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wendyc30387856
Participant
May 9, 2017
Question

Captivate 9 Mobile Development

  • May 9, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 271 views

Hi there:

Do you have to make a project responsive to publish a mobile project via an LMS?

To clarify: Outputting to a responsive project works with our LMS and publishes to mobile. But we decided we don't want to do the mobile version now, and the thought was to build just a standard project for desktop, then later, build a standalone project for mobile. However the publish settings in a responsive project "Publish to Devices" which allows HTML5 output, are different than what is available under a standalone project.

Any help would be appreciated. Need an answer ASAP, and do not need a solicitation to solve problem for a fee.

To answer the question of what wouldn't we just do responsive, there are some things like controlling the fonts and not needing the vertical table breakpoint that led us to considering two separate versions.

Thanks in advance.

WCarmical

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2017

    Publish to Devices is for when you are trying to create an app for mobile devices that will eventually be deployed via the App Store, not for when you just want to create HTML5 output that will be uploaded to a web server or LMS.

    Unless you have a compelling reason to do Responsive, just go with normal HTML5.  It will be a lot less work and you can serve HTML5 to both desktop and mobile. 

    In my view, unless a significantly high percentage of the people you are trying to reach with this content will be trying to view it on a Smart Phone screen in Portrait orientation, you can forget about going to all the extra trouble of building a Responsive project.

    Captivate 2017 now has a new simpler approach to building for responsive using Fluid Boxes, but that approach also places a lot of restrictions on what you can do with the content.

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    May 10, 2017

    Sorry, Rod, but to avoid confusion, you have two different Publish to Devices options for responsive projects:

    1. Publish to Devices will publish a HMTL5 output
    2. Publish to Devices (app) will use PhoneGap to create a standalone app; that is the one you were pointing at, which is not the same option as the OP

    For a normal project you have indeed more Publish options, because it can also be published with a Flash-based output: SWF, exe or PDF are all Flash-based. The output 'Publish to Devices', with exception of the responsiveness of course, is the same as HTML5 output for normal projects. The biggest difference with responsive projects is that the layout will always be the same on every device. In responsive projects you can have a different (stripped down) layout for smaller browser resolutions as used on mobile phones.

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2017

    Yes you are correct that for Responsive projects there are two types of HTML5 publishing options.  I should have clarified that.

    I understood the OP's question to be more related to whether or not their organisation needed to build a responsive course at all and might in fact be better off building a simpler and less time-consuming non-responsive course instead, as long as it could still be deployed as HTML5 and therefore viewed on mobile devices.

    I find a lot of people new to Captivate seem to misunderstand what Responsive content is, and think it's the publishing option your MUST use if you intend your content to be visible on MOBILE devices.  So I usually try to make it clear that you DO NOT need Responsive content in order to be MOBILE. 

    Adobe's merchandising blurb always touts Responsive in the same phrase as Mobile so often that people think the two MUST go together, when in fact, unless you have a truly compelling reason to go to all the extra trouble required, an ordinary non-responsive project published to HTML5 might be all you really need in order to service both desktop AND mobile devices at the same time.

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