Likelihood to Recommend Captivate is well suited for instruction designers who want to build attractive, personalized, interactive, energetic lessons. It's also a good choice for someone who wants to build something innovative because Captivate gives the developer so much control over so many aspects.
But if someone wanted something built quickly, generically and didn't care about holding the viewer's attention, then Captivate might be an expensive tool. That person might be more satisfied with a cheaper and easier to learn authoring tool.
Read full review As I mentioned earlier, it's best used for "presentations," rather than bona fide "training." That's why we tend to use it when the information is relatively simple and/or doesn't need to be fully internalized or mastered (which would require providing opportunities for practice and feedback and a more engaging, interactive learning experience). However, it can be used as part of a blended-learning solution, with some information provided via an Adobe Presenter module first, and then some kind of instructor-led session as a follow-up, which would include more role-specific info, as well as practice and feedback opportunities. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Adobe Presenter Video Express is great for creating quick overview demos about a new system -- more of a "see what it can do" type thing than a "here's how you do it" thing (unless the "it" is very simple and the video is used more as a microlearning/performance support type of offering).
Read full review Pros Quickly adding in graphics, text, and interactive buttons. Has extensive variables and branching for additional customization, beyond the competition. Has 360 degree capability which competitors don't offer (I have not used this feature). High degree of customization and personalization. True responsive screen display on all devices, viewable as you are creating the training. This is different than some competitors - some just shrink the screen, but Adobe Captivate allows actually removing or moving or changing items at different screen sizes. If you like Flash, it has Flash output, although it's going away in 2020. Personally, I think this is an outdated technology. Many advanced capabilities. I chose this product due to the capabilities. Comes with assets, templates, people, head shots, and full body—excellent. Adobe Captivate is the authoring tool. It integrates with Adobe Captivate Prime - which I highly recommend if you want to truly take advantage of all of its features in reporting, administration, compliance, and social learning. (I didn't use Prime because you essentially need 100+ students to affordably use Prime.) If you look at my chart of what Captivate is capable of, I can't say that Captivate has a lot of the reporting features because they are part of Prime/SCORM, although, with Captivate's customization, you might be able to do most of them if you are up to it, but I did not. Read full review Because it integrates with PowerPoint, it is possible to go from planning outline to storyboard to final output withing a single document and as part of a seamless and logical design process. Its ability to create videos that capture screens along with web-cam recordings, then edit them within the solution means higher level training recordings can be created versus, say a recorded WebEx training session. Presenter's ability to create quiz elements similar to Adobe Captivate, add interactions, and interface with Adobe's LMS means it is capable of functioning as a complete e-learning development environment. . If up front cost is a consideration, Presenter wins hands down over many better known training development and e-learning solutions. Ronald Ray Sr. Instructional Designer, Training Coordinator and Client Services Manager
Read full review Cons Clunky interface, it takes a lot of extra clicks to get places compared to other Adobe apps and competitor's eLearning software. Would be nice if it was part of creative cloud, or at least in the group of apps you can add through Creative Cloud. More regular and meaningful updates. Compared to flagship apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Captivate is like the read headed step child. Competitors excel at providing regular updates with clear change documentation. How are we still using Captivate 2019 in 2022? The interface feels like it is still stuck in the 90s, would be nice if it was more modern and better in-line with flagship adobe offerings. Variables and associated menus are a nuisance to work with vs some of the clever drop down and content-sensitive options in Articulate Storyline. Read full review E learning news server could be more intuitive Numerical indicator for updates is confusing Organization of updates could be better organized Read full review Likelihood to Renew We have hundreds of courses that were created in Adobe Captivate. It will take us a while to convert to
Articulate . We'll need a license for another year and/or until Adobe comes out with a true update to the software.
Read full review My company is pretty invested in the Adobe ecosystem and is unlikely to change that in the foreseeable future. Also, Adobe Presenter is a very valuable tool and, with the new subscription model and the pricing we have, a relatively modest expense now. It's also fairly easy to learn and use, so it is starting to spread beyond the sphere of the various Learning & Development departments.
Read full review Usability Adobe Captivate does take some getting used to. There are features that are much more convoluted than they need to be, but overall it is a great product with a some excellent features. Being in a pretty small market, Adobe Captivate and
Articulate Storyline dominate the space. They are not the same software, but allow for eLearning authoring. Each has their benefit and their downside, but, for me, Adobe Captivate edges out Storyline.
Read full review It is easy to learn and use, but is frustrating if you begin to run into error messages concerning Flash as you are in the publishing stage.
Read full review Reliability and Availability It is easy to access since it is an added tool to the Powerpoint program. We have not had complaints from faculty members regarding not having it available when they need it.
Read full review Performance Due to the aforementioned issues with Flash, it can be discouraging to get to the publishing stage and begin receiving error messages. Once we are able to move past that issue, we have great success with the performance of Adobe Presenter.
Read full review Support Rating It is difficult to get in touch with Adobe Captivate support. With a seemingly limited number of resources, mostly outsourced, getting in contact with someone to help troubleshoot an issue is challenging. Typically wait times are long, and the desired path to resolution is to use an existing knowledge base or a self-help guide. It is certainly not a user-friendly experience.
Read full review I think I pretty much answered this earlier....premium support is extremely expensive and online support can be difficult to navigate. Although, to be fair, when it comes to Presenter (compared to, say, Captivate), there isn't too frequent a need for support, since Presenter is a rather simple tool to use
Read full review Implementation Rating I'm only aware of the problems Adobe Captivate had with SumTotal LMS and Upside LMS, requiring extensive contact with both internal and external support staff to fix the problems. We had no problems at all with
Articulate .
Read full review Alternatives Considered I think that Articulate360 is more user-friendly and has a cleaner, more updated look. If you can edit a PDF, then you can use
Articulate 360 . Adobe Captivate may be more challenging for the designer, but it has more features. We chose Adobe Captivate because we want the option to create interactive learning environments. Adobe Captivate plays well with the other Adobe design products including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier. Additionally, Adoe Captivate is highly compatible with Cornerstone, our preferred Learning Management Systems.
Read full review LMS365 and Adobe Presenter are not that much different, the major issue that we faced with LMS was that we had to integrate that with the SharePoint, for accessibility and that cases whole lot of confusions and keeping things clean as SharePoint was being used for file store and sharing within the company. Moving to Adobe Presenter was taken as it was independent platform and didn't have any dependency.
Read full review Scalability The program still seems to rely heavily on Adobe Flash even though the online community is moving away from it. When publishing, users will experience error messages regarding Flash, which can make it difficult to complete your work.
Read full review Return on Investment Adobe Captivate has allowed our instructors to engage students in ways we never have before. Instructors who have used Adobe Captivate in our organization have reported higher levels of engagement with their courses and their students, theoretically leading to improved assessment of student performance. Read full review It will be safe to say that overall impact had been positive in regards to ROI Training costs have been reduced by a huge margin since we started using this tool. Time consumed in training staff is also decreased, as with Adobe Presenter training can be done remotely and are able to train different groups at the same time. Read full review ScreenShots