Manage updates with the Download AppCNET Editors' review
Atomi's ActivePresenter captures and saves onscreen video and images and audio narration, but that's just the start of what it does. Another way to describe it is as a free tool for creating e-learning materials, manuals, presentations, screencasts, and demonstrations for training, education, business presentations, customer support, and similar applications. It's compatible with SCORM and handles a wide range of file types. ActivePresenter's free version is fully functional. It's also available in Standard and Pro editions that add features such as export capability, definable events, and Office compatibility. We tried the free edition.
ActivePresenter's user interface opens with a quick-start guide offering six choices: open an existing file or start a New Capture or Project on the control side, and License, Support, and Help choices on the support side. We clicked Help, opening an extensive PDF-based User Manual. ActivePresenter's New Capture and New Project wizards make this program easy enough to just start right up with, though, and we quickly snagged our desktop view, which the program displayed in its main window.
ActivePresenter's layout combines elements of word processors and graphics tools in look and layout, though with many unique, program-specific features such as a Timeline with a small but useful audio spectral display. ActivePresenter uses an expandable right-hand sidebar similar to those found in big-box graphics apps. The Slides sidebar is tabbed for Thumbnails and Titles. The program's View menu offers lots of Toolbar options, though, including the ability to customize the toolbars. In fact, ActivePresenter has enough options and settings to satisfy your inner nerd, everything from Mouse Hover options to slideshows to Ajax and Flash simulations. The Annotation menu has 11 options in itself.
While ActivePresenter proved easy to use at every step, we're not going to pretend that we turned out a slick e-learning package on the first go-round. But even simple projects yielded surprising results. Lots of well-thought-out touches like attractive, draggable cursor paths, programmable keystrokes, and test templates for multiple choice, true/false, and other methods save a lot of time without compromising quality. ActivePresenter does much more, though; users with still more needs can check out the paid upgrades.
Publisher's Description
From Atomi Systems:
ActivePresenter is a screencasting and rapid elearning authoring software. With fast, smart screen capture technology and a powerful authoring environment, ActivePresenter includes all the tools needed to record a presentation, annotate and easily convert the output to video (AVI, WMV, MP4, FLV), interactive AJAX and Flash simulation, or other document formats (PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS, HTML). Output can also be packed into SCORM compliant package to import and use in most Learning Content Management Systems(LCMS).
ActivePresenter reproduces your on-screen activity and records in video, sound, image or text formats within few minutes. Coupled with a powerful yet easy-to-use authoring environment, you can easily create advanced simulations, scenarios or online documentation just by operating on target applications and let ActivePresenter do the jobs for you. No programming or multimedia skills needed.What's new in this version:
- Version 3.5.1:
- Obfuscation/Blur tool in Image Editor: easily erase sensitive information in captured images
- Transition Effects for Objects: Entry-Exit transitions: Fade, Fly, Peek, Wipe
- Slide Transition Effects: Fade, Fly, Wipe
- Shadow Effect: allow objects to have 3D shadow effect
- Video Freeze-Frame: Allow user to temporarily pause a video for a specified duration so additional explanations/annotations can be added to explain the video in more details<... See all new features
More Products to Consider
-
Convert popular video to mp4 for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune and vi... -
Play audio and video files in real-time and streaming modes. -
Convert your videos, audios, and pictures to preferable file fo... -
Play video files of multiple video formats. -
Play digital media of various formats with 3D and WiDi support. -
Convert, edit video and audio files for multimedia devices. -
Play 99.9 percent of files with a collection of codecs for Wind... -
Play virtually any media file in open-source cross-platform mul... -
Play various types of video, audio, movie, music files in Media... -
Search videos on web and download videos from youtube. -
Convert and edit your video files adding slide shows and titles... -
Record videos with the Zuvuu Cloud service. -
Play all the most popular video and audio formats. -
Animate images from voice and text. -
Convert video and YouTube to AVI, WMV, MP4, FLV, MP3, burn vide... -
Get a movie player with built in codecs. -
Get a movie player with built in codecs. -
Play all kinds of video content. -
Convert video files between various formats and download YouTub... -
Get a movie player with built in codecs. -
Convert, edit video/audio file for multimedia devices. -
Rip DVD disc content to various video file formats. -
Play FLV files with the ability to loop. -
Rip Blu-ray and DVD discs to video and audio file formats.
-
All versions:
3.4 starsout of 14 votes
-
Current version:
3.0 starsout of 1 votes
-
My rating:
Write review
Results 1-1 of 1
-
"confusing trial/free version"
Version: ActivePresenter 3.5.1
Pros
Great features for the price, especially for educators. You can post results to an arbitrary script, which (theoretically) provides grade pushback for those without a SCORM player.
Cons
Hard to know what will work, given that every menu item is active, but only a subset will result in a usable product, depending on what license you buy. If no license, almost none of what you see will work without a watermark. Seems like an obvious marketing ploy, but I think it will backfire. They need to grey out features that aren't active, or at least warn you when you try to put them in.
Summary
I was very confused by this download, but eventually I figured out that the free/trial version is broken except for the features that are listed as free on the website. Pretty much all you can do without paying for a license is capture some video, edit it, and then export as video. That's actually pretty darn good for free, you just have to learn to ignore 90% of what you see in the menus.
Results 1-1 of 1
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
Previous Versions:
