Adobe Captivate Reviews

A powerful player in the e-learning arena

Comments: While I am just jumping into the platform as my current job requires it over other software platforms, I am impressed. Having used the entire Adobe CC and other e-learning software, this platform is not difficult to transition into.

Pros:

Having used many products for developing e-learning, Captivate is among the top-tier development programs but has a high cost to entry. The platform is powerful and has a lot of nuances that allow for digging deep into options for developing truly custom courses and user experiences.

Cons:

While you can dig deeply into advanced interactions, data reporting, etc, the learning curve is immense to begin to understand elements such as advanced actions, keywords, etc. Variables become buried and are not as easy to manipulate as in Articulate Storyline, but they are buried for very good reason in that you can actually do more in Captivate than with its rival program with such features. If I am to further nitpick, I am not excited by the filmstrip display for slide storyline. This is a feature I love in Articulate's e-learning in that non-linear branching is highly encouraged whereas the linear filmstrip does little to entice users to develop complex learning opportunities, reinforcing the linear death by slides commonly seen in virtual learning.

Adobe Captivate is the Cornerstone of My eLearning Business

Comments: I started using Adobe Captivate with version 2. It was okay but obviously there was room for it to improve. At the time of writing this review, Captivate is on version 11 and it has matured into a robust solution. I will continue to use it for all my professional eLearning work for as long as they continue to make it available.

Pros:

I have been using Adobe Captivate since the mid-2000s. Each release has brought new and innovative features that allow me to continue to impress my clients. Features like virtual reality and interactive video make Adobe Captivate the industry leader in eLearning Authoring tools

Cons:

A complicated piece of software means that the learning curve is steep but the reward is that in return it does so much.

Adobe Captivate not the choice for me

Comments: I understand this is a great tool but the price, large time investment required to be proficient, unintuitive navigation, and high bandwidth it takes up made the product not worth it.

Pros:

Even though I didn’t have a great experience with this product, I recognize you can create really awesome courses, elearnings, microlearnings, etc.

Cons:

My issues with Adobe Captivate can be boiled down to three things:1. Despite the interface looking familiar, I found it very difficult to navigate and perform basic functions.2. At the time I was using a virtual desktop to work and found this software put a great strain on my computer…so much so that everything moved at a snails pace.3. I acknowledge that, with time and effort, I could have learned to be proficient with Adobe Captivate. But that time investment, for the high the price, wasn’t feasible (especially considering if we chose this software, we’d have to teach others to use it as well).

Adobe Captivate - What you'd expect from an Adobe product

Comments: I've authored over 300 courses with Adobe Captivate in the last 6 years and overall, I'm very satisfied with the product. For all its faults, it's really forced me outside my box and helped me learn a lot about instructional design.

Pros:

Adobe Captivate allows you to author amazing and beautiful coursework if you don't mind spending a little extra time to learn some coding. The product is fairly intuitive and it has a lot of capabilities. It's a very deep and robust product.

Cons:

To really get the best out of Captivate, you do need to spend quite a lot of time learning about creating variables, some beginner coding, and occasionally some javascript. You can make the program do whatever you want, but it takes a lot of patience and, sometimes, some wonky workarounds.

Terrific training tool

Comments: Using this I have been able to set up tests and quiz for our training sessions. Its also let me create video presentations which automates some of our new hire training. You have to put in some time and learn it to get the most out of it but once you do that, its very powerful.

Pros:

It is very robust and has a ton of features. You can create some really impressive training modules with this. We have been using this for a little while now to train our new hires on policies and process. I really like that once you get the hang of this, you can create very professional looking training material with it. It lets you embed videos, images and docs into your module pretty seamlessly. You can include your branding (which was a big deal for us) and colors. You can even include your Voice over if you want to. Using this I have created Quiz, Presentations and video guides. And they all looked fantastic.

Cons:

Like a lot of other Adobe softwares (at least in my experience) it can be a little daunting to get started with. There is a lot you can do with it but you have to invest some time to get the most out of it. I really wish Adobe would figure out how to simplify the usage and work flow for newcomers.

Authoring Tool with a Twist

Comments: My overall experience so far is positive. We are developing eLearning modules using the interactive tools found in Captivate. So far, the video formatting, audio (speech-to-text) function, and responsive project mode are my biggest positives.

Pros:

Adobe's new version of Captivate (2019) is a fantastic authoring tool for the right user. I say that because the user must be competent on various computer applications and willing to spend some extra time learning! I have used many authoring tools, but this one has made me slow down and rethink some of the methods I use for development. It is not easy, but when you learn to set it up correctly, the functionality is amazing! I'm referring mostly to the responsive projects that are scalable for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. This is a wonderful feature, but takes quite a bit of time to learn.

Cons:

The biggest consideration I have found is the amount of time I have had to spend learning the program. Once understood, I have been able to make progress, but this is not a two or three week project...give yourself more time.

Captivate & the ease of convertability

Comments: It gives you the ability to create in so many ways & to help make video & online training more streamlined, with the added feedback from an LMS to get good feedback on how end users are absorbing the triining

Pros:

I truly enjoy the ability to convert old PowerPoint training decks into exciting & yes to coin a phrase, "Captivating" training for our employees & management.

Cons:

The cost for our small company is a little high & there is no special pricing for Teachers or Students. It would be great id Adobe would let you replace some of the Adobe Cloud products with Captivate as part of the overall package even if it were for a little more per month.

Adobe Captivate - powerful learnng tool

Comments: Basically Adobe Capivate has helped me produce a number of instructional videos which are still in use today for the entire organisation. I created a video for example on how to use dashboards created with Microsoft PowerBI. Can be clunky at times and produce large files if you don't know what you're doing - however it's very powerful and capable

Pros:

It's relatively easy to use from the get go and mildy intuitive. Once you get the hang of it you can produce very professional looking video demonstrations of software.

Cons:

If you're not an Adobe person you will likely struggle with this - however that just means more learning of the product itself. It's not a modern feeling bit of software and feels a bit dated.

a good platform for learning modules

Pros:

ease of access and tracking the progress the learning modules

Cons:

nothing in overall i didn't or liked the least

Sahr B Komba Graphic & Dsigned

Pros:

to designed all types of work in my business

Cons:

to designed more in my business for my customers

Easy to Make Courses

Pros:

Super easy to use once you get past the learning curve.

Cons:

Some of my employees struggle with the system when first learning it. If you are familiar with Adobe products then it is much easier to work with.

Excellent tool for measuring learners!

Comments: This is the current default learning software for our company. It allows us to deploy learning for graded content, KC questions, videos, slides with on screen text to teach a topic, etc. There is always a new trick or tool we can add to our style of learning and there are several tutorial videos to assist with new features. Also, when Flash was no longer supported in browsers, Captivate made it easy to identify parts of the module where a feature might be affected.

Pros:

Enjoy the ability to easily duplicate slides, set up multiple master slides for easy formatting content, make small audio edits in a file and preview/play the on screen animations/timing. Also, so many features for reporting and advanced actions to set up specific scenarios based on the desired result.

Cons:

Vectors were a nice touch to easily add to slides. However, the vector images "flash" often when published and are very difficult to locate based on their current naming convention. Also, I would like the option to easily change a slide from a Knowledge Check question to/from a Graded Quiz question.

A formidable force in the e-learning sphere

Comments: Adobe Captivate saves me a lot of time with my clients

Pros:

While I am new to the platform, I am impressed. My current work demands me to use it over all other operating systems. Having used the entirety of Adobe Creative Cloud and other e-learning products, the switch to this platform is seamless.  Captivate is one of the top-tier development packages, although it has a high entry cost. The platform is robust and rich in nuances, allowing for extensive exploration of alternatives for designing completely customized courses and user interfaces.

Cons:

While you may delve extensively into extended interactions, data reporting, and so on, the learning curve for knowing advanced actions, keywords, and so on is enormous. Variables get buried and are not as easy to manipulate as they are in Articulate Replay, but they are buried for a reason: you can really accomplish more with Captivate than you can with its rival application with similar features. To continue nitpicking, I'm not a fan of the filmstrip display used to illustrate the slide tale. This is a feature I admire in Articulate's e-learning since it strongly encourages non-linear branching, while the linear movie clip does little to inspire users to create complex learning opportunities, perpetuating the linear death by slides prevalent in virtual learning.

Captivate

Pros:

The software was good value and would be powerful

Cons:

Not easy to learn. Would be powerful, but only if you invested in tutorials or lessons as it is not intuitive to use.

PDF READER FOR DUMMIES

Comments: I use this program on a regular basis in order to sign documents that need to be electronically transferred. It saves time and saves paper to where you do not have to go printing stuff off. It can be easy to use for the most part. This program is very simple and usually comes on most PC computers. I use it a lot to read PDF files as well.

Pros:

This program is very easy to use and is very common so if you don't even know how to do something on it you can usually Google it and figure it out. You can use it to read over and view stuff as well - the stuff that websites put in for additional documents.

Cons:

Sometimes the program will freeze up which can get really annoying and sometimes the fields that you are trying to write your documents on won't work.

Creating courses

Comments: not a great experience but it might be enough for some to just to have a tool for .

Pros:

we can create course content based on videos, slides, and interactive courses and track user progress, quick and final exam results.

Cons:

it requires much more features and advancements and needs to make it much easier for users to achieve what they need.

Great Adobe product

Pros:

Easy to use, Adobe is consistent in their buttons and features - so if you know how to use an adobe product, you'll at least be able to navigate this.

Cons:

Adobe can also have a learning curve, which can make it difficult for newbies.

Huge learning curve, but lots of functionality

Comments: It really was not a business option for us since we needed interactive e-learning right away, and the learning curve prevented us from being able to use this software. I have not tried Adobe Captivate Prime but I am curious to know if they have fixed this problem with that software!

Pros:

This tool does a LOT of things related to learning - it can produce interactivity, animation, skip logic, videos, and SCORM/TinCan integration. You can create a lot of wonderful things in this software and implement it across your organization and track user learning in-depth.

Cons:

It is a bear to learn. With Storyline, you can pick it up in minutes and create something that looks good and achieves a goal right away. With Captivate, you need to break out the training videos, start small, and prepare to move slowly through the process of learning this software.

Great for Online Learning

Pros:

I love the ability to program logic and quizzes into the projects. I use it for online training at work and it's very responsive and robust.

Cons:

Like most Adobe programs, it's a resource hog. It takes it a while to load, and operating on a small screen can make it really laggy. But as long as you're on a large screen and a fast wifi connection, it's wonderful.

Captivate your Learners with Captivate

Comments: There is a reason that Adobe Captivate is a leading, if not the leading, software for designing SCORM compliant software. It's been incredibly easy to use, the outcome is professional looking, and intuitive for both the designer as well as the user. I would recommend this for an educational institution or corporation looking to engage their employees in personal development. This is a great forum to disseminate information, policies, etc.

Pros:

I love Captivate! It's so easy to use and the outcome is extremely professional! Not only do they have a plethora of options to vary the presentation and assessment tools to employ different learning modalities for students, but educators and trainers can easily design courses without a ton of experience. The products are also easy for learners (students, corporate employees, really anyone interested in gaining knowledge) to navigate, complete courses, and assess their progress. Captivate is also SCORM compliant which is typically a standard requirement for learning objects within educational institutions.

Cons:

The price point can be a little shocking unless you're in education. Educational prices are around $399, normal pricing is 3 times that amount. However, despite the steep price point, all of the features, benefits and support are well worth it!

The Most Practical LMS

Comments: More overall experience of Adobe Captivate was great considering all that it offered including the price. This is an LMS with a company that is constantly updating to meet a scalable population.

Pros:

This LMS is one that you can open up and start using immediately.

Cons:

I would've liked the ability of more social collaboration.

Adobe Captivate an Excellent Tool for Training Tutorials

Comments: We use Adobe Captivate to create training tutorials.

Pros:

I love that Adobe Captivate has a lot of features and can do may functions to make your training course interactive and interesting for the user.

Cons:

Captivate is full featured but it is not very user friendly. You have to be a daily/multiple use daily person in order to master some of the more advanced features. You have to have mass interaction with the software. Also Captivate is a system's memory hog. You have to have a lot of RAM to run it smoothly.

Perceptions about Captivate

Comments: I use it to develop different materials for online and offline courses.

Pros:

It has a variety of features very interesting for the area of courses and training, with the possibility of customization and programming.

Cons:

It is very expensive in Brazil. The design power associated with Adobe products does not emerge with the product.

Powerful tool to create engaging and immersive content

Comments: Captivate is an effective tool for organizations and individual who want to create and deliver content to multiple channels such as mixed reality, mobile using advance features like gesture recognition. Not ideal choice for authors who want to create content fast and easy.

Pros:

Captivate allows authors to create complex content. Features like geo location, mobile gesture recognition, virtual reality, responsive content creation using fluid boxes help in creation of immersive content. I like that tool gives enough power to authors to control learning outcome using custom logic and allows authors to view content as consumers of content would see it.

Cons:

Tool is not easy to use, and new authors need to invest time to effectively use Captivate. Content creation process has a legacy feel to it and lacks seamless and effortless interfaces provided by some cloud-based tools.

Adobe

Pros:

I love how I can use this software and make changes to document or reports with Ease.

Cons:

I do not think I have any cons with this program.