Last week, Adobe announced the availability of a new release of Adobe Presenter 8. The release is specifically for customers on Adobe Software Assurance plans for Adobe Presenter and the eLearning Suite – though all of the features will eventually make it into the next major release of Adobe Presenter.

There are a significant number of new features included in the new release.

Windows 8 & Microsoft Office 2013 Support
The latest update adds official support for both Windows 8 as well as Microsoft Powerpoint 2013. Newer Powerpoint objects like SmartArt and animations are also supported.

A new audio workflow
The team has worked to simplify and improve the experience around recording audio and synchronizing it to your Powerpoint slides. The new interface is looks much more modern and makes the functionality easier than ever to use.

Closed Captions
Captions can now be generated automatically for your audio track in the video creator tool. Adobe Presenter translates your narration into text using cloud based computing. Captions are delivered back to the user who can make further edits. It’s very impressive functionality – and you can see it in action below:

Improved Interactions Library
Adobe Presenter 8.0 launched with a new feature that enables customers to add interactive elements to their on-demand courses. In this update, additional interactions have been added – including games like Hangman and Jigsaw.

Improved mobile app for Adobe Presenter
The team has updated Adobe Presenter Mobile for iOS to incorporate tracking via Adobe Connect.

If you’re not familiar with Adobe Presenter, I’ve embedded a quick overview video below. Note that this overview doens’t include the great new features added to Adobe Presenter 8.1.

What is Adobe Presenter?
Adobe Presenter 8 software helps you communicate more effectively with engaging videos and interactive presentations created in Microsoft PowerPoint. Minimize the time, effort, and cost of producing and editing videos by doing it yourself at your desktop. Add quizzes; deliver to the web, video sharing sites, desktops, and mobile devices; and track using integration with Learning Management Systems (LMSs).

Source: Adobe Connect Blog