Desire to purchase Captivate 2017

Most of the functionality in Captivate 2019 hasn't changed at all.  Just ignore the bits you don't want to use.

If you are overwhelmed, try to remember that Captivate is the leading professional authoring tool for e-learning.  That makes it the 500-pound gorilla of the market.  If you want to wrestle with it and come off victorious, you have to be willing to invest a lot of time, energy and determination.  But the rewards are definitely there if you do.

In my experience those that feel overwhelmed with Captivate have not taken full advantage of all the documentation and training materials that exist for this product.  They expect to be just able to pick it up by trial and error. That's just not realistic. There is SO much to learn withing Captivate's deeper functionality that very few people would be capable of gaining a good grasp of this app without investing time and money in tuition or training.

The kind souls on this forum that offer assistance to less experienced users should NOT be viewed as a replacement for the formal training required to become a proficient developer.

And as for the cost of the product itself: If you are considering purchasing the standalone license instead of the subscription you should seriously reconsider. The standalone price is OBVIOUSLY intended to dissuade any sensible person from buying it that way. It's nearly FOUR times the cost of subscription pricing, which makes no sense because new versions of Captivate come out every year or so.  Why pay so much for something that would be out of date in a year or so?

On the other hand, the monthly subscription IS more than fair.  An entire year's subscription for Captivate would only equate to a day or two's earnings for a professional e-learning developer.  There are very few industries where you can buy all the tools you need to earn a very good living for about the same cost as a restaurant meal each month. And if you're an employee, your company would have paid for the subscription anyway, so it might as well be free.