Creating and distributing downloadable elearning content

[BilalKat]

Hi

I want to create multimedia, interactive downloadable ebooks that contain audio and video content. After much research, I realise that Captivate is an awesome tool that can produce exactly what I need, but I need some advice from someone who actually creates multimedia ebooks with Captivate. Specifically, I need to know:

1. What format is best to output into to allow my ebooks to be used offline across all platforms (iOS, Android, Mac, PC)?

2. Based on the above, where can I sell my ebooks that actually support the above format? Does Amazon support it, or should I sell from my own website, or where?

Thank you

[Lilybiri]

Oops, I am busy writing an ebook about Captivate but would never dream about using Captivate for it? I'm using InDesign, publish to a fixed layout ePub which can be read on quite a lot of tablets and PC, if the correct reader is available. In that format you can embed video,audio,  create links, have small animations, but not the interactive content that can be created with Captivate. However to publish on Amazon, you'll have to convert the ePub to their proprietary format and that is a lot of work. Moreover it is much more limited in supporting that 'fixed layout' ePub. An interactive pdf is a solution, but only for PC, because reading it requires the installation of Flash Player and Adobe Reader.

[BilalKat]

Thank you very much for the response - this is exactly the type of guidelines I need, and I appreciate your input.

I have a few questions, if you can please take some time to answer them for me:

1. Do you intend to sell your book, and if so, where (which website) do intend to sell it, and in what format? As you rightly suggest, I do not think Amazon is an option because they do not support Epub3, and even if you convert to their format, there is limited support - your multimedia might not work.

2. Do you have concerns about people pirating your work, and if so, what measures are you planning to put into place? As you saw in a previous forum post, I am very concerned about it.

3. I know this is more a discussion than a simple question, but what are your reasons for choosing InDesign over Captivate?

I look forward to your responses.

Thank you

[Lilybiri]

I will publish to Amazon, because they have the largest reach and that

takes also care of protection, your third questiion.

I do not use a screwdriver to cut meat, that explains my choice for ID to

create an ebook.

[Mr Fossy]

Hi BilalKat,

Lilybiri has captured the gist of it: InDesign is suited to authoring, editing, laying out and publishing print and ebook content; Captivate is for making eLearning content.

The list of differences between the two would be simply staggering, so here's just a few:

• Captivate doesn't come close to having the text formatting features you'd need for laying out this kind of print/digital content (e.g. paragraph spacing, tracking, baseline shifting and snapping, text frame margins, paragraph and character styles).
• InDesign works with layers, pages and assets in a way much better suited to print/digital book publishing.
• InDesign makes it much easier to, well, design. Clipping masks, swatches, gradient fills … Everything a designer needs. Resizing and moving images around inside frames is a breeze.
• From InDesign, you can export interactive/non-interactive ePubs and PDFs. If you want to be really fancy, you can use InDesign with Adobe Digital Publishing Solution.

So yeah: cutting meat with a screwdriver.

If you're wanting to publish to so many platforms, you ought to check out Digital Publishing Solution. It'd be a large, costly undertaking, and there's a lot to learn, mind you.

If you really wanted to do it in Captivate—really really wanted to—then you'd go with a responsive project, which outputs HTML5. You'd have to then host it yourself—no Amazon. For offline viewing, you'd need users to manually download the exported files and open them on a computer. So tablets and smartphones probably won't be a possibility.

Seriously: don't use Captivate for this.