ActivePresenter is a screen recording, video editing and eLearning authoring application from Atomi Systems for Windows and macOS. It lets users make training videos, software tutorials, interactive slide courses, quizzes and simulations from one project file. A Free edition covers trial and non-commercial use, while the paid Standard and Pro editions add commercial use and unlock further effects, AI tools and eLearning output.
Everything in ActivePresenter is built on slides. A screen recording, an imported PowerPoint presentation or a blank theme all become slides. These slides hold media, shapes, text and interactive objects, and each has its own timeline.
Two ways to record the screen
The first recording mode captures the screen as full-motion video. The clip sits on a slide. Users can cut, annotate or narrate it, or zoom and pan it to follow the action. The recorder can take the screen, a webcam and audio at the same time, or the webcam alone.
The second mode records an interactive simulation. Instead of a continuous video, ActivePresenter takes a capture on each mouse click or key press and turns every action into its own slide. It adds a click annotation and feedback messages to each step.
Both modes let the user choose the recording area: the full screen, a custom region, or one application window.
Smart Studio
Smart Studio, in the Standard and Pro editions, automates the polishing of recorded video. It zooms in around clicks, typing and scrolling, smooths the cursor movement, and shows overlays for keyboard shortcuts. Auto framing reshapes a recording for 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1 without stretching it.
Editing audio and video on the timeline
Users edit recorded or imported clips directly in ActivePresenter. The basic tools, available in every edition, cut, copy, delete and crop ranges, split and join clips, change playback speed and adjust volume. Users can add closed captions.
The Standard and Pro editions add the advanced effects. Blur hides sensitive areas such as passwords. Green screen layers two media sources by removing a colour range. On the audio side, ActivePresenter can reduce noise, fade sound in and out, and normalize levels.
Interactive courses and branching
The eLearning features, in the Pro edition, turn slides into content that responds to the learner. Interactivity runs on events and actions: an event such as a click, a key press or a dropped object triggers actions like jumping to a slide, showing an object or changing a variable. Conditions decide which actions run, and variables store values such as a learner’s name or score across the whole project.
Objects can have several states, such as a button that changes after a click. For branching scenarios, the Scenario Editor shows the course as a visual map. Users can design paths, validate navigation and simulate choices on the map before export.
Responsive design adapts a course to phones, tablets and desktops.
Simulation modes
Users can export a recorded simulation in four modes, each giving the learner a different role:
- Demonstration plays the task for the learner to watch, without interaction or scoring.
- Tutorial asks the learner to perform each step, with a hint and annotation for every action.
- Practice removes the hints and only reveals the correct interaction after a wrong attempt.
- Test gives no hints and no help after mistakes, and can apply an overall time limit.
Quizzes and assessments
ActivePresenter’s question slides cover true/false, multiple choice, multiple response, text entry, fill in the blanks, sequence, drag-and-drop matching, hotspot, essay, dropdowns and a Likert rating scale. Users can grade questions to measure performance or set them as a survey to collect opinions.
Slide pools draw questions at random so each attempt differs. Users can import questions from GIFT and CSV files.
AI tools and translation
The AI tools in ActivePresenter Standard and Pro use AI credits. They write text for slides, quizzes and course material, generate images from a prompt, remove image backgrounds, and create captions from speech. ActivePresenter can automatically translate a whole project into other languages. Text-to-speech, separate from the AI credits, converts text into narration using the system’s speech engines.
Output formats by edition
Users can export the same ActivePresenter project in several forms. Interactivity only works in web and LMS output, not in videos or documents.
| Output | Free | Standard | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video (MP4, AVI, WMV, WebM, MKV) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint | No | Yes | Yes |
| HTML5 | No | No | Yes |
| SCORM, xAPI | No | No | Yes |
| Publish to uPresenter | No | No | Yes |
HTML5 output plays in modern browsers on desktop and mobile. SCORM and xAPI packages load into learning management systems, which then record completion and scores. uPresenter is Atomi Systems’ own LMS. Published courses keep their interactivity there, and uPresenter tracks learners’ results.
All editions share a single installer. The Free edition has no time limit. However, outputs that use features outside it carry a watermark until a Standard or Pro licence is activated. The AI tools are not part of the Free edition.
