Set recording preferences in Adobe Captivate Classic

Adobe Captivate Classic uses a default set of preferences for panning and other settings when recording or creating projects. You can customize these preferences using the various options available in the Preferences dialog box.

In movie-making terminology, panning refers to moving the camera while filming. In Captivate Classic, it means that you can move the recording area while capturing the slides.

Use panning when you want the recording window to follow the movement of your mouse pointer across the screen. Panning helps you capture events across a large screen even when the recording window is smaller than the size of the screen.

The following panning options are available in Adobe Captivate Classic:

The recording window automatically moves along with the pointer whenever you move the mouse during recording.

You must manually move the recording window to the area where the next event takes place. In all other respects, It is like the automatic panning option.

For more information, refer the following articles:

• Record video demonstrations
• Record software simulations
• Automatic and manual recording

Set global recording preferences

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate Classic > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, select Settings from the Recording menu.

To turn off keystrokes after recording, click Edit > Preferences > Project > Publish Settings.

On the Publish Settings dialog-box , clear the Play tap audio for recorded typing check-box.

Adjust narration volume

When creating a simulation with narrative, the volume may be lower than expected. You may need to go to every slide to adjust the volume just to be able to hear the sounds.

To adjust the volume for all slides in the project, click Audio > Record to > Slides >Edit > Adjust Volume.

Select the Normalize radio-button and all your slides will have a uniform volume.

Set video recording preferences

Adobe Captivate Classic automatically captures some actions in the video mode during autorecording. You can choose to disable this feature in the Preferences dialog box. You can also set options to optimize the size of the video SWF file and set the color mode for the video file.

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate Classic > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, select Video Demo from the Recording menu.

Change keyboard shortcuts for recording

You can choose your own keyboard shortcuts for actions that are involved when recording a project using the Preferences dialog box. For example, the End key (in Windows) or Cmd + Enter (Mac OS) is used to stop recording a project in Adobe Captivate Classic. You can change that by entering a different key in the dialog box.

1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate Classic > Preferences (Mac OS).

2. In the Preferences dialog box, select Keys - (Global) from the Recording menu.

3. Click inside the field that you want to change

4. Type the keyboard shortcut.

For more information about Captivate Classic shortcut keys, refer to Keyboard shortcuts in Captivate Classic.

Set Preferences for the different modes

Some of the options for recording modes are disabled in Adobe Captivate Classic. The reason for disabling the options is based on the logic for recording in that mode. However, you can still enable some of the options if you have a special requirement.

For example, one wouldn't usually add text captions in an assessment movie. So, the options for text captions are not enabled in Adobe Captivate. You can enable them in the Preferences dialog box if you have a special requirement.

1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate Classic > Preferences (Mac OS).

2. In the Preferences dialog box, select Modes from the Recording menu.

3. In the Mode menu, select the recording mode you want to customize. Then, choose the objects you want to be inserted automatically during recording:

Change recording defaults for objects

Adobe Captivate Classic uses a default set of styles when inserting objects such as text captions and highlight boxes during recording. You can change these default settings using the Preferences dialog box.

Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Adobe Captivate Classic > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, select Defaults from the Recording menu. Change the styles for the objects as required.

To create a new object style, click Create New Style and create a new style in the Object Style Manager.