Adobe Captivate 2019 – Tips to Convert Flash Courses to HTML5
In the context of Adobe’s decision – along with major web browsers – not to support Flash player from 31st December 2020, the need for ‘legacy content conversion’ of Flash to HTML 5 has come into play. There are other reasons as well – the growing trend for rapid eLearning content and the current need to play eLearning courses on multiple devices. Moreover, the open-source web technology, HTML5 is recognized to have content design flexibility and course deployment feasibility. Flash to HTML5 conversion enables a course to play device-independent and makes learning happen anytime.
So, once you have taken a decision to convert Flash to HTML5, the next best decision is to select the right authoring tool to go ahead with. One prominent rapid authoring tool to consider for this purpose is – Adobe Captivate. The tool began its humble beginning as a screen recording utility but reached its peak in two decades as one of the best authoring tools in the market today, incorporating all the needed features suitable for rapid Flash eLearning to HTML5 conversion.
Let us now look at some significant tips to convert a Flash course to HTML5 using Adobe Captivate:
Screen-capturing of the course:
If you cannot find the source files of the course, the best way is to screen-capture the whole course while playing it. You can save the recording as an MP4 video output, which is HTML5 compatible. When there are no interactive elements in the course or if the course is teaching basic concepts which are self-explanatory, this method best serves the purpose. Using Adobe Captivate, you can easily do the screen-capturing or recording the course, directly from the interface. You can set the screen size dimensions for screen-capturing or you can go for the entire screen capture.
Re-building the course:
If the Flash course requires only minor changes, with a need for a small amount of additional content and interactivities, then ‘rebuilding’ is the suitable option. You can add interactive slides, hotspots, quizzes to improve the content quality.
Redesigning the course:
In case you want to make changes at the storyboard level for the course, you need to redesign the slides afresh and Adobe Captivate is one of the best suited for this purpose. ‘The Adobe Captivate Draft’ feature allows direct storyboarding in the authoring tool itself, rather than using another tool for the storyboarding purpose. This feature saves time, effort, and resources. In this mode, the storyboard can be shared with the reviewer and can be reviewed in real-time – easily and quickly.Adobe Captivate also has the Master slide feature which enables the creation of consistent and similarly formatted slides for design. Another feature, the ‘HTML tracker’ can list all the slide-level issues, helping you save time and effort.