Captivate – Page 5 – The Logical Blog

March 25, 2014

Adobe Captivate: No More Empty TEBs

by Lori Smith

During my beginner Adobe Captivate class, I am often asked if it's possible to ensure that learners do not leave a Text Entry Box (TEB) blank. When working with a TEB, you can set specific correct values using the Validate Entry option in the General group on the properties panel.

Adobe Captivate: Validate Entry option

But what if you want to ensure that learners put something in the box, not a specific value? While there is no setting in Captivate to ensure that a TEB isn't left blank, using a little variable and some advanced action magic can make it happen.

Create User Variables

Choose Project > Variables and create a new variable. Do not fill in the default value. (I named my variable empty.

Note: This would be a great variable to put in all your templates!
Create another variable to store the TEB data. (I named mine UserData.)
Attach the UserData variable to the TEB (using the General group on the TEB's Properties panel).
Create a Text Caption on your slide that tells the user they need to fill in the data. Name the caption error and deselect the Visible in output option.

Create a Conditional Advanced Action

This advanced action will compare the UserData to the empty variable. If the UserData is empty, show the error message and jump back to the beginning of the slide to allow for another try. If the UserData is not empty, Go to Next Slide.

(Note: To make this action generic so it will work with any slide, do not hard code the slide it needs to jump to. Instead, determine which slide you are on and jump to it as needed. You will do this using an additional user variable named thisSlide, and two system variables, cpInfoCurrentSlide and cpCmndGotoSlide.)

Adobe Captivate: Advanced Action

Adobe Captivate: Advanced Action 2

The last step is to assign the advanced action to Execute when the learner clicks the Submit button. You can do this via the Properties of the selected TEB (on the Action group).

Adobe Captivate: Execute the Advanced Action

And there you have it. No more tearing your hair out trying to force a learner to enter information into a TEB instead of just skipping over it.

Got other Captivate challenges? Send them to me and maybe you'll see your problem solved in a future article.

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Looking for instructor-led training on the top eLearning tools? We offer live, online training on Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia Studio.We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

March 18, 2014

eLearning: Playbar or No Playbar? Let the Debate Begin

by Kevin Siegel

I was teaching Adobe Captivate recently when a student asked a few questions about the value of a playbar that fueled an interesting and heated, discussion (some folks love playbars, others hate them). Here are the questions that got the debate rolling:

Is the playbar necessary?
If a playbar is included, how can you encourage learners to interact with screen objects instead of skipping them using the playbar navigation controls?
Where is the best place to position the playbar (top, bottom, left, or right of the lesson)?

All of the top eLearning development tools (Articulate Storyline, Articulate Presenter, Adobe Captivate, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia Studio) allow you to control the appearance of the playbar. In addition, each of the tools can accomplish the suggestions outlined below. In some instances, the option I discuss isn't easy to find in a particular tool. If you have trouble locating the playbar options, feel free to contact me.

Is the Playbar Necessary?

Should you include a playbar in your eLearning lessons? In my opinion, absolutely! If you've created a video like those commonly posted on YouTube or Lynda.com, there isn't any interactivity. The only way learners can navigate through a video is via the Play, Rewind, and Pause tools found on a typical playbar. While a video's playbar doesn't offer much in the way of learner engagement, at least it's something. In my experience, videos without playbars are ineffective. The lack of a playbar can be disconcerting if not flat-out annoying.

How Can You Encourage Interaction With Screen Objects?

If your eLearning lesson is interactive (perhaps it's a software simulation with a quiz, or a soft skills lesson with buttons for navigation), the learner who navigates via the playbar instead of the interactive slide objects can derail the lesson. For example, you've created a button on a slide that, when clicked, reports a score to your Learning Management System (LMS). If the learner clicks the forward button on the playbar, not the interactive button on the slide, no score is reported to the LMS. As far as the LMS is concerned, the learner skipped the slide.

How can you encourage the learner to interact with the slide objects and not simply race through the lesson by clicking the forward button on the playbar?

Add an animation in combination with an interactive slide object.

In one of my projects, I inserted an arrow animation that pointed to the buttons on the first several slides (not all of them, since I was worried about the animation being a distraction). While short and sweet, the animation was enough of a visual cue that very few people missed the opportunity to click the buttons.

Hide the playbar for the entire lesson by default, but have it automatically appear when the learner mouses over the screen.
Hide the playbar on any slides where clicking an interactive object is critical.

Playbars and Quizzes…

If you've included a quiz in your lesson, most of the eLearning development tools require the learner to answer the question and submit before it is recorded and graded. If the learner answers a question correctly but clicks the forward button on the playbar instead of a Submit button on the slide, the LMS will likely treat the question as unanswered. In this instance, the learner will not get credit, even though the question was answered correctly.

In this scenario, you can set up your lesson so that the playbar will disappear when the learner is taking the quiz but reappear on non-quiz slides. Most eLearning development tools offer a "hide playbar during the quiz" feature. (For example, in Adobe Captivate, it's a simple check box found on the Quiz Preferences dialog box.)

What Is The Best Screen Position for the Playbar?

If you elect to include the playbar, where is the best place to position it? The most common location for the playbar is below the video or simulation. In my experience, this position works the best since the majority of your learners are conditioned to look there first. The biggest problem with the bottom-position occurs when the video is very tall. In this case, many of your learners won't know there's a playbar at all since they'd need to scroll down. In this scenario, positioning the playbar at the top of the lesson would be ideal.

I'd love to hear if you think playbars belong in eLearning or not. I'd also like to know where you place them and how you encourage users to avoid the playbar when screen interactivity is critical. Please post your comments below.

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Looking for instructor-led training on the top eLearning tools? We offer live, online training on Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia Studio. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

March 4, 2014

Adobe FrameMaker and Captivate: Merging Multimedia With Print PDFs

by Kevin Siegel

There's no trick to creating a PDF these days. Simply open a document and, if you've got Adobe Acrobat on your computer, choose Adobe PDF when you print.

Creating a PDF that will engage your reader is another story. One way to engage the reader, besides stellar content, is to add images. Of course, there's no trick to adding images either… and everyone's doing it.

If you really want to make a splash when it comes to PDFs, you've got to engage the reader like never before… and interactive eLearning is the way to go.

In the image below, I've created a FrameMaker document. You can see there's nothing particularly special about the text (beyond the promise of an Adobe Captivate simulation).

After clicking where I wanted the simulation to appear, I chose File > Import > File and opened a SWF I had published earlier using Adobe Captivate. Just like when importing a graphic, I was met with the Imported Graphic Scaling dialog box. I selected 150 dpi to make the imported Captivate simulation a bit smaller in my FrameMaker document.

After clicking the Set button, the Captivate simulation appeared in my FrameMaker document as a large box.

I wanted the simulation positioned below the text, and I didn't want it to be cropped. I right-clicked the frame and selected Anchored Frame.

I changed the Anchoring Position to Below Current Line, changed the Alignment to Right, and removed the check mark from Cropped. Then I clicked Edit Frame.

And that was all there was to it. I created a PDF by choosing File > Save as PDF. Upon opening the PDF, the simulation appeared immediately after being clicked. And I was delighted to see that the simulation remained as interactive from within the PDF as it was when accessed via a web server.

Even better, when I found an error in the Captivate simulation, I was able to return to the FrameMaker document, right-click the imported SWF, and chose Edit With Adobe Captivate.

The source Captivate project opened pretty quickly in Adobe Captivate. I fixed the error and exited Captivate, at which point the project was republished and the SWF contained in FrameMaker automatically updated.

After re-saving as a PDF and opening the PDF with Adobe Reader, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Captivate simulation had been updated.

If you would like to see a demonstration of the Captivate-to-FrameMaker-to-PDF workflow, click here to see a video I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? We offer multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate. Need the training in-person? We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

February 25, 2014

Adobe Captivate: There’s a Widget for That

by Kevin Siegel

You've probably heard the phrase "There's an app for that." It basically means that if you want to extend the functionality of your mobile device, you should visit the device's App store and Search. Chances are you'll find an application, often free, that will do whatever it is you need.

Captivate is an awesome eLearning development tool, and it's loaded with functionality. However, Adobe simply cannot anticipate every scenario, every use-case you'll find for the program. And that's where widgets come in.

Widgets extend Captivate's functionality beyond bounds. Looking for an email icon? There's a widget for that. Need an animated button? There's a widget for that. How about a Print button? Volume controls? Slide numbers? Widget, widget, and more widgets.

While widgets are used in Captivate projects to improve the eLearning content, the widgets themselves aren't created by Adobe Captivate. In fact, widgets can only be created by developers using Adobe Flash. To use a widget, you do not need to know a thing about Adobe Flash, nor do you need Flash installed on your computer. In fact, Captivate ships with several free widgets. To insert a widget, choose Window > Widget.

Adobe Captivate: Widget Panel

Select the widget you would like to use and click the Insert link. Once inserted, you can configure the widget using the Widget Properties dialog box.

Adobe Captivate: Widget Properties

While simple to use, you won't get very far with widgets if the pesky Widgets panel mentioned above is missing its widgets (something I've see more than a few times when I teach my Advanced Captivate class).

If the Widget panel is missing some (or all) of the free widgets that come with Captivate, click the Change Path tool at the bottom of the Widget panel.

Change Path command

Navigate to the location of the Widgets that were installed along with the Captivate software (typically this is <Adobe Captivate program folder>\Gallery\Widgets).

If your widgets are still not appearing on the Widgets panel, try clicking the Refresh tool at the bottom of the Widgets panel.

Refresh command

If you are looking for additional widgets beyond what you'll find on the Widget panel, check out the Adobe Captivate Widgets page. You will also find some useful widgets on Rod Ward's Infosemantics website.

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February 12, 2014

Adobe Captivate: Confirmation Messages

by Kevin Siegel

Adobe Captivate likes to confirm your actions… a lot. Attempting to delete a slide object? Captivate will prompt you to confirm the action. Deleting audio? Confirm it. Removing something from the Timeline? Confirm it.

Confirm it! Confirm it!!

I can confirm that the frequent confirmation requests can make me a little nuts. In the image below, I'm attempting to delete an unwanted slide from my Filmstrip. And… confirm… confirm.

While it's simple enough to click the silly OK button to confirm an action, I'd had enough, selected Don't ask me this again and then clicked the OK button.

From that point forward, I wasn't prompted to confirm my action whenever I deleted a slide. Awesome!

At some point I dropped a pen on my keyboard. The pen hit the [delete] key. I didn't think anything of it until a few days later when I realized a slide had been deleted from the project. What? I hadn't deleted it… I swear. But then I remembered the dropped pen. Since I told Captivate not to bother me, Captivate hadn't. The slide was good and gone… awesome! If only Captivate argued with me when I disabled that not-so-annoying confirmation message. Oh to be annoyed!

While I'm not a fan of the Confirmation Messages, I think you'll agree that turning them off can be a mistake. If you've already disabled them (via the Don't ask me this again check box), here is how you get all of the Confirmation Messages back.

Display Captivate's Preferences (Edit menu if you're using Windows; Adobe Captivate menu if you're using a Mac). From the General Settings category, click the Confirmation Messages button.

The Confirmation Messages dialog box opens. Anything without a check mark has been deactivated. All you need to do is select the confirmation message you want back and click the OK button.

If you would like to see a video demonstration of restoring Captivate's confirmation messages, check out the video I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

Note: You can reset all of the confirmation messages at once (and reset all of Captivate's Preferences in the bargain), you can use the Reset Preferences utility that I've written about previously.

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February 5, 2014

Adobe Captivate: Swapping Speech Agents

by Kevin Siegel

During every Captivate beginner class, time is spent on the second day teaching everyone how to use Captivate's Text-to-Speech feature to convert slide notes into speech.

Recently, one of my students asked an excellent question: "I'd love it if there was a pain-free way to quickly change the agent from Kate, to Paul to Chloe, and then maybe back to Kate. As it stands, I need to select each slide note in the Speech Management dialog box, one at a time and then change the agent. It would help I, at the very least, I can select all of a slide's notes at once and change the agent. Is this possible?"

The answer is yes, you can select multiple slide notes and change agents on the fly (not multiple slides, but multiple notes). The solution, while easy, isn't obvious. Here's how:

First, go through your project and convert the slide notes to speech. If you're not sure how, review this article.

After you've committed to an agent, changing your mind is just as easy as selecting the original agent. Choose Audio > Speech Management to open the Speech Management dialog box.

In the image below, notice that different agents have been used between the two slides.

Next, select all of the notes for the slide. While this sounds simple, you'll need to carefully click in the space just above each note to successfully select the note.

From the Speech Agent drop-down menu, select an agent. In the images below, both slide notes are selected for Slide 2 and Chloe is being selected from the Speech Agent drop-down menu. (Note: While you can select multiple slide notes, you can only select the notes for one slide at a time; you'll need to repeat this process for each slide.)

The final step is to simply click the Generate Audio button at the bottom of the dialog box and you're all set.

If you'd like to see a demonstration of swapping one Speech Agent with another, check out the video I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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January 22, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp 11: Sharing Resources via Dropbox

by Kevin Siegel

Adobe released Adobe RoboHelp 11 last week. Over the next few weeks, I'll be covering some of hottest new features. This week: sharing resources via the Cloud (specifically, with Dropbox).

Sharing resources isn't a new concept in RoboHelp. In fact, the Resource Manager pod has been around for the past few versions of RoboHelp. What's new in RoboHelp 11 is the ability to specify a Dropbox as a folder on the Resource Manager.

To begin, visited Dropbox.com and created an account. I also created a folder in Dropbox and set it up as a share object (both tasks, creating and sharing the folder, were simple and took mere seconds).

Once my Dropbox account had been set up, I started RoboHelp 11 and chose View > Pods > Resource Manager. From the top of the Resource Manager pod, I clicked the Add Shared Location tool.

In the Add Shared Location dialog box, I clicked theLocation type drop-down menu and selected Dropbox. (Each time I've performed this step over the past few weeks, RoboHelp has consistently loaded my Dropbox folder and Path for me. Alternatively, you can click the Browse button and manually locate your Dropbox folder.)

The next step was to add content to my shared Dropbox folder on the RoboHelp Resource Manager. My shared Dropbox folder is called SharedRoboHelpTopics. When I dragged a topic (Alcohol_Policy) to the shared folder, I was delighted to see that in addition to the topic, the Cascading Style Sheet being used by the topic (policies.css) was also added to the shared folder.

One of my team members (Biff Bifferson), who is located in another state, was working on a RoboHelp project and needed to use some of my content. While we don't share a network connection, we both have Dropbox accounts. I accessed my Dropbox account and sent Biff an invite to my SharedRoboHelpTopics folder.

Biff checked his email and added the SharedRoboHelpTopics folder to his Dropbox. Biff then used RoboHelp's Resource Manager pod to add his Dropbox as a Shared Location.

Since his Dropbox included my shared folder, Biff's Resource Manager immediately displayed my shared resources.

To add my shared content to his RoboHelp project, Biff right-clicked the Alcohol_Policy topic on the Resource Manager pod and chose Add to Project.

Like magic, my content was now being used in two projects in two different locations. What do you think? Cool?

But then… then… I edited the topic on my computer. (I know, crazy right?)

My Resource Manager alerted me that my shared assets weren't synchronized (via the red icon shown in the image below). When content isn't synchronized, it's likely that team members aren't using the same content.

Because I wanted to ensure that both Biff and I were working with the same assets, I right-clicked the topic on my Resources Manager and selected Sync.

Green check marks indicated that all was well between the content in my RoboHelp project and the assets in my Dropbox. But I was curious to learn if Biff actually got the updated content in his project. And if so, what was his experience? Was it painful?

It turns out that Biff's experience was almost, well, routine. He told me that when he opened his project with RoboHelp 11 later that day, he was greeted with the Linked Resource Notification dialog box shown below. All he had to do was click the Update button and his content was automatically synchronized with mine. In a word… that's awesome!

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Looking for training on Adobe RoboHelp? IconLogic offers live, online Adobe RoboHelp classes each month for both RoboHelp 10 and the new RoboHelp 11. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

January 21, 2014

Adobe Captivate 7: Publishing Video Demos

by Kevin Siegel

Over the past few weeks I've shown you how to trim portions of a Captivate Video Demo and how to Pan & Zoom. This week, I'm focusing on the Publishing process for Video Demos.

Publishing a Video Demo (cpvc) might seem like a no-brainer if you have past exerience working with standard Captivate project (cptx). I'd be surprised if any Captivate developers reading this article haven't published at least once via File > Publish.

Here's what the standard Publish dialog box looks like:

When publishing a cptx project, you can elect to publish as SWF, HTML, PDF, or all of the above. You can also select Media from the options at the left and publish as a video file. The bottom line is that you have choices… lots of choices.

Publishing a Video Demo is, to put it mildly, different. As with a cptx project, you still choose File > Publish. However, the Publish dialog box that appears couldn't be more spartan:

SWF? Gone. HTML5, PDF? Gone and gone! If you're working with a Video Demo and go to publish, the assumption is that you want to publish, well, a video. And that's exactly what you get should you click the Publish button–an MP4 file that will play nicely on YouTube and just about any computer or hand-held device that supports video playback.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when customizing the settings in the Publish dialog box.

Profiles: There are three choices (Baseline, Main, and High). Use Baseline for mobile and video conferencing applications.Main is for standard-definition digital TV broadcasts. High is for high definition devices. While the High Profile leads to a longer publish time and more complex video, I've found that this option yields the best results for me.

Encoding: You've got two choices, Constant (CBR) and Variable (VBR). Constant is the default (and it's what I use 99.99% of the time). A Constant bit rate typically results in a smaller published video. Should you elect to specify a variable bit rate, Captivate decides when to use more bits to maintain quality. The file size increases when more bits are used.

FPS stands for Frames Per Second. The higher the value, the smoother your video will play, and the larger the published video will be. The standard FPS is 15.

Key Frame Interval: All videos contain key frames (milestones that represent every second of playtime for the video). The longer you set the Key Frame Interval, the smaller the published video file will be. However, if the video supports Search, the search time increases. If you set the interval short (less than 5 seconds), the size of the file increases but the search function works faster. The standard for videos intended for eLearning is 5 seconds.

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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

January 15, 2014

Adobe Captivate 7: Pan & Zoom Video Demos

by Kevin Siegel

Last week, I showed you how to trim portions of a Captivate Video Demo. This week, I'm focusing on the Pan & Zoom feature.

Captivate's Pan & Zoom feature, which is only available in Video Demos, is really two cool tools in one. Zooming gives you the ability to automatically get the learner closer to the action. Panning lets you automatically change the area of the screen that the learner sees. You can control exactly when the Pan & Zoom occurs, its Scale, Speed, Size, and Position.

To add a Pan & Zoom in a Video Demo, first position the Playhead on the Timeline where you'd like the Pan & Zoom.

On the Pan & Zoom panel, click the Add Pan & Zoom button (if the Pan & Zoom panel is not on your screen, choose Window > Pan & Zoom).

On the Timeline, a Pan & Zoom point is added (in the image below, it's the orange circle with a magnifying glass in the middle).

To control the Pan & Zoom, drag and resize the Pan & Zoom window on the Pan & Zoom panel. (The smaller you make the Pan & Zoom window, the larger the zoom.)

You can control how fast the zoom occurs by adjusting the Speed via the Pan & Zoom panel.

The fastest way to zoom the learner back out (so they can see the entire video) is to click the Zoom Out button on the Pan & Zoom panel.

If you'd like to see a demonstration of the Pan & Zoom feature, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.

January 7, 2014

Adobe Captivate 7: Trim Video Demos

by Kevin Siegel

The more I work with Captivate's Video Demo mode, the more I like it. If you have a need to demonstrate a quick concept, using Video Mode is the absolute fastest way to create eLearning.

To record a video using Video Demo mode, select Video Demo from the Create New area of Captivate's Welcome Screen. When the Recording Area appears, you record your screen actions just as you would if you recorded screen actions using the Software Simulation mode.

Unlike a typical Software Simulation (where there are multiple slides and Timelines), a Video Demo consists of a single video and just one Timeline.

While there are limits to how much editing you can do to a video project, you can insert images, Text Captions, Characters, and Smart Shapes. You can edit the mouse pointer shown in the video, add Pan & Zooms, and Trim the video. This week, I'm going to show you how to Trim a video.

Trim a Video

Open or record a Video Demo.
On the Timeline, click where you want to begin the Trim process. (The red bar you will see is known as the Playhead.)
From beneath the Timeline, click the Trim button. (Two markers will appear. Upon completion, the area between the markers will be deleted.)
Drag the two markers left or right as necessary to highlight the part of the video you want to delete.
Click the word Trim on the Timeline to trim the selection.

The selected part of the video will immediately be removed from the video.

Note: I've found plenty of ways to take advantage of Video Demos, keep in mind that Video Demos are, well, videos. Published videos will play on any computer (Mac, Windows), upload to YouTube, and play on most mobile devices (including the iPad). However, Video Demos cannot contain interactivity. You cannot add quizzes, buttons, click boxes, Advanced Actions, or Text Entry Boxes. Do keep that limitation in mind if you plan to produce mainly demos for your eLearning content.

If you'd like to see a demonstration of video trimming, check out this video on the IconLogic YouTube channel. And if you'd like to see some of my Video Demos, stay on our YouTube channel. Every video you see was created using Captivate's Video Demo feature.

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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? IconLogic offers multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate.