Product Description

Learn by doing via this step-by-step workbook!

Using Captivate, you can capture screen shots on your computer and quickly turn them into eLearning lessons (movies). The lessons you create can be interactive--you can add images, captions, rollovers, clickable areas, typing areas and sound effects.

This book will introduce you to the essential Captivate 4 skills you need to know to get up and running with Captivate as quickly as possible.

There are lessons on Recording Demonstrations and Assessments; Full Motion Recordings, Panning and Image Slideshows; working with Text Captions & the Timeline; Images and Drawing Objects; Pointers, Buttons and Highlight Boxes; Rollovers and Zoom Areas; Slide Labels, Notes and Audio; Animation and Flash Video; Converting Demonstrations Into Simulations; Introduction to Question Slides; and, of course, Publishing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13188 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-13
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 250 pages

About the Author
Kevin A. Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written more than 100 step-by-step computer training books, including Essentials of Adobe Captivate 3, Essentials of Adobe Captivate 2, Essentials of Macromedia Captivate, Essentials of RoboDemo 5, Essentials of RoboDemo 4, Essentials of RoboDemo 3, Essentials of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, QuarkXPress 8: The Basics, QuarkXPress 8: Beyond the Basics, Essentials of QuarkXPress 7, Accelerated QuarkXPress 6, Essentials of Adobe InDesign CS3 and Essentials of Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML.

Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has more than 23 years experience as a print publisher and technical writer. He is a certified technical trainer, has been a classroom instructor for more than 16 years and is a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions. Kevin holds multiple certifications from companies such as Adobe and the CompTIA.

Customer Reviews

Great Workbook
I was very familiar with an earlier edition of Captivate. But I bought this book as a refresher and to learn the new features of Captivate 4.

I was surprised to learn about many old features I had overlooked, plus the clever new options in the latest version.

The included CD (at the back of the book) with demo files for each lesson made the hands-on lessons easy to grasp.

But the book's layout - with hundreds of computer screenshots - was so good that I was able to "get" many of Captivate's features without having to do the hands-on lessons on my computer.

Before purchasing this book I had read Adobe's included "Help" instructions and much of their on-line support info. The information and features in this book are MUCH better.

I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to quickly take full advantage Captivate 4's many features.

This book is a "Must Have" for Captivate 4
If you have recently purchased Adobe Captivate 4 and are trying to learn it by working through the online manual, you will know how complicated and frustrating that can be. The "Essential" book is indeed essential to your learning the Captivate program.

The book takes you through a series of lessons, each one building on the one previous. You quickly learn how to create a product that looks professional and is easy for the user to access. What I really liked is how Kevin Siegel, the author, leads you from one activity to another, requiring you to use the skills you have already learned in order to complete the new task.

The book is well-written, easy to understand, and a definite must for new users of Adobe Captivate 4.

Liked it so much I bought the advanced book.
I liked this book so much, I bought the "Beyond the Essentials" book from the same author (and am also happy with it). I found "The Essentials" book to be helpful, especially the practice exercises using the supplied files. This book does cover just "The Essentials", so I do recommend buying "Beyond the Essentials". The price of the two books together is still a better deal than a 1 day class and you get basically the same information. I found the book to be easy to follow as I was completing the exercises but it is also useful as a reference back to go back and review as I am actually creating my Captivate projects.