How to Choose the Screen Size in Captivate Projects?

What is the optimum size that should be chosen while creating / recording a captivate project? It is one of the most confusing concepts for most instructional designers and e-learning developers. Not anymore! In this article, we will see how to choose the right screen size for any type of project that you are involved in.

There are three things to consider before fixing on a screen size:

• End-user monitor / display settings
• Final output taken from Captivate: swf, html, exe, etc
• The smallest screen size to which you can shrink the application you are demonstrating.

Let us review each of them in detail now.

End-User Monitor / Display Settings

“How do I know the monitor settings of a nerd sitting in some corner of the universe?” If this is what you are thinking now, then you are right. It is not always possible get so much of information about your learners. For those who know, great!!! Lucky you!!! For the others, never mind!!! We can work on the most common lowest setting principle and some guess work. Until some years before, 800 by 600 resolution was the smallest and the most common. But now, most of them have at least 1024 by 768 screen resolution. So let us consider that as the most common setting. (And in case, there is someone who is still clinging on to the 800 by 600 size monitor, let’s give him a chance to change his monitor to a better one.)

So both the lucky ones and the not so lucky ones, either finds out the monitor display settings of the learners or comes to a conclusion on the least common setting. Let us assume this resolution is 1024 wide and 768 high. In such a case, the record size you select in Captivate must always be smaller than 1024 by 768. You will find out the reason when you read the next two criteria. But you will also find out, why it is not always necessary to select a smaller size in captivate. Confused? Don’t worry, just read on.

Final Output Taken From Captivate: .swf, .html, .exe, etc.

Imagine the record size or the project size you have chosen is x pixels wide and y pixels high. For swf and exe output formats, the screen size utilized by the entire output will be as shown in the below figure.

As you can see the output requires, some additional pixels for the player controls and flash player interface. So if you have chosen a screen size of 1024 by 768 in Captivate, there are chances that the player controls may go below the viewable screen area of a 1024 by 768 size desktop resolution. This is OK if the swf or application window is resizable. But there are some portals in which, pop-up files are not resizable. Moreover, there are users who do not know how to resize an open window (yes, there are!!!).

For an HTML output, it is even worse. You need to keep space for the browser interface, which ends up in horizontal and vertical scrollbars. Like in this screenshot:

When your monitor resolution is 1024 by 768 and the project screen size is also 1024 by 768, this is what you will get when you open the html output.

This is why you should always select a record size in captivate which is less than the desktop resolution of the learners. But in case you are taking an swf output and the window is resizable, you can go for a higher screen size. The reason is, when the swf file is extending beyond the screen size, the learners can double click on anywhere on the blue bar on top of the adobe flash flayer to fit it to the screen size.

Thus, try to understand the behavior of the portal in which you will upload the Captivate output. Will it display in as an html file? Or if it is an swf, can the window be resized, moved etc.

Some of you might be thinking now, that it is then best to select a very small recording size in Captivate. All the learners will be able to view the output then. But before doing that, you might want to read the last criteria too. J

The smallest screen size to which you can shrink the application you are demonstrating.

Let us imagine you have taken a 640 by 480 record screen size in Captivate. Ask yourself (or your client) on whether you would want to use the panning feature in Captivate. Because, if the application you are demonstrating demands more screen size than the one selected, then you will have to either use the pan feature, or pan the application within the limited record screen size. There is nothing wrong in using the panning feature but not all are quite comfortable with this option. New learners might find it a bit confusing.

So at the end, you have to arrive at a decision based on the above three points. Whatever size you choose, it is advised to do a test run using a few slides in the portal you are going to host the video. You might find it confusing in the first few attempts. But you will get the trick of it as you do more and more videos. All the best!!!