May 2012 – The Logical Blog

May 30, 2012

Adobe Captivate 5/5.5: Setting a Default Object Style

by Kevin Siegel

I enjoy creating eLearning lessons using Adobe Captivate. Nevertheless, it's work and I make every attempt to produce and publish my projects as quickly and efficiently as I can. In fact, I am always looking for ways to save steps, and I'm all about getting something done with fewer and fewer clicks.

With fewer clicks in mind, I'm going to show you a quick Captivate setting that could save you at least one click every time you insert an object onto a slide. (Just one click you say? Don't discount even minor savings. One click saved here, another there… and you're golfing!)

I'd like to insert a standard text caption onto a slide. The task is simple enough. Choose Insert > Standard Objects > Text Caption.

I'd also like to assign a specific Object Style to the new text caption. This process is also simple. Select the text caption and use the Style drop-down menu on the Propertiespanel.

As I said, the steps are simple, but allow me to simplify things even further… and save you a few clicks in the bargain.

Open the Object Style Manager via the Edit menu. From the center of the dialog box, select a style. Lastly, from the right of the dialog box select Set As Default.

The next time you insert a text caption, the caption will already be using the style you set as default. Think of all of the clicks you'll save!

If you're not an Object Style Manager fan, I have another way of setting a default object style. Go ahead and insert the object as you normally would. Then, on the Propertiespanel, select a style from the Style drop-down menu. Lastly, select Set as the default style. From that point forward, the selected style will automatically be applied to newly inserted objects.

Set as default via the Properties panel.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? We offer two live, online classes. Adobe Captivate Essentials and Adobe Captivate Beyond the Essentials (Advanced).

May 22, 2012

Adobe Captivate 5/5.5: Troubleshooting Cranky Software

by Kevin Siegel

By this point I've created hundreds upon hundreds of eLearning projects using Captivate. In all that time, Captivate has remained very stable for me (very few crashes and zero corrupt projects). Nevertheless, I've received some emails over the last few weeks from Captivate developers who were having issues with Captivate crashing, running slowly or otherwise behaving erratically. In the vast majority of the cases, the following resolved the issues.

Editing over a network drive: Captivate projects simply cannot be edited over a network drive. Backing up your projects to a network drive is a great idea. But if you open a project and then proceed to edit it over a network drive, the project will behave erratically, work slowly and, sooner or later, become corrupt. Take my advice (and the advice of any developer who has lost a project), stay clear of your network drive. If your project is currently on a network drive, first copy the project to your local drive and then edit it.

Run as administrator. If you are using Windows Vista or 7, and you are working locally but Captivate is still behaving badly, try running the software as an Administrator. You can Captivate as an Administrator by right-clicking the Captivate application icon and choosing Run as administrator.

Virus Scanners: Many virus scanners scan your hard drive 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The scanners are well-meaning but can rob your computer of performance and block all kinds of processes… even Captivate processes. I'd suggest stopping your virus scanner while you're working within Captivate. Instead, schedule the virus scan during hours when you aren't asking your computer to perform intense processes (like producing a Captivate project).

Clear Captivate's Preferences: If Captivate is performing strangely, you can delete the Preferences folder and see if that shakes things up. Close Captivate, find the Preferences folder on your computer (see below) and then restart Captivate. The Preferences folder will be recreated when Captivate starts. If you are nervous about deleting the Preferences folder, make a backup of the folder first and copy it to a trusted location. Then delete the original.

Note: The Preferences folder won't be actually be called "Preferences." Instead, it will have the same name as your version of Captivate. For instance, since I have both Captivate 5 and 5.5 on my computer, I have two Preferences folders, one called "Captivate 5," the other called "Captivate 5.5."

Here is where your Preferences folder can be found (it's a bit different dependent upon your operating system and version):

Windows 7: C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\Adobe Captivate

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Captivate

Mac: /Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Captivate

Writing & Grammar: Quick/Quickly

by Jennie Ruby

Can I use quick as an adverb without the -ly, just like I can use slow as an adverb? They are very similar words, after all, and are related because they are opposites. Even so, the guidelines for quick/quickly are a little different. We have less free range to use quick as an adverb without sounding ungrammatical. Look at the following examples:

"Kids! Come quick! A kitten is being born!"
The kids ran quickly out to the garage.

In both cases, quick/ly is an adverb. But the expressioncome quick is a "set phrase"–such a common way of saying something that it would sound odd to change it, even for the sake of grammar. Other examples of set phrases are transition phrases such as "on the other hand" and clichés such as "set in stone."

As with slow, quick is also often an adjective, not an adverb. Here is an example where quick is modifying a noun, not a verb:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Nevertheless, I am tempted to use quick instead of quickly as an adverb in some situtations. Let me know what you think of these examples.

Can I use quick instead of quickly in these sentences?

The chicken ran (quick/quickly) to the other side of the road.
The storm started so (quick/quickly) that I could not avoid getting wet.
The bird flew so (quick/quickly) that I could not identify it.
The web page loaded (quick/quickly).
Click (quick/quickly) on the message box before it disappears.
Spring arrived (quick/quickly) this year.

Just like last week, additional examples are welcome. Send your responses to me when ready.

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If you like Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Join her online and learn about Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts and eLearning: Writing Step-by-Step Scripts and Training Documents.

May 21, 2012

PowerPoint: Instant Font Usage

by AJ George

I was recently editing a PowerPoint presentation that someone else had created. Master slides were not used and the formatting was a bit inconsistent. I thought to myself that it would be helpful to see a list of fonts used in the presentation. Then I remembered that there is such a list! It's a bit of a hidden feature so I had completely forgotten it existed. Here's how to see a list of fonts used in a presentation.

In PowerPoint, choose File > Info.
At the far right of the screen you will see a small preview image of the presentation. Directly below the preview, click the arrow next to Properties to view a drop-down menu. (What a sneaky little hidden menu!)
Choose Advanced Properties to open the Properties dialog box.
Click the Contents tab to view all the fonts used in the presentation.

See also:

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AJ teaches a live, 3-hour class that offers tips/tricks for improving the look and feel of your PowerPoint presentations: Slide Sprucing: Remodeling Lackluster PowerPoint Slides for eLearning and Presentations.

May 20, 2012

Writing & Grammar: Slow/Slowly

by Jennie Ruby

Consider these two sentences, both containing the adverb slow/slowly:

The river ran slow that summer.

The runner jogged slowly past the window.

Wait, you might be thinking, shouldn't the first one say slowly? The answer is no, it doesn't have to–the word slowcan be used as an adverb without the -ly! So how do you decide? Bryan Garner, in the Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, tells us, "let rhythm and euphony be your guide."

Of course the word slow is also an adjective, when it is used to modify a noun:

The slow train seemed to take forever to cross the bridge.

Here is this week's challenge. Tell me which way you would go with each of the following examples. Each sentence usesslow/slowly as an adverb, not as an adjective. When should I add -ly, and when should I not? I am trying to come up with concrete ways to explain when to use slow over slowly or vice versa. Can you explain your choices?

We drove (slow/slowly) because some children were playing nearby.
He walked really (slow/slowly) when he passed the field where his friends were playing.
Drag the mouse (slow/slowly) to select just the yellow portion of the image.
The space shuttle riding on the back of the airliner appeared to fly very (slow/slowly).
The band played (slow/slowly) when the conductor was distracted.
The water ran (slow/slowly) because of the water main break.
She poured water (slow/slowly) over the cooling noodles.
They biked too (slow/slowly) to get to the park before the moon rose.
The image (slow/slowly) transitions to gray.
The transition (slow/slowly) takes place as you watch.

Additional examples are welcome. Send your responses to me when ready.

May 10, 2012

Adobe Captivate: Reuse Text to Speech

The Adobe Captivate BLOG features a video that goes into Captivate's Text to Speech feature and how to reuse audio files in multiple projects.

May 10, 2012

PowerPoint: Chart Templates

by AJ George

I was perusing the Microsoft Office Forums and came across an unanswered question from someone about chart formatting. This PowerPoint user wanted to be able to create multiple charts with the same formatting (ie bars on a graph with a gradient effect) without having to individually format each separate piece of every new chart. An attempt at copying and pasting the slide using the Keep Source Fformatting option did not keep the chart's formatting. The person struggling with this issue also mentioned that there were more than 300 charts that needed formatting and dreaded the prospect of having to individually format each one. Are you in the same situation? No worries! Here is how to create a chart template to be used with new charts or to be applied to existing charts.

How to Create a Chart Template

In PowerPoint (2007 or 2010), choose Insert > Illustrations > Chart (to open the Insert Chart dialog box.)
Select your desired chart and click OK.
On the PowerPoint slide, right-click each individual element of the slide that you would like to format and choose Format Data Series. (The Format Data Series dialog box will open.)
Format to your liking and click the Close button.

Note: Don't bother editing the excel spread sheet at this point, your data will not be saved with the template.

Ensure the chart is selected on the slide and chooseChart Tools > Design > Type > Save As Template(to open the Save Chart Template dialog box).

Save as Template

Give your chart template a name and click the Save button.

How to Use a Chart Template

In PowerPoint, choose Insert > Illustrations > Chart (to open the Insert Chart dialog box).
Click the Templates folder at the top left.

Insert Chart

Select your chart template from the gallery and click the OK button.

Note: If you would like your chart template to be the default chart style, click the Set as Default Chart button (as seen above) on the Insert Chart dialog box. To edit the template, click the Manage Templates button.

From there your data sheet will open and you will be able to enter your data. But what if you're in the same situation as the person in the MS Office forums and you already have charts that you'd like to reflect this formatting?

Apply a Chart Template to an Existing Chart

Please note that applying a chart template to an existing chart may cause your system to crash. Ensure you save frequently.

In PowerPoint, select your chart on the slide.
Choose Chart Tools > Design > Type > Change Chart Type (to open the Chart Type dialog box).

Change Chart Type

Click the Templates folder at the top left, select your chart template from the gallery, and click the OKbutton.

Your chart will now reflect the formatting of the template.

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May 8, 2012

Adobe Captivate 5/5.5: It’s Alive… Preview

by Kevin Siegel

Last week I wrote about how you can save and share effects you've added to the Effects panel (so the effects can be used in other projects or by other developers). I'd like to stick with the Effects theme for another week. If you've used the Effects panel, there's a good chance that you've missed a useful feature–it's often overlooked by even veteran developers.

The most common way to preview an effect or a slide animation is to either Preview the project, the next 5 slides or from the current slide (these options are all found via File > Preview).

If all that I really need to see is a quick preview of a slide containing effects or animations, it seems reasonable that choosing File > Preview > Play this Slide would be the perfect preview option (the others are simply overkill). If you use the Play this Slide option, you will see slide objects such as captions and the mouse pointer transition and appear on the screen based on the Timing you set up. However, you won't see any effects, videos or slide animations, which kind of renders Play this slide useless.

There is a wonderful alternative to prevewing a single slide, but it's not obvious. Take a look at the Effects panel and you'll see a button unique to the Effects panel: Live Preview.

Live Preview

Click the Live Preview button and you will see an honest-to-goodness preview of any and all slide effects. Nice! But even better… Live Preview accurately previews slide animations and videos. Give it a shot and let me know how Live Preview works for you. I'm betting you'll kick Play this Slide to the curb like I did.

Note: You will need to add at least one effect to a slide object to use Live Preview. Without at least one effect, the Live Preview button is disabled.

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? We offer two live, online classes. Adobe Captivate Essentials and Adobe Captivate Beyond the Essentials (Advanced).

May 5, 2012

Adobe RoboHelp: Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Help System

Neil Perlin has written a well-rounded white paper covering the top mistakes Help authors make when creating a Help System.

Among the mistakes:

Not developing mechanisms to support content consistency
Not developing mechanisms to support format consistency
Not revisiting project design in light of 'environmental' changes
Not planning to test QA (Quality Assurance) and usability
Not planning to create an index

May 2, 2012

PowerPoint: Find and Delete Embedded Fonts

by AJ George

Last week I covered how to embed fonts in a PowerPoint presentation. On the flip side, what if you receive a presentation and have issues opening it because of an embedded font? This seems to be a relatively rare issue, and may not affect you (or the person receiving your presentation) if you used a fancy script font. The problem seems to be more related to the inclusion of certain fonts in the system, like Asian fonts that read the opposite direction. Sometimes, when sending these presentations off (particularly over-seas) there can be issues.

This issue was brought to my attention, so I began to explore and document how to find and delete embedded fonts. However, I found that the folks over at PPTools already have a pretty in-depth write up on this, including multiple solutions. Check out this link for what to do if your presentation contains Asian texts and formats that PowerPoint can't display.

Several great solutions are provided, but I would like to throw one more in the mix that might also work for you. If you know there is a font throwing a kink in the works but can't find where it is used within the presentation, try the following:

With your presentation opened in PowerPoint 2010, choose File > Save & Send > Create Handouts.
Click the Create Handouts button.

This will send your presentation to MS Word. Since we are not actually interested in the handouts, you can choose anything from the Send to Microsoft Word dialog box and click OK. MS Word will open.

In Word 2010, press [Ctrl] [F] on your keyboard to bring up the Navigation pane.
Click the more arrow to the right of the Search Document field.

The More Arrow

Select Advanced Find from the drop-down menu.

The Find and Replace dialog box will open.

At the bottom of the dialog box, click the Formatbutton and choose Font.
In the Font field, type the name of the offending font and click OK.

This will return you to the Find and Replace dialog box.

Leave the Find What field blank and click the Find Next button.

Word will find where the font was used so you can delete whatever is causing the hiccup back in your PowerPoint presentation.

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