eLearning – Page 18 – The Logical Blog

February 13, 2014

eLearning: Using Bitstrips for Characters and Scenes

by AJ Walther

By now you have likely seen Bitstrips (graphics used to turn yourself and your friends into cartoon characters) on your Facebook newsfeed. Beyond the popular use on social media sites, Bitstrips can be a fun way to create characters for your eLearning lessons across a wide range of ages and nationalities. You could even make characters that resemble people in your office!

When navigating to http://bitstrips.com/ it may look like you'll need to create a Facebook account (or use one you already have); but if you use this alternate link, you can create Bitstrips online without involving your Facebook account: https://bitstrips.com/pageone/.

From there you can begin creating characters by selecting Create > Character.

Creating characters by selecting Create > Character

Bitstrips will walk you through the process of creating your avatar. When you're finished, your character can be accessed by clicking My Stuff > Characters. Of course, if you want to use generic characters, you can do that too. Bitstrips comes pre-loaded with some business, casual, and medical field characters so that you won't have to create on your own. There are also characters for famous officials (like the President) and some animals.

The best part about the characters is that all of them can be fully customized to represent a wide range of emotions and physical activities.

Bitstrip Characters

To use the characters outside of Bitstrips, insert them into a comic, save the comic, and right-click to save it as a picture. The saved comic is editable like any other image. The limitation here is that you won't be able to enlarge the character much before they'll pixilate. Additionally, the characters (and other assets you can use through Bitstrips) won't save as independent, transparent background images. For this reason I find that if I'm going to use the individual elements, the most successful treatment is to insert a white freeform shape behind the characters and elements so they look like they've been cut out and pasted in like in the example below. (I've created a classroom background in PowerPoint and inserted the character and the desks from Bitstrips.)

Example of using Bitstrip Characters

Because extracting individual elements can get a bit clunky (and maybe you're not a fan of that cut and pasted look?), a better option might be to create your entire scene within Bitstrips and to save that instead. To do this, Create a Comic, select a Layout, and then choose Art Library > Scenes to access the varied scenes. Drag your desired Scene to the comic. From there you can layer in the elements and characters of your choosing.

What about copyright and usage restrictions? I reached out to Bitstrips about how these images can be used and if manipulating them is okay. According to Shahan Panth of Bitstrips, "You can export Bitstrips characters for use in PowerPoint (and the like) just by saving a comic that features your character to your hard drive. First save the comic you've created on Bitstrips.com. Then right-click the image and save it to your Downloads folder. You can then manipulate the image just as you would any other image file."

Panth also said "You can use any comics or characters you create for personal use as you see fit, but we look at instances of commercial use on a case by case basis."

If you're not sure if your specific case is a usage violation, my best advice is to send Bitstrips an email at support@bitstrips.com and ask directly.

In related news, if Bitstrips are taking over your Facebook feed (and you're not happy about it), here's how to scrub the offending comics from your newsfeed (without blocking your well-intentioned friends): How to Block Bitstrips From Your Facebook Timeline.

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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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 7, 2014

Adobe Presenter 9: Replacing the Default Playbar Logo with Your Own Logo

by Jennie Ruby

When you publish an Adobe Presenter presentation, a small Adobe logo appears at the beginning of the playbar.

It is quite small, and many consumers of your presentation might not even notice it. But then again, maybe they will. You can replace the Adobe logo with your own by doing a little bit of setup work.

First, create a SWF file of the logo you would like to use on the playbar in place of the Adobe logo. The size of the replacement logo must be 47 pixels wide x 27 pixels high. Give the new SWF the following name: logo.swf.

Save the new logo.swf file in the Adobe Templates folder (replace the existing logo.swf file). A typical path to that folder might be c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Presenter 9.0\Templates

With your presentation open in PowerPoint, use the Publish tool on the Adobe Presenter tab to publish the presentation.

Adobe Presenter: Publish tool

Adobe Presenter: Publish dialog box

And just like that, your logo will replace the Adobe logo on the published playbar.

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Looking for training on Adobe Presenter? IconLogic offers alive, online introduction to Adobe Presenter class. You can attend class from anywhere in the world… even from the comfort of your home.

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 29, 2014

Camtasia Studio vs Adobe Presenter: Working with PowerPoint Presentations

by Kevin Siegel

If you have already created a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint, it's very easy to re-purpose the presentation as eLearning content using either TechSmith Camtasia Studio or Adobe Presenter. Here is how the workflow compares in both tools.

TechSmith Camtasia Studio 8 and PowerPoint

To migrate PowerPoint presentations to Camtasia Studio projects, and then eLearning, you'll need to first install Camtasia Studio and, when prompted, install the Camtasia recording features for PowerPoint. Once installed, the Camtasia recording features are added to PowerPoint's Ribbon (on the Add-Ins tab).

To migrate a PowerPoint presentation into a new Camtasia Studio project, click the Record button (shown above). The PowerPoint presentation opens as a slide show and you click through and narrate the presentation just like you would for a live audience.

When you're finished working through the presentation, press the [escape] key on your keyboard. The recording process stops and a video of the entire presentation is created.

The video automatically opens in Camtasia Studio and is inserted on the Timeline. All you have to do at this point is use the excellent tools found in the Studio to enhance the video as you see fit. (Using Camtasia, you can add callouts, images, audio, Flash hotspots, animations, and even a quiz.)

Once you've finished enhancing the video in Camtasia, you need only choose Produce and Share so your eLearning lesson can be consumed by your learners. During the Produce and Share process, you can output SWFs, MP4 videos, and HTML5-compliant output (allowing the content to be usable on mobile devices such as the Apple iPad).

TechSmith also provides a nifty, free publishing portal known as Screencast.com. You can post your Camtasia output to Screencast.com for easy learner access.

While the Camtasia to PowerPoint workflow is simple, there is one drawback. During the Camtasia Recording process, it's as if a video camera was pointed at your display. If your timing is off as you click through the presentation, you'll likely need to stop the recording process and start again.

Once the video is added to a Camtasia project, you can perform some simple edits to the video. For instance, you can split the video into multiple segments, and you can crop segments. However, if there's a major problem with the video (perhaps you forgot to click something during the recording process), you'll pretty much need to remove the existing video from the Camtasia Timeline and re-record.

Adobe Presenter 9 and PowerPoint

When working with Adobe Presenter and PowerPoint, there really isn't anything to migrate. After installing Presenter on your computer, the Adobe Presenter tools are integrated with the PowerPoint Ribbon (on the Adobe Presenter tab). Below are the individual tool groups you'll find on the Adobe Presenter tab.

As with Camtasia, you'll use the Presenter tools to add audio, images, videos, and a quiz. Once you're finished, you'll use the Presentation group on the Adobe Presenter group to Publish the Presentation as either a SWF or PDF. (While you can also publish SWFs using Camtasia, you cannot produce a PDF.)

While it might seem like there are more tools on the Adobe Presenter tab when compared with Camtasia Studio, keep in mind that Camtasia creates a recording of the PowerPoint presentation, and then you end up in a new Camtasia project. Once you're working in Camtasia Studio, there are far more tools and options than you'll find on the Adobe Presenter tab.

Summary

I love using both Camtasia Studio and Adobe Presenter. One could argue which of the two tools is better for creating eLearning. If you're starting an eLearning project from scratch (and not using PowerPoint), Camtasia, combined with its suite of tools, is likely going to be your tool of choice. (Although Presenter does come with a nifty standalone tool called Adobe Presenter Video Creator. The tool makes quick work out of recording screen actions similar to Camtasia's Recorder tool.)

If PowerPoint is your eLearning starting point, the advantage has to go to Adobe Presenter. Since the Presenter tools are simply an Add-In to PowerPoint's powerful presentation tools, assuming you know how to use PowerPoint, you only need to learn what the specific tools on the Adobe Presenter group do to create compelling, interactive eLearning. By contrast, once the PowerPoint video is taken into Camtasia, you'll need to be pretty comfortable with the Camtasia Studio interface to produce your video.

If you'd like to see a video comparing Adobe Presenter to Camtasia Studio, check out the video I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training on Adobe Presenter? Check our our live, online classes. Is TechSmith Camtasia Studio more your style? We've teamed up with ASTD and offer a live, full-day class on that program too. How about 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.

January 28, 2014

eLearning: What Happened to Microsoft’s Free Image Gallery?

by AJ Walther

In my Optimizing PowerPoint Design for eLearning & Presentations class I like to sing the praises of Microsoft's free online image gallery. But then, a few weeks ago, the unthinkable happened. I went to pull an image from said image gallery, and was met instead with this:

Microsoft's new images page.

Do you know what this is? I'll tell you what this is. Useless. It looks like maybe you can search here, but believe you me-you cannot. Where once I found easily searchable free images, I am now met with a screen telling me how to use the newest Office to search for Images (which doesn't work for me as I have Office 2010), how to use Office Web Apps to find images (does anyone use that?), or how to use Bing to find these images (which I tried with zero success). The bottom of the page gives me links to images for Office 2010 or 2007, which I thought would be just the ticket. But no. Those links instead navigate to a page outlining how to insert clip art. Thanks for nothing.

I guess I shouldn't have been upset that a free service had disappeared. But, ya know what, I was upset. (Spoiler alert: I was upset enough that I kept digging until I found a solution. Read on for more!)

If you've used the free image gallery you probably know how great it is. But if you haven't, here's why it's such a valuable tool for eLearning designers:

You Can search by Style numbers

Let's say you found this image:

Woman with hammar

If you found the image in Microsoft's free image gallery, then it came complete with a linked style number.

Linked style number

Clicking the style number pulls up other images from the same style that can all be used together for a cohesive design. That's awesome.

Other images from the same style

Unless you already know the Style number, you cannot search by style number from the Office Clip Art pane. Nor does the clip art mention anywhere in its keywords what the style number is.

Search by General Style

Maybe a particular style doesn't have quite enough images for you. That's okay, the image gallery has a feature allowing you to search by general style–pulling up other images that look similar, even if they aren't technically part of the same style group.

Other images from the same style group

Other images 2

The Search feature within Office's Clip Art pane does not have this feature.

Note: This feature did not work for me in Chrome or Internet Explorer without first downloading Microsoft's Silverlight. I'm running Parallels, however, so I used Safari on the mac side without having to do any additional downloading.

More Selections

When I search within PowerPoint's Clip Art pane using the keyword "construction" for illustrations, including content from office.com, I get back 106 images to choose from. The same search online in the MS Image gallery brings back 156 images.

When I found I could no longer access my beloved Images section of MS Office's site I spent two hours being bounced around between Microsoft's live online chat and multiple tech support hotlines. I tried explaining what was missing every way I knew how and no one seemed to know what I was talking about. If I couldn't access the site anymore I was hopeful that someone could at least tell me how to identify a clip art image's style number from within MS Office for easy searching. This was not the case.

Luckily (and I know it is cruel to make you wait this long for the solution, but at least you weren't on the phone for two hours), I found the solution on my own. By bypassing the image search page of the Microsoft Office page and instead searching the Office site as a whole, I was able to find the hidden images! For your convenience, here is a direct link.

You're welcome.

(Note: When you click the direct link above, the resulting page will say "found no results” because you haven't searched for anything yet. Go ahead and type your search keyword into the search bar above the text to look for images. After you search you can adjust the Media Types at the left to filter your results.)

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 16, 2014

eLearning: Use Pictaculous to Save Design Time, Pull Colors From a Photo

by AJ Walther

I like design. Mulling over colors, shapes, and composition is a real joy for me. But when someone else is paying me for a design, I need my process to be three things: fast, inexpensive (or free?), and easy. That's where Pictaculous comes in.

Let's say someone gives me a photo and wants me to design around that. I could take the time to eyeball coordinating or matching colors. Or I could use an eyedropper tool to hone in on a few colors to use. But wouldn't it be cool if a site could just do that part for me, instantly? It would, and that's what Pictaculous does. Use the site to browse for the image on your desktop, click the Get My Palette button, and a series of colors will automatically be generated based on the image.

Get My Palette

To illustrate this, I used the Los Angeles Community Museum of Art's Collections website to find an image free of copyright restrictions. I found the following Edgar Degas pastel drawing:

Edgar Degas pastel drawing

Uploading the image to the Pictaculous site gave me the following color palette:

Pictaculous color palette

I used a free Hex to RGB site to translate the hex code colors to RGB in PowerPoint. Because I was building this presentation around an art piece, I decided to do a gallery theme. I used simple shapes to design this layout based on the color palette above:

PowerPoint Gallery Theme

In keeping with the gallery theme, I thought it would be nice to show the Degas drawing in a frame. I could have created a frame in PowerPoint myself, but to save time I did a Google Image search for one instead. I didn't want to worry about copyright restrictions, so I used the advice in this article on Finding Google Images You Can Actually Use to search for an image of a gold frame with no restrictions. This frame was at the top of the results page:

Gold frame with no restrictions

From there I added in the Degas piece, some informative text, and a few drop shadows. In less than 10 minutes I was done… with minimal effort (and no expense) on my part.

In less than 10 minutes I was done... zero expense!

The best part? Those colors look pretty smart together. I could easily take that same color palette and use it for another project. Do you have any time-saving design tips or online tools you'd like to share? Lemme at 'em!

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.