Captivate 9 Mobile Development

Report · May 09, 2017

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

Report · May 09, 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.

Report · May 10, 2017

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

Publish to Devices will publish a HMTL5 output
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.

Report · 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.

Report · May 10, 2017

I understand your point of view, Rod. Since you read (sometimes) my blog, you'll know that I always warn against 'hypes' and 'marketing' people. For the rare output that is suitable for desktop, tablet and phones (from a pedagogical point of view) I see the advantage of responsive projects because you can create a different layout for smaller resolutions, and take into account differences between portrait and landscape mode. However, I always warn clients that development of responsive projects takes at least twice (probably more) the development time, and that they have to provide a lot more time for testing as well.

The new Fluid Boxes can be useful but only in very specific situations if you don't care a lot about losing control. I see them useful for text heavy (text resizing works fine) and simple projects, where design is not very important.

Maybe my point of view will change when I have more experience with Fluid Boxes, which are new to every Captivate user. In that case I will certainly blog again.

Two weeks with Captivate 2017 | eLearning

Report · May 10, 2017

Hi Lilybiri: I wrote my full answer to you and Rod via his comment, but wanted to acknowledge you as well. I also read your blog and really appreciate the shared knowledge. Thank you.

Report · May 10, 2017

Can I tell you both Rod and Lilybiri how I am delighted to get some real answers. Thank you both so much! What a relief.

I'm unable to upgrade to 2017 at this time as I work for a larger organization and we are not upgrading to the new ios yet.

It wasn't clear to me, if I could just do a standalone (what I'm calling a non-responsive) because I've generally publish to computer with the swf setting. So I now know I can confidently do this as a standalone, selecting only HTML5 when I publish a zip, and maybe or maybe not having scalable html5, probably not.

Yay! and Whew. Thanks again.