Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite – Page 17

June 20, 2012

Adobe Captivate 6: HTML5 At Last!

by Kevin Siegel

You've probably heard by now that Adobe released Adobe Captivate 6 late last week. Over the coming weeks, I'll be highlighting all of the new features. This week, HTML5.

Publishing in Captivate takes your source content and outputs it into a format that can be consumed (viewed) by the learner.

Currently the most common way to publish a Captivate project is as a Flash SWF, an excellent solution because SWF files can be used by the vast majority of the world's personal computers, browsers and operating systems. Your learners will not need Captivate installed on their computer to use a SWF, but they will need a modern web browser and the free Adobe Flash Player (www.adobe.com). According to Adobe, the Flash Player is installed on the vast majority of the word's computers.

Of course, SWFs have a problem. Learners using an Apple mobile device such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone (that's millions upon millions of potential learners) cannot use SWF content at all. Learners using an Apple mobile device who attempt to open a SWF are met with a warning that SWFs are not supported.

If you'd like to create content for the Apple mobile devices, hope is not lost. As an alternative to publishing a SWF, you can publish as HTML5. Lessons published as HTML5 will play on any computer or mobile device that supports HTML5, including the Apple mobile devices.

While most features you can add to a Captivate project will work when published as HTML5, not all features are supported (such as Rollover Captions and Rollover Images). Prior to publishing as HTML5, you should use the HTML5 Tracker that to flag features that are not supported.

To use the HTML5 Tracker, choose Project > HTML5 Tracker. If the resulting window has anything in the list (as shown below), you'll need to make a copy of your project and remove the unsupported feature. If the HTML5 Tracker is clean, you're ready to Publish.

HTML5 Tracker

To publish as HTML5, simply choose File > Publish. SelectSWF/HTML5 from the Publish formats at the left of the dialog box.

SWF/HTML5

From the Output Format Options area, select HTML5 and then click the Publish button.

HTML 5 Option

While publishing SWF output typically results in just a few output files, HTML5 output yields several folders and files. All of the assets need to be kept together when posted to your web server. Any links you create to the HTML5 output should point to index.html, which will load all of the assets so it can be consumed by your learners.

HTML5 Output

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Looking to learn Captivate quickly? We offer two live, online Captivate 5 classes. Adobe Captivate Essentials and Adobe Captivate Beyond the Essentials (Advanced). Our Captivate 6 classes will ramp up in August.

June 20, 2012

Our Adobe Captivate 6 Workbooks… They’re Coming…

Now that Adobe has released Adobe Captivate 6, we are hard at work producing books and creating online classes to support the new version.

"Adobe Captivate 6: The Essentials" workbook is currently in the capable hands of our beta and proofreading teams. The book is expected to be ready to ship within the next few weeks.

The "Adobe Captivate 6: Beyond the Essentials" and "Adobe Captivate 6: Script Writing and Production Guide" books are on the stove cooking (they are both on the front burners).

June 12, 2012

Adobe Captivate 5/5.5: Removing The Web Page Margin

by Kevin Siegel

I received an email from a Captivate developer asking if it was possible to remove the white space that appears between the browser toolbars and SWF when a lesson is opened within a browser.

In the image below, notice that there is white space above the SWF (just below the browser's menu bar).

Space between the browser window and the SWF.

Admittedly the space that appears above a SWF isn't huge and it's not something that I had spent time thinking about. However, the developer in question was trying to minimize the need for a learner to scroll down and wanted to remove all unnecessary white space.

Thankfully, there is a simple solution to removing the white space above the SWF. Unfortunately, the solution isn't found within Captivate. In fact, you will need to edit the published HTML file in a text editor.

To begin, publish your lesson as a SWF and ensure Export to HTML is selected from the Output Options area of the Publish dialog box. (This option is standard and is typically left selected.)

After publishing, open the HTML file in a text editor. (If you're using Windows, open the file in Notepad. If you're using a Mac, TextEdit will work nicely.)

Add the following simple line of code in the HEAD tag: <style>body {margin:0px;}</style>.

The code you will need to remove the space.

Save and close the HTML file and then open in your web browser. The margin at the top of the page should now be gone. (In the image below, notice the white space between the menu bar and the SWF is missing as compared to the first image above.)

No space between the browser window and the SWF.

Note: Special thanks goes out to Rod Ward of Infosemantics. Rod originally posted the code above on the Adobe Captivate forum. If you're looking for some awesome Captivate widgets, check out Rod's site.

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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 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

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 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 1, 2012

Adobe Captivate 5/5.5: Save and Share Effects

by Kevin Siegel

I've written about Captivate's Effects feature in the past. If used appropriately, effects can greatly enhance your eLearning lesson.

During one of my recent Captivate 5/5.5 Essentials online classes, a participant asked if it was possible to share a group of effects with other members on her team. She had added several effects to an object that everyone on her team liked. They liked it so much they wanted her "recipe" to save them the trouble of finding all of the effects and setting the timing.

I told her that it was possible to export and then import effects from one project to another, and the process is surprisingly easy.

After applying two or more effects to an object, click theSave command at the bottom of the Effects panel.

Adobe Captivate: Save Effects command.

The effects will be saved as an XML file. You can save the file to any drive (if you're looking to share with your team, the network drive is likely your best bet).

Once you've saved the effects file, tell your team members that they can easily import the effect by right-clicking a slide object and choosing Apply Effect.

Have them click the Add Effect button and click the Browse button.

The final step will be to find and open the saved effects file. Once opened, the saved effects will be applied to the selected object (in the same order you specified on the Effects panel when you saved the effects file).

Note: While I love the Effects feature, gratuitous use of effects can actually detract from your lesson… so please, developers… let's take it easy out there.

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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).

April 25, 2012

Adobe Captivate 5/5.5: Template-Like Settings Without the Template

by Kevin Siegel

During my advanced Captivate class, I spend a significant amount of time extolling the value of project templates. As a group, the class opens an existing project template, edits the template, uses the template to record a software simulation and then creates a project template from scratch.

I've written several articles about Captivate's project templates including how to convert a project into a project template and how to make the best use of template placeholders.

While templates are awesome and provide a great jump-start for a new Captivate project, you don't necessarily have to create a project template to ensure that many of the attributes within your projects are consistent.

Perhaps your biggest concern about new projects is ensuring that each new project has Text Captions that use specific fonts, font sizes and colors. Maybe you want to ensure that inserted objects (such as buttons) use a specific Object Style and play for a specific amount of time.

You can set several application attributes before you create a single project. Once set, each new project created on your computer will use those attributes. Setting these kinds of preferences in advance could save you a significant amount of time performing repetitive tasks.

To set application preferences, start Captivate. Ensure no projects are open and open the Preferences dialog box (Edit menu if you're using Windows; Adobe Captivate menu if you're using a Macintosh).

From the top left of the Preferences dialog box, choose Defaults.

On the Global Preferences screen, you'll find myriad options to explore. For instance, if you want most of your slides to play for 5 seconds, why not set it here (in the Slide Duration area) instead of changing the play time for each slide in an existing project?

When previewing a project, one of the options via File > Preview is Next 5 slides. Care to make it a lucky 7? No problem. Change the Preview Defaults to 7 slides and you'll be set in any new projects.

When inserting Text Captions into existing projects, each new caption will play for exactly 3 seconds. Want the captions all to play for 4.5 seconds in your next project? That's simple enough… select Text Caption from the Select drop-down menu and then change the Display For time to 4.5 seconds.

Adobe Captivate Object Defaults.

Finally, if you'd like to control the appearance of the Object Styles in each new project, simply choose Edit > Object Style Manager. As long as no projects are open when you work within the Object Style Manager, the changes you make and the attributes you set will affect every new project you create.

Alas, none of the pre-project settings I've discussed above will have any effect on existing projects. So if you're really against creating project tempates, I'd encourage you to spend some time setting up the Global Defaults and Object Styles sooner rather than later.

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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).