Month: May 2007

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Captivate 3: Adobe’s Looking for a Few Good Vista Testers

The following was posted on Silke Fleischer’s BLOG a few days ago. Silke, who works for Adobe, is responsible for product management and marketing for Adobe Captivate.

"I keep getting questions from customers and sales if Adobe Captivate 3 will support Windows Vista.

The answer is yes 🙂 and I am waiting for the support PDF to be updated with this info. Until that happens (might be a little while since our web team is focusing on our cool CS3 launch), I figure I will simply blog to get the word out.

We are currently actively testing Adobe Captivate 3 Beta on Vista. Less then 10% of our beta testers are running Vista–so if you are not yet on our beta and you’d like to help us test Adobe Captivate on Vista, please complete our beta survey."

What’s your experience with Captivate on Vista? Send your comments and we’ll publish them here.

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Questions of the Week

Question:

How do I add a registered trademark inside a QuarkXPress layout using QuarkXPress for Windows?

Answer:

If you are using QuarkXPress version 6.5 or older, press ALT on your keyboard and then press 0174 on the calculator keypad on your keyboard. If you are using QuarkXPress 7 or newer, choose Windows > Glyphs. You’ll find every symbol you’ll ever need there.

Question:

Is there an easy way to add page numbering (such as Page x of y) to each Captivate slide?

Answer:

The ability to add a slide count is not native in Captivate. However, there is a wonderful Captivate hints and tips web site available where you can find "widgets" that extend Captivate’s functunality. I encourage everyone to check it out.

Got a Question? Email it to us. We’ll publish the answer here for all the world to see.

How do I add a registered trademark inside a QuarkXPress layout using QuarkXPress for Windows?

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Adobe InDesign CS 3: Our Favorite New Features

Our InDesign CS 3 workbook is under development. The book should be available in the next 4-6 weeks. In the meantime, here are the new features that get our "That’s Cool!" vote. (Of course there are many more features than those listed below, but these rock! We’ll have lessons to support these features in the new book.)

Multi-file Place

Now you can select and place multiple text and images at one time. Imagine a layout with 4 text frames and 4 image frames. Instead of having to use the Place command 8 times to add the individual assets to your document, you can select all 8 assets at one time and place them, rapid-fire, throughout the document.

Advanced Find/Change

You can now search for change properties of objects, even across multiple documents (that includes master pages, footnotes, and locked or hidden layers). And you can save your searches–perfect if you find yourself searching for the same things week in and week out.

Table and Cell Styles

InDesign already had text and object styles, allowing you to apply consistent formats and quickly change the appearance of text and objects throughout a document. Now you can create styles for both tables and table cells.

To learn more about the new features in InDesign CS 3, click here.

Click here to sample some of our 100% interactive InDesign simulations.

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Tip of the Week: Duplicating Captivate Slides Can Get You Out of a Pickle

Alan Rosenberg presents this handy Captivate production technique:

Have you ever wondered if making some edits to a slide might improve your Captivate presentation, but been afraid to do so for fear of being able to get things back just right? Although you could make a copy of the file and make your changes in the B version and then compare them, there’s a quicker way.

  1. Right-click the slide you need to edit and choose Duplicate
  2. Move either the original or the duplicate slide to the end of your project
  3. Insert a blank slide just in front of the slide you just moved to the end (Insert > Blank Slide)

    I used this technique to remind myself that the duplicate slide is there. You can also show the slide’s properties and label the slide Duplicate.

  4. Do your edits on the duplicate slide
  5. Test the results

    If you like the results, delete the moved slide and the blank slide. If you don’t like the results you can get back to where you were in short time by moving the unedited slide back to its place and deleting the edited slide and the blank slide.
     
    You can also use this technique to test a file in which you want to delete one or more slides.

Got a great tip you’d like to share? Please send it to us. We’ll publish it here and give you full credit.

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Link of the Week: CSS Made Easy

The best Web sites have a consistent look-from precise positioning of page elements to harmonious fonts and styles.

Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Dreamweaver will give you flexibility in controlling the appearance of your pages.

There are several types of styles:

Linked: The attributes of this type of style sheet are stored in an external CSS file that is not a direct part of any HTML file. Each style sheet can contain multiple styles and can be linked to multiple files.

HTML tag styles: You can redefine the formatting for tags such as <H1>, <H2>, <H3>, <P>, <UL> and <BODY> tags.

Custom CSS styles (classes): You can apply this kind of style to selected text or elements. These styles are stored in the HTML file.

CSS Selector styles: Control the appearance for combinations of tags. For example, if you created a CSS Selector named td h3, it would be used whenever an h3 header appears inside a table cell. There are also CSS Selectors that control link colors (active, hover, link and visited).

You will find some fantastic CSS articles and examples at the Dreamweaver Developer Center.

Want to learn more about Dreamweaver? Click here.

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QuarkXPress 7: Why Merely Duplicate Items When Step and Repeat is So Super?

Everything you work with in QuarkXPress, be it a text box, picture box or line, is an item. Items can get in the way of other items. You may need duplicate items. You may need to align them. Learning how to control items is key to mastering QuarkXPress. You can duplicate any selected item via the Item menu. But if you duplicate, you have little control of where the duplicated item will appear, and only one duplicate item will appear at a time. If you need multiple items and you know where you want them, consider the Step and Repeat command.

With the Step and Repeat command (Item menu), you can create several duplicate copies of an item and control where the duplicates appear on the page. Using Super Step and Repeat, you can control such things as the size, shade and angle of each repeated item.

Use Standard Step and Repeat

  1. Create a new project (File > New > Project)
  2. Draw an item using any of the drawing tools (such as an oval or rectangle)
  3. Modify the item (Item > Modify) and change the Width and Height to .5 inch (one-half inch)
  4. Ensure the item you just drew is selected and choose Item > Step and Repeat
  5. The Step and Repeat dialog box appears.

    The Horizontal Offset controls how far each successive item moves left or right (positive numbers will move each item right; negative numbers will move each item left). Similarly, the Vertical Offset controls item position north and south on the page (positive numbers will move items down the page; negative numbers will move items higher on the page–yes, higher).

    Step and Repeat

  6. Change the Repeat Count to 3
  7. Change the Horizontal Offset to .25 inch
  8. Change the Vertical Offset to .25 inch
  9. Click OK

    You should have a total of 4 items moving diagonally down your page. They should each overlap by one-quarter inch.

Use Standard Step and Repeat
  1. Select an item and choose Item > Super Step and Repeat

    The Super Step and Repeat dialog box appears. Notice that you have the same Horizontal and Vertical Offset commands. But also notice extra commands such as End Box Shade, End Item Scale and End Item Skew.

    Super Step and Repeat

  2. Spend a moment playing with the options and then click OK.
Want to learn more about QuarkXPress? Click here.

Click here to sample some of our 100% interactive simulations, including lessons on QuarkXPress.

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Question of the Week

Question:

My boss wants to use our Captivate files on his Web site.

How do you recommend publishing them for this purpose? .EXE files? combination of .SWF, .HTM, & .JS? Other?

Do you have a recommendation for how they should be placed in the web site file structure? If so, how?

Answer: 

Great question. The key here is that your boss wants your published Captivate CBTs on his Web site. In that case, your best option is to publish as a SWF, which will result in four files (assuming you are using a Skin): Project SWF, Skin SWF, Project HTML file and a JavaScript file. All four files must be placed in a folder on your Web server and kept together.

For CBTs that I upload to my server, I created a single folder called, cleverly enough, CBTs. I upload all of the published Captivate files into that one folder (there is no need to segregate the CBTs into sub-folders).

Note: The JavaScript file will get created each time you publish. It’s okay to replace the file every time you upload the files to your Web server. You only need one copy of the JavaScript file for all of your CBTs to share.

Send us your questions. Each week we select a Question of the Week and post it here. Who knows, maybe yours will be next.

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Adobe InDesign CS2: Text Editing Made Easy in the Story Editor

The Story Editor is the preferred place to be when you write and format your stories in Adobe InDesign. Among the Story Editor’s outstanding features are the abilities to search and replace text, and to check spelling. Because you won’t be able to see any graphics while in the Story Editor, the way the page looks will not be a distraction.

To access the Story Editor

  1. Open an InDesign document that contains at least one story
  2. Ensure that the Text tool is selected and click in the text
  3. Choose Edit > Edit in Story Editor

    The Story Editor appears in a new window. Your layout will be behind the Story Editor window. Any applied styles are listed at the left of the window, paragraph by paragraph.

Use the Story Editor to Search and Replace

  1. Choose Edit > Find/Change

    The Find/Change options appear.

  2. Type a phrase you’re looking for into the Find what area
  3. Ensure Story is selected in the Search area
  4. Select Whole Word and Case Sensitive (as necessary)

    Adobe InDesign CS2 Find/Change

  5. Click Find Next

Change the Story Editor Appearance

If you are unhappy with the way the InDesign display looks, you can use the Story Editor Display preferences to change things. Keep in mind that changes you make to the Story Editor Display will not affect your layout.

  1. PC users, choose Edit > Preferences > Story Editor Display; Mac users, choose InDesign > Preferences > Story Editor Display
  2. Select any Font and Font Size you like
  3. Select any Text Color and Background colors you like
  4. Click OK

Want to learn more about Adobe InDesign? Click here.

Click here to sample some of our 100% interactive simulations.

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Tip of the Week: Are You Aptly Applying Apply To All?

The following tip comes from fellow Captivater Alan Rosenberg:

Many of the items on Captivate’s Insert menu (Text Caption, Highlight Box, etc.) have four tabs in their dialog boxes where the Captivate user gets to configure exactly how the item looks and behaves. Each tab also has a check-box in its lower left, named Apply to All, that applies the configuration to other similar items in your presentation.

Be advised that when you check an Apply to All check-box on a single tab, you will be applying the characteristics selected on all four tabs, not just the tab on which you check the check-box. It took me a while to figure out why some characteristics of my Text Captions were "mysteriously" changing and this was the answer.

Got a tip? Send it along and we’ll publish it here, giving you full credit of course.

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Adobe RoboHelp 6 HTML: Patch Available Now

Since the release of Adobe RoboHelp 6, two major issues have been reported to Adobe by customers:
  • RH6 HTML crashes when a build expression is used when generating AND the topics include one or more tables with merged cells in the end column

  • WebHelp will not compile if links in the TOC to external topics are relative, including links to child projects in a merged WebHelp setup

Adobe has just reported that both problems have been fixed and a patch is available. To fix the problems, Adobe made changes to two DLL files (BuildTagExpr.dll and MpjSingleSource.dll).

Assuming RoboHelp 6 is installed on your computer, here are the instructions for downloading the DLLs and applying the patch:

  1. Download the DLLs here (scroll down and click the link at the bottom of the page). The DLLs are in a zipped file.

  2. Open the ZIP file and install the DLLs to your desktop

  3. Copy the two DLL’s on your desktop to the clipboard

  4. Exit RoboHelp

  5. Paste both DLLs in the RoboHelp HTML folder where RoboHelp was installed on your computer (overwrite the two DLLs when prompted).
Want to learn more about Adobe RoboHelp? Click here.
Click here to sample some of our 100% interactive simulations.