Adobe Captivate is an eLearning authoring application for Windows and macOS. It turns slide content, media and recordings of software tasks into interactive courses with learner activities and assessments. Authors can publish HTML5 lessons for the web or create packages that send completion and quiz information to a learning management system.
Course layouts
Native Captivate courses use content blocks for text, images, video, characters and other elements. These blocks adjust their size and placement for different screens. Authors can choose layouts, change padding and customize ready-made slides, or replace the text and media in a Quick Start Project. Header and footer blocks can carry branding, slide numbers and course navigation.
Adobe Captivate provides desktop, tablet and mobile previews, including portrait and landscape orientations. A QR code opens a live preview in a mobile browser, allowing the author to inspect the course on a device while editing it.
PowerPoint slides
Existing PowerPoint presentations can enter Captivate as PPTX files. Supported text, shapes and media become objects that can be edited in the authoring environment. Authors can revise the material and add narration or combine the imported slides with new Captivate slides containing quizzes and interactions.
Imported PowerPoint slides keep their original dimensions and fixed layout; they do not gain the responsive behavior of native content blocks. Widgets and responsive content blocks cannot be placed directly on these imported slides. Complex content also has conversion limits: charts and SmartArt can become static images, while slide transitions, macros and complex motion-path animations do not transfer.
Interaction logic
Captivate’s interactions panel connects a learner’s action to a course response. The author selects a trigger, adds conditions and assigns actions. Buttons, text input fields, checkboxes, radio groups and dropdowns provide the controls learners use, while object states change the appearance of text, images or buttons in response.
For example, an author can use a selection to reveal an explanation or direct a learner into a different branch of a scenario. Ready-made widgets cover activities such as drag-and-drop, flip cards, hotspots, timelines and click-to-reveal content. JavaScript is available for interactions that need custom logic beyond the visual controls.
Software simulations and interactive video
Adobe Captivate records mouse and keyboard activity along with system audio to create software simulations. A recording session can produce demonstration, training and assessment modules, giving authors different ways to present the same software task.
Video lessons can include overlays, feedback and knowledge checks. An overlay pauses the video to display additional teaching material or an activity, and bookmarks provide positions that can trigger overlays or other interactions.
Assessments
Question slides include multiple-choice, true-or-false and matching formats. Authors can build knowledge checks throughout a lesson or assemble an assessment, with randomized question pools changing the selection presented to learners. CSV import accepts questions, answers, scores and feedback together, turning a prepared question file into assessment slides.
Captivate also lets authors define passing points or percentages, attempt limits and actions for a pass or failure. These settings connect the questions to course behavior and reporting, so finishing the lesson can depend on a quiz result rather than simply reaching its last slide.
Narration, generated media and captions
Text-to-speech converts course text into narration with language and accent choices. Changes to the script can be used to regenerate the audio. Existing recordings can also be edited inside Captivate through operations such as cutting, pasting, removing background noise and looping audio.
Generative tools create images from text prompts or reference images, revise text blocks and produce avatar narration. Image generation uses Adobe Firefly. Access depends on the subscription’s generative-credit allocation; individual subscribers may need separately purchased premium credits for avatar generation.
Captions can be typed or imported from SRT and VTT files, with timing and appearance controls. Captivate also provides text equivalents and keyboard-access settings for course elements, giving authors ways to make the lesson usable beyond its spoken narration and mouse controls.
Course review
Authors can generate review links and update them when the course changes. Reviewers open the shared project without installing Captivate and leave comments on individual slides. Feedback can distinguish desktop, tablet and mobile views, helping identify a layout issue on a particular screen.
Comments support replies, stakeholder tags and resolution, keeping discussion attached to the relevant course material. Authors can address this feedback before producing the final learning package.
Adobe Captivate publishing and licenses
Adobe Captivate publishes HTML5 content and supports SCORM, AICC and xAPI reporting. An LMS package is published as a ZIP file for upload to the learning platform. Authors choose whether completion depends on viewed slides, attempting or passing a quiz, or other available completion criteria. Question interaction data can include the question attempted and the learner’s answer.
Direct publishing to Adobe Learning Manager places the course in its content library with content details and completion criteria. Captivate creates the learning material; the LMS handles its distribution and learner records.
Captivate is sold by subscription, with individual, team, enterprise and education licensing options. Subscriptions also include Captivate Classic, the separate legacy authoring application used to maintain older courses.
