Understanding Resolution and Recording Size in your Captivate Training Videos

As you develop your Captivate Training video, every click you make with your mouse will result in one screen capture.Before you record, you should be aware of two things that control how sharp and how large your Captivate screen captures will be: display resolution and recording area.

Understanding Screen Resolution in Captivate Training

A computer monitor is measured in pixels (a pixel is a little square that is the basic component of any computer graphic). If a monitor is set to show more pixels, it is known as increasing the resolution. At a higher resolution, graphics and text will look sharper. but smaller. The fewer pixels you request, the lower the resolution, and larger the-screen elements appear. If your computer is set to a high resolution (such as 1280×1024) when you record your Captivate Training video, a user viewing your published project at a lower display resolution (such as 800 x 600) will have to scroll significantly to see the action you recorded.However, if your computer is set to a lower display resolution (such as 1024×768) when you record your project, a customer with a higher screen resolution will have no trouble viewing your project. However, if you record your projects at the lower screen resolution, you may not be happy with the appearance of the screen icons and fonts (they may be too big and not as sharp as they would appear at the higher screen resolution).

Understanding Recording Area in Captivate Training

The Recording Area is not the same thing as display resolution (although the two settings are constantly confused). The display resolution is set via the Windows Display control panel. The Recording Area is set from within Captivate and is the physical amount of the screen that you will be capturing during the recording process. There are several preset sizes available within Captivate from 220 x270 up to 1024 x 768, and you can specify your own.With so many choices, what should you do? We recommend that you set your display resolution to 1024×768. And we recommend that you set your Captivate recording Area no larger than 800 x 600 if possible.Now there are a number of additional concerns that you might would to consider before setting your recording area, but if you’re unsure, use a recording area no larger than 800 x 600 pixels. Your Captivate Training viewers will thank you!