E-Learning company Brandon Hall has a page of software shootouts, and the most recent is on simulation software. Our old friends Captivate and ViewletBuilder are on the list, but Camtasia Studio wasn’t involved. Also on the list are a whole whack of new ones (well new to me). There are links at the bottom to all the presentations that were created as a result of the contest, but I couldn’t get most of them to work in Firefox 🙁
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2 Responses to “Software Simulation Shootouts”
Though a bit old, the 2005 shootout page gives a glimpse of the top screencasting tools available.
Surprised, why Camtasia is missing ?
The reason why many of these programs are pretty unknown is that many of them are in an entirely other league than Captivate, ViewletBuilder and so on. Both featurewise and pricewise. The Firefly usually works in Firefox and this demonstrates that the entire menu system of the captured program actually can be used in the demo. I have heard prices from 5.000 to 10.000 dollars for Firefly. Some of the programs can also automatically generate written documentation for the procedures done in the captured program.
Many of the simulations typically depends on java, Internet Explorer-specific features or plugins you have to download so unfortunately most won’t work in Firefox.
Some big corporations might find some of these programs interesting but generally I think Captivate, Camtasia is enough for most purposes. I myself use Wink and I also participate in testing, writing documentation and so on for this program.