surprise! The Adobe team did not like my 'dislike' and provided me with a new Static button widget, WITH A PAUSING POINT. The pausing is not set at 6,5secs like the previous widget in Captivate 5.0 but at the 1/2 of the slide duration, relative to it. And Suresh Jayaraman kindly accepted that I offer this improved widget to the readers of my blog. Here is the link:

    Static Button with Pausing

    Thanks, Suresh and Sudeshna Sarkar!
  • The former Size&Position accordion in the Properties panel for objects has changed to 'Transform' because it has not only the Size and Position (of the registration point), but also the new Rotate feature. Why my dislike: the option 'Apply to all' in this accordion will now apply not only size and position but also the rotation to all similar objects. I really would have preferred to have the possibility to apply only size changes. And even better: to have also the location separated from the size. Align, Resize to same size is great for objects on the same slide, but not for objects on different slides.

What about you?

I'm sure to discover other functionalities/features to like or to dislike, this is my list with 'first impressions'. Later on I will try to publish a similar list about the eLearning Suite 2.5. For the moment just want to tell that I'm 'captivated' by the roundtripping with Audition, a 'super' audio editing application.

What do you like, dislike in CP5.5? I would love to hear about your first  ideas. 

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23 responses

Thanks for the great post as usual.  <o:p></o:p>

Now that you've alerted me to the button widget problem, I'm a bit afraid to upgrade from 5.0.1 to 5.5.<o:p></o:p>

Is there a way to "save" the old button widget from <5.5 and then have it available in 5.5?<o:p></o:p>

Best, <o:p></o:p>

Susan<o:p></o:p>

================<o:p></o:p>

Susan Kane<o:p></o:p>

System Librarian | OIS<o:p></o:p>

Harvard University Libraries<o:p></o:p>

T:   617.495.3724  |  M: 617.455.5631<o:p></o:p>

susan_kane@harvard.edu<o:p></o:p>

— susan_kane
Thanks for your comment. Perhaps it was not clear enough, but the former 'button' widget is perfectly functional in CP5.5. Just copy it to the Gallery and you can use it like before. This is certainly not a reason not to upgrade, a lot of improvements over 5.0.
— Lieve Weymeis
I think I will LOVE LOVE LOVE the Alpha outside of the color-picker. That's awesome. :) I have rarely found "Apply to All" to be successful for me, so that's not much of a change in my book - but I agree, you should be able to apply size changes to all, separately from rotation, that makes absolute sense to me. Oh well! enough cool new things to make me happy - now to get the budget! :)
— megbertapelle
Thanks, Meg, you will love it, nobody talks about those small improvements but they do save a lot of time. Forgot to add (will do) changes to manipulating objects on Timeline, bit difficult to explain in simple text.
I'm a bit astonished when you tell that 'Apply to...' doesn't work for you? It was not to be trusted in CP4 and before, but up till now it is perfectly functional for me in CP5 and CP5.5. And with the Properties Panel you have really precise control over the aspects you want to apply. That is why I regret the combination in the Transform accordion, because size cannot be part of a style.
— Lieve Weymeis
well, to be honest, I don't think I've really tried apply all in CP 5 - since I've never really gotten it to work before, I sort of gave up. If I have a need for it, I'll try it out! :)
— megbertapelle
5.5 doesn't work with 5! we had major issues that affected our project timeline because our contractor bought 5.5 but couldn't save down so that we could use his work. after working for 2 years to finally convince management to buy the e-learning suite, 3 months later its obsolete. crushing! when our contractor tried to exchange 5.5 for 5, he was denied, and ended up purchasing it somewhere else at a higher cost to himself.
— Kate Berumen
@Kate Captivate has never been backwards compatible. I do agree with your that this is very annoying, especially with a dot release. But besides my sympathy I cannot offer you anything else, I'm just a user like you.
— Lieve Weymeis
What I don't lke is that the userinterface for questions has changed. I wished that when I import a CP5-project I could choose wheter I want the student to see the 'old' interface, or the new interface.
— capchris
Hi, Lieve! As always, you amaze me with all the information you're able to provide. There must be five of you all named Lieve!

I think part of Susan's confusion above is a small typo in your blog entry:

"So if you still have version 5.0, please keep the original button widget, it will be functional in CP 5.0"

I think you meant will be functional in CP 5.5, right?

— Joe Ganci
Thanks, Joe for pointing out the typo. Since I posted the link to the 'refurbished' Static Button Widget with pausing, this workaround is not really necessary anymore, but I did correct this typo. BTW: there are a lot of 'Lieve's in Flanders, but not another one addicted to Captivate AFAIK.
— Lieve Weymeis
Great info, Lieve! I like that I can save my specific Hex Dec swatches without having to reenter the value every time I use the color.

When I work in Photoshop or Illustrator, I realize how simpler Adobe has made some of the same graphic editing features in Captivate 5.5!

— aliceacker
@aliceacker Thanks for the nice comment. You are so right, just longing to have direct access to Kuler in a future version of Captivate :-)
— Lieve Weymeis
On the question slides, the correct/incorrect/must answer the question popups are not objects on the timeline. I find myself constantly dragging them out of the way everytime i had a change to make underneath one. It gets pretty tedious. My biggest dislike at the moment.
— nicole_legault
Wish that Cp allowed us to group layers into subfolders like Flash does. It would make timeline organization so much easier.
— Kevin Stagg
@nicole_legault

You should use the hide tool. This would help. Click the eye to hide everything. Click next to the box your working with. Issue Solved

— bendwebsites
@bendwebsites Please if you give an answer make sure it is a correct answer. Nicole was talking about captions on a question slides. It is NOT possible to use the hide tool on the Timeline for those captions because they are NOT ON THE TIMELINE.
BTW I'm known as the advanced actions specialist in the Captivate Community :-)
— Lieve Weymeis
@Lieve Weymeis The hide tool will still help drill down to the exact button. Working with correct and incorrect she can use the arrange feature. Or as I do in a lot of cases is hold shift+> to move them in exact increments. I was not giving a incorrect or correct answer rather a tip. Before answering you should weigh attention if it is a answer or a work around. Congratulations on your title.

In my opinion, I am happy they are not in the timeline. When working with large projects on a daily basis it could really fill a timeline up. Maybe a forward or backward button/box would be a great feature to request.

— bendwebsites
@Lieve Weymeis Btw I appreciate your tutorials and am happy you stepped up to the plate to answer everything everyone else has ignored ;-) Thank you for valuable time.
— bendwebsites
@bendwebsites Still do not understand what you mean by the Hide tool, which should be activated/deactivated by the eye icon??? That eye icon is on the Timeline, but hasn't any effect on the default captions included in question slides. Perhaps you have another Captivate version, I have 4, 5 and 5.5 installed and it is the same for every version. Arrange, that allows you to send backward/forward is not working either because all default question slide objects are always on top. Only if you create your own captions and use advanced actions to show them you'll be able to use both Hide and Arrange. This is the reason for my previous answer, because I do not see this could be a tip for the question of Meg since neither the Hide, nor Arrange will help her out.
And about the shortcuts, long ago I published another blog post with all possible shortcut keys for moving and resizing objects in Captivate. And the blog post about Tiny TImeline Tidbits has another set of shortcut keys.
— Lieve Weymeis
I completely agree with the post.
generalpervaizmusharraf
— desttingwersa1983
Thank you for this great insight into using widget buttons on Master slides!
— EternalLearner
You're welcome, Linda. But now in Captivate 6, with shape buttons, a lot more functionality is available to use real interactive objects on Master slides, or timed for the rest of the project. That is the reason why I call it the most innovative feature in this new release.
— Lieve Weymeis
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