How Captivator works
Captivator turns a PowerPoint into an interactive course and exports it as a SCORM 1.2 package (.zip) that any LMS can import.
1. Import
Drop a .pptx on the Courses page. Each slide becomes a picture, and the speaker notes become the slide’s closed captions. .ppt, .odp and .pdf work too, but only .pptx brings its notes. Animations, transitions and embedded media in the PowerPoint are not carried over. You add them back with Captivator’s own tools.
The slides are drawn by LibreOffice. If a slide looks different from PowerPoint, the deck probably uses a font the server doesn’t have. Standard Office fonts (Calibri, Cambria, Arial, Times) have look-alikes installed. If you have trouble with a deck, export it to PDF from PowerPoint and import the PDF instead: that keeps the exact look, but loses the notes.
2. Add to your slides
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Highlight | A colored box that draws the eye to part of the slide. |
| Spotlight | Dims everything except one area. |
| Caption | A text callout, with optional pointer. |
| Arrow | Points at something; pick a direction in the panel. |
| Image / Video | Upload a file, or drag it onto the slide. Use MP4 (H.264) video for the widest support. |
| Click box | An invisible hot spot. The slide pauses until the learner clicks the right place. Good for “show me” software steps. |
| Button | A visible button that continues, jumps to a slide or opens a web page. |
Drag objects to move them and pull the handles to resize. Hold Shift while resizing a corner to keep an image or video’s proportions.
3. Timing
The timeline under the slide shows when each object appears and disappears. Drag a bar to move it, or drag its ends to change when it starts and stops. Click the timeline to move the playhead: objects that aren’t on screen at that moment fade out. Play slide runs the slide with its narration.
A slide lasts as long as its narration, its timed objects or its minimum length, whichever is longest. At the end it waits for Next, or moves on by itself if you set it to.
Narration: with no object selected, upload an audio file or record straight from your microphone in the right-hand panel.
4. Questions
+ Question adds a quiz slide: multiple choice (one or several answers) or true/false, with points, attempts and feedback. In Course settings you choose what completes the course (viewing every slide, passing the quiz, or both), the passing score, whether learners can skip ahead, and whether they can retake the quiz.
5. Preview and export
Preview runs the course with a simulated LMS on the right. It shows exactly what would be recorded: status, score, bookmark and each SCORM call. Use Exit and relaunch to test resuming, and Reset learner to start fresh.
Export SCORM downloads a .zip. Upload it to your LMS as a SCORM 1.2 package. The course reports:
lesson_status: incomplete → completed, or passed/failed for quiz rulesscore.raw(0–100) when the course has questions- a bookmark and progress, so learners resume where they left off
- each answer as a SCORM interaction
Keyboard
Editor: Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z redo, arrows nudge the selected object (Shift for bigger steps), Del deletes it, Ctrl+D duplicates it, Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V copy it to another slide.
Learners: → / ← next/back, Space pause, C captions, M mute.