Before you can start working with Captivate, you have to download and install the software. In this section, you will discover the three ways that Adobe makes Captivate available to you.
Getting Captivate
The Captivate perpetual license
This is the old-fashioned way of obtaining the software. You buy Captivate and get a serial number to activate your installation. The serial number is valid for a specific version of Captivate, and for a specific platform (macOS or Windows) only. Once activated, that version of Captivate is permanently available on your computer. With this option, you get all the functionalities of Captivate, and you can start working on your eLearning projects right away! You also get all the patches and bug fixes for the version you bought. This book works flawlessly with the Captivate perpetual license.
See the Captivate page on the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html.
You can download and use this version of Captivate free of charge for 30 days. This should be more than enough time for you to go through the exercises of this book. However, once the trial period is over, you will not have access to Captivate unless you convert your trial to a licensed version. This can be a perpetual or a subscription license.
Download your Captivate 30-day trial from http://www.adobe.com/go/trycaptivate/.
The Captivate subscription
With this licensing model, you subscribe to Captivate on a monthly basis. This means that you pay a certain amount each month to keep using Captivate. The main benefit of the subscription model is that you automatically get all the updates as they are released. The subscription model is the best way to ensure that you have access to the latest version of Captivate. Note that the subscription is just another licensing model; the software itself is identical to the perpetual licensing model.
More information on the various Captivate licensing models can be found at http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/buying-guide.html.
Although the Captivate subscription model is very similar to the way Adobe Creative Cloud works, Captivate is-at the time of writing-not a part of the Creative Cloud.
Captivate and the Creative Cloud
If you already have a Creative Cloud subscription, you'll need another subscription for Adobe Captivate.
If you already have a Creative Cloud subscription, you'll need another subscription for Adobe Captivate.
Captivate in Technical Communication Suite
The Technical Communication Suite (TCS) is yet another bundle of applications from Adobe. It is designed to create technical content such as help files and user guides. TCS includes applications such as RoboHelp, FrameMaker, Acrobat Professional, and of course, Captivate. The Technical Communication Suite itself is also available under both the perpetual and the subscription licensing model.
For more information on TCS, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite.html.