Adobe Captivate: The Essentials & Beyond (2026 Edition)
Master Adobe Captivate and create professional, responsive eLearning—no previous experience required.
This hands-on, step-by-step workbook guides you through the essential skills needed to build modern eLearning projects using Adobe Captivate 13. You’ll learn how to work with responsive layouts, add interactivity, record software simulations, generate AI-driven narration and avatars, design quizzes, and publish SCORM-compliant content for your LMS. Packed with real-world tasks, clear explanations, and confidence-building exercises, this book is your complete classroom-in-a-book for Captivate development.
Adobe Captivate: The Essentials & Beyond (2016 Edition)
A Complete, Practical Guide from a Leading Captivate Expert
This is your personal, self-paced classroom in a book—and the perfect pathway to mastering Adobe Captivate.
After downloading the free book assets from the IconLogic website, you’ll begin by opening an existing Captivate project and exploring how it’s structured. You’ll learn the interface, discover how the workspace is organized, and get familiar with Captivate’s streamlined design environment. Once you understand the layout and workflow, you’ll transition into building a complete warehouse safety course from scratch.
Along the way, you’ll practice importing PowerPoint presentations, explore generative AI features that accelerate development, and work with Captivate’s modern avatar tools. You’ll add slides, text, images, and videos; record, import, and edit audio; and even generate audio with text-to-speech.
You’ll engage learners by adding interactivity with clickable boxes, buttons, data-entry fields, quizzes, and more. You’ll also work with powerful features such as never-ending slides, object actions and triggers, system and user variables, conditional triggers, states, drag-and-drop widgets, and random quizzes.
Accessibility best practices are covered as well—you’ll add closed captions, accessibility text, and alt text. You’ll learn how to set up a shared review so you can collaborate with stakeholders who don’t use Captivate. When it’s time to publish, you’ll produce HTML content that learners can access from desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
You’ll also learn the basics of SCORM and how to prepare your output so that quiz results report correctly to a Learning Management System.
And just when you think Captivate can’t get any more powerful, you’ll dive into software simulation features—recording screen actions, creating software demonstrations, and building interactive simulations that truly elevate your eLearning.
Important Notes: This book does not include Adobe Captivate. The software must be downloaded from Adobe’s website and is subject to Adobe’s license agreement. Install Captivate before starting the activities. This book supports the new Adobe Captivate. It does not support older versions of Adobe Captivate or Adobe Captivate Classic (also known as Adobe Captivate 2019).
Included assets:
- Adobe Captivate project files, images, videos, audio files, and other assets to get started (download the files from the IconLogic website)
- Dozens of step-by-step, hands-on activities
- Confidence Checks to challenge your new skills
- Hundreds of supporting screenshots
Contents
Preface
- Education Through Pictures, page 2
- RoboDemo to Captivate, page 3
- Planning eLearning Projects, page 4
- eLearning Development Phases, page 6
- eLearning Level of Effort, page 7
- Designing Slides in Captivate, page 9
- Fonts and eLearning, page 10
Say Hello to Captivate
- The Adobe Captivate Interface, page 16
- Guided Activity 1: Explore an Existing Captivate Project, page 16
- Previewing, page 21
- Guided Activity 2: Preview a Project, page 21
- Previewing Confidence Check, page 22
- Guided Activity 2: Preview a Project, page 21
- Soft Skills eLearning, page 24
- Guided Activity 3: Create a New Project and Add a Background Image, page 24
- Slides Confidence Check, page 30
- Guided Activity 4: Add a Text Block to a Slide, page 31
- Guided Activity 5: Modify a Text Style Preset, page 33
- Text Components Confidence Check, page 35
- Guided Activity 3: Create a New Project and Add a Background Image, page 24
- Buttons and Themes, page 36
- Guided Activity 6: Add a Button and Set an Action, page 36
- Guided Activity 7: Edit a Theme, page 38
- Buttons Confidence Check, page 40
- Infinite Slides, page 42
- Guided Activity 8: Create an Infinite Slide, page 42
Videos, Images, and Audio
- Videos, page 46
- Guided Activity 9: Insert a Video, page 46
- Videos Confidence Check, page 52
- Guided Activity 9: Insert a Video, page 46
- Images, page 53
- Guided Activity 10: Insert an Image Grid, page 53
- Images Confidence Check, page 57
- Guided Activity 10: Insert an Image Grid, page 53
- Image Accessibility Text, page 59
- Guided Activity 11: Add Accessibility Text to an Image, page 60
- Image Accessibility Text Confidence Check, page 60
- Guided Activity 11: Add Accessibility Text to an Image, page 60
- Importing Audio, page 61
- Guided Activity 12: Import Background Music, page 61
- Recording and Replacing Audio, page 63
- Guided Activity 13: Record Voiceover Audio, page 64
- Text-to-Speech, page 68
- Guided Activity 14: Generate Text-to-Speech, page 68
- Guided Activity 15: Edit Audio, page 70
- Guided Activity 16: Replace Slide Audio, page 71
- Replace Audio Confidence Check, page 72
- Closed Captions, page 73
- Guided Activity 17: Add Closed Captions to a Video, page 75
- Video Closed Captions Confidence Check, page 77
- Guided Activity 18: Add Closed Captions to Audio, page 78
- Closed Captions Confidence Check, page 79
- Guided Activity 17: Add Closed Captions to a Video, page 75
- Slide Accessibility, page 82
- Guided Activity 19: Add Slide Accessibility Text, page 83
- Slide Accessibility Text Confidence Check, page 84
- Guided Activity 19: Add Slide Accessibility Text, page 83
States, Animations, Timing, Variables, and Widgets
- States, page 86
- Guided Activity 20: Change Button States, page 86
- Animations, page 88
- Guided Activity 21: Add a Hover Interaction, page 88
- Animations Confidence Check, page 89
- Guided Activity 21: Add a Hover Interaction, page 88
- Timing, page 90
- Guided Activity 22: Control Slide and Object Timing, page 90
- Confidence Check, page 92
- Guided Activity 22: Control Slide and Object Timing, page 90
- System Variables, page 93
- Guided Activity 23: Review Available System Variables, page 93
- Guided Activity 24: Reference a System Variable, page 94
- User Variables, page 95
- Guided Activity 25: Create a User Variable, page 95
- Guided Activity 26: Add and Format an Input Field, page 96
- Guided Activity 27: Reference a User Variable, page 98
- Variables Confidence Check, page 98
- Widgets, page 100
- Guided Activity 28: Insert and Format a Widget, page 100
- Drag and drop Widget Confidence Check, page 104
- Guided Activity 28: Insert and Format a Widget, page 100
Conditional Actions and Quizzing
- Conditional Actions, page 106
- Guided Activity 29: Create an Object State, page 106
- Guided Activity 30: Create a Conditional Action, page 109
- Quizzing, page 112
- Guided Activity 31: Set the Quiz Preferences, page 112
- Guided Activity 32: Insert a Multiple Choice Question Slide, page 114
- Guided Activity 33: Edit a Question Slide, page 116
- Quiz Confidence Check, page 118
- Random Quizzes, page 120
- Guided Activity 34: Import Quiz Questions from a CSV File, page 120
- Guided Activity 35: Move Questions to a Question Pool, page 121
- Quiz Confidence Check, page 123
Reviewing and Publishing
- Share For Review, page 126
- Guided Activity 36: Share a project for review, page 126
- TOCs and the Playbar, page 129
- Guided Activity 37: Label Slides, page 129
- Guided Activity 38: Modify the Playbar, page 131
- HTML Output, page 132
- Guided Activity 39: Publish as HTML, page 132
- Publishing LMS-Ready Output, page 136
- Guided Activity 40: Enable LMS Reporting, page 137
- Manifest Files, page 139
- Guided Activity 41: Configure the Manifest File, page 139
- Content Packages, page 141
- Guided Activity 42: Publish a SCORM Content Package, page 141
Software Simulations
- Screen Recording Rehearsals, page 144
- Guided Activity 43: Rehearse a Screen Recording, page 145
- Guided Activity 44: Review Recording Settings, page 146
- Multimode Recordings, page 149
- Guided Activity 45: Review Recording Modes, page 149
- Guided Activity 46: Record a Simulation Using Multiple Modes, page 152
- Panning, page 156
- Guided Activity 47: Record a Panning Software Simulation, page 156
- Software Simulation Confidence Check, page 157
- Guided Activity 47: Record a Panning Software Simulation, page 156
- Editing Software Simulations, page 159
- Guided Activity 48: Change the Pointer Appearance, page 159
- Guided Activity 49: Change the Pointer Path, page 160
- Pointer Path Confidence Check, page 161
- Guided Activity 50: Edit Click Box Captions and Presets, page 162
- Failure Caption Confidence Check, page 165
PowerPoint and Avatars
- PowerPoint and Captivate, page 168
- Guided Activity 51: Review a PowerPoint File, page 168
- Guided Activity 52: Import a PowerPoint Presentation, page 169
- Avatars, page 170
- Guided Activity 53: Generate an Avatar and Add AI Audio, page 170
- Guided Activity 54: Change the Appearance of an Avatar, page 173
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