Introducing ActivePresenter 4!

June 27, 2014.

We are pleased to announce that ActivePresenter 4 is now available with a lot of new features and enhancements.
In this release, a new powerful output format is introduced, HTML5, which makes ActivePresenter becomes a great e-learning tool for creating cross-platform e-Learning contents. Demanding features and enhancements like Drag-n-Drop, Preview All Slides, High frame rate for Full Motion Recording, More shape types (lines, arrows,…), Gesture Effects… were also positively developed and put in this release as a commitment that ActivePresenter will always strongly support authoring contents both in video and interactive formats, for both paid users, enterprises and large community of free users.

Let’s explore what makes ActivePresenter 4 different:

Interactive HTML5 Simulation, the new trend for e-learning/m-learning.

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. One of its main purposes is support for the latest multimedia while keeping it easily readable by humans and consistently understood by computers and devices (web browsers, parsers, etc.).

What are benefits of using ActivePresenter HTML5 output?

The imagination about computer changed since the last decade. Many things you can do in a PC, now you can also do them on other devices such as tablets and smartphones. They are also considered as kinds of computer. But you can see obviously they are different. While some devices may supports Adobe Flash Player plugin, the others don’t. Also, while some devices uses Apple Safari web browser, the others use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. So,…

How you can make sure your content can run on various devices and platforms?

The best thing is nowadays, most of these devices support HTML5 standard. So by supporting the HTML5, the content created with ActivePresenter can run on various devices and platforms including desktop computers (Windows, Mac OS, and Linux), tablets (iOS, Android, Windows RT/Pro), and mobiles (iOS, Android, Windows Phone). You just need to create the content on your computer and rest assured that it will run perfectly on any devices which has a browser supports HTML5. You do not have to use much time in investigating the differences between devices and platforms so you only need to concentrate in authoring the content. Therefore, your resources are saved and the quality of your content is improved.

HTML5 in the aspect of viewers (learners)?

In the age of web browser plugin, you can see the common message “The X plugin is required to display this content”. Viewers may be disturbed by these kinds of things, many ordinary users don’t know how to deal with this. They are not ready or sometimes do not want to view the content because the lacking of required plugin. Viewers may also have bad experiences because of the plugin crashing or performance issues.

Thanks to HTML5 standard, the media inside the content created with ActivePresenter can be played directly in modern web browsers without using any plugin. Viewers are always ready to view the content if they are using a HTML5 supported browser. So, which are HTML5 supported browsers?

Most popular browsers nowadays support HTML5, including but not limited to: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 9 or later, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.
Almost all new tablets or smartphones support HTML5 too: Apple iPad/iPhone, Android, Windows Phone…

Note: For very old browsers like Internet Explorer 7 and 8, ActivePresenter still has a fallback solution by using either Adobe Flash Player or Microsoft Silverlight for media playback.

So, using the HTML5 has very many big advantages: time saved, cost reduced, quality improved, and user’s experience improved… but it is not enough. HTML5 is only a standard, you still need an authoring tool which based on it to realize your idea, to mix all separate parts of media together to create an engaged content… Let’s explore the most important new features in ActivePresenter 4 and see how they could help:

Drag – n – Drop

Computer nowadays is smarter than before. A simple example is you do not need to open the file dialog to insert an image into a web browser, you just need to use the mouse to drag the file and drop into the web browser. So, beside the classic interactions such as mouse click, key press; the drag-n-drop becomes a common interaction.

With the introduction of Drop Area interaction and Drag-n-Drop question, ActivePresenter try to maximize the capabilities in creating software simulations as much as possible. The event-action mechanism is also improved with abilities to show video, play audio… and of course, it is also the main setting of a Drag-n-Drop interaction.

Lines, Arrows, and various shape types

When creating the content, you may take a lot of time to find or creating your own resource (image, shape…). To rapid your authoring process, ActivePresenter 4 adds more than forty shape types including lines, arrows, stars… which allow you to decorate the content more flexibly and effectively.

Dramatically improve the frame rate (FPS) for Full Motion Recording (~25% faster).

The computer screen resolution is larger day by day, the application requires more resources to run, and the most important is you want to create a smooth video for demonstrating an application. ActivePresenter 4 full motion recording feature is optimized to offer better speed. The FPS now is greater than in previous version about 25%.

Note: Depends on the recording content, to achieve the best speed, the appropriate capture profile (or video codec) should be selected. You can find more information about capture profiles in the User Manual.

These are just small pieces in many features and improvements in ActivePresenter 4. More features will be added, more improvements will be made in the upcoming versions with a slogan in mind “Everything You Need for e-Learning!”.

For a full list of changes in ActivePresenter 4, please refer to the Release Notes.

In paying tribute to our faithful users, Upgrading to ActivePresenter 4 is FREE OF CHARGE for all current 2.x/3.x customers!
All you need to do is: