Captivate 7 updated
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The first patch for Captivate 7 has been released!
To download and install the update, open Captivate 7 and choose Help > Updates…
A good summary of the updates has been done on both Lieve’s blog and the official Captivate blog (by Dr. Allen Partridge) so we won’t go into too much more detail here. One minor discrepancy is Lieve notes the update as 7.01. Allen notes it as 7.0.1. Once we applied the update to our (non-CC, annual subscription) Captivate 7 installation, we see:
As a quick overview, we like:
- New Project > Advanced Actions option: Toggle the Closed Caption area (show/hide), the Mute function (on/off), the entire Playbar (show/hide), and two Table of Contents options (show/hide, lock/unlock). This saves a lot of time when customizing those items via previous Actions.
- Project > Variables list and use count: Now you can either get a full list of where a custom variable is being used, or feedback that it’s not being used at all. This allows much easier housekeeping of unused variables.
And, of course, any improvement to the overall mobile-compatible output is welcome. Support for iOS 7 and Android is important but so too is a general tightening up of the overall output itself (i.e. optimal file sizes, proper response to the ‘Scalable’ option, etc.)
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Per this previous post, the way CP7 executes the Exit function is less-than-ideal. While we’ve yet to test the output from CP 7.0.1, it’s disappointing that this issue seems to not be addressed.
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Better implementation of the Effects panel – having an object’s specific timeline outside the relationship of the primary timeline is just silly. An object’s Effect should be settable without flipping between the main and Effects timeline and subtracting the offsets.
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More flexible xAPI integration. First, stop calling it TinCan; the working name has been retired. More importantly, authors should be able to specify a specific LRS location in the Preferences > Quiz > Reporting settings (as well as whether to use a default userID or use a defined CP variable).
Side Note: Many of the newer features are reminiscent of Authorware. Someone on that CP team should get together with a couple Authorware experts and review the overall functionality of that program. OR maybe they already have and they’re just mimicking and rolling out these ‘new features’ as they can work them in!
Overall, this is a welcome update to Captivate 7 and we look forward to more frequent and significant updates in the near future, as is the promise of the new subscription model.