Adobe Captivate 8 - How to Remember Project Custom Swatches

[karolcholewa]

Is there a way to replace default swatches with custom swatches 'permanently', for example by embedding them in a template? I've created a template with my custom swatches but it doesn't seem to be a solution. Captivate loads the swatches panel with default swatches each time I create a new file or open an existing project.

[Lilybiri]

Save them as an ASE. Former Kuler, now Adobe Color palette.

[karolcholewa]

My apologies, but I wasn't precise enough. Let me clarify.

I have an .ASE file. I load it to my project to replace the default colors.

The problem is, Captivate makes me load it each time I launch the program. It does not 'remember' my workspace with settings - in this particular case, the colors from the ASE pallet. I always open or create a file from template with the default swatches.

In Adobe Illustrator for example, templates store data about fonts, panels, symbols, graphic styles, and color swatches you set for the current template project. How to achieve it in Captivate?

[Lilybiri]

I know, the whole color work flow in Captivate is bit mysterious, and most users don't bother about it.  The swatches panel was almost not used in CP7. I ended up by creating my own swatches in the scratch area of a project if colors were important, and I believe consistency in colors is important, don't misunderstand me.

Now it has improved a little bit, but I'm still trying to figure out the best work flow. You are right, I should expect to be able to save my swatches panel either with a workspace, or within the Preferences, or if you want within the Object Style manager. But Captivate has not even a foreground/background color button, it used to have two color buttons in the vertical toolbox that they banned from the present version

With each new project I try to find out a better way to manage colors, but still didn't succeed. And you are very rare, there are almost never questions about color management. Glad I'm not alone anymore.

What I'm doing at this moment, is transfer 10 colors to a theme color palette from the swatches panel. Those 10 colors are also bit of a mystery. Some are used in the provided themes, some not. And the names don't correspond always with the objects they are used for (Subtitle is not used for subtitles, to give one example). But those theme colors, when applied to the theme, will result in changes of some object styles (not all...another question mark) and they are mostly available when a color dialog box pops up. I say mostly, they will for Fill, Stroke and Gradient colors, for some learning interactions but not for all. The 'tints' are based on the theme colors, color 4 is a theme color, color 5 is darker, the first three are lighter. That provides me in total 50 tints based on the theme colors.

A template is really a bridge too far, at least if you use that word as it is meant in Captivate for a cptl file, because I see the word template used for a lot of files, even for themes and almost never for a template.

Your theme color palette will be saved in the workspace, can be reused for any theme. And if you edit also the Object styles, those that are not yet adapting the to theme colors and the Skin you can save that theme as a custom theme and reuse it later for any project, of the same kind. Because themes for responsive projects can be used for normal projects but not the other way.

Sorry for that long answer, still not satisfied with it, just the result of my personal exploration. A blog post about that is not really worthwhile since almost nobody seems to care about colors. When consulting or repairing projects I do see more overridden styles than normal ones.

Lilybiri

[karolcholewa]

Thanks for elaborating on this subject. I've used Adobe Creative suite for some time and I take all the user experience benefits that Adobe Systems spoils users with for granted.

Currently, I work on a set of corporate e-learning courses, with precise branding guidelines. A selected pallet of colors is an integral part of corporate identity, thus my concern about improved workflow for Captivate users.

Yes, I can deal with it and won't waste an awful amount of time to load my swatches each time I open a project. I am sure that the astute Captivate team will utilize the 64-bit platform smartly and add this functionality with upcoming updates.

[RodWard]

Personally I find it more useful to forget about the colour palette in Captivate and just set up my own swatches using small smart shape squares situated in the scrap area of on one of the early slides in the project.  I set them all to time for Rest of Project so that they are then visible on all slides throughout the entire project file.  Whenever I need to use a particular colour, I can just sample it from the scrap area.

[Lilybiri]

Rod, that was my work flow until CP8. Now theme colors can perfectly replace those custom swatches.

[Barbara Ash]

Karolcholewa,

The only way to make your colors 'permanent' in a project is to create and apply a Theme to your project. I think that is what Lilybiri was expressing.

Create your custom colors, set up your object styles, and choose Save Theme from the Themes menu. Your custom theme will appear in the Themes button icon drop down list (along with the default themes). Your theme will include your custom colors, and you can quickly apply it to any project.

Rod's method is a clever workaround and I think it is useful, depending on your workflow, even with the 'improved' (but far from perfect) color handling in version 8.

[Lilybiri]

No, Barbara, that was not what I meant at all: I was talking about using 'theme colors', which is not the same as applying a theme. You can use a theme colors palette for any theme, but you have first to create it of course. And it is possible to do it starting with a custom palette created in the Swatch Manager, although the work flow is a bit confusing. For that reason, and the gap in the Help about color management, I created a first blog post about color management. It was not possible to squeeze everything in one article:

Colorful 2015 with Adobe Captivate - Captivate blog

I think this has a lot of advantages over Rod's old work flow (which I used as well before CP8) because you have the theme color palettes available all the time (XML-files) and do not have to start from a template. Do not forget that if you work with responsive projects, you'll need another template then for the normal projects. This is my personal opinion, I know that Rod doesn't agree. As an Adobe Color user on all devices, I appreciate the way you can now deduct a Theme Colors palette from a Color scheme (ase).

[Barbara Ash]

Thanks, Lilybiri, for clarifying, and for blogging about this issue.