February 2010 – The Logical Blog

February 25, 2010

Adobe RoboHelp 8: See Also Controls Bring Enhanced Navigation to the Fingertips

by Kevin Siegel

Adding links to related topics is a common feature found in most Help Systems created with RoboHelp. However, if you spend the time typing out See Also and then adding related links, you'll be looking at a lot of work if you want to add those same links in other topics. Instead, consider adding See Also controls to your topics.

See Also's allow you to place related RoboHelp topics into one common group. The See Also keywords are related to Index keywords except they will not appear on the Index when you generate your project. Instead, See Also keywords remain hidden and will appear only when called by a customer. One popular way to get a See Also to appear is to use Link Controls (a button that links to topics or other See Also keywords).

In the following steps, you will learn how to create a See Also group and name and associate some topics with it. Then you will create a Link Control in a topic that tells the See Also to appear if the control is clicked by a customer.

On the Project Manager pod, double-click the See Also folder.
Click in the white space at the top of the See Also pod.
Type a name for the keyword (in the example below, I typed Managers) and then press [Enter].

Now you need to associate topics with the new See Also keyword.
On the Topic List pod, drag topics into the Topics for Managers area (in the picture below, I added topics named hr.htm, IS.htm, pres.htm and master.htm).

Now you need to insert a link control in a topic.
Open a topic.
Choose Insert > See Also.

The See Also Wizard – Link Options dialog box appears.
Give the control a label (I typed Our Managers into the Label field).
Click Next.
The See Also Wizard – See Also Keywords Selection screen appears. The See Also keyword you created should be the only keyword available to Add.
Click the Add button.
Click Next.
Select Popup menu from the Choose topic from area.
Click Next.
Choose any Font, Font Style and Size you like.
Click Finish.
Your button should now appear in the topic.

To test the button, you would generate and view the project and open the topic containing the button.

The finished See Also button with the pop-up menu

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Need to learn the basics of Adobe RoboHelp fast? Attend a live, instructor-led, project-based, online training class. Click here for more information.

Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).

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Follow Kevin on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic

February 23, 2010

Acrobat 9: Custom Signature Appearances, Historically Speaking

by David R. Mankin

When I started teaching Adobe Acrobat (this was way back in the 1770s), I had a very bright student named John. He was asked by his colleagues to apply his digital signature to an important PDF file. The document had something to do with government.

Since they hadn't taken an Acrobat class and knew little of Acrobat's advanced features, many of John's colleagues simply placed the default Acrobat Digital Signature on the document.

Not John. John learned Acrobat on his crude computer (it was made of wood, naturally). And during his Acrobat training, John learned that he could go to Acrobat's Preferences ([Ctrl] K on a PC, or [Cmd] K on a Mac), select Security and then click New next to the Appearances list box.

John chose to configure his Digital Signature's custom appearance by importing a scan of his actual signature. He chose just a few text descriptors to show, like Name, Date & Reason–to keep his custom digital signature appearance unique and uncluttered. He gave his custom appearance a name (he used his own–he wasn't very creative).

Creating a digital signature

John attended his group's big convention in Philadelphia that July. It was hot, but the pretzels and cheese steaks were awesome, so they say.

When John's colleague Thomas sent him the all-important PDF file, John grabbed Acrobat's Digital Signature tool (I think the icon was a quill back then) and drew a rather large rectangle.

John then entered his secret password in the dialog box (they only had 2-bit encryption back then–I'll let you make the joke on this). Unlike his unlearned colleagues, John knew that if his digital signature was to be noticed, it had to look different. He confidently clicked the down arrow next to Appearance, found his newly-created custom appearance and selected it. He then chose I am the author of this document from the reason for signing.

John Hancock's digital signature was huge, and unique. Everyone at the convention was very impressed… except Thomas (it was Thomas who actually authored this important historical PDF). In the end, Thomas had the last laugh… his house is on the nickel today, and John just has an insurance company.

John Hancock signature

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Looking for Acrobat training? Join David for a live, 2-day online class. Click here for more information.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

February 22, 2010

Virtual Reality: Immersive Learning Minus the Immersion

by AJ George

In James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar, scientists created avatars to interact with natives of another planet without the scientists actually having to use their own bodies to interact with said natives. The avatars allowed the scientists to blend in with the natives and accomplish tasks that the scientists couldn't physically do on their own. While I think that this made for a delightful movie-going experience, perhaps it could, in a sense, be applied to learning in the real world. And not in 2154. More like now-ish.

Learners using avatars, like those used in Second Life, have the opportunity to create characters representative of their individual personalities and physical traits (or, at the very least, representative of the personalities and physical traits they wish they had). Creating an alter ego fosters a type of bond between learner and avatar that goes beyond 2D learning that uses just a name or a picture. That's weird, but apparently it's true.

While doing research with Stanford undergrads for their book, Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete, Byron Reeves and Leighton Read noticed that students showed an actual bodily change in their heartbeats and their brains while controlling their avatars and genuinely seemed to care about what their avatars did, even though the avatars existed entirely in a virtual world.

In situations where learning is essential to business functions, presenting information in a virtual world where a learner-controlled avatar can act out procedures, learning becomes more hands-on than simply seeing the procedure in video format. Students can work together with other students to collaborate on processes together, even if they are on opposite sides of the globe. There is less chance of losing more reserved students or those that would be uncomfortable asking questions. And in situations where a failed learning attempt could mean a wasted product or an unsafe environment, learning through a virtual world could save money while ensuring safety. Connie Malamed of The eLearning Coach blog, calls it "The Power of Being There" in her review of Karl Kapp and Tony Driscoll's book Learning in 3D, because knowledge is being applied, rather than just taught.

Also, learning in a virtual world is fun! Toy and video game manufacturers market products to our children all the time that promote learning while having fun. 8D World, a startup out of Massachusetts, runs a virtual world for Chinese-speaking children who are trying to learn English. Each player selects an avatar and moves up levels for properly pronouncing English words into a microphone. The program's use of virtual worlds has even caught the attention of China's CCTV which will be using the program as the official training platform for its Star of Outlook English Talent Competition.

So maybe we're not going to incubate ourselves in a vessel on another planet. Maybe we're not going to feel the wind on our faces as we leap through trees, big and blue and wearing a loin cloth. (Not this year anyway.) But what we can do (and not one day, but now) is immerse our learners in virtual worlds to make learning more hands on while saving money and resources…all while our students actually (gasp!) enjoy themselves.

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About the author: AJ George, a cum laude graduate of Towson University, is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the soon-to-be released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.

February 22, 2010

Adobe Captivate 4: Lock It Up

by Lori Smith

When creating Captivate eLearning lessons we, the developers, need to enable the student to be as successful as possible. By successful, I mean being able to complete the lesson as intended, not necessarily passing any quizzes.

In addition, developers often want the student to feel as if they have the power… the students are in control (when in reality the design of the lesson is forcing them to proceed in a given manner).

You can elect to have the TOC displayed in a lesson (Project > Table Of Contents, Show TOC) and allow it to be navigable (via the TOC settings, Enable Navigation checkbox). This gives the students a lot of power to navigate, but clicking the TOC while on the wrong slide (e.g. quiz slide) could derail the entire lesson.

Enter the system variable cpLockTOC. Yes, you can temporarily lock the TOC so it is not clickable during crucial slides and then re-enable the navigation later.

Disabling and enabling the TOC can be done via any interactive item as well as on slide enter/exit. In each case, the cpLockTOC should be assigned the value 1 to lock the Table of Contents.

To lock the TOC on slide enter, show the slide properties and set the On slide enter field as shown below.

On slide enter action

To re-enable the TOC navigability (unlock the TOC) set the cpLockTOC variable to 0. To unlock the TOC on slide exit, show the slide properties and set the On slide exit fields as shown below.

On slide exit action

This is a simple constraint to implement. Here's one piece of advice before forging ahead locking and unlocking your TOC: know your navigation. Be sure that the student will actually execute the locking/unlocking. For example, if the student is allowed to navigate away from a slide via a button, the student will not execute the OnExit commands. In that case, ensure your button unlocks the TOC before jumping away.

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About the Author: Lori Smith is IconLogic's lead programmer and Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Adobe Captivate. Lori has a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT as well as a Master's in electrical engineering from George Mason University. She has been working in the field of software engineering for more than 20 years. Lori will be teaching our Adobe Captivate 4: Advanced Actions online, instructor-led class. Click here for details.

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Need to learn the basics of Adobe Captivate 4 fast? Attend a live, instructor-led online training class. Click here for more information. Looking for more Advanced Captivate 4 training? We've got you covered. Click here for more information.

Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).

February 18, 2010

Social Networking: Now you’re just showing off… Or are you?

by AJ George

"Now, Momma said there's only so much fortune a man really needs and the rest is just for showing off." –Forrest Gump

Could it be that the same applies to our Facebook friends? According to a study still in its early stages by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, his previous assertion that people can only maintain meaningful relationships with 150 people holds true even in the age of social networking (where we can have 5000 Facebook "friends"). Apparently the human brain can only cognitively handle and maintain roughly 150 relationships, even if through Twitter and LinkedIn you are connected to thousands of people.

The study has been all aflutter on news outlets and the internet recently, but this is not a new topic. In fact, a year ago, Chris Brogan wrote in his community and social media blog about Beating Dunbar's Number. He upholds Dunbar's Number as fact, but asserts there are ways to work around the theory and maintain networks with more people. One example: databases. He puts in the typical info for his contacts (name, number, email address, etc) but goes further and adds tags so he can easily find people depending on where he is, where he's going to be, and what he's doing.

Furthermore, Jacob Morgan of the SmartDataCollective's blog asserts that as far as social networking is concerned, Dunbar's number is "irrelevant" because our weak connections are so much more important to networking than those relationships we consider meaningful, those that would fall into our core 150. He cites Morten Hansen's Collaboration when he states that when networking for the purposes of gaining new jobs or knowledge, relying on your close friends who know many of the same things and people as you do, can prove frivolous. Furthermore, those weak ties take less time to establish and are easier to maintain.

So when it comes to our virtual friendships, perhaps there is strength in numbers, as long as we don't expect too much from too many of those friendships, and instead see the untapped potential in our myriad loose affiliations.

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February 18, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker: Working with Fixed Spaces in Dialog Boxes

by Barbara Binder

Last week we talked about adding fixed spaces to FrameMaker documents. As a quick recap, here's the list of shortcuts:

Em space: Esc spacebar m (or Control+Shift+Spacebar)
En space: Esc spacebar n (or Control+Alt+Spacebar)
Thin space: Esc spacebar t
Figure space: Esc spacebar 1 (one)
Non-breaking space: Esc spacebar h (or Control+Spacebar)

But what if you want to enter the shortcuts above into a dialog box? Or maybe you need to use one to separate the run in heads in Paragraph Designer. In that case you will need the following list as well:

Em space: \m or \sm
En space: \sn
Thin space: \i or \st
Figure space: \#
Non-breaking space: \ (space)

For example, I like to space out my em dashes with thin spaces on either side. That's a quick and easy Find/Change:

Em dashes with thin spaces.

And, I like to use en spaces to separate my run in heads from the text that follows:

En spaces separate run in heads from the text that follows.

Finally, I can correctly anticipate the non-breaking space in my Cross Reference format when I see the "\ " in the Heading & Page building blocks between page and <$pagenum>.

Anticipate the non-breaking space in a Cross Reference format.

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If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 9 class. Too elementary for your skill level? How about the Advanced FrameMaker 9 class? Hope to "see" you there.

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About the author: Barbara Binder is the president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training. Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.

February 18, 2010

Writing & Grammar Workshop: Smothered Verbs

by Jennie Ruby

Michelangelo sculpted a series of human forms partially embedded in the stone from which they were being carved (the Bearded Slave, the Beardless Slave, and several others). These sculptures, with their limbs struggling to pull free of the stone, come to mind for me whenever I read text full of smothered verbs.

A smothered verb is an abstract noun that could have been a verb. Examples are assumption, decision, assessment, and attendance. The word endings -tion, -sion, -ment, -ance and -ence indicate a noun based on a verb. These are perfectly good words, but they are often used in wordy phrases containing a weak verb/smothered verb combination.

A weak verb is a verb that is being used as a kind of placeholder for the real action in a sentence, which is hidden inside an accompanying smothered verb. For example, the common phrase make a decision is a weak verb/smothered verb combo. No one is really "making" anything here. They are really deciding something. Decide is a strong verb because it carries a unique, active meaning. The fact that the true action, or strong verb, is buried inside an abstract noun distances the reader from a feeling of action and movement in the sentence and creates a staid and formal writing style.

Sometimes, as in academic, governmental, or law writing, a staid and formal style is exactly right. But to make writing more concise and easier to read, search out the weak verb/smothered verb combos and use a strong verb instead. So instead of make a decision, decide. Instead of do an assessment, assess. Instead of be in attendance, attend. This quick fix will enliven a piece of writing immediately.

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Join Jennie online this March 10 where she'll be teaching Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts.

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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" 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.

February 17, 2010

Adobe Acrobat 9: Reply!

by David R. Mankin

You've received an email from a colleague. Attached is a PDF file of the document you are both working on.

Your colleague has posted a Sticky Note comment with a design suggestion. You open the file, read the comment and decide that the suggestion might be a smart idea. You do not, however, have the authority to approve the change alone, so you will need to run it by your team leader.

You could send an email back to your coworker explaining that you need to run it by the boss. This email alone, even though it is referring to the PDF file, is detached from the workflow process.

To engage the workflow into your reply, you could grab a commenting tool and make an additional note on the PDF that will inform your coworker of your intent to run his idea up the chain. This way, the PDF file itself is the platform of communication, but there are now two Sticky Notes that refer to the same topic. They are physically close to one another on the page, but are indeed still two separate thoughts.

To thread these two comments together, one could locate the initial comment in the Comments Panel. Select the comment by clicking its entry in the Comments Panel or on the note's icon on the page. Click the Reply Button at the top of the Comments Panel.

Enter the annotation and it shows up as a threaded entry in the original note, and in its own sub-entry in the note's popup window on the page!

Threaded entry

An entire conversation can transpire about, and within, an individual note. You can take advantage of this feature within email reviews, server-based, or those hosted on Acrobat.com. Clear, efficient and cool!

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Looking for Acrobat training? Join David for a live, 2-day online class. Click here for more information.

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February 17, 2010

Adobe Captivate 4: Make Text Entry Boxes Retention and Tension-Free

by Kevin Siegel

I just love Text Entry Boxes. In case you are new to them, Text Entry Boxes allow you to simulate areas in an application that require a learner to type data. You can instruct learners to type specific information into a Text Entry Box and, depending on what they type, captions can provide feedback on their entry.

There is one problem with Text Entry Boxes: retention. In short, there may be a need to automatically clear the text typed into a Text Entry Box without having the learner close the lesson and start over again.

"What's the big deal?" you ask. Glad you asked. Here's a scenario for you: Your learner is instructed to type some text into a Text Entry Box on–I don't know–let's say Slide 10.

Later, the learner does something crazy like replays the lesson (without first closing it).

The text that the learner had already typed into the Text Entry Box on Slide 10 would still be visible to the learner. Ooops. Of course the learner could easily delete the text and retype it–but that's not the point. Why would anyone type something if they didn't have to? I'm lazy! If I was supposed to type something that was already there, I'd be perfectly happy. I'd move to the next step in the movie–blissful in my ignorance as to what had, or had not, just happened.

If you've created Captivate projects that utilize Text Entry Boxes, you can probably relate to the scenario I mentioned above. And you will be happy to hear that Captivate allows you to determine if the text typed into a Text Entry Box is retained or not. Here's how:

Insert a Text Entry Box onto a Slide (Insert > Standard Objects > Text Entry Box).
From the Settings area of the Text Entry Box tab, remove the check mark from Retain Text if you don't want the learner's typed text to appear in the Text Entry Box should the lesson be rewound; otherwise, add the check mark.
Set the remaining Text Entry Box options/settings as appropriate.
Click OK.
Preview the project (you can press F4 on your keyboard to quickly preview the project).

When you get to the slide containing the Text Entry Box, type in the appropriate text and go to the next slide. Afterwards, rewind the lesson and notice that the text in the Text Entry Box is either retained or not (depending on the option you selected in Step 2 above).

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Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that IconLogic never, ever cancels classes (even if there's just one student registered).

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Follow Kevin on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic.

February 11, 2010

HTML5: Don’t Fall into the Hype Hole

by AJ George

Honest truth: sometimes I fall into Hype Holes.

When you tell me the iPad is "the most important thing [you've] ever done," Steve Jobs, I believe you.

When I'm told that HTML5 will be the inevitable death of Flash, I believe it.

And when Kevin Lynch says that HTML5 will send the web back to "the dark ages of video," I believe that too.

What can I say, I'm a believer.

Luckily for me, the fine folks over at Gizmodo have put the whole Flash vs. HTML5 debate into perspective that allows me to take a deep breath and not rush to pick a side… just yet anyway.

To summarize:

HTML5 allows video to be embedded directly into web pages, similar to a JPEG image.
Playing videos through a Flash plug-in is generally slower and more buggy and isn't even an option on the iPhone or the iPad.
Vimeo, DailyMotion and YouTube have launched test programs for HTML5 video technology.
Internet Explorer (the most popular web browser on the internet) doesn't support the HTML5 video tag at all and Firefox (the second most popular) doesn't fully support it either.
HTML5 doesn't support DRM (Digital Rights Management) which means no movies and no TV…unless Hollywood decides it doesn't like money anymore and wants to give all of its content away for free to everyone.
Adobe is pushing Flash to nearly all smartphones that don't already have it.
HTML5 isn't a replacement for Flash games or interactive ads.
In the near future iPhones and iPads will move toward video delivery via apps, not HTML5.
Flash is here to stay…for a while anyway.
HTML5 is working its way into relevance…but it's not there yet.

So what does this mean for those of us who fell into the Hype Hole of thinking our Flash-free iPhones would be saved any day now by the global acceptance of HTML5? Means we better get some shovels.

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