About Planning Projects - Adobe 65029940 - Captivate - PC User Manual

CHAPTER 3
24
Creating projects

About planning projects

You can start recording Adobe Captivate projects right away using the default settings, but it may be helpful to do
a little planning and customize some recording settings.
Using Adobe Captivate, you can create a simple project quickly or you can create a more sophisticated project with
images, background music, animation, Flash Videos, voice-over narration (with closed captioning), and detailed
captions.
No matter what kind of project you want to create, it is helpful to do some planning before you start taking screen-
shots. Consider first what you want the user to do, learn, or achieve as a result of viewing your project. Defining
this goal allows you to create a comprehensive plan for success. Once you have defined the action you want the
audience to take, you can create the "core" of the project.
When you are ready to begin drafting project content, you can do so using storyboards or scripts.
Storyboards are rough sketches that show the contents of each slide in your project. If you rely heavily on pure
screenshots in your project (without many captions or explanatory text), a storyboard may be the best foundation
for your project.
You can use Adobe Captivate to create storyboards. Record a "rough" version of your project, add some blank
slides where appropriate, and then publish the project as handouts. You can include from one to nine slides per
page and add blank lines for notes.
Scripts use text-based pages. They are similar to pages in a book: logical, sequential, and containing as much detail
as you care to provide. If your project includes a great deal of text (captions), a script may be the best place to
begin.
When planning projects, remember to consider adding the following elements:
•
Title page
•
Credits page
•
Copyright page
•
Opening/closing graphic or splash screen
•
Sound, including narration, music, or sound effects
•
Images
•
Animated text
•
Interactive boxes