Adobe Captivate Prerequisites

Adobe Captivate is an eLearning authoring tool used by professionals across industries. The program allows for the creation of interactive multimedia projects. You might worry that Adobe Captivate will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning Adobe Captivate and what you should study first to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills. 

What is Adobe Captivate?

Adobe Captivate is software for creating eLearning content such as videos, slide shows, presentations, and software simulations. As a productivity tool, Adobe Captivate allows users to quickly turn out demonstrations and simulations. The program even allows easy conversion of PowerPoint presentations into eLearning formats.

Managers, Human Resources personnel, Educators, and other professionals involved in training use Adobe Captivate to create learning materials easily. Adobe Captivate presentations include responsive design to fit any device. Including desktop, web, tablet, and mobile. Users can easily create interactive videos, virtual reality walkthroughs, screencasts, multi-module courses, and quizzes.

Read more about what Adobe Captivate is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Adobe Captivate?

Adobe Captivate is a powerful tool for creating eLearning materials in various mediums. Adobe Captivate supports the creation of interactive videos, virtual reality walkthroughs, screencasts, multi-module courses, and quizzes. These tools are ideal for training specialists needing to create onboarding tools for new employees, along with virtual skill or safety demonstrations.

Adobe Captivate is also extremely useful for creating online courses. Virtual walkthroughs can demonstrate practical skills, and screencasting can simulate software use. Multi-model branches allow courses to organize lessons and follow each training session with interactive quizzes. This makes Adobe Captivate ideal for any business wanting to create and sell online courses.

Lastly, anyone can use Adobe Captivate to make creative videos and presentations. Adobe Captivate's responsive design features ensure finished videos and projects are compatible with any device, including desktop, web, and mobile, ensuring viewability from anywhere. Virtual tours, screen captures, and interactive slideshows can make for dynamic visual media for usage in meetings or as marketing products.

Is Adobe Captivate Easy to Learn?

Adobe Captivate is relatively easy to learn. However, some users generally find Adobe programs unintuitive, and therefore, many find learning Adobe Captivate’s interface tricky to get the hang of at first. An introductory class to Adobe Captivate can be a simple solution to get past this initial learning curve. On the other hand, individuals who are familiar with Adobe programs may find Adobe Captivate easy to pick up. Adobe Captivate also contains many built-in help features and an online learning community to help beginners. 

What to Know Before Learning Adobe Captivate

Basic computer skills are the only prerequisite to learning Adobe Captivate. In today’s digital world, most people already possess these skills. This makes Adobe Captivate a beginner-friendly program that virtually anyone can learn. However, if you’re nervous about learning Adobe Captivate, there are a few other skills you could learn beforehand. 

Basic Computer Skills

Basic computer skills are prerequisites for Adobe Captivate and any professional course on the program. These skills include using a keyboard and mouse, opening and closing computer applications, and navigating file structures. Most individuals in today’s digital world already possess these skills. Individuals lacking these skills will struggle to use Adobe Captivate’s essential functions.

Any Adobe Program

While not required before learning Adobe Captivate, knowing how to use any Adobe program (such as InDesign, Photoshop, or Illustrator) will make learning Captivate easier. Adobe programs use similar interfaces and menus. Thus, being familiar with these features means you’ll already possess some knowledge of how Adobe Captivate works.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Captivate allows integration with Adobe Photoshop. Users can import fully rendered Photoshop images as assets in Adobe Captivate. Entire project layers can also be imported into Captivate, allowing each layer to be manipulated as its own individual asset. Photoshop also has its own “image generator” feature for easily importing menu buttons into Adobe Captivate projects. With all these features, learning Adobe Photoshop and how it integrates with Captivate can greatly increase your capabilities with the program. 

Learn Adobe with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

If you’re interested in getting started with Adobe Captivate, Noble Desktop offers an Intro to Adobe Captivate course that covers the fundamentals of the program. This course is ideal for beginners wanting to become comfortable with using and creating training materials from the program.

Like other Adobe programs, Captivate integrates with other Adobe software such as Photoshop and Illustrator. While Adobe Captivate is a powerful program on its own, its capabilities expand when used with other Adobe products. Noble Desktop’s Adobe Creative Cloud Bootcamp teaches many Adobe programs, including InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Adobe XD. Noble Desktop also offers bootcamps in individual Adobe programs. These courses are ideal if you want to master only one Adobe product rather than learn the whole suite. 

A Graphic Design Certificate is also available that teaches Adobe programs along with graphic design principles. Even if your chosen profession isn’t in the graphic design field, knowing basic graphic design principles can elevate the projects you create with Adobe Captivate and other Adobe programs to another level. 

Key Insights

• Though considered relatively easy to learn, individuals who have never used Adobe programs may find the interface of Adobe Captivate tricky to work with at first.
• The only true prerequisite to learning Adobe Captivate is basic computer competency.
• Adobe Photoshop can be a great program to learn before Adobe Captivate due to how the two programs work together.
• Once you learn Adobe Captivate, you’ll be able to create a variety of interactive multimedia projects.