Month: May 2017

Posted on

ARTICULATE STORYLINE 3 & 360: SRT Files Make Quick Work of Closed Captions

by Kevin Siegel, COTP

Closed captioning allows you to display a slide’s voiceover audio as text that is synchronized with the voiceover audio. Closed Captions, which are an expected component of a 508-compliant eLearning lesson, are easy to include in your project. All that you need to do is select an audio file on the Timeline and import either an SRT, VTT, SBV, or SUB file. You can learn more about each of these file formats and how to create them with a simple Web search. For instance, an SRT file (a file containing text and timing information) can be created for free on YouTube. You’ll find instructions covering how to create an SRT here.

To import an SRT, select an audio file on the Timeline. On the Options tab of the Ribbon, Accessibility area, click Add Captions.

 
Find and open your SRT file and that’s it. Closed captions from the SRT file are added and synchronized with the selected audio. If you preview the slide you'll see that a Closed Captions control has been automatically added to the Player. (You can disable the Closed Captions control via the Player Properties, Controls area shown in the second image below.) To see the Closed Captions in the Preview, click the Closed Captions control.

You can easily change the font used in the Closed Captions. On the Ribbon, click Player Properties and then click Colors & Effects.

From the Captions font drop-down menu, choose any font you like and click the OKbutton.
***
Kal Hadi and I recently wrapped up our "Articulate Storyline 3 & 360: The Essentials" book. And our "Articulate Storyline 3 & 360: Beyond the Essentials" book is nearing completion and should begin shipping in a few, short weeks. You can add yourself to the notificaiton list on the IconLogic site and be alerted when the book is back from the printer and ready to ship.
***
 
Looking for Articulate training? We've got you covered.
***

Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the US Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.
Posted on

ADOBE ROBOHELP 2017: Image Thumbnails

by Willam Van Weeldon

While Adobe's chief concern when releasing RoboHelp 2017 was improving the Responsive HTML5 output (with search suggestions and improved accessibility), there were other nice enhancements. This week I’d like to focus on Thumbnails (small images that expand when clicked).

Here are step-by-step instructions for adding Thumbnails to your RoboHelp project.

Image Styles

To begin using Thumbnails, you need to first have at least one image style in the project. 

1. Open a style sheet for editing.

2. Right-click Image and choose New.

3. Give style a name and press ENTER. (In my example, I created a style named thumbnail.)

 
 

4. Click OK to close the style sheet editor.


Apply the Image Style to Images in the Project

1. Open the Styles and Formatting pod (Project > Pods > Styles and Formatting).

2. Using the drop-down menu at the right top of the pod, choose Image Styles.
 

3. Select the image you want to turn into a thumbnail.

4. Double-click the thumbnail style in the Styles and Formatting pod to assign the style to the image.

5. Save the project.
 

Note: The image doesn’t turn into a thumbnail at this point. I have just set up the thumbnails.


Configuring Thumbnails

Once you have assigned the style to your images, you can set up your output to include thumbnails.

1. Open the settings of your Responsive HTML5 output.

2. In the Manage Thumbnails section, type the name of the image styles that need to be thumbnails.
 

3. Set the width and the height of the thumbnail for your output.

4. Click Save and Generate.

In the generated output, every image with the image style assigned via Manage Thumbnails is now interactive…
 
… and expands when clicked:
***
 

If you'd like to learn how to use Adobe RoboHelp, check out our live, online, and very interactive RoboHelp classes.
***

Willam van Weelden is a Certified Online Training Professional (COTP), veteran Help Author, RoboHelp consultant, and technical writer based in the Netherlands. He is an Adobe Community Professional, ranking him among the world's leading experts on RoboHelp. Willam’s specialties are HTML5 and RoboHelp automation. Apart from RoboHelp, Willam also has experience with other technical communications applications such as Adobe Captivate and Adobe FrameMaker.
Posted on

LIVE, ONLINE TRAINING: Brainstorming Techniques

by Jennie Ruby, COTP

Years ago, as a new classroom instructor, I used to wonder why some of my colleagues used brainstorming techniques in the classroom. After all, as the instructor, I knew the content I wanted to see brought forward, and the students were there to learn from me, right? So why would I ask the students to brainstorm? Why shouldn’t I just list the important items on the whiteboard or on a bulleted slide and be done?

The answer, of course, is engagement. Presenting participants with data is not the same as teaching. By asking participants to come up with ideas, answers, or examples, you encourage them to engage with the content. And engagement is a precursor of learning.

So, marker in hand, you stand before the classroom and start writing things down as the class participants call them out. No judging. You write all ideas down. You maybe even learn new ideas you hadn’t thought about before, by listening to your students. Adult learning, after all, is not a one-way street. Often, your learners are themselves experienced professionals, and they make important contributions to your course content.

What do you do if the student brainstorm does not produce some of the ideas or examples you think are important? Ask follow-up questions. What about this? What about that? These follow-ups help guide the participants to the additional items you think are important. Soon, the class has created a better list than your slide alone could have contained, and participants are focused and thinking about the content instead of struggling to absorb static data.

 
 

Now transfer this concept to online teaching. Many online platforms have a built-in “whiteboard”—a shared screen that you can draw on or type on. If your online platform does not have a whiteboard, you can open a word processor instead (such as Microsoft Word or, even simpler, Notepad for Windows users; TextEdit for Mac users). Although you cannot just allow people to shout out ideas as you would in a face-to-face class, you can ask your participants to type their ideas into a chat window. Then you can transfer the items to the shared whiteboard or word processor screen. On some platforms, you can even allow the participants themselves to type or draw on the shared whiteboard.

Just as with an in-person class, you can guide the discussion by asking follow-up questions, and at the end, you have a more complete list than you could have presented on a slide. And, bonus! Some platforms allow you to save the finished whiteboard list and email it to your participants.

Learning to be an effective instructor is not easy, and knowing how to transfer classroom techniques, such as brainstorming, to the online space is not a given. You can improve your online teaching, and get a formal certification credential, at ICCOTP. Check the website for upcoming sessions of the online training certification program.
***
 

Jennie Ruby, COTP, has more than 20 years of experience in training delivery, and is much loved for her enthusiasm and energy in the classroom setting, whether online or in person. She is a published author and co-author of numerous training books, including Essentials of Adobe Presenter, Editing with Microsoft Word, and Writing for Curriculum Development.

 

Posted on

ADOBE CAPTIVATE 2017: Setting the Capture Caption Style

by Kevin Siegel, COTP

If you create a software simulation using Adobe Captivate, you can elect to have Captivate automatically create text captions for you. This awesome feature isn’t new… in fact, it’s been around since the earliest incarnations of the tool.

All you need to do to ensure that the captions are created is enable Text Captions prior to recording a simulation. You can find this option by displaying the Preferencesdialog box (Edit menu for Windows users; Adobe Captivate menu for Mac users), and then select the Modes category.

 
 
When recording a software simulation, Captivate will use the Text Captions feature to create captions on each captured screen as appropriate. In addition, each of the captions will be formatted using an Object Style. 

By default, Captivate will use an Object Style named Default Capture Caption Style for each caption. If you’re unhappy with the appearance of the captions, you can modify the Object Style by choosing Edit > Object Style Manager at any time after the recording process is complete.
You can save yourself a little bit of work by editing the appearance of the Default Capture Caption Style before you record the simulation. Simply choose Edit > Object Style Manager with no projects open and then edit the style. Because no projects were open when you edited the style, you've set a global or application-wide Preference. From this point forward, all of the captions created in every new software simulation will follow your new formatting. (If you had made the same change with a project open, the change would only have affected the one open project.)

But what if you don't want to use the Default Capture Caption Style. Perhaps you want to use another style availalbe within Captivate as the default capture style. Or maybe you've made your own style and want to use that during the recording process.

Fortunately, you can easily instruct Captivate to use any style as the default recording style. With no projects open, open Captivate’s Preferences dialog box.

From the Recording category at the left, select Defaults. Then, from the Text Captions drop-down menu, select the style you’d like to use as the new recording default (or create a new style on the fly by clicking the Create New Style button).
 
From that point forward, each software simulation you create will use the style you set as the default capture style.
***
 If you'd like to learn how to use Adobe Captivate, check out our live, online and very interactive beginner and advanced Captivate classes.

If you're an experienced Captivate developer who wants to learn about the hot new features in Captivate 2017, check out this limited enagement mini course.
***

Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the US Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.
Posted on

TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: Pros & Cons

by Kevin Siegel, COTP, CTT

I started teaching online a dozen years ago and I owe it all to a case of the flu. I recall that I awoke in a nameless hotel, in a nameless city somewhere in parts unknown. I was supposed to teach something to someone but I couldn’t wrap my thoughts around the specifics. All that I did know was that I was sicker than I had ever been before or since. This wasn't just the flu… it was Mr. Flu.

I called home to consult Dr. Wife who was gracious to confirm my diagnosis (she’s that good) and was kind enough to remind me where I was, where I was supposed to go, and what I was supposed to be teaching. Because I was under contract, I went to the client site and taught the class as expected. (I did disclose my illness to the client and suggest we could reschedule; however, people had flown in from all over and there was no way to put the class off.)

The class went fine, thanks for asking. But travelling while sick is the worst (I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that if you have prior experience). I told Dr. Wife that I never wanted to travel again… EVER! Of course, the problem with that pronouncement is that I’m a trainer… avoiding travel is impossible. Or is it?

Back in my day, the technology available to teach online was limited to short, boring webinars. There simply wasn’t fast enough Internet, affordable software or hardware, or enough bandwidth to host anything but lecture-based webinars. Nevertheless, using an early version of GoToMeeting, I advertised a few online classes and quickly got enrollments.

Over the years, I’ve perfected my online teaching style and now teach others how to successfully teach online. And while training classes online has extended my career (I was truly headed for retirement before discovering how great teaching live, online classes can be), I must be honest and say teaching online is not always awesome. Just today, for instance, I was preparing to teach a custom TechSmith Camtasia class. I was greeting my students as always and then, two minutes before the official start time, my router decides to take the morning off. Luckily, I have backup Internet (backup plans are something we discuss in the trainer certification class) and started the class on time. However, the stress of the moment got me thinking about the main pros and cons of teaching online.

 
Pros

Online spaces are inexpensive: Prices range from free to a few hundred dollars per month depending on the size of your online room (our rooms can hold 200 people) and features (our vendor offers eCommerce and full back office support for the learner registration process).

No travel for anyone: Talk about a commute buster! With online classes, nobody needs to travel. Teach or attend classes from home… in your slippers. All that you need to teach or attend an online class is a computer (or perhaps a tablet), and good, reliable Internet access.

Global reach: We have students attend our class from all over the world. In one Adobe Captivate class I had a group of 15 attendees. Ten of the students were from across the U.S. and the others were from the UK, Australia, Belgium, Japan, and India.

Less intimidation = better Q&A: This one surprised me. Given that the students are not in the same physical space, I’ve found that I get more questions and more attendee engagement than in onsite classes. It’s rare when I ask my classes “are there any questions?” that I hear crickets. I’m thinking the main reason is that online students are more relaxed and don’t feel the glare from another student who either doesn’t like the question or thinks that it is silly.
 

Cons

Technology can let you down: Did I mention that my router went down just before my latest class start time? That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things that can, and will, go wrong. The best thing you can do when technology fails you is to have a backup plan. (Again, that’s something we cover in detail during the certification class.)

1 Ticket=1 Seat? How do you know if only the people who paid for the class are in the class? If you find that someone has invited all their friends and colleagues to attend the class for free, what is your game plan? Do you confront the student or let it go?

The unprepared participant: You can tell your attendees exactly what they need to do prior to class a million different ways. However, a small percentage of your students will arrive to class late, without the software, or without the support materials. You name it, I’ve seen it. Prepare to have your class schedule seriously hindered by an unprepared participant.

There’s my short list of online training pros and cons. I’d be curious if you have your own list of pros and cons to share. If so, please share them as comments below… but please keep Mr. Flu to yourself.
***
If you'd like to become a certified online trainer, there's still time to sign up for the next International Council for Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP) certification course.
***

Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the US Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.
Posted on

ONLINE TRAINER CERTIFICATION: Become a Certified Online Training Professional

Cert_guy

Become a COTP!

Online training can be great training, but it all starts with an awesome trainer! 

More and more companies are embracing live, online classes. If your company wants you to teach online, great. But teaching online isn't as easy as it sounds. For instance, how can you be sure that your class isn't boring? How can you keep your audience engaged, even when your content isn't very exciting?

The International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP) promotes standards of excellence in delivering online training in a wide variety of formats by instituting a certification process for online trainers.

The Online Training Professional certification process (COTP) aims to ensure that online training events and classes provide high-quality, memorable, enjoyable, and, most of all, effective learning experiences to participants.

Learn some best practices for engaging an online audience. Learn the hardware and software you'll need to host online training. Are your materials ready for an online world? We'll teach you how to prepare your existing materials for online access and even how to create awesome, visually-appealing presentations.

If you need to include quizzes in your online course, do you know how to create effective questions (and surveys)? We'll show you how. And you'll get a chance to take the controls of an online training room and teach for a few minutes to your fellow COTP candidates.

The next ICCOTP class is in a few short weeks and there is still time to sign up.

 

Posted on

ADOBE CAPTIVATE 2017: Improved Closed Captions

by Kevin Siegel, COTP, CTT

When it comes to accessibility, Adobe's products have always been some of the best available. Nevertheless, Adobe found a way to improve them. Take Captivate's closed captions for example.
 
Closed captioning is the process of adding text to the screen to support learners with a hearing disability. The idea behind closed captions is for the hearing challenged learner to see exactly what the narrator is saying as the narrator is saying it.
 
While Captivate has featured closed captions for years, developers had limited control over how the text looked or where the captions appeared on-screen for the learner.
 
Adobe has raised the bar quite a bit with Captivate 2017. To add closed captions, add voiceover audio to a slide and then choose Audio > Audio Management. Select the slide you'd like to caption and click the Closed Caption tool at the bottom of the Advanced Audio Management dialog box. (This process remains unchanged from earlier versions of Captivate.)
 
 
Position the playhead (the red line shown below) and then click Add Closed Caption.

 
At this point, you can add the caption by typing or copying/pasting from an existing voiceover script.
 
Once you've added the caption, you'll be delighted to learn that the text can now be formatted without leaving the screen (for instance, you can now add emphasis to individual words or phrases such as bold or italic).
 
Once you've formatted the text within the caption, it's time for the best part of all. Click CC Settings at the right of the dialog box.
 
Notice that you can now select from several slide positioning options and control the captions for an entire project or slide-by-slide. (How awesome is that?)
***
 
Looking to learn Adobe Captivate? No travel budget? Check out these live, online, and very hands-on Captivate classes. 
***

Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the US Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.