Difference between Video Demo and Software Simulation

[New_guy1]

It seems to me that Simulations only offer you the mouse trails as an added benefit.  And the text boxes with descriptive narrative is useful as well

However, you CAN'T pan and zoom after the fact in a simulation.  This is a big issue for me.

Can someone tell me what the advantages/disadvantages are to each?

I'm leaning towards using video demos for my simulations if I'm just going to be showing someone software features.

Or am I totally and absolutely wrong?/

[Lilybiri · Accepted solution]

The biggest difference is that a Video Demo by definition is non interactive. That is also the case for a software simulation in Demo mode. A Video Demo will be published to mp4 which is a typical video format. A cptx project can be published to SWF or HTML, or to MP4. If is easier to edit a cptx file, software simulation in demo mode, because the capture is in slides. However for a good quality video I prefer Video Demo. Here is a link to an old video I published on YouTube, which was created with the Video Demo. All paning and zooming, non-insteractive objects like text containers and static images, were added after capture:

Simple versus Standard Advanced Action in Adobe Captivate - YouTube

You will see that the mouse paths are visible as well. The text containers are not automatically added, I added them later.