Many a times this is a very commonly asked question to us by our clients - Which Authoring Tool is best for eLearning Development and at times it is difficult to differentiate which one is really the best. The decision of which tool to be used really depends on various factors like interactivities, media, multi-device output requirement, ease of use, cost, time to deliver, expertise, etc to name a few. In this blog we have tried to put together a simple listing of various features available in each eLearning Authoring Tool. Hope this bird's eye view will help to have a better idea on features of each tool -
| Sr. No | Articulate Storyline 2.0 | Adobe Captivate 9 | Lectora Inspire 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intuitive User Interface | Intuitive user interface | Responsive Course Design (RCD) |
| 2 | Text Editing | Adobe Captivate Draft | Additional Status Action Condition Relationships |
| 3 | Dockable Panels | Roundtripping with Microsoft PowerPoint | Inline Variable Replacement |
| 4 | Slide View Toggle | Multistate objects | Improved test results |
| 5 | Content Importing | Object styles | Enhanced Likert questions |
| 6 | New Languages | Equation editor | Improved bullets and numbered lists |
| 7 | Slide Templates | Master slides | Additional status indicator objects |
| 8 | Characters | Professional project templates | Media play optimized |
| 9 | Timeline | Interactions library | Enhanced Progress Bar Action |
| 10 | Story View | Themes | Increase/Decrease Text Size |
| 11 | Customizable Player | Multiscreen responsive eLearning authoring | Quick Tour |
| 12 | Slide Masters | iOS device capture | Compatibility with Lectora Online 3 |
| 13 | Themes | Multidevice previews | Improved PowerPoint importing |
| 14 | Color Themes | Gesture-enabled mobile learning | Enhanced support for xAPI-based titles |
| 15 | Format Painter | Geo-location support | New closed captioning file support |
| 16 | Zoom | Relative smart positioning of objects | New sets of check boxes and radio buttons |
| 17 | AutoRecovery | Device-aware eLearning delivery | Enhanced Preview in Browser |
| 18 | Motion Paths | Native support for HTML5 objects | Additional FTP Transfer Mode |
| 19 | Slide Layers | Best-in-class HTML5 publishing | Quick Launch access to ReviewLink |
| 20 | Triggers | Responsive themes | Set Completion Status renamed to Set Tracking Status |
| 21 | States | MinMax object sizing | Convert Existing Titles to RCD |
| 22 | Slider Interactions | Asset store | Auto-Fit Mobile Devices |
| 23 | Convert to Freeform | Responsive Motion Effects without programming | Responsive Title Themes |
| 24 | Variables | Interactive slide shows with multistate objects | Responsive Page Layouts |
| 25 | Exit and Entrance Animations | Multistate support for drag-and-drop interactions | RCD Device Inheritance |
| 26 | Markers | Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) support | Reset Overrides |
| 27 | Animation Painter | Actors | Cross-Device Object Moving and Resizing |
| 28 | Transitions | Customizable Smart Shapes | Automatic Page Height Adjustment |
| 29 | Lightboxes | Colors and effects | CurrentView Variable |
| 30 | Buttons | Rollover slidelet, images and captions | Device Rotation Trigger |
| 31 | Hotspots | Best-in-class screen capture | Enhanced Preview in Browser |
| 32 | Data-Entry Fields | High-definition screencast | |
| 33 | Mouse Objects | Audio-video support and synchronization | |
| 34 | Scrolling Panels | Scenario branching | |
| 35 | Screen Recording | Text to speech | |
| 36 | Software Simulations | Support for right-clicking in simulations | |
| 37 | Action Fine-Tuning | Auto-text captions | |
| 38 | Multimedia Support | Table of contents and Aggregator | |
| 39 | Video | Text enhancements | |
| 40 | Web Objects | Pan and zoom support | |
| 41 | Screenshot Tool | Customizable skins | |
| 42 | Quizzing | Comprehensive quizzing | |
| 43 | Freeform Questions | Knowledge Check questions | |
| 44 | Multiple Quizzes | Responsive drag-and-drop interactions | |
| 45 | Negative Scoring | Pretest and branch-aware quizzing | |
| 46 | Question Import | Multiple question types | |
| 47 | Question Banks | Comprehensive scoring | |
| 48 | HTML5, Flash, Articulate Mobile Player | Remediation | |
| 49 | Publish to Microsoft Word | Randomized quizzing and question pools | |
| 50 | Tracking and Reporting | In-product LMS preview | |
| 51 | Right-to-Left Language Support | Publish to Adobe Captivate Prime and other LMSs | |
| 52 | Translation Support | Shared Advanced Actions | |
| 53 | Section 508 Accessibility | Roundtripping with Adobe CC | |
| 54 | WCAG Accessibility | Accessibility support | |
| 55 | Custom Tab Order | Multiformat publishing | |
| 56 | Player Font Size | Native app publisher | |
| 57 | Skip Player Navigation | Unicode support | |
| 58 | Language ID for Screen Readers | Right-to-left language support | |
| 59 | Keyboard Support for Sliders | Popup blocker | |
| 60 | Retina display support | ||
| 61 |
Social media engagement |
Please note, this feature list is picked up as is from the respective websites of each product and below are the sources of information
