Adobe Captivate vs. Adobe Presenter

Adobe Captivate is well suited for software training. Even though we do not use the software simulation recording feature, we simulate the environment with screenshots and then roundtrip into Photoshop to make edits to a screenshot For example, they added 3 new fields and it affects 25 different slides in the course. I dummy up the 3 new fields in Photoshop, copy the layers with the new fields, flatten and save the screenshot and it's instantly updated in Abode Captivate. I then locate the next slide that needs the same new fields added and round trip into Photoshop and then I just select Paste in Place and flatten and save. The alignment is perfect and the screenshots never leave Adobe Captivate. I had a course that I had to do this to with about 25 slides and it was easy peasy.

Incentivized

Adobe Presenter interface and its complete integration with Powerpoint eliminates the need for additional training or knowledge of Flash programming.While this saves time for the more sophisticated presenter it is less useful for day to day status presentations. There is no substitute for knowing your audience

Incentivized

• Easy learning curve. Captivate makes it easy for a new user to pick it up and understand where to begin. Adobe, in general, does this very well and Captivate is no exception. When you begin using Captivate, many of the tasks to create a video come naturally as things are laid out in a way that makes sense.
• Embedding with LMS (Learning Management Systems). Adobe has made it very easy to deploy your produced video to any of the popular LMS's available. Captivate also gives you a very easy way of including a SCORM score for any quizzes that must be passed at the end of the video in order to proceed to the next video.
• Capturing Audio has never been easier. With Captivate you can easily add voice-over audio that you can record directly inside of Captivate, or import a pre-recorded audio clip. You can import sounds from other sources for effects in the video and Captivate already includes all of the commonly used sounds for mouse-clicks, error sounds, etc.

Incentivized

• It is very easy for faculty to use. Even those who have limited experience in creating online courses feel comfortable using Presenter.
• It allows our faculty to have students working in different areas at the same time so we are able to individualize our instruction to meet student needs.
• The quiz feature is fantastic to be able to quickly assess student learning to determine if they are ready to move forward.

Incentivized

• Templates. There seem to be "themes," but Adobe Captivate has a terrible time saving any sort of object preferences which makes it really difficult when a set of courses need to follow branding guidelines. I have to create a basic course and set up all my colors and whatnot and start every course using that.
• Ease of use. It is like pulling teeth sometimes to get Adobe Captivate to do things. You may be able to get it to do it, but it'll be like a dozen or more steps which make creating courses incredibly tedious.
• A bigger focus on software simulation. Adobe Captivate isn't designed for simulation, I get that, and I am happy it does as much as it does. However, it could be better to capture actions and things within a program. For instance, click and drag options and hot-key combinations.

Incentivized

• I feel it is a bit overpriced. That may be because of the Adobe name.
• Our team has experienced a few technical issues over time which sometimes limit our use of the software.
• Limited features available for our macOS users.

Incentivized

We have hundreds of courses that were created in Adobe Captivate. It will take us a while to convert to Articulate. We'll need a license for another year and/or until Adobe comes out with a true update to the software.

Incentivized

My company is pretty invested in the Adobe ecosystem and is unlikely to change that in the foreseeable future. Also, Adobe Presenter is a very valuable tool and, with the new subscription model and the pricing we have, a relatively modest expense now. It's also fairly easy to learn and use, so it is starting to spread beyond the sphere of the various Learning & Development departments.

Incentivized

Adobe Captivate does take some getting used to. There are features that are much more convoluted than they need to be, but overall it is a great product with a some excellent features. Being in a pretty small market, Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline dominate the space. They are not the same software, but allow for eLearning authoring. Each has their benefit and their downside, but, for me, Adobe Captivate edges out Storyline.

Incentivized

For all of the reasons I mentioned earlier. Overall, it's quite easy to create basic presentations with and to publish output with, either to an Adobe server, an LMS, or, I think, as stand-alone module. But there are some areas for improvement and better in-product help and explanations would be helpful, as well.

Incentivized

It is easy to access since it is an added tool to the Powerpoint program. We have not had complaints from faculty members regarding not having it available when they need it.

Incentivized

Due to the aforementioned issues with Flash, it can be discouraging to get to the publishing stage and begin receiving error messages. Once we are able to move past that issue, we have great success with the performance of Adobe Presenter.

Incentivized

It is difficult to get in touch with Adobe Captivate support. With a seemingly limited number of resources, mostly outsourced, getting in contact with someone to help troubleshoot an issue is challenging. Typically wait times are long, and the desired path to resolution is to use an existing knowledge base or a self-help guide. It is certainly not a user-friendly experience.

Incentivized

I think I pretty much answered this earlier....premium support is extremely expensive and online support can be difficult to navigate. Although, to be fair, when it comes to Presenter (compared to, say, Captivate), there isn't too frequent a need for support, since Presenter is a rather simple tool to use

Incentivized

I'm only aware of the problems Adobe Captivate had with SumTotal LMS and Upside LMS, requiring extensive contact with both internal and external support staff to fix the problems. We had no problems at all with Articulate.

Incentivized

While Captivate has some awesome niche features for some circumstances, currently it cannot beat the ease of use with Storyline. Whether it's content, variables, quizes, etc. things are just "easier" in Storyline. Even something as simple as triggering an event when the timeline reaches a certain point. We continue to keep Captivate and Storyline because we're hoping it Captivate will continue building its integration with other Adobe apps and become our and the industry standard.

Incentivized

To recap, it falls short in the quality of the deliverables compared to some others. That said, it is well within acceptable range for many learning environments and audiences. It also is significantly more flexible and affordable than anything else. If I had only one e-learning solution to pick, this would be the one. It is, in fact, my "Go to" solution most of the time..

Incentivized

The program still seems to rely heavily on Adobe Flash even though the online community is moving away from it. When publishing, users will experience error messages regarding Flash, which can make it difficult to complete your work.

Incentivized

• Adobe Captivate has allowed our instructors to engage students in ways we never have before.
• Instructors who have used Adobe Captivate in our organization have reported higher levels of engagement with their courses and their students, theoretically leading to improved assessment of student performance.

Incentivized

• Been central system for learning about the Products within the Organization.
• Assessments can be taken multiple times and the questions remains the same, no changes on the pattern as well making it easy to copy from other attempts.
• Single platform for all the learning so didn't have to go around multiple places looking for answers.

Incentivized