Integrate Articulate and Captivate for Online System Training

I have worked on numerous projects recently where I was asked to develop online simulation-based training materials to support the implementation of a new system. Gaining access to a system prior to implementation has traditionally been difficult for training professionals, as IT departments or external vendors are usually developing system functionality all the way up until launch date.

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As a training professional I asked myself, how can I deliver a rich online training experience for a new system when the system is not ready (or still in development)?

I had two tools available (amongst other possible options):

1. Adobe Captivate 2, and
2. Articulate Presenter 5.2.

What I researched was ways that I could integrate these two development tools to enable me to rapidly develop online simulation-based training materials.

The other advantage of this development approach was that any content published in Articulate can be maintained separately from simulations developed using Adobe Captivate. This ensured that the post-implementation maintenance load was kept to a minimum.

The process

The process of linking Captivate simulations to a published Articulate presentation involves:

• Setting your project’s folder structure
• Capturing, editing, and publishing your Captivate simulations
• Creating your PowerPoint content to support your simulations
• Hyperlinking to simulations from your PPT presentation
• Publishing your PPT file to Flash using Articulate
• Copying your simulations folder across to your published Articulate presentation.

Setting the project’s folder structure

One of the key steps you need to do is to establish the folder structure for your project. The key points to consider at this stage are:

• The Articulate folder stores all published modules for my project
• The Captivate files folder stores all my Captivate development files (.cp files)
• The Documentation folder stores any relevant project documentation
• The Images folder stores any Images that are included in my PowerPoint presentations
• The PPT folder stores all my PowerPoint presentation files (.PPT files)
• The simulations sub-folder stores all published Captivate simulations.

Capturing and editing Captivate simulations

Once I have completed my training needs analysis, I start by capturing and editing my Captivate simulations. I create standards documentation around the use of:

• Text captions
• Highlight boxes
• Images
• Click boxes
• Text-entry boxes, and
• Buttons.

Publishing the Captivate simulations

This guarantees a consistent look and feel across your project’s simulations. Once the simulation editing is complete, I publish the simulations to the simulations sub-folder underneath the PowerPoint folder. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1 Publish the simulations underneath the Power- Point folder.

Publishing simulations to Flash (SWF) produces three files:

• HTML file
• Flash/SWF simulation file, and
• Flash/SWF skin (player controls) file.

Creating PowerPoint content to support simulations

Once I have completed simulations development and publishing, I have more of an idea of what content is required to support a simulation. PowerPoint slides usually contain information on:

• When a system function is performed
• Which people in your organization can perform a system function
• Business rules or protocols relevant to the system function
• Important factors to keep in mind when performing a system function.

The other key component to add to your PowerPoint slides is an image or text caption that will act as a button to launch your simulation. I used the “Start Activity” image (Figure 2) as a button to launch my simulations.

Figure 2 Give the user a “Launch” button.

Hyperlinking to simulations from the PowerPoint presentation

Once the PowerPoint content has been added (including the image button to launch my simulations), I select the image button in PowerPoint and press CTRL and K to launch the “Insert Hyperlink” window (Figure 3). From this popup window, navigate to the simulations folder and locate the HTML file generated when I published my Captivate simulation.

Figure 3 Add hyperlinks from the PowerPoint files.

Note: Once I have clicked OK to confirm the addition of the hyperlink, I run the PowerPoint slideshow and click on the Start Activity button to confirm that the Captivate simulation will launch from the Power- Point file.

Publishing a PowerPoint file to Flash using Articulate

I’m ready to publish my Articulate presentation from PowerPoint once I have:

• All PowerPoint slide content finalized
• All Captivate simulations hyperlinked to image buttons in my PowerPoint slides
• Tested that the hyperlinks work by launching the simulation from PowerPoint.

From here, I launch the publish function using the Articulate menu item in PowerPoint. Figure 4 outlines the following key points:

• The Articulate publish is for the Web
• The publish location is the Articulate folder
• The published title reflects one of the module names established at the start of your development.

Figure 4  Publish the PowerPoint file to Flash, using Articulate.

Copying the simulations folder across to the published Articulate presentation

The final step before launching your Articulate learning module is to copy your simulations folder into your Articulate module. This ensures that the hyperlinks you created in PowerPoint remain functional when you run your Articulate learning module. In the typical folder structure of an Articulate module:

• Player.htm file, the data folder and the player folder are automatically generated by Articulate Presenter,
• Simulations folder is copied by you from the PPT folder,
• The index.htm file and the images folder are other files I created outlining the navigation elements of the Articulate interface.

Trouble-shooting problems

Table 1 aims to resolve some of the issues you may experience when implementing this solution

Table 1  Issues You May Experience and Solutions

Conclusion

In conclusion, this development technique has provided a rapid approach for my online system-based simulation projects. It has enabled me to stay on top of training activities, and in some cases, ahead of the system I’m developing training for.

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