April 2010 – The Logical Blog

April 30, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker: File Info and MetaData and PDFs… Oh My!

by Barbara Binder

As a long-time Adobe Acrobat instructor, I've spent many hours showing Acrobat students how to modify and enhance their PDF documents. They learn how to add bookmarks, links, movies, document properties, and more.

These are great features that should be part of any interactive PDF document, but if you put them directly into the PDF, you will overwrite them if you ever have to enter corrections into the source file and then regenerate the PDF.

A much more efficient workflow is to do as much work as possible in the source files. In this article, I want to show you how to enter document information directly into FrameMaker so that it will be in the PDF document as soon as you create it.

File information, called metadata, is often added to the document properties of a PDF document to make it easier to search. (You can view the properties by choosing File > Properties, and clicking the Description tab.) To enter this information into FrameMaker in advance of the PDF conversion, follow these steps:

Open a FrameMaker document (this also works for a book file).
Choose File > File Info.
Enter your metadata into the following dialog box (if you are not sure what to add into the various boxes, please see the notes at the bottom of this article).
Click the Set button.
Save the document.
Choose File > Save as PDF.
After naming the PDF, choose your favorite conversion settings and click the Set button.
When the file opens in Acrobat, choose File > Properties > Description to see the metadata displayed in the resulting PDF.

Notes on XMP Fields:

Title: Use a good, descriptive document title.
Author: Identify the person or group responsible for the document.
Subject and Keywords: Can be used either alone or together, to categorize documents by type.
Copyright: Copyright information.
Web Statement: The location of a web page describing the owner and/or rights statement for this resource.
Job Reference: Supply number or publisher's job references.
Marked: If the information in the file is copyrighted, pick Yes. If in the public domain, pick no. When unsure, pick Unknown.

***

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.

***

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.

April 29, 2010

eLearning: What’s in a Name?

by AJ George

When it comes to learning over the internet, there's been a lot of debate in the industry over the name "eLearning." People can't decide if they should use e-Learning, eLearning, virtual classes or online classes. Others are wondering if they should use the "e" in eLearning at all.

There are plenty of opinions when it comes to the debate. However, opinions are like cell phones, and these days, everybody's got one. To add some fact to opinion, I recently ran a Google Trend search to find out what the everyday Google searcher was using when looking for training via the internet.

I compared eLearning, e-learning, virtual training and online classes.

eLearning trends

I found that eLearning, e-learning, and online classes were all on pretty equal footing. It seems that eLearning gets the most hits and is gradually gaining momentum. On the other hand, the phrase "virtual training" was rarely searched.

Once upon a time e-learning was a hot buzz-word, but that was back in 2004. During the past six years, the dash in e-Learning is becoming obsolete. In fact, there has been talk of dropping the "e" in eLearning altogether.

If you compare a Google search for learning to the above search phrases, learning blasts them all out of the water. Of course the problem with searching for the word "learning" is that it is a very broad and commonly-used word. Unless you work for Moodle, chances are that if you brand your training content simply as "learning," your customers may never find you.

I also took the Google Trend tracking a bit further to compare mobile learning, mLearning and m-learning.

mLearning naming trends

M-learning didn't have enough search volume to even be ranked with the other two terms. Mobile learning dominated to a large degree and mLearning hasn't quite caught on. I'm convinced that over time the use of mLearning will continue to increase. But for now, to increase SEO I would suggest using both mLearning and mobile learning, just to be safe.

Note: I tried the Google Trend search with and without quotes around the two-word terms (ie "mobile learning") and found that it returned similar results either way.

***

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the just-released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.

April 28, 2010

Acrobat: Think Reader Can’t Do That? Presto! Now it Can!

by David R. Mankin

If Acrobat was free, everyone would own it. Acrobat is a very sophisticated application allowing you to work with, create, enhance and edit those amazing PDF files.

Sadly, Acrobat isn't free and not everyone owns it. People who do not have Acrobat still need to work with PDF files, which is where Adobe's free Acrobat Reader comes in. Reader, a very capable piece of software in its own realm, allows you to browse, print and interact with PDFs.

However, Reader is a Read-Only application… at least that's what most people believe. Why? When downloaded and installed on a computer, Reader is in fact just a Read-Only application. But that is only true for some PDF files.

A PDF file can be given the ability to save form data (from a fillable PDF form), have comments and markup added and signed digitally… in Reader! These special fortifications to a PDF file must be enabled in Acrobat itself (not Reader), and are applied to PDF files individually.

To add these capabilities to a PDF file, you must have the PDF file open in Acrobat. Then choose Advanced > Extend Features in Adobe Reader. Acrobat presents an information dialog box which explains what capabilities are being added.

Features Will Become Available screen...

Once enabled, the PDF can't be edited. For this reason, Adobe has wisely given you a button labeled Save now, which opens the Save As dialog box and allows you to give this super-charged PDF file a unique name (preserving the original PDF for possible future edits).

Send the enhanced PDF to someone who has only Reader, and they will see that the document's capabilities are extended and they will be able to utilize the file in ways otherwise impossible in Reader!

***

I teach two levels of Acrobat online (yes, the program is that deep). Click here to learn about my beginner Acrobat class. Click here if an advanced Acrobat class is more your style.

***

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.

April 27, 2010

Adobe RoboHelp: Synchronize the TOC Automatically

by Kevin Siegel

One of the three most common features of any help
system is the Table of Contents (the Index and Search features are the others).
However, even while most Help Authors take the time to create a detailed and
seemingly helpful TOC, most Help System customers will not look to the TOC first
when they are trying to get help. Instead, customers they will typically look to
Search the Help System or use the Index.

Why don't Help customers look
to the TOC first when looking for Help? As helpful as the TOC might seem to a
Help author, the TOC is typically laid out in a logical order that's only
logical to the person who created the TOC.

If customers saw the topic
they were looking for on the TOC, there's a good chance they would click the
topic on the TOC and open the topic. The problem is that a typical TOC might be
made up of books inside of books inside of books. There is simply very little
chance that the topic in question is open for the customer to
click.

RoboHelp's Synchronize Table of
Contents feature will automatically show where a topic is located on the
TOC while customers use the Index or Search feature to get help.

On the
Single Source Layouts pod, show the Properties of either FlashHelp or WebHelp.
Click the Next button and select Synchronize Table of Contents and then select
Automatically from the drop-down menu at
the right.

Generate and view your project. Use either Search or
the Index to find a topic that is on the TOC. The topic will be highlighted on
the Table of Contents. Believe it or not, the more your customers see the topic
on the TOC, the more likely it will be that they will use the TOC to find and
open the topic in the future.

***

Need to learn Adobe RoboHelp
8… and fast? I'm teaching a live, online RoboHelp class at the end of this
week (April 29-30). Click here to sign up or learn
more.

***

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.

April 27, 2010

Writing & Grammar Workshop: Funny? Do You Think That’s Funny?

by Jennie Ruby

What role, if any, should humor play in technical and
training materials?

When writing training materials, I am always looking for new
ways to introduce a lesson and keep the tone engaging. The introduction to a lesson
needs to draw in the learners and get them motivated to continue the training,
and the writing throughout the lesson has to keep their attention. Can the use
of humor help?

To find an answer, I skimmed some of the writing in my
shelf-full of training books. I found many examples of engaging and personable
writing styles, but very few examples of out and out humor.

Even in the For Dummies series and its competitor The
Complete Idiot's Guide to… group, both known for their clear and readable text,
humor was rarely on display. I did find some exceptions. Several of the Dummies books have a cartoon at
the beginning of each chapter. Laurie E. Rozakis' The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style begins with a quote
from comedian Jerry Seinfeld. And I developed a smile, if not a chuckle, from this
bit from Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley's Blogging for Dummies:
"No matter what your teenager tells you, there is absolutely
no requirement that you must write your blog while wearing your pajamas. Also,
you are allowed to use a spellchecker."

And I was pleased by their alliterative subheading "Tiptoeing
Through Templates."

But in books like DHTML
and CSS for the World Wide Web, Excel
Data Analysis, Illustrator,
and even The Rough Guide to MySpace &
Online Communities, humor and joking did not find a place.

I conclude from this that joking around pretty much does not
have a place in training materials. The reason would be twofold:

You need to maintain a credible and
authoritative tone.
Humorous stories and jokes may be a distraction
rather than an enhancement in learning materials.

Does this mean your training materials must be utterly dry,
factual, and boring? Absolutely not. But telling jokes? Not so much.

Do you agree? Or strongly disagree? We would love
to hear from you about experiences you have had with using humor in training
materials. Please send us your comments.

***

Are
you an eLearning developer who has been tasked with creating an
effective voiceover script? I'm teaching a new online class in May
called Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts.
During the class I'll be teaching you how to define the appropriate
voice and tone for a narrative text. You will learn how to take
specific steps to create the engaging and personable writing style that
voice-over narratives require. I hope you can join me. Click here to learn more. I also teach the Writing Training Documents and
eLearning Scripts class. You can learn about that here.

***

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. She is a publishing professional with more than 20 years
of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

April 21, 2010

Adobe RoboHelp: Why Type It When RoboHelp Will Do it For You?

by Kevin Siegel

How many times have you found yourself adding the same information to your RoboHelp topics over and over again. Maybe it's the name of your CEO. Maybe it's your corporation's "mother paragraph" (the paragraph that tells customers what your company is all about).

Believe it or not, RoboHelp has the ability to replace a few characters you might type on your keyboard (such as the letters zzz) with a phrase, sentence… even multiple sentences). All you need to do is put RoboHelp's AutoCorrect feature on the job.

Open any of your project topics.
Choose Tools > Spelling Options and select the AutoCorrect tab.
In the Replace field, type some text (such as the letters zzz).
In the With field, type the text you would like to appear should you type the letters in the Replace field (in the example below, I typed three sentences into the With field.
Click the Add button.
Click the OK button.
Open any topic, press your [spacebar] and then type the letters you typed into the Replace field (such as zzz).
Press [spacebar] one final time and BAM! The letters have been replaced by whatever you typed in the Replace field.

***

Need to learn Adobe RoboHelp 8? And fast? I'm teaching an online RoboHelp class at the end of this month (April 29-30). Click here to sign up or learn more.

***

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.

April 20, 2010

Writing & Grammar Workshop: Recasting Sentences for Clarity and Emphasis

by Jennie Ruby

Recasting sounds like something a fly fisherman would do, but in writing and editing it means to restructure a sentence. Restructuring is sometimes needed to avoid awkwardness, to give information in the order the reader needs it, or to introduce new concepts in a way that will promote understanding.

Take this problem sentence: It is [I, me] who [demand/demands] a change in the rules.

The correct grammar is this: It is I who demand a change in the rules.

However, the correct grammar here sounds unfamiliar or wrong to readers used to seeing who with demands, not demand. Recast the sentence so that it is correct but not awkward:

Recast sentence: I am the one who demands a change in the rules.

You can restructure or recast a sentence to put information in the order the reader needs it:

Original: Click the Chart tool from the Illustrations group on the Insert tab.

Your reader cannot see the Chart tool until the Insert tab is selected. The following recast sentence gives the information in a more usable order.

Recast: From the Insert tab, Illustrations group, click the Chart tool.

To introduce a new concept, you may recast a sentence to place the new concept at the end, so the reader is led from the familiar to the new and thus understands the importance of the new information by the time it is encountered.

Original: A JavaScript operator is a block of code that is required for the operation of your Spry widgets.

The original sentence starts with an unfamiliar technical term, leaving the reader at first wondering why she or he cares. The fact that the code is required is buried in the middle of the sentence, and the familiar thing this all relates to does not pop up until the end. Assuming your reader is familiar with and has created some Spry widgets, the recast sentence begins with the known and introduces the new concept at the end.

Recast: To operate properly, your Spry widgets require a block of code called the JavaScript operator.

Don't be afraid to recast a sentence several times before deciding which structure catches the reader's needs the best, and don't let your reader be the one who gets away.

***

Are you an eLearning developer who has been tasked with creating an effective voiceover script? I'm teaching a 3-hour, online class later this week called Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts. During the class I'll be teaching you how to define the appropriate voice and tone for a narrative text. You will learn how to take specific steps to create the engaging and personable writing style that voice-over narratives require. I hope you can join me. Click here to learn more.

***

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. She is a publishing professional with more than 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

April 19, 2010

Adobe Captivate 4: Creating Printable PDFs

by Kevin Siegel

If you've spent any time within the
Publish dialog box of Captivate 4, you have probably noticed that there
is a PDF option. Selecting this option will create a PDF version of your
project without the need to use Adobe Acrobat… cool. Because Acrobat Reader 9
includes the Flash Player, anyone who has Reader 9 on their system will
be able to open the PDF and watch or interact with your eLearning
lesson. Cooler!

However, the PDF document you publish with Captivate will
behave a little differently than PDFs you create from a print document.
If your Captivate lesson contained 50 slides, the resulting PDF you
Publish with Captivate won't contain 50 PDF document pages. Instead, the
PDF will contain a single video. Customer's will be able to watch the
video easily enough and use the Captivate playbar to move through the
lesson. However, printing the PDF becomes a challenge. Customer's will
only be able to print the slides contained in the PDF one slide at a time… they'll need to
pause the lesson and print. There is no way to print all of the slides
at one time (even if they select the Print All option in the Print
dialog box, only
one slide will print). Ouch!

You can get around this limitation
easily enough however by adding a widget to the Captivate project prior
to publishing. Here's how to do it.

Back in the Captivate project, open a slide for editing (if
you want the print icon to appear on every slide, you should insert the
widget on the first slide).
Choose Insert > Widget.
Open
PrintSlides.swf from the
Captivate Widget folder (the PrintSlides.swf comes free with Captivate 4
and is typically found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate
4\Gallery\Widgets).
Position the widget
on your slide wherever you'd like.
Ensure the widget is
in front of all other slide objects by choosing Edit > Order > Bring to Front
(this step is a requirement of the widget… if the widget isn't in
front of other objects, customers might not be able to click it while in
the PDF).
If you'd like the Widget to appear on all of
the slides, show the Properties of the Widget and, on the Options tab,
Display for Timing to Rest of project.
Publish the project
(File > Publish) and ensure
the Export PDF Option is
selected.
Open the PDF that
you published.
Click the printer icon you see on the
slide.
A dialog box will
appear. All you'll need to do now is select the slides you want to print
and click the Print button.

***

Join me in May for training on Adobe Captivate. I'm teaching
two classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on
the Beginner class. Click here for details on
the Advanced class.

***

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.

April 15, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker: Templates

by Barbara Binder

For as long as I've used FrameMaker, there's been an option to choose File > New > Document > Explore Standard Templates. These aren't the most exciting designs, and they haven't been updated in years, but I always take a few minutes to show them to my Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker students, because they are a great way to figure out some of the more complex layouts.

Take the Harvard and Numeric Outlines, for example. Figuring out how to set up auto-numbering like that is daunting for a new user, but starting from one of the templates makes it considerably easier.

For students who are looking for additional FrameMaker templates, I'll steer them to C:\Program Files\Adobe\FrameMaker9\samples\MoreSamples. This folder contains a variety of templates (some are still pretty clunky, but others may be very close to what you are looking for.) Remember, it's faster to tweak a template than start completely from scratch.

I design all of my own templates from the ground up, and have helped a number of companies do the same thing. However, it takes knowledge, time and money to create a template. In these budget-conscious times, the stock templates may be just what you are looking for.

***

April 14, 2010

Camtasia 6: Why Won’t Some Gifs Work?

I received this email last week…

Question:

I'm
using Camtasia Studio 6. Suddenly some of my gif images won't go to the
Timeline. They import just fine, but I get a "codec" error when I try
to drag them to the Timeline. These images used to work just fine–they
haven't been updated in forever. What did I do wrong? Any ideas?

Answer:

You
didn't do anything wrong. According to TechSmith, the makers of
Camtasia, the culprit is a recent Windows Security Update (KB975560).
It seems that thanks to the update, some gif and jpeg images can no
longer be added to the Camtasia Timeline. The issue was fixed in the
new Camtasia Studio 7. However, TechSmith says that developers still
using Camtasia Studio 6 will need to convert any problematic gif images
to png before adding those images to projects.