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kstvs
kstvs
Participant
May 1, 2016
Question

What should I buy? Captivate, presenter, presenter video express?

  • May 1, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 352 views

Hi

I am looking into buying captivate. I was wondering about presenter and screen recording.

If I buy captivate, do I need presenter at all? What extra functionality will it bring? I have some PPTS which could be useful, but mostly I guess we will be designing from scratch in captivate, which I would guess would be a better design environment.

And next, do I need presenter video express? I guess this is for making screen casts. Does captivate include this? For sure we will be making screencasts for software use and features such as zoom, pan, highlight, annotate will be good.

Thanks for anyone's advice with using these products.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    May 1, 2016

    You can use Captivate for PPT import, but that is certainly not its 'best' feature. If your goal is to convert a lot of PPT's, I would indeed recommend a PPT-converter. Adobe Presenter is such a plug-in that converts a PPT and adds some features like quizzing (as is iSpring and Articulate Presenter).

    Captivate is IMO the best tool for software tutorials. It has a feature  Video Demo which will produce pure video like Video Express. Moreover it allows you to create more interactive software tutorials, which is not possible with Video Express. However: if you want a very simple way to have a video that combines a view on the presenter and on the screen capture at the same time, Video Express is the way to go. Video Demo in Captivate has a dedicated Video Editor that allows a lot of editing, but it is not as simple. And combining with a 'talking head' - which is possible - will take more time in Captivate Video Demo than in Video Express.

    This is just my opinion. I am not using Presenter myself (anymore), did in the past.

    kstvs
    kstvsAuthor
    Participant
    May 3, 2016

    Hi Lily

    Thanks for your answer and help.

    I should explain that I will need captivate anyway as I want to make eLearning apps with tests, animation, sound etc.

    I was mostly wondering if I buy Captivate, if I then need to buy presenter or presenter video too.

    One of the things we will need is some video screencasts of software being used, so are all the features of video express (in some way) available in video presenter?

    And if I can import PPT in captivate, that sounds good enough for now.

    Basically, if I get captivate, which I will, do I gain anything buy also buying presenter or video presenter?

    RodWard
    Community Expert
    RodWardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 3, 2016

    I have both Captivate and Presenter.  I use Captivate all the time, but never use the PPT plugin side of Presenter. 

    I wanted Presenter purely for the Adobe Presenter Video Express app.  I prefer using it to Captivate's own Video Demo because the Video Express app allows me to easily build video tutorials that show both the presenter (via web cam) and the screencapture at the same time.

    If Captivate's video demo did that, I would not need Presenter at all.

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