#1 2012-02-22 05:43:13

**_MSG_**

Html and Presenter

Hi,

Just to start a discussion... Does anyone think Adobe will ever be releasing Presenter plugin for Powerpoint that produces html5 output? In my organisation we are moving away from Flash and this is causing problems for Presenter users.

How do other users feel? I think this would be amazing and give us much more flexibility and wider audience with cross platform compatibly.

**_bklaas_**

Re: Html and Presenter

Adobe has been markedly silent on the future of Presenter and HTML5. In all likelihood, as they shift resources away from Flash-based solutions, we're more likely to see Adobe suggesting that Captivate is the preferred solution for HTML5-based content. They have an HTML5 output module on Adobe Labs for Captivate, and are actively working on that project. As Presenter is deeply tied to the Flash-only Adobe Connect (and it's unlikely that they'll be able to rebuild Connect using HTML5 technologies until standards are finalized and there's greater availability of HTML5-compliant browsers), it's likely that Presenter output will continue to be Flash-based for a while.

Given the complexity of generating HTML5-based content from everything that Captivate can do, it would seem that a logical first step would be to have Presenter be the first HTML5 exporting tool, but there's a bigger audience for Captivate and, therefore, more money to allocate to the task.

I concur that it would be really, really nice if there was an HTML5 output option for Presenter, but I don't think it's likely in the next couple of years.

**_mark2741_**

Re: Html and Presenter

bklaas is correct. But one thing: Adobe already has made it clear that Captivate is the future, in regards to eLearning, for them. They came out with a presentation a year or two ago (RJ Jacquez did it) where they said that they see Captivate as the starting point and primary development tool for eLearning. And, to their credit, Captivate has gotten WAY better with the last 2 versions (5 and 5.5), to the point where it is a legitimate solution for even slide-based, non-screenshot-based training.

Presenter hasn't been updated in a long time, and is really buggy and weak compared to almost all of its competitors (iSpring, Snap, Articulate, and countless non-popular solutions). I'm quite frankly surprised they haven't already officially retired Presenter...

**_MSG_**

Re: Html and Presenter

Thank you for your interesting thoughts.
I am not familiar with Captivate, does it do ppt slides conversions and if yes, is it as straightforward as with Presenter?

I do agree that being very unstable Presenter is one of the weakest Adobe products I have come across. The main benefit of it is, though, that for the users that are familiar with Powerpoint, the learning curve to start using Presenter is not steep.

**_bklaas_**

Re: Html and Presenter

Unfortunately, Captivate is vastly more complex than Presenter. That's because it can do so much more than Presenter. It's not that hard to create a slide-based presentation in Captivate, but it's nowhere as simple as doing the same activity in Presenter. Presenter's greatest strength is that it's a PowerPoint plugin, and even novice users can get up and running quickly because it's part of PowerPoint.

**_Jorma_at_RealEyes_**

Re: Html and Presenter

I know groups that have eventually walked away from PPT and Presenter in favor of Captivate's more robust feature set, and to keep their eLearning development to one application.

I'd personally stay away from importing PPT into Captivate, mostly because of the loss of control of the PPT content as it is converted to Flash. I have created a blank PPT deck with all the possible backgrounds from my corporate deck and then done a Save As... JPEG. This way you have an image of all your master slides, which can be used as backgrounds for the Captivate slides. Then I end up with a slide deck that is part presentation and part software simulation, and it looks like I did it in PPT, but have the power of Captivate.

But, I also agree that Presenter's strength is it's plug in to PPT and it's simplicity. Most bugs have been fixed over the years, but it is not perfect by any means. If nothing else, download Captivate (use the 30 day trial) and see if it works for you.

**_redhatperl_**

Re: Html and Presenter

Captivate is of course going to capture the population soon!

**_arigatou_**

Re: Html and Presenter

They came to the demonstration, a year or two ago, they said, they see the Captivate as a starting point and the HP 940XL development of e-learning tools.

Last edited by **_arigatou_** (2012-03-15 00:50:40)