HTML5 Authoring Tools To Seamlessly Move From Flash

Moving From Flash To HTML5 – Authoring Tools That Help

With the impending death of Flash in 2020 as announced by Adobe, you might be wondering what to do with your online courses that are built or published in Flash. How do you retain some of these courses which may be valuable assets you cannot ignore? You do this by converting them to HTML5. Luckily, there are many authoring tools available today that do the conversion.

In the past, developers used Flash to build eLearning courses. This became a challenge when courses that could run on different devices – desktops, laptops, tablets (iPads), and smartphones – had to be developed. Flash is not supported by mobile devices or popular browsers. This led to Flash falling out of favor and the rise of HTML5, which provides responsive course output and is supported by most browsers.

Today, employees prefer to access their eLearning courses on multiple devices; they want the online courses to be responsive to the device they access them on. Many mobile devices do not support Flash because it needs to be installed. With HTML5, there is no need for a separate installation.

Changing the course to the HTML5 version will increase accessibility because of its responsive feature. HTML5-based authoring tools have design templates, multimedia elements, and screen recording features. This offers scope for building interactive eLearning courses. These are some reasons to convert Flash-based courses to HTML5.

The migration from Flash to HTML5 is done to retain the value of your Flash courses. There may be content and visuals in your Flash courses that you may wish to retain for your learners, so you cannot afford to shelve your legacy courses. Conversion to HTML5 is the best option.

Authoring Tools For Flash To HTML5 Conversion

Today, there are many authoring tools that help make this conversion process easy. Let us look at three popular tools that offer this feature.

1. Articulate 360

This interactive eLearning development tool has easy-to-use applications and offers ready-made templates that can be used to convert your Flash courses.
Scenarios used in your Flash courses can be modified in the HTML format, using the character packs and interactive templates available with the tool.
The interactivities in Flash can be recreated with the help of triggers and variables available in this tool.
The built-in responsive player will adjust the content to the various devices without the need for additional programming.
With the responsive playback restrictions feature, content can be restricted to a specific orientation.

2. Lectora Inspire

This is the preferred tool when you want to convert text-heavy legacy courses to HTML5. It is one of the fastest conversion tools available.
The responsive course design feature ensures that the course adjusts to varying screen sizes.
Flash animations can be reused by publishing them as videos in the HTML5 format using this tool. This saves considerable costs.
The ‘seamless play’ publish option enhances HTML5 output. Titles have a smooth flow when navigating from one page to another, without the screen wipe issue that used to be a problem when loading HTML pages.

3. Adobe Captivate 17

The eLearning authoring tool has built-in interactivities and templates that enhance the conversion process.
Fluid Boxes help divide slides into placeholders for text, graphics, and objects. With this feature, onscreen elements adjust automatically.
Animations in Flash can be imported to produce media-rich content.
You can create high-quality simulations.
The HTML5 tracker lets designers know which parts of the Flash-based course are not HTML5 compatible.

Comparison Of HTML5 Authoring Tools

A quick comparison of these three tools will help you decide how well they will respond to your conversion challenges.

Tool	Benefits	Limitations
Articulate 360	Easy-to-use application Ready-made templates Triggers and variables to recreate interactivities in Flash Supports responsive learning	Not suited for the conversion of simulations After conversion, the performance of HTML5 content in iPads is slower
Lectora Inspire	Supports responsive course design Flash animations can be republished as videos Seamless play option ensures a smooth transition between pages	Lack of technical support for creating good simulations Ready-made templates have limited options Lacks good audio and video recording options
Adobe Captivate 17	Built-in interactivities and templates Fluid box feature automatically adjusts onscreen features Creates high-quality simulations	Offers limited animation effects Higher learning curve

Choosing An Authoring Tool

The choice of authoring tool for your conversion needs depends on what you want to retain from your Flash-based courses in the HTML5 version and the additional features you might need. Your choice could depend on the device you want the course delivered in post-conversion or whether it needs to be responsive.

At CommLab, we helped many clients with the conversion process. The choice of tool depends on the requirements of the client. For instance, one of our clients wanted their health and fitness training courses in Flash to be converted to HTML5 so that they could be accessed on mobile devices. The original courses had scenarios, animations, and interactivities that explained the weight management process in detail.

We decided to use Storyline for the conversion because its inbuilt characters, templates, and animations made it easy to create interactivities similar to those in the original course.

Another client, a provider of financial services and solutions based in Australia changed their branding. They wanted to convert their older courses developed in Flash and an older version of Lectora to HTML5 to reflect their current branding and make the courses accessible on mobile devices. We chose Lectora for the conversion because of its responsive features. We chose the same tool when we had to convert a repository of 500 legacy courses to mobile compatible courses for a US-based telecommunications company.

When it comes to converting Flash-based courses to HTML5, there are many authoring tools that will do the job. Knowing their features will help you make a choice based on the aspects of the conversion. It will also help you select the tool that will best meet your needs.