September 2010 – The Logical Blog

September 30, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker: Numbering Headings

by Barb Binder

I love paragraph numbering in FrameMaker, mostly because no matter what numbering style a student shows me, I can make it happen by mixing and matching the building blocks in Numbering properties. Today, a former FrameMaker student asked me to help her fix paragraph numbers. Here's what she wanted:

Chapter 1. ChapterTitle text here

1.1. Heading1 text here

1.2. Heading1 text here

1.3. Heading1 text here

1.3.1. Heading2 text here

1.3.2. Heading2 text here

1.4. Heading1 text here

The trick is to look at the numbers as columns. I'll sketch them on paper for complex situations. Here's how numbering properties should look for each of these paragraph formats:

FrameMaker's Numbering Properties

Here's why it works:

Series Label. The series label tells FrameMaker that these three paragraph formats are part of the same numbering series. I use H for a Heading series, but any uppercase letter will do.

ChapterTitle. Prints the word "Chapter" followed by the chapter number, a period and a space. < =0> resets the column 2 and 3 counters back to 0 for each new chapter, but the space says don't show it.

Heading1. Repeats the chapter number, followed by a period. The <n+> adds one to the 2nd column counter and shows the result.
The < =0> resets the third column counter back to zero, but doesn't show it.

Heading2. Repeats the chapter number followed by a period, the <n> repeats the 2nd column counter without changing it, and <n+> adds one to the 3rd column counter and shows the result.

Voila! Using this logic, you can number as many paragraphs as you could ever want.

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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 class. Hope to "see" you there.

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About the author: Barb 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.

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September 28, 2010

Adobe RoboHelp 8: eLearning & Help Join Forces

by Kevin Siegel

When I teach my RoboHelp class, one of the RoboHelp features that most excites my students is RoboHelp's ability to import eLearning lessons published by Adobe Captivate.

In this age of visual communication, incorporating interactive eLearning with your help content just makes sense. You know the old saying: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Instead of a topic in RoboHelp going on and on for paragraph after paragraph, why not simply explain the concept in a few sentences and then let the Captivate video do the talking?

Here's how you can quickly incorporate Captivate content within a RoboHelp topic:

Using Adobe Captivate, create and publish a Captivate video as a SWF.
Using RoboHelp, create a RoboHelp topic and type your topic content as you normally would. Of course, as mentioned above, I'd think about keeping the content you type as short and sweet as possible and then lead into the Captivate video with something along the lines of The following interactive topic lesson will allow you to perform these actions now.
Insert the Captivate video into the topic by choosing Insert > Adobe Captivate Demo. Navigate to the location of your Captivate published SWF and open it.

At this point, your RoboHelp topic will contain a large box that won't look much like the Captivate video you published. No worries. Simply preview the topic and you'll see the video. Your customers will only need Adobe's free Flash Player on their computers to watch and interact with the lesson.

Would you like to take this concept to the next level? Consider setting up the RoboHelp topic so that the Captivate video only appears if the learner wants to see it. (As it stands now, the video will automatically play when the topic is accessed. If it's lower down the page, the learner might not even know that it's there and could miss it.)

If it were me, I'd make the video part of an expanding drop-down link. If the learner clicks the link, the video opens (otherwise it stays hidden).

Select the Captivate video and cut it (it will be moved to the Clipboard and will be pasted back into the topic next).
Highlight the text you typed to announce the lesson (i.e: The following interactive topic lesson will allow you to perform these actions now.) and choose DHTML > Create Drop-down Hotspot and Text. Select the placeholder text and paste the clipboard content into the Expanding Text Window.

Preview the topic and click the link. BAM! The topic text will get out of the way and make room for the interactive simulation. How cool is that?

If you'd like to see a demonstration of the process described above, click here.

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Need to learn RoboHelp… and fast? Join me this week for a live, two-day class.

September 23, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker: Should You Apply or Update All?

by Barb Binder

When I teach my FrameMaker classes, there is always confusion caused by the Apply and the Update All buttons. Take this short quiz to test your knowledge of when to use one over the other.

You want to change all the Body paragraphs in your document to Minion Pro 10/12 in the Paragraph Designer. You make the changes and click:

Update All
Apply

You want to assign the Heading2 tag to a Body paragraph via Paragraph Designer. You pick it from the Paragraph Tag list and click:

Update All
Apply

You want to rename all paragraphs tagged Title to ChapterTitle, so you type over the name in Paragraph Designer and click:

Update All
Apply

You want to remove the first line indent on the very first Body paragraph, so you make the change in Paragraph Designer and click:

Update All
Apply

You change the alignment of a paragraph to center via the Paragraph Formatting toolbar. That is equivalent to clicking:

Update All
Apply

Answers: 1. a; 2. b; 3. a; 4. b; 5. b

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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 class. Hope to "see" you there.

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September 23, 2010

Writing & Grammar: Understanding Elliptical Sentences

by Jennie Ruby

When I first heard the term elliptical sentence, I pictured a sentence that went around in an oblong circle. And that is not far from the truth. These sentences do sometimes end just where they began. By doing so, they help us determine correct pronoun case, decide whether to use than or from, and save us from undue wordiness.

The word elliptical actually does not refer to the shape of the sentence, but rather to the concept of ellipsis: leaving something out. In the following examples, the section in square brackets is the part that is left out.

Mentally inserting the omitted words can help you choose the correct pronoun:

The economic downturn affected me more than [it affected] her.

I liked the Cirque de Soleil performance even more than she [did].

Thinking about the omitted words can also help with different from versus different than. Than works with the elliptical words added:

Michael is taller than Michelle [is tall].

But when we try adding the elliptical wording and it does not work, we need to use the word from:

Incorrect: Wild rice is different than brown rice [is different].

Adding the words is different at the end of this sentence does not work–so we need from and not than. The correct sentence is this:

Correct: Wild rice is different from brown rice.

In the next example, using an elliptical sentence can save us a lot of words. When you take out the bracketed section in this next type of elliptical sentence, you put in a comma to indicate that words were left out:

Jones is in charge of Marketing, Utz [is in charge of] Advertising, and Brown [is in charge of] Outreach.

Jones is in charge of Marketing; Utz, Advertising; Brown, Outreach.

Notice that in the elliptical sentence, the list commas had to be upgraded to semicolons once the list items contained commas.

So to test your pronouns, check for different than versus different from, and to eliminate wordiness, remember to use elliptical sentences, and you won't have to run around in circles trying to find the right answer.

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Are you an eLearning developer who has been tasked with creating an effective voiceover script? If so, consider attending my Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts class. I also teach the Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts class.

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

September 22, 2010

Technology: Is Your Cell Phone a Vampire?

by AJ George

After running a couple week's worth of tips for prolonging your Droid's battery life, I was approached with additional battery related topics. I wouldn't say I'm an authority on all things battery-related, but I was able to find a few resources on the topic that I'd like to share.

Is your cell phone sucking energy?

If you leave your cell phone plugged in all night to charge, even if it really only needs a few hours to fully charge, you're wasting energy, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, you are, but you probably aren't wasting enough energy to really make an impact on reducing your energy usage if you change your ways. The term for such unnecessary sucking of energy is called vampire draw.

This article does a good job explaining exactly how much energy is being burned up by leaving your cell phone (and other electronics) plugged in. Some highlights of the article:

If you leave your phone plugged in all night, every night for a year, you will be using 6.5 kWh of energy. Compared to the 4,000 kWh the average American uses each year, it's really kind of a drop in the bucket. If you'd like to do something little to make a bigger difference-swap one incandescent light bulb in your home for a fluorescent bulb and save yourself 126 kWh a year.

It is suggested that you unplug your phone's charger when it is not in use (because every little bit of energy you save helps, right?); but the article also pointed out how tiny of an impact unplugging will make. If you leave your charger plugged in the entire year (8,760 hours) you will only be using a total of 2.3 kWh of electricity–equivalent to the amount of energy you would save that year by skipping one hot bath.

The article goes on to cover iPod and laptop battery energy consumption, as well as if it is better to charge your devices in your car or in your house (spoiler: you're better off at home). It is definitely worth a read if you've ever pondered how your gadgets were affecting your energy consumption.

If you read the article and are still convinced that you should be more proactive about vampire draw, there are a few products that are specifically made to eliminate needless use of electricity, like this Volt-Star Eco-Charger.

The jury's still out on overcharging

Whether or not overcharging your cell phone's battery can cause the battery to lose its charge faster has been the subject of much debate. Most resources I found (like this one) said that today's gadgets are very difficult to overcharge and that any depletion in battery life you experience is due to regular wear and tear of the battery over time. Others swear that leaving their phones on the charger too long has led to a decrease in battery life as compared to when they only charged it long enough to reach full charge. I couldn't find any official sources stating that this was the case.

I charge my phone all night, every night and have not experienced any sort of loss in battery life, but I'd love to hear from you. Do you notice a difference in your phone's battery if you leave it on the charger for too long? Do you think that's all just hype and overcharging is a thing of the past? Leave your comments below.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

September 17, 2010

Writing & Grammar: Politics, Religion… and Hyphenation

by Jennie Ruby

I cannot blame my FrameMaker colleague Barb Binder for lumping hyphens in with religion and politics as topics not to be touched on in the classroom. But it is my job not only to touch on the topic of hyphens, but to explain what can be explained and then moderate the ensuing battles.

Here is one aspect of the hyphenation question that can be explained and that can help resolve many a hyphen-related battle. In the dictionary you find that English has three types of compound words: permanently hyphenated, permanently open, and permanently closed. Here are some random examples:

Permanently hyphenated: walkie-talkie, double-stop, double-team, demand-side, closed-captioned, close-cropped, self-made

Permanently open: high school, early bird, disaster area, elm bark beetle, cloud forest, orange pekoe

Permanently closed: database, toothpaste, paintbrush, orangewood, powerhouse, seagull

Just as "Let's Google it" ends up solving a lot of arguments about facts, the dictionary can solve a lot of arguments about hyphens.

So Barb–and other fearers of hyphen discussions–your first line of defense in a hyphenation battle is m-w.com, to find a definite answer on many hyphenation questions. And Merriam-Webster is a permanently hyphenated compound word.

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September 16, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker: Hyphenation

by Barb Binder

What do religion, politics and hyphenation have in common? They are all emotional subjects for most of my students, and I try to keep discussion on all three of them out of the classroom. If you are thinking that hyphenation couldn't possibly fall into that category, then you probably haven't spent much time teaching word processing or layout applications.

As a teacher, I ask questions to engage my students in the learning process, and the first few times I asked them how they handle hyphenation, I was dumbfounded by their responses. Otherwise well-mannered students were suddenly confrontational with others who did not share their views. Who knew? These days, I simply state how to turn hyphenation on and off for different paragraphs and move right along.

Let's say you want to turn off hyphenation on your Heading1s in FrameMaker; here's how:

Place your cursor in a Heading1 paragraph.
Choose Format > Paragraph > Designer (or press Ctrl M)
Navigate to Advanced Properties (button # 5 in FrameMaker 9).
Click twice on the Hyphenate check box.
Why two clicks? FrameMaker check boxes offer three states: on (checked), off (unchecked) and As Is (solid box). If you click once, you will set the check box to As Is and it will leave hyphenation as [it] is..
Click Update All.

Phew. Glad that's over. If you have additional questions about how to control hyphenation, I'm here to help. If you want to discuss when and where to hyphenate, I'm staying out of that debate!

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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 class. Hope to "see" you there.

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September 16, 2010

Troublshooting Tips: Upgrading to Office 2010 for Windows XP Users

by AJ George

A couple weeks ago I upgraded from Microsoft Office 2007 to Microsoft Office 2010–at least I tried to upgrade. It seemed like a routine upgrade process until I tried to open Outlook 2010 and was greeted with a message saying something along the lines of "Please wait while Windows Configures Microsoft Office Single Image 2010."

I had no idea what the message meant, but it could not be ignored. I was able to get Outlook to open by starting in Safe Mode (which you can do by holding down the Control key on your keyboard as you start Outlook). Running Outlook in Safe Mode allowed me to do my work, but I had to remember to use Safe Mode every time I started Outlook and none of the customization I'd done to my preferences was functional.

After struggling with this problem for hours, I got in touch with Microsoft tech support. He went through my computer and deleted any remnants of legacy versions of Office, and spent hours doing who knows what else, but to no avail.

There is an option when installing Office 2010 to customize the upgrade process to only upgrade certain programs. Hypothetically I could have just upgraded everything except Outlook 2007. But, alas, Outlook was the only program I could not opt out of. Eventually I gave up on Microsoft support, uninstalled Office 2010 and just reinstalled 2007.

Two weeks later I was finally given a solution that I would like to pass along to anyone having this same Microsoft Outlook 2010 upgrade problem. The actual fix takes only minutes. All you need to do is download Microsoft Windows Search 4.0 for Windows XP (KB940157). Reinstall Office 2010. And you're done. Outlook 2010 (as well as the rest of the Office suite) now works perfectly for me.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

September 14, 2010

Adobe Captivate: Using Aggregator

by Kevin Siegel

In an ideal world, your Captivate projects would be kept to a respectable number of slides (fewer than approximately 100). Why? Larger projects will take longer to produce, longer to publish, longer for learners to download and, most importantly, longer to complete.

I suggest creating lessons that a learner can finish within five minutes, which typically translates to around 80-100 interactive slides. Of course, there may be occasions where you want to take several small projects and bring them together into one project–without actually copying slides or objects from one project into another.

If you publish your Captivate projects as SWFs, you can combine multiple SWF files into one lesson using the Aggregator. Once added to an Aggregator project, you can publish the combined files as a SWF, EXE file, PDF or HTML. The published Aggregator file will include a TOC using the names of the separate SWF files.

To ensure the uniformity of Table of Contents (TOC) settings across lessons, you can set any SWF in the TOC as the master. The TOC settings of the master are applied to all the other SWFs in the Aggregator.

To create an Aggregator project, first publish some of your Captivate lessons as SWFs.
Choose File > New Project > Aggregator Project.
From the bottom of the window, click the Add Module button and open the SWFs you published.
The SWFs will appear in the Module Title area of the Aggregator. You can double-click a module's name and rename or edit it as you like..
Publish the aggregated projects by clicking the Publish Aggregator Project tool.

Branching to Other Lessons From an Aggregated Project

It's certainly possible that you'd like the learner to end up in a lesson outside the modules you have added to the aggregated project. You can do it and fellow Captivate developer and trainer Mark Fletcher has provided the steps to success:

Open the source cptx file you want to branch from.
Insert an interactive object (such as a Click Box).
Set the Properties of the Click Box to Open another project from the On Success menu.
Browse to locate the file you wish to branch to (you can also choose from a recently opened project from the Project menu).
Save and Publish the source and target cptx files as SWFs.
Add the files to the Aggregator project.
Publish the Aggregator project.
Clicking the Click Box in the published file you want to branch from will now jump to the swf you want to branch to and highlight that lesson in the Aggregator TOC.

Note: When you publish the source cptx file, Captivate should display a message indicating that files/projects are linked to the open project and that these may also need to be published.

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we still offer two online classes for Captivate 4, Beginner and Advanced. Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class. Lastly, we've got classes for the new Captivate 5. We are currently offering a Captivate 5 Essentials class and an Advanced Captivate 5 class.

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September 14, 2010

Adobe RoboHelp: Controlling Hyperlink Colors

by Kevin Siegel

Creating a hyperlink in RoboHelp is surprisingly easy. All you need to do is highlight some text and choose Insert > Hyperlink/Popup. Select a topic from the Select destination (File or URL) area and click OK. Alternatively, you can drag a topic from the Project Manager pod directly into an open topic and create both the hyperlink text and hyperlink at one time. Students who attend my online RoboHelp class find the latter hyperlink technique to be the coolest thing ever.

The resulting color of hyperlinked text is typical: hyperlinks appear as blue, underlined text.

You'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that you can control the color of the hyperlinked text by editing the topic's CSS.

On the Project Manager pod, double-click your CSS to open the Styles dialog box.

From the Character group, notice that there are four Hyperlink options: active, hovered, unvisited and visited.

The unvisited link is the color of a hyperlink before a user has clicked the link. Once a link has been clicked, it is known as a visited link. The active link is the color of a link as the user is clicking the link. And hovered is the color of a link when the user hovers the mouse over the link, but does not click.

If you want to change any of the link colors, simply select it from the list and change the color via the color menu at the right. For instance, I'd like to change the Hyperlink (unvisited) color.

Hyperlink (unvisited)

After selecting Hyperlink (unvisited), I selected Maroon from the list of colors.

Changing the hyperlink color

All that's left to do after that is click the Apply button and then click the OK button. Any topics using the edited CSS will use the new hyperlink color.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? I have a class coming up this month. Click here to learn more.

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