Participating Frequently

Question

Why was the Project Charm announcement and beta blog removed from Adobe's website?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 3, 2022
8 replies
5330 views

It was scrubbed yesterday with zero communication to current Captivate customers and interested beta participants.

Is it dead? Delayed? What? Literally, just say something.

This topic has been closed for replies.

andrewg76970232

Known Participant

Adobe announced this WAY too early. I mean come on - it was 3 1/2 years ago now.

I started using Articulate Storyline 12 months back, and honestly - it's just better software than the current version of captivate. Plus they have a team that actually respond to requests and communicate with their users. In stark contrast - the communication of the captivate team has always been extremely poor, and within eLearning circles they are known for this. I honestly feel they have damaged their reputation.

I still use captivate for clients that simply won't move to storyline. For everyone else - I have recommended making the switch.

Brandon Menneke

Inspiring

Is there any update if this project is still alive? Looking at sofwares for eLearning and Storyline and Lectora are absolutely terrible for being stuck in the past and only supporting windows machines.

RodWard

Community Expert

Yes, Project Charm is ongoing and updates were recently shown to the Community at an Adobe conference. However, there is still no release date for the app. Captivate 2019 (11.8) is still the latest version you can use.

Brandon Menneke

Inspiring

I saw they had the annoumcent earlier this fall but then saw reports that Charm was scrubbed from the Adobe site. Is this validation of still in development coming from Adobe/Adobe staff? Just want to give some backing behind this as we are in the process of making a decision soon.

C

craig_kasnoff

Inspiring

Well I've pretty much said everything I can say about the "pending" Captivate Charm release...but on another topic...which is kind of sort of related...has anyone noticed that Adobe is charging $499 for the Adobe Learning Summit being held in Las Vegas in October 2022?

Event Details:
Adobe Learning Summit
Venue: The Mirage, Las Vegas, USA
Dates: October 4th – 6th, 2022
Price: $499 $299 (Early bird pricing*)

My recollection is that when they last held the Summit in 2019 it was free (which is when and where I was Adobe Captivate certified) I did go back to confirm this was the case; and according to my research it was free in 2019.

So what's with that? $0 to $499 in three years? And I thought the price of gas and food was soaring.

I actually tried to post this question in the initial announcement but my post was "blocked" (it even said that in the header of the post : ) So I thought I might as well post it here as it just adds to the question about how Adobe is treating its eLearning customers these days.

Here is the information I researched about the 2019 Adobe Learning Summit.

FROM THE ADOBE WEBSITE:

https://blogs.connectusers.com/adobeconnect/2019/09/join-us-at-adobe-learning-summit.html

September 16, 2019 /Events /Uncategorized / Alistair Lee

The Adobe Connect team is excited to be participating at Adobe Learning Summit again this year and we’d love for you to join us in Las Vegas for this fantastic event which brings industry leaders and practitioners together to share insights and learn from each other.

In addition to participating in the “What’s New” general session, the Adobe Connect team is managing a Virtual Learning track with some great topics. I wanted to take an opportunity in this blog post to include the titles and descriptions for each of the sessions.

We hope to see you there. It’s completely free to attend, so register today!

J

Jacob Hokland

Inspiring

Btw. I can't see anywhere that the 22 Summit has been announced in here as the previous ones.
For me, no news, is bad news. I think Adobe is milking the cow before the end of CP life. Instead people must jump to Adobe Learning Manager.

The best way to chain your customers is by Cloud, cloud, cloud and sit on the data.

Adobe knows there are to many things that will end op not working if you use a client based tool to build HTML5 interactive projects. Different browsers with security updates, Apple and Windows updates, iOS and Android limitations. You don't see many Web App tools that are not build for specific servers. And your browser can only compile Javascript without installing a plugin.

/Jacob

Paul Wilson CTDP

Community Expert

Hi Jacob. The Adobe Learning Summit was announced over in the Adobe eLearning Community. Events such as the Learning Summit are less of a user forum topic and more about marketing which the eLearning Community does. Here is the link to the Adobe Learning Summit in October 2022: https://adobe-learning-summit.elearning.adobeevents.com/

You will notice that an event called the Project Charm test kitchen is announced on day two. Sounds to me like they are moving forward with Project Charm after some not-so-surprising delays. It isn't uncommon in the software industry to encounter delays. I suspect that since Adobe Captivate is available on Mac and PC, some of these delays may be related to the changes in the macOS world. I prefer Adobe gets it right rather than rush to market with buggy software. Their only mistake was perhaps announcing the new release earlier than they should.

Paul Wilson, CTDP

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chrisw8211277

Participating Frequently

Literally, just say something.
By @Brian Stevenson

This is all I've been asking for as well. Apparently even that is asking too much.

S

Suroky5

Known Participant

I am presently waiting for this 'Charm' update due to my employer wanting to completely redesign all their old lessons. However, I am stuck with Captivate due to sensitive materal and cannot use a competitors cloud based platfrom. I did upload this 'rant' earlier due to my 3-year frustration with Adobe Captivate and how behind it is compared to Adobes other software and the competition. However, I doubt it will be accepted so I pasted below.

According to GMI the E-Learning Market size surpassed USD 315 billion in 2021 and is projected to observe 20% CAGR from 2022 to 2028. Yet Adobe, who have created some of the best software for designers and developers on a range of products, seems to have completely lost track of the main eLearning platform that is Captivate.

Now, many other multimedia designers and companies are stuck with Captivate, due to the fact it can be used for sensitive material for defence, health etc and not cloud-based like Articulate. If I could, I would use Articulate in a heartbeat as this software is years ahead of Captivate in its design - Yet, ironically Adobe have had years to catch up with Articulate.

If anyone else has had the pleasure to use Adobes other products like XD, InDesign, After Effects etc, then they will know how well designed they are, look extremely modern with fantastic integration with other Adobe software. So, the talent is there at Adobe to build a good eLearning authoring tool. Adobe have been lagging behind storyline for years and we are stuck with an outdated product that looks like it was designed in the 90s and it shows.

It seems like Adobe need to put more money and manpower into eLearning and stop dragging their feet. Utilise other developers and their skillset from projects like XD and an implement that style into the next Captivate. We have all been crying for 'Project Charm' for a while now, yet I have reservations that it will show up this year and still be outdated and clunky compared to Adobes other software and the competition. On the other hand, Adobe were ahead of the game by including 360 imagery etc, so there is hope. ELearning will grow in the near future, so please Adobe, start to address this software and you will see a surge of developers move back to Captivate.

Paul Wilson CTDP

Community Expert

I admit that Adobe was probably premature in announcing Project Charm, but I still use Adobe Captivate 11 daily. I don't seem to struggle to create engaging and interactive eLearning for my clients using the current release. What features do you feel are missing from Adobe Captivate 11 that you feel Adobe Captivate 12 will improve your ability to deliver eLearning to your organization? For that matter, what's missing in Captivate that competitors like Articulate, Lectora, and iSpring have? I'm serious. I want to know what isn't there in Captivate. I'm happy that the Adobe team is taking their time to ensure they get this release right. I would hate if they rushed something to market just because the current product is tied to an older release date of 2019.

Paul Wilson, CTDP

C

craig_kasnoff

Inspiring

Considering the Adobe Captivate team announced it in 2019 at the Las Vegas Education Summit, yeah, I'd say it was a bit premature : )

There is something to be said about both points of view here; it does seem Adobe is "dragging their feet" on this launch, and yet Captivate still provides some serious tools to author solid eLearning experiences.

My issues are two. First, I am not sure how much time I should spend going "deep" into learning the current version of Captivate not knowing what new tools will be available in the next launch. From what I remember (from September 2019) the new version of Captivate will have some very innovative and intuitive tools available for authoring. So how much time should I be spending learning the current version rather than spending that time on going deep on Premiere Pro or Audition or some of the other Adobe products I also need to learn for eLearning authoring. I mean how many developers spent a lot of time learning how to use the 3D tools in Photoshop (including me) only to have that tool taken away. So that part is a little frustrating.

The second thing is the lack of communication from the Adobe Captivate team. Agreed that from 2019 to 2021 there were a lot of reasons the new Captivate release could have been slowed down. My world and productivity certainly slowed down during the pandemic. But then, after the Captivate team makes the most recent announcement about the "Charming" version of Captivate, they go silent. That announcement was over seven months ago and there has been no communications from the Captivate team about the product either positive or negative.

Now perhaps I am a bit more sensitive about this since my background is in communication, but I think it only "considerate “that since Adobe has "made the announcement and set the expectations" for its users, it should take the responsibility for that announcement and stay in touch with the user base about the products development. I certainly couldn't tell a client that I had a new version of their website that I would shortly show them (and get them all excited) and then just disappear without any communications at all. That would not be the right way to treat a client. And I don't think the Adobe Captivate has taken enough responsibility for their announcement to their clients by keeping them in the loop about either the progress, or the lack of progress for the next version launch.

All that being said, I will continue to work with the current version of Captivate until the new version is released, or until I get tired of waiting for it to be released and just move on to another eLearning authoring tool.

The good news is there are other options for those who have already reached their breaking point. It doesn't mean it will be easy (or cheap) to move on, but that is simply the choice.

And call me crazy for thinking this, but my guess is Adobe doesn't really care how many of their current Captivate users get frustrated and leaves for another eLearning authoring tool. Adobe is just a large corporation churning out some (amazing) design products in order to makes lots and lots of money. And the reality is no matter how many of the current Captivate users get frustrated and leave for another eLearning authoring tool, Adobe will just market their new version to new users and just get on with making lots and lots of money.

It's the world we live in.

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craig_kasnoff

Inspiring

Interestingly enough, none of the links to the Captivate learning videos in the Adobe eLearning Hub https://elearning.adobe.com/learning_hub/ are working. If you click on ANY of the link options (Getting Started with Captivate; Add Objects; etc.) alls it does is go to a blank page with a search box. Curioser and curiouser.

C

craig_kasnoff

Inspiring

And that would be curiouser and curiouser (misspelled the first one and surprised I got the second one right).

Lilybiri

Legend

Portal often has issues, don't know why it is not managed more professional.

Try again, it works for me now.

Paul Wilson CTDP

Community Expert

I'm just a user like you so I don't have definite answers to your questions. Presently, Project Charm is in private beta where select users have been invited to look at and experiment with this early build. At some point, it will transition to a public beta where everyone will have access to a future build and offer their feedback. I don't know why the post was removed but probably to reduce the number of people reaching out with requests to participate in the beta.

Paul Wilson, CTDP

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chrisw8211277

Participating Frequently

This seems like kind of an optimistic take, given Adobe's approach to communication on this long overdue product offering. Months have passed since the announcement of the private beta, and still nothing has been communicated about future steps. The scrubbing of all mention of Project Charm from the update page without replacing it nearly 2 months later is kind of ominous. I hope you are right that the project is still underway, but I could also see them walking away from Captivate, which would be a severe drag, in my opinion.