2011 – Page 7 – The Logical Blog

August 16, 2011

Adobe Captivate 5 & 5.5: Change the Mouse Pointer Project-Wide

by Kevin Siegel

A seasoned Captivate developer contacted me with a small dilemma. It seems that he was new to Captivate 5.5 (but had been using Captivate for nearly 4 years).

He needed to change the appearance of his mouse pointer throughout the project. In older versions of Captivate, changing the appearance of the mouse pointer was as simple as double-clicking the pointer on any slide (to open a properties dialog box), selecting a different pointer shape and then clicking the Apply to All button in the lower left of the dialog box.

In Captivate 5 and 5.5, most of the dialog boxes have been replaced by the Properties panel (also known as the Properties Inspector) and the available options are organized into groups.

He found the ability to change the appearance of the mouse pointer easily enough on the Properties panel. With the mouse pointer on any slide is selected, he chose a different pointer shape from among those available on the Options group. However, what he missed was the pesky Apply to all items of this type command. In the image below, notice that the command is just a bit hard to see in the upper right of the Options group.

Adobe Captivate 5 & 5.5 Apply to All option.

After letting the developer know about the Apply to all items of this type option, he sent me a nice email letting me know that he had not even noticed the option. He thanked me for my time and that was that.

The rest of the story…

Shortly thereafter, I received another email from the developer. He apologized for emailing again so soon but was sure he was missing something. He said that clicking Apply to all items of this type didn't appear to be working. It certainly worked as expected for other pointer properties, but not for the appearance of the mouse pointer.

I tried it myself and sure enough, the Apply to all items of this type command did not change the pointer shape. My first thought was that it must be some kind of a bug. But then I realized that it isn't a bug at all… it's a feature. Every pointer option you can change on the Properties panel will be applied when you click the Apply to all items option–except the mouse pointer shape. To change the mouse pointer shape project-wide, first change the appearance of any mouse pointer on any slide. Then right-click the pointer and choose Use the current mouse pointer for all slides.

Use mouse pointer on all slides.

And now you know… the rest of the story.

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5 or 5.5? We offer Beginner and Advanced classes. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend these classes.

August 10, 2011

Adobe Captivate 5 & 5.5: Add Some Status to Your TOC

by Kevin Siegel

When you add a Table of Contents to a Captivate project (Project > Table of Contents > Show TOC), the default settings include Show Duration. With this option selected, the duration of each slide in the lesson will be shown to your learners.

Show duration option is on by default.

The Duration column is perfectly useful if your lesson is a simple demonstration. However, if your lesson is an interactive simulation, it doesn't make much sense to show a slide duration since the exact amount of time spent on the interactive slide is up to the learner. I'd suggest replacing the Duration option with something far more useful: a Status Flag.

Choose Project > Table of Contents.
In the lower left of the Skin Editor, click the Settings button.
From the Runtime Options area, deselect Show Duration and then select Status Flag.
Click the OK button and then preview the project.
As you complete the interactivity on each slide, a green check mark will appear in the Status column.

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5 or 5.5? We offer Beginner and Advanced classes. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend these classes.

August 9, 2011

Integrating Adobe Captivate eLearning with Adobe FrameMaker

Last week it was my pleasure to lead a 60-minute webinar for Adobe where I demonstrated how to integrate eLearning with Adobe FrameMaker. During the session I recorded an interactive simulation in Captivate, published it and then imported it into FrameMaker. Then I created an interactive PDF from FrameMaker that included both the print materials and images from the document, and interactive eLearning. To top it off, I showed the audience how to create conditional build tags in FrameMaker that allowed me to single source two versions of the document: one for print and one for online viewing via PDF. If you missed the session, no worries. You can check out the recording here.

August 9, 2011

Adobe FrameMaker versus Microsoft Word

I use FrameMaker as the main authoring tool when I write my skills & drills books. I am often asked why FrameMaker is the better choice over Word. While Word is great for word processing, nothing touches FrameMaker when it comes to creating technical documentation. Chris King of RIMS, Inc. has put together a great document that compares FrameMaker to Word.

August 8, 2011

PowerPoint 2010: Animating a Venn Diagram

by AJ George

A typical Venn diagram has two or more related topics. To depict the similarities and differences of these topics, you might create a diagram like the example below.

Venn diagram completed.

If you find yourself in need of a Venn diagram, there are a few basic Venn diagrams available via PowerPoint's SmartArt. The PowerPoint SmartArt Venn diagrams, however, do not function as traditional Venn diagrams in that there is no option to show similar traits, just the option to create outlines on the outlying portions of the overlapping circles. If the Venn diagrams available via SmartArt do not suit your needs, you can easily create your own. All you need to do is draw two or more circles, overlap the shapes and then add some text boxes. But what if you wanted a more full-featured diagram?

Animate a Venn diagram

Using the image above as an example, let's say you want the whole Venn diagram to appear. Then you want to highlight eLearning, followed by mLearning. Next you want the middle section to "come forward" and enlarge.

It would be difficult to add such an animation to a Venn diagram created with shapes and text boxes as outlined above because each section is not an actual shape; rather the sections are products of overlapping shapes. Instead, this is a great opportunity to use the Shape Union and Shape Subtract tools I've written about before.

Draw the Venn diagram circles so they appear similar to the example above, leaving the individual elements ungrouped.
Select one of the circles and copy and paste it.
Format the shape as you see fit. (Ensure that the shape does not have a line (right-click and choose Format Shape >Line > No Line).
Overlap the pasted circle so that it fits perfectly within the Venn diagram.
Copy the filled circle and paste the second copy over the other half of the Venn diagram, lining it up perfectly.
Copy and paste the filled circle one more time and then put it aside for later.
You should now have three filled circles on the slide.
Select the first circle, and then while holding down the [Shift] key, select the second circle (the one overlapping it).
Click the Shape Subtract tool.
The second circle should disappear, leaving you with a shape like this:
Copy the new shape you just created by Subtraction and move the copy out of the way on the slide.
Find the 3rd full circle you created and change the fill color (keeping in mind that there will be text over it).
Drag the copy of the shape you created in Step 9 so that it perfectly overlaps your 3rd circle.
Select the full circle, and then, while holding down the [Shift] key, select the subtracted shape (in this example, the green shape).
Click the Shape Subtract tool.
You are now left with a pointed oval shape.
Copy and Paste the first subtracted shape you made (the green one) again.
Select the copy and flip it horizontally (Drawing Tools Format > Arrange > Rotate > Flip Horizontal).
You should now have three filled shapes.
Arrange the shapes so they line up properly over the Venn diagram.
Hold down the [Shift] key and select all three shapes.
Send all three shapes to the back (Drawing Tools Format > Arrange > Send Backward > Send to Back).
Insert text boxes (Insert > Text > Text Box) over each section of the diagram, entering your text as you go.
Select the first filled shape, and, while holding down the [Shift] key, select the text box (or boxes if you added a title in a separate text box) overlapping it.
Group the shape and text box(es) together (Drawing Tools Format > Arrange > Group > Group).
Add an animation (I like Zoom for this purpose, but select whatever you like) by choosing Animations > Add Animation > More Entrance Effects.
Repeat steps 20-22 for the other two sections of the diagram.

A couple variations:

Don't group the text to the colored background shapes. Instead have the text appear at the same time as the lines of the diagram. Have the colored background shapes animate in as you talk about each section to emphasize whatever section you are talking about.
Forgo the colored backgrounds altogether and just have the text boxes for each section come in one at a time.

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

August 7, 2011

Writing & Grammar: Comparisons and Pronouns… The Results

by Jennie Ruby

Results are in for last week's question about the meaning of this sentence:

My boyfriend loves soccer more than me.

The choices were A and B:

My boyfriend loves soccer more than I do.
My boyfriend loves soccer more than he loves me.

By a large margin, you readers said it means B. Literally, in print, that is the official meaning. But this was more of a survey than a quiz, because even though that is the way this sentence should be understood in print, most people don't use sentences like this one correctly in the spoken language. So if you said A, that is still a valid choice-for the spoken word.

My question for discussion next week is this: how would you spell and punctuate these possessives?

We went to Mike and Sues house for dinner. [Mike and Sue are a couple and co-own the house.]
There were so many of us that we had to take both Mike and Deweys cars. [we took two cars, one belonging to Mike and one belonging to Dewey]
George said that we should take Mike and his's cars.
I think we can all fit in Mike and I's car.

Send us your answers and I will post the results here. [Hint: a past article on our blog might give some insight.]

***

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.

August 3, 2011

PowerPoint 2010: Using the Selection Pane

by AJ George

Have you ever been working on a slide with text, images, animations and some shapes… and then "lost" something? Perhaps you overlapped two objects and couldn't see one of them? Or maybe it was a teensy tiny little part to a whole that you hadn't grouped to the whole? What about this: you are animating several different shapes on a slide, but on the animation pane they all have names like "Rectangle 2." As you work it's hard for you to keep straight which rectangle is which (how are you supposed to remember which Rectangle is 2 and which one is 47??). Would you be super excited to learn that there is a simple solution to all of this?

From the PowerPoint ribbon, choose Home > Arrange > Selection Pane.

The Selection and Visibility pane will appear to the right. Here you will see a list of every object on the slide and next to it a clickable eyeball to indicate whether or not the object is hidden on the slide. (If you don't see the eyeballs, drag the pane out to the left to enlarge it until you do.)

Selection eyeballs in PowerPoint.

When the eyeball is visible, the object is visible on the slide. Clicking the eyeball will make it disappear and will cause the corresponding object to be hidden (but not deleted) on the slide. This can be immensely helpful if you have several objects overlapping each other and you want to work with one of the objects that is not in front. By hiding any objects on top of it you can work as though they are not there and just unhide the objects when you are finished.

The Selection Pane can also be used to name each object with a more useful name than "Rectangle 2." Furthermore if you have several shapes that you will be grouping together into one shape, you can not only name the individual parts, but the whole group as well. Doing this as you work (and not after you have added all the objects) will save you a lot of confusion down the line and will really clean up your workflow.

Hide all, show all.

So, let's say you have a tiny hourglass image that appears first on your slide before anything else. You have everything animated so that it appears after the hourglass and piles in on top of where the hourglass once was. After you are finished with the slide, you realize that the hourglass was orange and you wanted to make it blue. You could take the time to rearrange the order of the objects on the slide and sift through all the work you have done. OR, you could glance over to your Selection Pane, click the Hide All button, locate the hourglass (that you have thoughtfully already named "hourglass") on the selection pane, click the box next to it (causing the eyeball to appear and the object to show on the slide), make your edits quickly, and then click the Show All button to bring everything else back. Much faster!

***

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

August 3, 2011

Adobe Captivate 5 & 5.5: Blur it Baby

by Kevin Siegel

You've captured a series of screens using Adobe Captivate. During playback, you realize that there is something on some of the slide backgrounds that you simply don't want the learner to see. Maybe you captured a sensitive URL in a browser window, or maybe there's a name or data being shown that would be a privacy violation.

You can easily edit any Captivate background with a graphics program like MS Paint and erase the problem areas. However, if the problem exists on several slides, you would be looking at a lot of editing. An easier approach might be to simply use Captivate's blur effect to make a sensitive background area impossible to read. Here's how:

Right-click the slide needing the blur effect and choose Find Background in the Library.
Drag the selected library image onto the slide.
You now have two identical background images. The one on top (that you just dragged from the library) can be cropped and receive the Blur effect.
Using the Crop Image button on the Image Edit group of the Properties panel, crop out everything on the background except what you want to blur.
On the Timing group of the Properties panel, set the Display For timing of the cropped image to rest of slide.
Position the cropped background over the area of the background that needs to be blurred.
And now to add the blur effect…
Right-click the cropped image and choose Apply Effect.
Click the Add Effect button (located on the lower left of the Effects pane).
Note: In Captivate 5, the Effect button is simply a lowercase fx. In Captivate 5.5, the words Add Effect have been added to the button.
Choose Filters > Blur.
On the Effects pane, stretch the Blur effect so that it lasts as long as the Image.
From the Properties area of the Effects pane, experiment with the Blur X, Blur Y and Quality settings until the effect meets your needs. (To test the effect, preview a few of your slides.)

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5 or 5.5? We offer Beginner and Advanced classes. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend these classes.

July 31, 2011

Adobe Captivate 5 & 5.5: Export Audio

by Kevin Siegel

I received an interesting email last week from a Captivate developer asking where imported audio was physically stored on the computer. She had edited much of the audio from within Captivate and needed to share some of the edited clips with team members in her office.

Once audio clips are imported into a Captivate project, they are embedded within the project and are not stored externally. While this might seem like a deal-breaker if you need to hand off those audio files to someone, there is a way to export the audio files.

Choose Audio > Audio Management to open the Advanced Audio Mangement dialog box.
From the lower left of the dialog box, select Show object level audio so that you can see all of the project's audio files (even those attached to objects on your slides).
Select some or all of the audio files.
Select either Include MP3 files in export or Include WAVE files in export (or both).
Click the Export button.
Create a folder (or open an existing folder) and click OK.
Navigate to the folder and you'll find your audio files.

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5 or 5.5? We offer Beginner and Advanced classes. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend these classes.

July 29, 2011

PowerPoint 2010: Change the Picture, Keep the Animation

by AJ George

You've just completed a very slick PowerPoint presentation. On one slide you have an image fade in. After it fades in, it pulses for emphasis. After it pulses, text appears above. Then when you click the image, it hyperlinks to another slide. Everything looks and works great.

But then the client contacts you and says they'd like to swap the image with another. Trying to reconstruct all of the animations and actions, as well as ensuring they're in the proper order with everything else on the slide, could be a disaster for you (or, at the very least, a small headache).

There's good news. You can replace an image but keep all of the actions and effects used on the previous image. Here's how:

In PowerPoint, select the image you would like to change.
From the Ribbon, select Picture Tools Format > Adjust > Change Picture.

(Note: You can also right-click the image and choose Change Picture.)
From the Insert Picture dialog box, you will be able to select the new picture.

You will notice that any formatting you had applied to the original image is now applied to the new image. Yay!

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