• You can make a movie with your computer using Adobe Captivate.modern opened a notebook. image by Yuri Bizgaimer from Fotolia.com
  
  With Adobe Captivate, you can record movies on your computer. However, like any other program, it may be difficult for the beginner, and can sometimes be frustrating. You may find that as you attempt to make your first movie, pop-ups interfere with the process, you lose your work or the movie's picture quality wasn't as you had hoped. The good news, however, is that there are actions you can take to minimize these problems.
  
  

Prior to Recording

• There are things that you need to do before you begin recording your movie. One very important task to complete is to turn the background of your screen to a solid color. The West Virginia Office of Information and Technology website says that you should avoid patterns and pictures. They could interfere with the visual quality of your movie. Also, store any icons in a folder.
  
  

Avoiding Pop-ups

• To avoid pop-ups, shut down any IM programs you may be using. According to the West Virginia website, you should also close any other applications that are irrelevant to your movie. A pop-up during your movie is undesirable.
  
  

Adjusting Recording Settings

• According to the Wellesley College Information Service website, you can also adjust recording settings on your program. The website points out that during the course of your movie, Captivate automatically records your mouse actions, cursor movements or text directive captions. If you do not desire those to show up in your movie, you can prevent this by clicking on "Options," then going over to "Recording Options," and clicking on "Edit Settings."
  
  

Editing

• In preparing to edit your movie, it's important to uncheck all extraneous functions. The Wellesley College website recommends getting rid of the "Status Bar," "Show Library" and "Show Slide Notes" functions, as they are not necessary for making a movie in Captivate.
  
  Enter the "Edit" tab. According to the Wellesley College website, Captivate automatically divides your finished product into slides, each containing a separate action that you have taken. It divides each of these actions into separate layers. You can click each layer, thereby controlling the time when the action on that given layer will appear in your movie.
  
  

Slide Number Control

• According to the West Virginia website, you should keep the number of slides as low as possible. The idea is to control the number of slides in your movie. This frees up memory space on your file. You can either accomplish this task by deleting the unwanted slides, or by combining them. The WV website recommends that you discard full motion shots that do not contribute to your overall content. To check for such shots, go over to the Storyboard tab, and look for the movie camera icon in the right hand corner of your screen.