training – Page 9 – The Logical Blog

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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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 24, 2014

Localization: Training and Development in China

by Jen Weaver

As humorous as the translation blunder in the image below may be, the warning is worth noting as we consider training and development in China. Let's explore some common cultural facts about the Chinese and their expectations when it comes to training and development.

Localization in China

Test your knowledge of Chinese culture with the Fun-Fact questions below:

What are the two primary spoken languages in China?
What are the two written languages Chinese languages?

Quick Tips for Training & Development in China¹:

In many ways, China is still a hierarchical society and age is respected. The oldest person should be given deference by the younger ones in the group. If you're conducting a class with multiple trainers, the elder trainer should initiate the class.
Internet censorship is common and may impede access to your online classrooms, so be sure to test this access in advance.
Avoid scheduling classes during the lunar New Year. This is China's most important nationwide weeklong holiday.
Truth is defined by one's personal feelings along with Communist beliefs.
China is primarily a collectivist culture. Decisions are made by the leadership, and members must follow their lead.
You must be punctual for both business and social meetings.
The Chinese write the date with the year, then the month, then the day. For example, March 2, 2014, is written as 14.03.02.
Receive a business card with two hands; review it carefully and set it down on the table in front of you. Do not write on it or put it in your wallet or pocket. That is considered rude.
Dramatic hand movements or body language may be considered distracting to your audience, as they are uncommon in Chinese culture.
In general, many Chinese people will find it difficult to say "no", as they don't want to disappoint you or lose face. Be sensitive to hints of difficulties, and make sure to set reasonable expectations. Deadlines are commonly regarded as flexible, so be clear in setting them, and allow buffer time as needed.

Fun-Fact Answers:

Mandarin and Cantonese.
Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. While many business executives are fluent in English, give careful consideration to the benefits of localizing and translating your materials.

Developing Training & Development materials for use in China? Contact Jen Weaver with Carmazzi Global Solutions for a free consultation.

References:

¹Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.

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Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions.

February 20, 2014

Adobe Captivate: Partial Question Slide Scores

by Kevin Siegel

One of the problems with a multiple choice question you've added to a Captivate quiz is the all or nothing aspect of the question. It is possible to setup some questions that allow for multiple correct answers. It would be nice if you could award partial credit should the learner select some, but not all, of the correct answers.

Say hello to the Partial Score feature available in Adobe Captivate 6 and 7.

In the two images below, I have inserted a Multiple Choice question into my project. From the General group of the Quiz Properties panel, I set the number of Answers to 4.

Adobe Captivate 6: Number of answers set to 4.

Adobe Captivate 6: Multiple choice question

From the General group of the Quiz Properties panel, I next selected Multiple Answers. Then, on the slide, I selected two of the answers as correct answers.

Adobe Captivate 6: Multiple answers option

Adobe Captivate 6: Multiple answers selected

To allow a learner to get partial credit, I accessed the General group on the Quiz Properties panel and then selected Partial Score.

The final step in allowing for partial scores is the trickiest. You need to determine how many points each correct answer is worth. Having selected Partial Score on the Quiz Properties panel, one would assume that an option would magically appear near Partial Score that would allow for specific scores to be assigned to each answer. That's not how it works at all. First, you need to select one of the correct answers. Then, on the Properties panel (not the Quiz Properties panel), expand the Advanced Answer Option group. Then you need to assign a point value to the selected answer.

Adobe Captivate 6: Advanced Answer Option

You would repeat this step for each correct answer (the total points assigned to each answer cannot be greater than the point value assigned to the question).

In the question slide that I used for this example, the question was worth 10 points. I assigned 5 points to each correct answer. If a learner selected one of the two correct answers, they would be awarded 5 points out of the possible 10.

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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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February 10, 2014

Localization: Training & Development in Chile

by Jen Weaver

If you're like me, winter's cold weather and icy winds are becoming a bit tiresome. So, this week let's head down south and enjoy the warm weather of a Chilean summer as we explore some common cultural facts about Chileans and their expectations when it comes to training and development.

Test your knowledge of Chilean culture with the Fun-Fact questions below:

Who is Condorito?
True or False? Chile is almost as long as California.
True or False? To fit the entire country on a TV screen, weather maps have to divide the country into three parts.

Quick Tips for Training & Development in Chile¹:

Chile's official language is Spanish, although English is spoken by many well-educated professionals. It's highly recommended to translate and localize your training materials to make the greatest impact on Chilean learners.
Natural disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, abound in this country. Some visitors also experience altitude sickness when traveling in certain cities. Keep this in mind if you're conducting a class onsite.
In negotiations, most Chileans place importance on emotions rather than facts, and truth is often considered subjective.
As in many Latin American cultures, family is of great significance to Chileans. It's important not to bring dishonor on one's loved ones, and familial ties may mean the difference between professional success and failure.
Relationships and friendships are essential for business, so it's important to build rapport with your students when initiating a new class.
North Americans and Europeans are expected to be punctual for business meetings, but Chilean participants may arrive late.
The business culture is more formal than in many other Latin American countries. Do not address people by their first name unless invited to do so. Many younger Chileans will promptly extend this invitation upon meeting you. Business dress code is closer to European formal than American business attire.
Citizens in many countries, including Chile, write the date with the day first, then the month, then the year. For example, February 4, 2014, is written 4.2.14 or 4/2/14.
Chilean summer holidays are in January and February, so it's best to avoid scheduling classes in those months, if at all possible.

Fun-Fact Answers:

Condorito (Little Condor in Spanish) is a famous cartoon condor created by Chilean René Ríos Boettiger. Condorito is the Spanish-speaker equivalent of Mickey Mouse.
True
True

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Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions.

February 9, 2014

Writing & Grammar: Periods with Abbreviations

by Jennie Ruby

Should I use periods in the abbreviation U.S.? What about USA? What about Mr. and Ms.? What about m, s, ft, in? Wait, what were those? They were meter(s), second(s), feet, and inches.

The issue of periods with abbreviations is largely a style matter–a matter of convention. Knowing what the conventions are will make you a faster writer and editor. You won't have to stop and wonder and Google these and accidentally be drawn into those endlessly intriguing "This five-year-old walked out, winked at the audience, and you will never believe what happened next!" videos. (Don't bother to look. I just made that one up.)

Instead, you can punctuate or not punctuate, create your own style guide if necessary, and get on with your writing.

So here are some general guidelines that will get you through punctuating abbreviations and acronyms.

Guideline 1: Make an arbitrary decision, right now, about US/U.S. and UN/U.N. It is a coin toss.

Guideline 2: Are you in a scientific/technical field? Or is your writing for a more general audience? Pick one, and then go to the matching section below.

General Audience

Guideline 3: Abbreviate units of measure only when preceded by a number. And even then, only if they occur a lot in your material. If you abbreviate units of measure, use lowercase letters and periods.

We asked how many feet the water rose during the flood.

They installed a 10-in. border around the flowerbed, which was a 3 ft. by 12 ft. area on the south lawn.

Guideline 4: If it is only one capital letter, use a period.

Guideline 5: If it is all capital letters, no periods. If there are any lowercase letters in the abbreviation, use periods.

Mr.

Ms.

Ph.D.

Guideline 6: Make an arbitrary decision right now:

am and pm

a.m. and p.m.

AM and PM

Scientific/technical audience

Guideline 3: Abbreviate units of measure even when not preceded by a number. Don't use periods, except with in. for inch, because it matches the word in.

Guidelines 4 and 5: Almost never use periods for any abbreviation. See your style guide for exceptions.

Guideline 6: Why aren't you using the 24-hr system?

***

Challenge

Standardize the abbreviations in this paragraph. Use either the general audience or the scientific audience rules. Caution: there may be other stylistic issues besides the punctuation of the abbreviations.

The flowerbed should be 12 feet wide and 5 ft deep. To determine how much sunlight the area receives, start at 5:30 AM and observe the area at 1-hour intervals until 8:00 p.m. I prefer to use the guidelines published by Ms Good Gardener in her blog, but you may want to consult others if your garden is outside of the US. Also be aware that some plants are sensitive to U.v. radiation. You can find additional information on the amount of sunlight your lawn receives by typing your Z.I.P. code into a search tool. If your garden is big enough, you may need an ATV to get from one side to the other with all your tools. FYI, yours truly once had an RV and an S.U.V., but now drives a Prius.

When you're ready, feel free to post your answers below.

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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February 4, 2014

Already Own Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite? Adobe Offering Awesome Savings on TCS5 Annual Subscription

All existing customers of Adobe Technical Communication Suite, Adobe FrameMaker and Adobe RoboHelp are eligible to take advantage of a limited promotional offer from Adobe. You can purchase subscription licenses of Adobe Technical Communication Suite 5 at 40% off for an entire year.

While you still have plenty of time to order TCS5 and enjoy the 40% discount, Adobe has indicated that the offer ends sometime in July.

More information.

February 4, 2014

Adobe RoboHelp 11: Responsive HTML5

by Kevin Siegel

When I teach my two-day Adobe RoboHelp class, students quickly learn that they need to generate a Layout (via the Single Source Layouts pod) before they can deliver usable Help content to their users.

During the class, attendees learn the strengths and weaknesses of each type of layout. For instance, they learn that WebHelp is excellent if users will be accessing the Help content over the internet and they're using computers running Windows or the Mac OS.

WebHelp, while offering excellent cross-platform and cross-browser support, does not support users who are using mobile devices such as the iPad or iPhone.

When Adobe released RoboHelp 10, one of the biggest innovations was Multiscreen HTML5. Since content generated using the Multiscreen HTML5 layout displays across mobile devices, Help authors can support all sorts of display sizes. The problem with Multiscreen HTML5 is that prior to generating the content, RoboHelp developers need to take the size of the user's display into account. In addition, customizing the look and feel of the Multiscreen HTML5 layouts isn't easy since you don't have access to an area like the WebHelp Skin Editor (which makes customizing a WebHelp skin a snap).

Adobe RoboHelp 11, which was just released a few weeks ago, added a new, very exciting layout to the Single Source Layouts pod: Responsive HTML5. With this layout, you don't have to take the variety of screen sizes users might use into account. If the user is viewing your content on a desktop, they will automatically see an appropriate arrangement of the screen components; if they view your content on an iPhone or Android phone, they will see the components resized and rearranged in a layout to best suit the smaller display size.

Here's how Responsive HTML5 works. First, visit the Single Source Layouts pod and double-click the Responsive HTML5 layout. The layout appears by default within new RoboHelp projects. In legacy projects that have been upgraded to RoboHelp 11, click the Create Layout tool (shown below). Select Responsive HTML5 from the Output type drop-down menu and click the OK button.

Similar to WebHelp, you can specify an initial look and feel for your Responsive HTML5 layout by clicking the Gallery button.

There are two designs in the Gallery area and you can download more via the link at the right of the dialog box. In addition, as you'll see in a moment, you can easily customize the layout.

After selecting a layout from the Gallery, you will be presented with a series of screens that allow you to easily customize many components that make up the original design. What I really like about this area is that the Adobe engineers have labelled everything so you know what each area controls.

Generate the layout and it will open in your default web browser like WebHelp, FlashHelp, or Multiscreen HTML5. In the image below, I'm viewing the Responsive HTML5 output on a desktop computer and the display is pretty large. With a larger workspace, notice that there is a navigation area at the left of the browser window.

In the image below, I've resized my browser window to a size more appropriate for a tablet (such as the iPad, Kindle Fire or Microsoft Surface). Notice that the navigation icons have bounced to the right, responding automatically to the size of my display.

And in the image below, I've resized my Help window again. This time the navigation icons have dropped to the bottom of my display.

As I continued to resize the browser to simulate various screen displays, the icons got smaller and were positioned appropriately for the size of the display.

Adobe RoboHelp 11: Responsive HTML5 on a small display.

Of all the layouts I've used in RoboHelp over the years, I firmly believe that Responsive HTML5 is the absolute top of the mark. While WebHelp is currently the industry standard when it comes to generating Single Source Layouts, I expect Responsive HTML5 to vault into the top spot very quickly.

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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.