Month: February 2007

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Dreamweaver 8: Rollovers Made Easy

When you visit a Web page, point to an image and watch it magically change to a different image, the magical behavior is often referred to as a “rollover.”

If you wanted to add a "rollover" behavior to your Web site, one way would be to write a “Swap Image” JavaScript that would get the job down.

If you are good enough to write the script required to perform a "rollover," kudos. However, creating a "rollover" doesn’t have to be as complicated as writing the script from scratch. In fact, you’re about to learn how to do it in Dreamweaver in just a few steps.

When swapping images, the swap image should be the same size (height and width) as the original. If not, you will see the swapped image take on the size of the original image as the swap occurs. For instance, if the original image is very small and the swap very large, you will end up with some unfortunate viewing.

If you use the “Swap Image” behavior, Dreamweaver automatically provides a “Swap Image Restore” behavior that restores a swap back to the original file.

Create a Simple Rollover

  1. Choose Insert > Image Objects > Rollover Image

    The Insert Rollover Image dialog box appears.

  2. Click the Browse button to the right of Original image and open your first image
  3. Click the Browse button to the right of Rollover image and open the image you want to swap for the Original image
  4. Click OK
  5. Save your work and preview the page in the browser
  6. Move your pointer over the image. It should swap from the original image to the new image

Want to learn more about Dreamweaver 8? Click here.

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English Grammar: Verbal Phrases

A verbal phrase consists of a verbal and all of its modifiers and objects. Since verbals come from verbs, they take on all of the characteristics of verbs. And since verbals function as other parts of speech, they also take on the characteristics of those parts of speech.

Shopping at her favorite stores, Samantha spent her entire paycheck. (The bolded phrase is a participial phrase because it functions as an adjective modifying Samantha.)

Shopping on line is Samantha’s favorite pastime. (The bolded phrase is a gerund phrase because it functions as the subject of the sentence; it is, therefore, a noun.)

Samantha loves to shop for bargains. (The bolded phrase is an infinitive phrase because the word to precedes the verb. The infinitive is functioning as a direct object.)

Click here for a challenge exercise on Verbal phrases.

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Adobe Captivate 2: Make Your Previews Count

If you’re a long-time Captivate user, you’ve certainly come to appreciate Captivate’s ability to Preview your project without the need to Publish . Just in case you’re new to the Captivate family, you can click the Preview tool on Captivate’s Main toolbar and select from Play this Slide, Project, From this slide, Next 5 slides, and In Web Browser.

Of course, all of the previews offer something to the Captivate developer. But one stands head-and- shoulders above the rest. Read on and I’ll explain.

Play this Slide: Not bad. It’ll play the current slide, just like its name implies. However, it’s flawed in that it will not play slide animation. I only find it useful to show how slide objects such as captions and highlight boxes appear on the slide in relationship to each other. No thanks.

Project: Again, not bad. This preview will generate and play the entire project as it will appear should you Publish a standalone project. Of course, if the project is large, you’ll waste a lot of time waiting for the preview to be generated. On the plus side, you’ll have playbars at the top and side of the preview you can use to navigate the preview. And if you find a problem on a slide, you can click the Edit button to jump right to that slide. Nice, but I still have to say next.

In Web Browser: This preview will generate and play the entire project as it will appear should you Publish a SWF. But as with the Project preview, you’ll waste a lot of time waiting for the preview to be generated. Unlike the Project preview, you don’t get the handy playbars, nor do you have the Edit button that will jump you right to a problem slide. Sorry, but next.

Where does that leave us. Oh yeah, Preview Next 5 slides. If you press [F10] on your keyboard, you’ll get to see your project in groups of 5 slides. In my opinion, this is the most helpful way to preview the project slides. Unlike the last two previews, Next 5 slides does not generate the project (it only generates 5 slides at a time). And unlike the Play this Slide preview, you will see the animation as it will Publish, which I find very helpful. My only complaint is that you can only preview 5 slides at a time. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could preview as many slides as you want? Maybe Captivate 3?

Wait. Roll that back! Captivate 3? How about now? Once again I find myself admitting to “finding” a feature I hadn’t been aware existed. Bethany Senarith from Wells Fargo, a student in a recent class, was able to preview 7 slides at a time. Huh? I thought I was seeing things when I saw her Preview tool say “Next 7 slides.”

Here’s how she did it:

  1. Choose Project > Preferences
  2. Select the Defaults tab (if you’re like me, I bet you’re wondering how long that tab has been there—go ahead and admit it)
  3. Change the Preview Next count to whatever slide count floats your boat
  4. Click OK

Last week it was Ms. Nolan with her little zoom trick. Now it’s Ms. Senarith. Anyone else care to show me just how much I don’t know? Hurry, because I’m going back and looking at every dialog box—twice. Soon I’ll know it all, just like I think I do.

Want to learn more about Captivate? Click here.

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QuarkXPress 7: You’ve Been Synched!

The Shared Content feature in QuarkXPress 7 allows you to reuse content over multiple project layouts, much like the User Define Variables feature you’ll find in Adobe RoboHelp 6 HTML.

Once added to the Shared Content palette, items gain a sort of super-linked property. Should you duplicate an instance of a shared item, the duplicates are synchronized. Update one occurrence of the synchronized text, you update the same thing in any project layout where the item appears. For instance, I created a text box with a phone number in Layout 1. I added the text box to the Shared Content palette. Then I duplicated layout several times. Each of the duplicate layouts contained the same text box with the phone number. Here’s the cool part: I opened one of the layouts and edited the phone number. Bam! The number updated in all of the layouts.

In the following example, I will show you how to use the Shared Content feature to update multiple instances of text box content.

  1. Create a new layout in QuarkXPress 7 and draw a text box
  2. Using the Content tool, type This is a test of the Shared Content feature into the text box
  3. Choose Window > Shared Content to show the Shared Content palette
  4. Using either the Item or Content tool, select the Text box you were just working with
  5. Click the New tool on the Shared Content palette

    The Synch Content dialog box appears.

  6. Type a name into the Name area
  7. Click OK

    The text box and its text has been added to the Shared Content palette.

  8. Using either the Item or Content tool, select the Text box you were just working with
  9. Press [command] [d] several times to make duplicates of the text box and its content
  10. Using the Item tool, move the text box to different locations in the layout
  11. Using the Content tool, change the content in any of the text boxes to This is an edited test of the Shared Content feature.

    All of the text boxes throughout the layout should have been updated to reflect your change to any of the synchronized text boxes.

Want to learn more about QuarkXPress? Click here.

Want to test drive some free online and totally interactive QuarkXPress 7 tutorials? Click here.

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RoboHelp and Citrix…

Question:

We need to know if Robohelp has licenses available for Citrix use. A Citrix license will allow our users to run Robohelp from Citrix and access the user’s home directory while working from remote locations. Do you know if that’s possible?

Answer:

It’s a very bad idea to access your RoboHelp project via a network (where the project is on a network drive and you access the project from your local PC instead of working on the project via your local hard drive).

Problems with working over a network drive can range from poor performance to corrupt project files.

However, if I read this question correctly, the user is looking to access the RoboHelp project on her office computer via a remote connection. In that case, no problem. I use GoToMyPC (which uses Citrix) to access my RoboHelp projects all the time. Assuming your Internet connection is fast, running your project via Citrix should be no different than sitting in front of your PC and working on the project. And you do not need a special Citrix version of RoboHelp to access your RoboHelp software.

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Call for Advanced Captivate Topics

In the coming weeks we’ll be offering advanced online courses on Adobe Captivate 2. If you have something you would like to see covered in the course, please let us know by clicking here.

The one-day course will be held online in a virtual classroom. Stay tuned to this newsletter for more details.

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Adobe Captivate 2: Click, Scroll, Zoom, Zoom. Cool!

I recently heard a couple of Captivate developers complaining about how hard it was to work with long Captivate captions because of all the scrolling up and down it takes to read through them via the caption properties dialog box.

Suddenly, and without much warning, I was dragged into the debate. They asked me if there was an easier way to work with captions in Captivate. When I suggested that short captions were better than long captions, which would end the debate, I was greeted with something less than enthusiasm. “No,” I was told, the caption length had been dictated by the client and the length could not be changed. Besides, if the caption was short, but the font size large, you’d still have to scroll up and/or down to edit the text. Hmmmm.

When I suggested that it was a good practice to export the captions into Word and work with them there (performing a round-trip back to Word if edits were necessary), I was greeted with: “That’s all well and good, but wouldn’t it be nice if it was easier to work with the captions while in Captivate.”

One of my developers, Anne Nolan, offers up the following cool trick that she had found accidentally while working inside a Captivate caption.

I’ll admit right now that while I consider myself something of an authority on Captivate, I had no idea Captivate could do Ms. Nolan’s trick. It just goes to show that if you think you know it all, the Ms. Nolan’s of the world will be happy to put you in your place. Well done, Ms. Nolan. (Note: You’ll need a mouse with a scroll wheel to try this trick at home.)

  1. Double-click a caption to show its properties
  2. Left-click inside the caption
  3. While keeping the left clicker pressed, scroll using the scroll wheel on your mouse

    You’re not seeing things. If you keep the left clicker down and roll the scroll wheel up an down, you’ll see the caption text zooming in and out. How cool is that?

Do you have any Captivate tricks up your sleeve? Please share. I’m happy to give you full credit right here.

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Adobe RoboHelp 6 HTML: Drag and Drop Meets Positioned Text Boxes

An inherent weakness in HTML is the inability to position page elements exactly where you want them. To counter this failing, one often-used trick is to use tables. You put an element into a table cell, add columns and rows to add spacing, turn off the cell borders and, presto, a page layout that looks just about the way you want.

In RoboHelp, you can use Positioned Text Boxes. They can contain text and/or graphics and can be “positioned” exactly where you want them on the page. When previewed with a browser, the position of the box will not change.

Using Positioned Text Boxes, you can create complex page layouts similar to those you would have had to create in desktop publishing programs such as PageMaker, QuarkXPress and InDesign.

To add a positioned text box:

  1. Open a topic
  2. Choose Insert > Positioned Text Box
  3. Click in the Positioned Text Box and either type some text or insert an image
  4. Drag the Positioned Text Box anywhere you want in your topic

    That’s it. Go ahead and give it a try!

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InDesign CS2: Data Merge Made Easy, Really!

Believe it or not, you can perform complex data merges in InDesign CS 2 that allow you to create form letters, certificates, envelopes and mailing labels out of raw data.

Click here to interact with an online simulation that will teach you how. Or, read the steps to success below:

A data merge consists of three parts: a data document, a target document and a merged document.

The data document contains the information that changes from document to document. For instance, if you wanted to create certificates, the names you want to appear on each certificate would be typed into the data document.

The process for creating a data merge in InDesign is surprisingly simple. First, create the data. You can use just about anything to create the data. But if you want an easy test document, type the data in a word processor like NotePad. Separate the data by pressing the TAB key on your keyboard. Keep in mind that the first row of your data will become the HEADER row in your data and will translate into Data Fields in InDesign.

After you finish creating the data document, start InDesign and create a target document. You create the target document in InDesign as you would create any InDesign document–except you add data-field placeholders that will serve as a conduit between the InDesign document and the data document.

After creating the target document in InDesign, it’s a simple matter of merging the data document with the target document. Really!

  1. Select the Window menu
  2. Select Automation
  3. Select Data Merge

    The Data Merge palette opens. This is where you select the data document file as your data source.

  4. Click the Fly Out menu
  5. Select Select Data Source
  6. Select your data document
  7. Click the Open button

    As mentioned earlier, the items in the first row of the data document appear in the Data Merge palette as data fields. Now you will add the data fields to the InDesign document.

  8. Click the data fields to insert them into the InDesign document.

    All you need to do now is merge the document.

  9. Click the Fly Out menu again and choose Create Merged Document

    A new, merged document will be created that is a merge between the data in your data document and the InDesign target document.

Still don’t believe it’s easy to create a data merge in InDesign? Seeing is believing! Click here to interact with an online simulation and I bet you will soon be convinced. Don’t worry, the price is right. It’s free.

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English Grammar: If Only I Knew

The word only is often misplaced. It sounds natural almost anywhere in the sentence, but for the meaning of the sentence to be clear, only should be placed as close as possible to what it modifies. The word only can be used as an adverb or as an adjective and usually precedes the word it is modifying. Some other words that are often misplaced are almost, just, and merely.

  • I only have $5 -Careless
  • I have only $5 -Clear
  • I only am testing the chemical. -Careless
  • Only I am testing the chemical. -Clear
  • I am only testing the chemical. -Clear

Click here to learn more about grammar.