Captivate

Adobe Captivate is software that allows users to rapidly author professional eLearning content with advanced interactivity, software and scenario simulations, quizzes, and other engaging experiences — no programming or multimedia skills required.  Based on the Adobe Flash Platform, Adobe Captivate  can automatically generate interactive Flash Player compatible content without requiring users to learn the Flash authoring tool. Adobe Captivate content can also be embedded in Adobe PDF files and exported to multiple formats for publishing on the web, streaming thru DragonDrop, or delivering through email.

At its heart Captivate is a screen recording tool similar to Camtasia that helps you to build highly interactive mulitmedia presentations, simulations and demonstrations.  You can also import Powerpoint Projects as well as content from a variety of formats (such as SWF, FLA, FLV, and MP3) and image file types ( such as PSD, GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, ICO, EMF, WMF, and POT). 

Once collected, authors can use the intuitive interface and automated features to rapidly develop rich eLearning content.  The new version includes collaborative features and enhanced templates to assist designers in the editing process, variables and advanced actions to personalize the content with run-time  user provided data, and many more features designed to help you create highly engaging content.

For web designers, Captivate provides a wonderful platform for getting started on Flash based projects that can be further fine tuned with Adobe Flash.

For more information, about this suite of tools, please visit http://www.adobe.com/education/products/captivate/.