Month: March 2008

Add Right-Click Functionality to Captivate Simulations

William Heinz, OpenSky Learning, Inc., has come up with a clever way to add right-click functionality to your Captivate simulations… and you won’t have to worry about knowing JavaScript.

According to Heinz, "Most software today uses right-click functionality to accomplish various software tasks. In Adobe Captivate, you can add click boxes that support left and double-click. The right-click functionality is trapped by the Flash Player to display the player menu. Right-click functionality is an essential tool for creating software testing using Adobe Captivate, and it greatly enhances the ability of Adobe Captivate to teach software applications. The approach described in this tutorial allows you to size and place the right-click area almost as intuitively as adding a Adobe Captivate Click box. The solution will work with Adobe Captivate 1.01, Adobe Captivate 2, and Adobe Captivate 3."

Click here to read the article.

Automate the Process of Creating Numbered Lists in Microsoft Word

David Knopf, president and founder of Knopf Online, wrote a wonderful article a while back about numbering lists in Microsoft Word. Specifically, you’ll learn how to actually make the numbered lists work, especially with RoboHelp.

According to Knopf, "…it’s difficult to number lists automatically. The (Word) Numbering  toolbar button doesn’t work reliably, and neither does RoboHelp’s Topic Text Numbered style.

"…many RoboHelp users have reverted to "manual" list numbering, which is both time-consuming and error-prone. You can automate the process of creating numbered lists in Word and completely insulate yourself from the Word bug that has plagued so many Help authors."

Click here to read the article.

Converting Word Documents for Use in FrameMaker

Matt Sullivan of Grafix Training and Consulting has written an article that will improve your efficiency when working with Word documents that you intend to import into FrameMaker.

According to Sullivan, "FrameMaker gives you control over formatting, referencing, and numbering. Follow a few simple rules, and your numbered lists stay properly numbered, and your cross-references, Table of Contents (TOCs), and Indexes (Indices) stay up-to-date.

"All that control doesn’t help unless you have content. This usually means importing legacy documents from Microsoft Word, or accepting submissions from team members who do not work with long documents in FrameMaker."

In his article, Sullivan teaches you some nice techniques such as:

• Legacy document conversion
• Using the Find/Change tool for cleanup
• Common wildcard strings
• Formatting
• Word/FrameMaker integrated workflow

Click here to read the article.

by Quinn McDonald

I was grumbling about all the chrome on the bike. Not a fan of shiny, polish-needing parts on anything, I was using a toothbrush to clean the wheels of the bike. No, I’m not a neat-freak, but the bike is black and chrome, and it had started to look unkempt, insect-spotted and dusty. So I was polishing, wiping, washing and toothbrush- wielding. It felt like the whole bike was made of chrome.

Dan rolled up in the driveway behind me.

"What’s new?" he asked, getting off his bike.

"Polishing up Suzie Lightning, then going for a ride," I said.

He considered the cloud cover and said, "Every minute you spend polishing that thing, you aren’t riding it. And you bought it to ride, not polish."

He was right, but I said, "Gotta keep it clean."

"Sure," he agreed, "but you can keep it clean at night or when it’s cold. Take advantage of what you have."

The same is true of marketing your business.  You can spend a lot of time on prep work, planning, developing and never get the call to present your real work.

Unless you market yourself all the time, you don’t have a marketing plan, and you can’t count on steady work.

Cleaning the office or house, doing paperwork all are important, but the wrong time to do them is when it is time to market.

If you wait till the phone stops ringing, you are too late. By the time you get results from marketing, you won’t have a steady income coming in.

And when the steady income doesn’t happen, you start to take jobs just for the money, and that creates another whole poblem.

There are jobs you should turn down and clients you should say "No,thanks" to.

Regular marketing allows you to say "No" and not regret it.

Life is short, marketing keeps your phone ringing. Do your marketing today so you’ll have a ringing phone to answer tomorrow..

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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.

Question: How Do I Control The PowerPoint Bullets After Import into Captivate?

I’m trying to figure out how to sync animations from an imported PPT with audio imported to the Captivate timeline (using Captivate 3).

Several slides have bullets that appear on-mouse-click in PPT.  After importing into Captivate, the bullets appear one after the other, spaced by a second or two.  What I would like to be able to do is define a cue-point (e.g., on the slide timeline) that triggers each bullet to appear at a specific time during the audio.

In the Adobe Captivate forum it appears that I can pause the animation by adding an invisible click button, which would display the bullet text when the slide continues.  But this isn’t what I need–I don’t want to require a pause and click, but rather just have the bullets appear as they’re spoken in the audio.

(This is a trivial task in Articulate, and of course they’re entirely different technologies, but I thought that this is the kind of thing that Adobe was talking about when they touted that Captivate 3 imports PPT animation.)

I would appreciate knowing if this is doable in Captivate (even if it requires import into and jiggering in Flash), or just not possible in this version.

Answer

I think you’ll find the PowerPoint bullet builds (animations) do not import as well as you’d hope. As you’ve seen, the animation does import as advertised. But you cannot easily control the speed at which the bullets appear. I haven’t attempted to control the animation in Flash… if your fellow readers have had success, perhaps they’ll contact me and I’ll pass along any recommendations.

In the meantime, you might want to consider importing the slides as backgrounds, use highlight boxes to "reveal" each bullet, synched with your audio.

 

Question: Em Dashes in RoboHelp Possible?

I’m using RoboHelp 7 and would like to insert an em dash. Is this possible?

Answer

Yes! To insert an em dash in RoboHelp 7, choose Insert > HTML > Symbol and select em dash from the list of symbols.

Question: Which is Better, InDesign or FrameMaker?

I am a technical writer and want to learn a desktop publishing program but am not sure which–FrameMaker or InDesign.
I don’t see a lot of books on the market for FM but I do see them for ID (IconLogic being a prime example).

In your opinion, is ID the future for tech writing or is FM firmly entrenched. My employer has neither but I am considering investing in one to learn it so your opinion would be helpful.

Answer

What a great, great question! Both FrameMaker (FM) and InDesign (ID) have a place in the publishing world. They are both wonderful tools, but if you are a technical communicator like me, and you own the TechCom suite, FrameMaker integrates wonderfully with RoboHelp and Captivate… InDesign simply does not. For the record, I own both QuarkXPress and InDesign (and I teach both applications to the highest levels). However, the program I choose to use every day (when I write and develop my books) is FrameMaker.

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

Question: Can Captivate User Interaction Be Reused?

We want to have users enter their details (Name, where they’re studying, name of their course, etc), then take the Captivate assessment and have the results fed back to them at the end with their name, which they can then theoretically print as a certificate.

Is anything even remotely similar to this do-able or are we crazy for assuming it can be done?

Answer

You can insert multiple text entry fields, then put a SWF on the slide that allows users to print the slide (the slide could be made up to look like a certificate).

I wrote an article about inserting multiple text entry fields here. And you can add a Print icon to your Skin playbar that will let users print the slide/certificate.

However, without adding JavaScript’s, there is no way for Captivate to display information that a user types later in the movie. Most people use an LMS to create user certificates (based on their user login, not what they type in the project).

 

Question: Why is my RoboHelp Project Running Soooo Slowwwwwly?

I’m using RoboHelp 7. Everything I do in my RoboHelp project seems to take forever. For instance, generating the project (it’s small, maybe 50 tiny topics) takes almost 10 minutes. The project is kept on my network drive and my network guys tell me it’s NOT the network causing the problem. Please help!

Answer

You said everything I need to know about the problem in your fourth sentence: "The project is kept on my network drive…" RoboHelp must be installed on your local hard drive (C:\) AND your project must be installed on your local hard drive. If your project is accessed from a network drive, you are likely to experience any or all of the following:

• Lack of speed
• Crashes
• Corrupt projects

I would immediately copy your RoboHelp project folder to your hard drive and open the project via  File > Open (open the XPJ file). Don’t use the Recently Used project to open the project since the link is pointing to project on the network. In the future, only use the network drive to backup your project only.

Follow-Up On Dual Screen Captivate Recording Question

Last week a reader wanted to know if it was possible to use Adobe Captivate to record two screens at one time (could you record actions in, let’s say, Word on one screen and Excel on the other). I don’t have a dual-monitor setup so I couldn’t see if it was possible. But two fellow Captivator’s, Bob Cave and Richard Brimson, tested this for me. They each started Captivate, stretched the red recording area over both monitors and successfully recorded a movie. While they confirmed that it was easy-enough to record a Captivate project across two monitors, the resulting movie is too large to be useful.

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

by Quinn McDonald

Note: The article you are about to read is free!!!

There is an annoying trend starting up on websites, and I’d like to nip it in the bud. All of you who sell products and services on your websites, quit hiding the cost of your memberships, classes and products. Quit making me click on "buy now" or fill out registration forms with all my information before I find what I have to pay.

You are probably thinking that telling me the price up front will make me leave, because my buying decision is based on price, and if you can show me a few more facts, I’ll think the price is a bargain.

If I can’t find the price right away, I feel like I’m being scammed. I don’t like searching for things you cleverly hide. You can’t make your clients eat your vegetables on your website.

Put your price where I can see it and consider it. I’m not so dumb that if you’ve led me on a chase through your website, and I finally find the price, I’m going to think it’s worthwhile and buy.

And while I’m at it, stop calling prices "investment fees," "opportunity cost" and other nonsense. It’s a price, and I’m willing to pay it if you give me real information and put the price up front, so I can make a decision like an adult. If you don’t, I’m finding someone who will.

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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.