Month: March 2008

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Adobe Captivate: Spell Checking Closed Captions

One of the most fundamental steps in any Captivate development process is running a simple spell check via Project > Check Spelling.

If you already include this step as a matter of course, you will be surprised to learn that your project’s closed captions will not be spell checked when you spell check the project. That’s right… when you run your spell check, the closed captions are skipped 100% of the time. Ouch!

Many Captivate developers aren’t writers (or typists for that matter). Those developers copy and paste their closed captions from a word processor like MS Word into the closed captions. Other developers type the captions directly into the Closed Captioning dialog box. Between the two processes (copying and pasting versus typing from scratch), the former typically results in fewer typos. Of course, copying and pasting content into Captivate isn’t a guarantee against typographic errors–typos could have existed in the Word document prior to copying and pasting, and it’s simple to "accidentally" key the typo directly into the closed caption.

I’m betting that Captivate’s inability to spell check the closed captions will be addressed in Adobe Captivate 4. But what are you supposed to do between now and then? Read on…

  1. Export the project’s closed captions by choosing File > Export > Project Captions and Closed Captions
  2. Click Yes to open the exported captions in MS Word
  3. Once the Word document opens, perform a spell check by clicking the Spelling and Grammar tool on Word’s Standard toolbar
  4. Save and close the Word document and return to the Captivate project
  5. Import the corrected captions back into Capitvate by choosing File > Import > Project Captions and Closed Captions

    Note: Prior to importing the captions, choose Project > Calculate Caption Timing in Captivate (to turn the command off). Otherwise the timing for your text captions will automatically adjust and throw off your object timing on the Timeline throughout the project.

Got a Captivate production problem that’s making you pull your hair out? Email your problem and let others learn solutions from your experience.

Want to learn more about Captivate? Click here.

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Questions of the Week

Question: Can I Keep the Tab Key From the Browser During a Captivate Simulation?

In Captivate, when I insert a Text Entry Box in a simulation with an Enter or Tab shortcut key enabled, the published movie jumps back to the beginning if a user presses the Tab and Enter keys sequentially in that order. The reverse order does not cause this bizarre behavior. The problem surfaces with and without the video controls displayed. However, I do notice when the Tab and Enter keys are pressed sequentially with the video controls displayed, they are highlighted individually in a sequential progression with each successive key press. What goes? Is there a way to prevent this unwanted behavior?

Answer

If your user is already focused on the slide, pressing TAB will move within the slide, not around the browser window. If, however, the focus is not within the slide, there is no way to prevent a TAB key press from being grabbed by the Web browser since the TAB key is used by the browser to allow navigation around the browser window.

There are some tricks you can use to help focus the text entry box on the slide so the browser doesn’t immediately grab the focus. Review this article from the Adobe forums.

Question: Why Can’t I Generate a PDF with RoboHelp 7?

I am having a problem with RoboHelp and don’t have a great internal resource to help resolve issues and was hoping you might be able to answer a question for me.

I am trying to generate an existing WebHelp project as a PDF file. When I try to generate as a PDF, the option is grayed out and not selectable. Do you know of any issues that would cause this? Any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated. 

Answer

The most likely culprit is that Adobe Acrobat Elements wasn’t installed when the RoboHelp software was installed on your computer. Without Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Elements (Elements comes free with Adobe RoboHelp 7), you won’t be able to generate a PDF when single sourcing to a Printed Document.

Got a question you’d like answered? Email me.

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RoboHelp 7: Deleting Unused Project Files Safely

I hear this horrifying question/statement frequently: "I deleted several  files from my project using Windows Explorer the other day. I was pretty sure that none of the files I deleted were important. Anyway, now when I open my RoboHelp project, I get error message galore! What did I do wrong?"

One of the worst things you can do to your RoboHelp project is remove files from the project folder using Windows Explorer. Why? If the RoboHelp project is using the files you removed you can, at the worst, corrupt the project. At the best, you’ll receive error messages as RoboHelp attempts to communicate with the deleted files.

Instead of deleting project files via Windows Explorer, you should delete the files via RoboHelp’s pods. But there is a problem with this approach: if the project file is not being used by RoboHelp (for instance, a CSS file that you no longer need), the unused file will not appear on any of the Pods. What’s a RoboHelp developer to do? Read on…

In all versions of RoboHelp (including RoboHelp 7, 6, X5, X4 and X3), open your project and then choose Tools > Reports > Unused Files.

The Reports dialog box appears with the Unused Files tab selected.

RoboHelp Unused Project Files

Use the Print button located in the lower left of the dialog box to print the report. Then, with the printed report at your site, feel free to delete any of the files on the report via Windows Explorer.

Want to learn more about RoboHelp? Click here.

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Grammar Workshop: When It Comes to Lines, Toe or Tow?

by Jennie Ruby

Is it toe the line, or tow the line? Butter would melt or butter wouldn’t melt? Long road to hoe or hard row to hoe?

These clichés are remarkable not just because they are so often repeated, but because they are so often repeated wrong. They are a part of colloquial speech, so we more often hear them than see them written. Then when we do decide to use them in writing, we don’t know how to spell them.

When someone is toeing the line, they are putting their foot on the prescribed mark. The origin of this saying is probably related to sports where the two contestants have to stand before or at a certain line before beginning.  People who are toeing the party line are following a political party’s dictates. They expected her to toe the line means they expected her to follow the rules. There is no towing involved.

Butter wouldn’t melt is short for butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. It means the person is so cold that even something so easy to melt as butter would not melt in the person’s mouth. Why so many people say butter would melt, I cannot guess.

We have come a long way from our agrarian roots when we can say we are hoeing a road. A long row to hoe means you have been assigned a lot of work: it means literally a long row of, say, beans or corn, and you must use a hoe to dig out all the weeds. This kind of work is quite hard on the lower back (yes, your grammar maven has indeed done some hoeing in her life.) and thus is hard work, which is why it is not wrong to say someone has a hard, instead of long, row to hoe.

About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we’ll turn Jennie loose!

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Link of the Week

Adding Adobe Captivate Movie Clips to a PDF file

Jeff Freeman, a technical writer at First Advantage CREDCO, has written an article that demonstrates how you can embed SWF (movie) files created in Adobe Captivate into a PDF file.

Click here to read the article.

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In Praise of… Praise

by Quinn McDonald

The evaluation form is my chance to find out if I’ve met the expectations of the class. Over the years I’ve been running training programs, a lot of interesting information has come my way. I’ve changed classes, added suggested topics, and, occasionally, wondered what would possess someone to write a particular comment on the eval form.

Adults learn differently from kids. Adults need to hear information more often, in different ways, in order to remember it longer. The word "educate" comes from the Latin "educare’ and it means ‘to pull out of,’ not ‘to stuff into." Most people in the training sessions learn a lot from sharing information with people who work in similar business environments. Maybe even more than from me.

From me, they need to hear a practical application, examples that resonate with their experience, and reinforcement. If I tell a participant they are "wrong" or their writing "isn’t up to standards" in a training class, they won’t hear anything else I say.

My classes are short–one or two days. I can’t teach someone how to write in that time, or how to do presentations. But I can give them tools to use that will make them a better writer or presenter over time. And one way I do it is to find something to praise in every piece the participant reads or demonstrates in a presentation. By praising them for something they are doing well, it is more likely they will continue to do it. That alone will make them a better writer or presenter, and that’s my goal. I’m not a magician, just a trainer.

But every now and then, I get a comment on the evaluation form that baffles me. "You should be harsher in your criticism," said one. A few months later I got the more enigmatic,"You did not criticize other people’s work strongly enough." I’m still not sure if they thought other’s work needed to be critiqued or if I had said something they interpreted as harsh. A few weeks ago I found this on an evaluation, "This isn’t a New Age training center, I expect some criticism that stings so I can improve." Really? What experience has that person had that makes a sting feel worthwhile? Is that person a manager? Does a sting produce good results and loyalty?

I’ll take being marked down if encouragement is New Age. I’d like to see a whole New Age of kindness and encouragement. I think we need it.

About the Author: Quinn McDonald is a writer and nationally-known speaker who has achieved the "Professional" designation from the National Speakers Association. Contact Quinn through her website, QuinnCreative.com.

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Efficiency Tip of the Week

Quickly Apply FrameMaker Paragraph and Character Formats

This tip comes from Barbara Binder, president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training, your trainer for next month’s Adobe FrameMaker 8 virtual class:

You can easily apply paragraph and character formats in FrameMaker by using the Paragraph and Character catalogs. However, using the catalogs can be very "mouse" intensive. And if the list of formats in your FrameMaker documents is extensive, you’ll find that it’s not practical to constantly scroll through the list of formats.

Instead, consider this time-saving keyboard shortcut:

  • If you would like to apply a paragraph format called Zed to a paragraph, click in the paragraph and, on your keyboard, press [F9] to display the first format on the paragraph catalog in the lower left of your window
  • Press the z key on your keyboard to select the Zed format
  • Press ENTER on your keyboard to apply the Zed format to the paragraph

    Note: You could apply a character format called Zed using a similar technique… except instead of pressing [F9] to display the first format on the paragraph catalog, press [F8] to display the first format on the character catalog.

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Questions of the Week

Question: What Do I Do if Adobe RoboHelp 7 and Word 2007 Are Not Getting Along?

I am using RoboHelp 7 as my Help authoring tool and Word 2007 as my word processor. When attempting to generate printed documentation with RoboHelp 7, I get a Word 2007 "macro" error. I have used Word 2003 in the past and could easily disable the macros. I am at a loss how to do this in Word 2007. Any ideas?

Answer

I can recommend two articles that will help. One is an article about the trouble people are having with macro security in Word 2007 and RoboHelp 7. Click here to read that article. And here is an article about how to disable macros in Word 2007.

Question: Can I Stop Captivate Text Captions From Resizing on Their Own?

Is there a way to prevent text captions from resizing after you go in and change one (or 2, or 10, etc.?)  I have Captivate 3, and this happens all the time to me when I have to tweak a caption. 

Answer

You sure can! Choose Project and deselect Autosize Captions.

Question: Can You Score Multiple Quizzes Independently in Captivate 3?

I have a simulation that has three branches.  The user makes a choice early on, slide 5.  When the user gets to the end of the first branch, the user can either end the whole simulation, or go to a different branch.  At the end of the second branch,  the user can either stop or  go through the third branch.  So the user can go through all three branches or do just two or just one. The problem is the scoring.  Whether the user goes through one, two, or three branches, only one branch will be scored, and the user will fail, because the simulation is basing the score on 108 slides, but the maximum it will score correctly is about 40. Any ideas on how to fix this? Or if it can be fixed? I am in Captivate 2.  We haven’t gone to Captivate 3 yet.

Answer

There is only one results slide for an entire Captivate project (even in Captivate 3). The three quizzes are actually considered one large quiz so the results slide considers the questions in the other quizzes wrong if they aren’t answered by your users. To get around this Captivate limitation, I would suggest that you split the branches into three different projects and "link" them together via a menu.

Got a question you’d like answered? Email me.

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RoboHelp 7: Title Field Makes Updating a Topic Title a Snap

When working in RoboHelp, one of the most efficient things you can do is create a template and attach the template to your project topics.

When creating the template, RoboHelp automatically inserts a title field at the top of the template. The field will contain the name of the template.

If you double-click the field, you will see the Fields and Variables dialog box shown below.

Selecting the Title value from the column at the left offers three Formats in a list at the right. In addition, there’s a check box located in the lower left (Auto-update this field). By default, the box is checked.

RoboHelp Field dialog box

After you attach the template to a project topic, the exact purpose of the Title field will not be obvious. If your topic is typical, you’ll have a main headline at the top of the topic with a headline that is identical to the topic’s title.

If you display the properties of the topic (you can right-click a topic and choose Topic Properties) and change the Topic Title via the Topic Properties dialog box, the main headline in the topic will automatically update to reflect the new Topic Title. Cool!

Using the Auto-update this field option can easily be turned off (deselected) and your topic headline’s won’t update every time you change the Topic Title. However, if you are happy with the headline updating every time you change the Topic Title, beware of editing the topic manually and changing the main headline without using the Topic Properties dialog box. If you do, the Title field will be deleted and the headlines’ link to the template will be broken. (You can reinsert the field by choose Insert > Fields and Variables, selecting the Title field and clicking OK.)

Want to learn more about RoboHelp? Click here.

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Grammar Workshop: Casting Jibes

by Jennie Ruby

Jibe and jive are two words that have multiple meanings. For one of the meanings, writers often use the wrong word: writer’s use jive to mean be in accord or agree. The correct word is jibe:

  • These expense totals do not jibe with the budget.
  • The reports of the two witnesses jibe with each other.

Most of the other meanings of these words tend to be used correctly. Jibe is also a synonym for gibe, as in:

  • The two groups of middle-schoolers cast jibes at one another. (Meaning they yelled insults at one another.)

The word jive means a type of language with a lot of slang terms in it, or language that is "glib, deceptive, or foolish" (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary). We can thank the Bee Gee’s for giving us a correct memory aid for this one: the song Jive Talkin’ uses this word correctly. Hence the correct sentence:

  • Are you jivin’ me? (are you using deceptive language with me?)

Here is a memory aid for our other word of this pair:  if two things jibe, they must be the same: the word jibe contains be.

About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we’ll turn Jennie loose!