IconLogic

August 4, 2024

Adobe RoboHelp: Creating a TOC for Word and PDF Output

You can easily include a TOC for your RoboHelp online output by opening the default TOC and adding sections and pages as needed. The TOC works fine when you output Frameless or HTML5 content. However, if you output Word or PDF content, the default TOC will not work. What's the deal?

There are two types of TOC available in RoboHelp: Online and Book. The default TOC is an online TOC and only works with online output (Frameless, HTML5). If you want to output a Word doc or a PDF and include a TOC, you must create a Book TOC and add the TOC as "front matter."

Here's how to create a TOC for Word and/or PDF output and add the required front matter:

Select Table of Contents from the list of categories at the left of the Author tab.

Click the New Table of Contents icon.

In the New Table of Contents dialog box, select Book TOC and then click the Done button.

Add sections and pages to the TOC as you would normally do.

From the top of the new TOC, click the Insert Front Matter icon and choose TOC page.

Select the Output tab, select Output Presets, and then click the New Preset icon.

Choose Word from the Type drop-down menu, give the layout an appropriate name, and click the Done button.

With the Word preset open, specify an output path.

On the Contents tab, select your Book TOC from the Table of Contents drop-down menu.

Save the project and then output the Word content.

You will likely see two Word alerts. The first one allows Word to create the TOC from the RoboHelp project. Click Yes.

The second alert allows you to ensure the entire TOC is accurate. Select Update entire table and then click OK.

The TOC is added to the Word output.

Are you looking for RoboHelp training or mentoring? We've got you covered.

August 1, 2024

Adobe Captivate: Slide Video vs. Video

When adding media blocks to an Adobe Captivate version 12.3 project, you have two options: Slide Video and Video. You can go with one or the other, but you cannot add both to a slide.

So when should you choose Slide Video vs Video?

Go with Slide Video if you only need one video on the slide. The video will play automatically for learners based on when you set it to appear on the Timeline.

Insert a Video if you need one to three videos on the slide. The videos will not play automatically when you go with the Video option. Learners must start the videos by clicking a play icon on the video's player.

Are you looking for Captivate training or mentoring? We've got you covered with live training, recorded training, and one-on-one mentoring.

June 4, 2024

TechSmith Camtasia: 2024 Version Now Available

TechSmith rolled out Camtasia 2024 today, and our step-by-step book, "TechSmith Camtasia 2024: The Essentials" is not far behind.

New in Camtasia 2024:

A new recording engine for higher frame rate and resolution screen captures
AI-powered dynamic captions. (I saw a demonstration of this, and it's a very cool feature. Powered by AI, every word onscreen can automatically be highlighted as spoken. Meaning, no manually creating closed captions… no importing SRT files.)
New effects
New filters
New transitions
More integrated assets featuring more than 100 million royalty-free images, videos, and audio files

TechSmith also announced three product plans: Camtasia Essentials, Camtasia Create, and Camtasia Pro. The product plans include Camtasia’s AI-assisted Rev, simplifying and speeding up video creation through quick layout and design choices.

“The updates to Camtasia 2024 are focused on further reducing the friction of the editing process and empowering users to unleash their creativity and go beyond what they thought possible with a video editor,” said Tony Lambert, CTO of TechSmith. “As we continue incorporating advanced AI into Camtasia to achieve this, our new product plans are designed to provide customers with the most cost-effective way to select our breadth of new features based on their unique creative needs.”

If you need Camtasia support, training, or mentoring, we've got you covered.

May 30, 2024

Articulate Storyline 360: May 2024 Update Makes 64-Bit Storyline the Default

With the May 2024 Storyline 360 update (Build 3.88.32474.0), the 64-bit version of Storyline 360 is now the default.

According to Jesse Taber, engineering manager for Storyline 360, "Storyline has traditionally been a 32-bit application. The primary difference between 32-bit and 64-bit applications is the amount of system memory they can use. In Windows, 32-bit applications can access, at most, 4GB of memory, while 64-bit applications can access far more memory than any modern consumer-grade PC can accommodate."

Taber went on to state that "The primary benefit of targeting 64-bit processor architecture is the ability to use more system memory. When Storyline 360 opens a project file, it loads it all into memory. Very large projects, particularly those with many rich media assets, can experience issues opening, saving, and publishing in the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. Projects like this should be much more stable in Storyline 360 x64."

"Aside from memory usage, most authors will likely see performance on par with the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. While performance improvements were not a primary driver for creating Storyline 360 x64, we plan to invest more directly in performance improvements going forward," said Taber.

To install the update, start the Articulate 360 app, click the drop-down menu to the right of Storyline 360, and choose Install Update.

If the 64-bit version isn't working, you can easily restore access to the 32-bit version via the Articulate 360 preferences. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app, click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner, and choose Preferences.

From the Legacy Access area, select Restore 32-bit Storyline 360 and then click the Save button.

May 16, 2024

Articulate Storyline 360: Cloud Backups

Back up. Seriously, back up!

Sorry, I mean backup… as in, back up your projects.

During my Articulate Storyline 360 training vILT classes, I stressed the importance of backup projects. While I love Storyline, projects can get corrupt like any other program. You'll breathe a bit easier if you have a recent project backup. The problem with backups is remembering to create them and/or ensuring the backup is on an external or network drive (it does not do you much good if your backup project is on your hard drive and that drive goes bad… say goodbye to your project and your backup).

Articulate Storyline 360 now offers you free cloud project backups.

To begin, Publish the project and select Review 360.

From the bottom of the Publish dialog box, select Upload project file to Review 360.

Click the Publish button to upload a backup copy of the project to the cloud.

Once the project has been published, click the View Project button.

You can download the cloud copy by selecting Current Version > Download Project File.

Looking for training or mentoring? I'm just an email away if you need help using Storyline 360 or Rise support.

May 6, 2024

Adobe Captivate 12.3: Image Editing Improvements

The 12.3 update Adobe made to Adobe Captivate now provides some helpful image editing features. You learn how to add images to a project early on the first day of my two-day Adobe Captivate training class,

Once you have added an image to a slide, you can change the image focus and crop it via a single screen. What I love about the editing enhancements is that you can see how the edit will appear in multiple views without first having to close the editing screen and preview it in the browser.

To change the image focus, select the Visual Properties panel.

To the right of the Image drop-down menu, click the Edit icon to open the Edit Image options.

From the Image Focus area, select an alignment.

The three previews at the right provide a helpful indication of how the edit will appear on multiple displays.

To crop a Captivate image, at the left side of the Edit image screen, drag one of the corner circles a few inches

The preview area will show you how the cropped image will appear in the different screen sizes.

When finished, click the Save button.

Note: Once you have Adobe Captivate 12 installed on your computer, updates are free. To get the 12.3 update, go to the Help menu and click Check for Updates.

Looking for training or mentoring? I'm just an email away if you need help using Adobe Captivate or Adobe Captivate Classic.

April 25, 2024

Adobe Captivate 12.3: Hip hip hooray for Closed Caption Imports!

Closed captions support hearing-impaired learners by displaying text synchronized with the slide and/or video audio onscreen. Once the closed captions have been added to the Captivate project, learners click a CC button on the Playbar to display them.

On the first day of my two-day Adobe Captivate training class, I teach how to add closed captions to a project manually. This ability has existed in Captivate for years. What wasn't possible was importing the closed captions. I'm happy to report that in Captivate 12.3, you can now import caption files (SRT files). This awesome feature will save you hours of labor.

An SRT is a raw closed caption file containing the text from an audio or video file and the audio timing. Websites like REV (rev.com) allow you to upload audio and video files and receive downloadable SRT files for as little as $1.50 per minute of audio. You import the SRTs into Captivate, and, like magic, your captioning work is done.

Here is an example of an SRT that I added to a video in my project. Notice the time stamps that have been added to the file. You do not need to know how to add these time stamps; they are added automatically when the SRT file is created.

To import the SRT file, select a slide video, or if the audio has been added to the slide, click the Audio icon at the right of the Captivate window.

Click the Import Captions button, open the SRT file, and… you're done!

If you need Captivate support, help is just an email away.

April 23, 2024

TechSmith Camtasia: JKL to Speed Up Preview Playback Speeds

You've been tasked with editing a multi-hour video in TechSmith Camtasia. Specifically, you need to add annotations, remove distracting audio such as breath sounds and lip smacks, and remove unnecessary video portions.

Face it: If a video has a runtime of three hours, you will be at your computer for at least every minute of those three hours. Add the time it will take to rewind, make edits, and review them; your level of effort can be two to three times the video's playtime.

Previewing a video at regular speed could be time-consuming and futile. Never fear; faster playback is possible by pressing the following keys on your keyboard: J, K, and L.

The three keys are conveniently located together on most keyboards.

Pressing the L key once increases the video's playback speed twofold.

If you can press the L key again, the playhead will hum along the timeline at six times the speed.

Not fast enough? Press the L key again, and you'll hum along the timeline at eight times the speed.

Press the J key, and the playhead will move in reverse.

Want to stop the Playhead? Press the K key.

Looking for TechSmith Camtasia training? We've got you covered with three live, online vILT courses. If our scheduled classes don't work for your schedule, you can purchase and attend the classes via pre-recorded versions of the courses. If you prefer private group training or one-on-one Camtasia mentoring, email us to discuss your specific needs.

April 18, 2024

Adobe Captivate 12.3: Share for Review

The Share for Review feature is one of the more compelling enhancements in the recently released 12.3 update for Captivate 12. Project stakeholders can now add slide-by-slide comments to your slides in one central location. Reviewers do not need to own Captivate or know how to use it. The review interface is clean and very intuitive.

To begin, ensure you're using the 12.3 build. You can get the free update by choosing Help > Check for Updates.

Create or open a project, and then click the Share for review icon at the lower right of the Captivate window.

You can accept or customize the default Title in the Share For Review screen. For instance, you might want to add a date or version number to the title. Otherwise, click the Create review button.

The project is published to a secure Adobe server.

From the Access type drop-down menu, you can choose between making your review Public (anyone with the link can access the review project) or Private (only people you invite can see the review project).

Invite people to the review by clicking Invite people and adding email addresses as appropriate.

Here is a sample email that your reviewers will receive once you click the Invite to view button:

Reviewers click the Open Review button and are taken to the project review screen. As mentioned, reviewers do not need Captivate or any special software to participate in the review process.

Once the review window is open, team members can add comments slide-by-slide.

What I like about the review feature is that people can add comments for each preview mode. In the image above, I added a comment in the Desktop view. I switched to tablet mode in the image below and added a comment.

As issues are resolved in Captivate, the developer clicks the Update review button, and the updated project is uploaded to the server. You do not need to create a new review; just let reviewers know an update is available.

Are you looking for Adobe Captivate mentoring or Adobe Captivate training? We offer one-on-one sessions, a step-by-step workbook, and private classes. And we love a classic. If you're still using Adobe Captivate Classic, we offer training and support on that version as well. Email me directly for more information.

March 22, 2024

TechSmith Camtasia: Proxy Media

Proxy media has been available in Camtasia for a few years. However, with a recent update to Camtasia 2023, recordings created by the Camtasia recorder are added to the media bin and the timeline as proxies by default.

Using proxy media speeds up production by lowering your computer's processing requirements while editing within Camtasia. However, using the proxy feature results in a blurry video on the canvas. Learn to disable the proxy feature on demand.

After recording my screen in the recorder and clicking the stop recording button, the recording is automatically taken into Camtasia as expected. There is one notable change: I am now alerted that the media is being added as a proxy.

The proxy media on the media bin includes a yellow circle, which can also be seen on the timeline. Also, the proxy media is blurry on the canvas.

While proxy media reduces your computer's resource load, you may not like blurry media on the canvas. You can remove the proxy by right-clicking the media bin asset and choosing Proxy video > Delete Proxy Video. Deleting the proxy video does not delete the video from your project. Also, while the proxy video is blurry on the canvas, the video is not blurry in the exported project.

Here's a video showing the proxy feature in action: https://youtu.be/qIytcfJoiXY.

For Camtasia mentoring or training, please email me or visit https://www.iconlogic.com/instructor-led-training/software-title/camtasia.html