I am looking for software package that will allow me to capture the functions of my software and then make it interactive by having a try me, show me or test me option. We have looked at Firefly but at this time currently cannot afford the license. Do any of you know of any other applications that will do this?

I guarantee the majority of people are going to tell you to try Adobe Captivate.

I don't have anything against Captivate, and am actually upgrading to it from Robodemo 5 next week to produce a few demos. If it's anything like Robodemo, though, the "try me" and "test me" options are more manual than I would want to use. If that stuff is easier to do in the new version, well, then "cool!"

We went through the same issue last year and ended up actually getting a couple Firefly licenses, despite it being a bit above our budget. We tried a bunch of other simulation tools as well, most of them very good, but few captured the interactivity and flow as easily as Firefly.

If you're not code-avoident, I'd look at Toolbook as an alternative.

Yes, I would recommend Captivate for several reasons. It's part of the Macromedia/Adobe suite so you know it will be supported well. It's fairly inexpensive ($499). It has a large, growing user base. It exports a project easily to a Word document for easier review (this has been a lifesaver for us). Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use. It's pretty stable as long as you know that you have to work on your project locally (i.e., not via the network).

Yes, it needs some work to make it more user friendly on some of its functionality, but if you look closely, there's a lot there.

Hi, I think Robodemo is a good option. Regards, Sudeb

Take a look at Visual Course Builder at www.maxit.com.
You can see a demo developed with VCB on my website.