Month: April 2008

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The Perception of Stereotyping…

by Quinn McDonald

While reading a business article, I ran across a wonderful quote. But when I read the author’s name, I was surprised–it was so unlikely. Then it occurred to me: we all make assumptions about who authors, speakers, role models are, all without really knowing them. We think we know them because of what we read about them, or because what they write. But we’re just guessing. Sometimes we create entire categories and conveniently slip our favorite authors into them. There’s a name for this–stereotyping. We take our perceptions and apply them in big, broad strokes.

Test your perceptions about these popular writers. Match the quotes (1-6) with the authors. Then check your answers. The prize? A clear look at your perceptions. Have fun!

Quotes

  1. "I learned from my father the value of hard work and ambition, and maybe a little something about telling a story."
  2. "I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?"
  3. "I loved fairy tales when I was a kid. Grimm. The grimmer the better. I loved gruesome gothic tales and, in that respect, I liked Bible stories, because to me they were very gothic."
  4. "Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
  5. "Life is like a movie–since there aren’t any commercial breaks, you have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of it."
  6. "Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."

Authors

  • Amy Tan (Author, The Kitchen God’s Wife)
  • Ronald Reagan (40th President of the United States.)
  • Neil Armstrong (Astronaut)
  • Ernest Hemingway (Author, For Whom the Bell Tolls)
  • Stephen King (Author, The Stand)
  • Garry Trudeau (Cartoonist, Doonesbury)

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.

Answers: Ronald Regan-1; Ernest Hemingway-2; Amy Tan-3; Neil Armstrong-4; Garry Trudeau-5; Stephen King-6.

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Link of the Week

Publishing Adobe Captivate files on YouTube

Silke Fleischer, senior product marketing manager for Adobe Captivate, has written an article that explains how to post your Captivate projects to YouTube.

According to Fleischer, "YouTube is the number one video sharing site and a great place to post educational videos and how-to tutorials. The only problem is that YouTube doesn’t support the SWF file format, which is currently the only format Adobe Captivate generates."

Click here to read the article and learn Silke’s workaround.

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Grammar Workshop: Because I said not to use since!

by Jennie Ruby

"Why does my editor keep changing while and since to although and because?" asked a friend who works on an academic journal. It’s that style guide thing again! Some editorial styles restrict the use of the words since and while to their temporal sense only. That means you cannot use them to introduce clauses that do not have to do specifically with time. If your style guide has this rule, then you cannot say

While I like eggs, my friend does not. (Change while to although.)

But you can say

While the eggs are cooking, I will butter the toast.

Likewise, you cannot say

Since the wind is blowing, I will not wear a hat today. (Change since to because.)

But you can say

Since 2006 the windstorms have been more and more frequent.

Now, mind you, none of these sentences are grammatically incorrect. They are all acceptable English sentences. The reason some style guides restrict the use of while and since is that these words are considered more vague than although and because. The style guides that make this restriction are usually in technical fields such as science, engineering, and technology. If you are writing technical training materials, your style guide probably does have this restriction. Although you may not like it, you must use although and because.

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.

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Adobe Announces RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR

I recently attended the WritersUA conference in Portland, Oregon. During the conference, I sat in on a couple of sessions about Adobe AIR. It was at one of these sessions that Adobe introduced the RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR.

The RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR allows RoboHelp developers to convert existing WebHelp files generated using Adobe RoboHelp to an Adobe AIR application.

As the name implies, the RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR packages WebHelp files generated using Adobe RoboHelp versions 6 or 7 and packages them into an Adobe AIR file. Using the same single-file output as Microsoft HTML Help (where a single CHM file is created), a single Adobe AIR Application file is created.

What is Adobe AIR? Good question. According to Adobe, "Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that enables you to use your existing HTML/Ajax, Flex, or Flash Web development skills and tools to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop.

"Adobe AIR applications support native desktop integration, including clipboard and drag-and-drop support, local file IO, system notification, and more."

Impact on Business

According to Adobe, "Adobe AIR offers an exciting new way for a business to engage customers with innovative, branded desktop applications, without requiring changes to existing technology, people, or processes."

Impact on Developers

"The Adobe AIR runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems," said Adobe.

Overview of RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR:

  • Generate a single distributable file similar to a CHM file.
  • Unlike a CHM file, Adobe AIR Help files will work on all platforms and operating systems (CHM files will only work under the Windows operating system).
  • Users can add comments, in addition to using other advanced features such as Breadcrumbs, Mini TOC and Security (Digital Signatures).
  • When you install the packager with Adobe RoboHelp 7 already installed on your PC, it gets added as a tool in the Toolbox Pod. The installer also creates a shortcut for launching this tool on your desktop.

    Note: You must install the Java Runtime Engine version 6 and Adobe AIR Runtime before installing the tool. Links for both can be found here.

Click here to learn more about Adobe AIR.

Click here to learn more about RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR or to download the Packager from Adobe Labs.

Want to learn more about RoboHelp? Click here.

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Questions of the Week

Question: How Do You Force a Captivate Slide to Stick While Adding a URL Link?

One of my Captivate slides contains a button pointing to a website URL. After clicking the button and returning to the lesson, the lesson is no longer on the slide with the button. How do I stop this behavior from happening?

Answer

When setting the URL for the button, deselect "Continue playing project" from the drop-down menu at the right of the URL field.

Question: Where Can I Create Menus For My Captivate Lessons

I’m having a disagreement with one of my colleagues. He says that you can only use Dreamweaver to create menus for my Captivate published lessons. Is that so? 

Answer

Absolutely not. You can use just about any Web authoring tool to create eLearning menus. In fact, Captivate comes with an application called MenuBuilder. While not overly powerful, MenuBuilder allows you to quickly make a functional menu using many of the same features and tools found in Captivate. To start MenuBuilder, start Captivate and choose File > Record/Create > MenuBuilder project. 

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