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Show the Properties of the layout. You'll see that you have selected 508 Compliant Output. Skins are not 508 compliant and are automatically disabled if you select the 508 compliant option. I would recommend that you create two layouts, one compliant and the other not. In the non-compliant layout, you'll be able to add your skin.

I'm using Adobe Captivate 3 and I'm not yet that familiar with  the software. I have created an eLearning lesson with a custom Flash menu. We inserted this Flash menu at the start of the lesson, and I created different click boxes that "Jump to" specific slides. We have a total of 100 slides. Here's my problem: when the user reaches a particular slide and then goes back to the main menu slide, I'd like a box to become visible and highlight the lesson they were just on. Is this possible in Captivate 3?

Answer:

Nope. However, Captivate 4 supports advanced actions and allows for objects to be hidden by default. The objects can be forced to appear via actions. This is the kind of cool Captivate feature that I cover in my advanced Captivate 4 class.

Scrolling Tables in Adobe RoboHelp

M Martin-Johnson, a 10-year veteran technical communicator, has come up with an interesting technique for creating fixed table headings in RoboHelp. According to Martin-Johnson, "If you're working on a [RoboHelp topic] that has a lot of data displayed in a table, you may want to ensure that the table headings are fixed and viewable on the screen as the reader scrolls down through the table.

"There is a simple way to do this: scrolling tables. Basically, you are placing a scrollbar on the area of the page that you want to be scrollable. This approach also allows you to display a lot of information in a small area of the screen."

Click here to learn how to create the scrolling tables.

Looking for RoboHelp training? Check out our course… it will get you trained in just two days. Click here for details.

It seems like most Photoshop users, even when they don't know how to do anything else with the software, know how crop photos. It's pretty easy: when you want to remove pixels from along the edge of a photo, you grab the Crop tool from the Toolbox, draw a crop box, tug on the sizing handles until its perfect, and then press [Enter] ([Return] on a Mac). If you can't get the box the right size (usually because you are on a caffeine overload and your mouse is too shaky) don't press [Enter], just press [Esc] and you can try again. But you knew that, right? Here are a couple of cropping tips that elude a number of otherwise competent Photoshop users.

1. As long as the border pixels are transparent or a solid color, just choose Image > Trim. It's quick, but also really great when the object you are cropping has a drop shadow with partially transparent pixels. You may not see them well, but the software will, and will crop up to the shadow, perfectly.
2. If you have a marching ants selection loaded, don't go back and draw a new box with the Crop tool, just choose Image > Crop.
3. And my favorite: I throw an image on the scanner, and besides picking up the white background of my scanner lid, of course the image isn't straight when I open it in Photoshop.

   Draw the crop box with the Crop tool, place your cursor just outside a sizing handle and it turns into a rotate cursor. Drag your mouse to rotate, adjust the sizing handles one more time, and presto: crop and straighten at the same time!

Want more Photoshop tips? I've got an Introduction to Photoshop CS4 class coming up on October 8-9, so put it on your calendar! The advanced class is October 12-13, if that's a better match for your skill set. Also, I put out the option earlier this summer to run a free, lunchtime seminar on creating a custom Twitter background in Photoshop. I didn't get much of a response, so I'd like to put it back out there. Any interest from our faithful Skills & Drills readers in attending a 1-hour seminar? Send me a tweet at BarbBinder if you are interested.

The problem with the audio bleed is due to a feature in Captivate 4 called "Auto Play." If your lessons were standalone lessons posted on your Web server or LMS, you'd probably want them to "Auto Play" once the lesson begins. Of course, if you disable "Auto Play," how will the lessons in the Aggregator list play at all? Good question. In reality, Aggregator was designed with an implied "Auto Play" option enabled for every lesson in the Aggregator list. However, if you don't disable the "Auto Play" feature for all of the lessons in the Aggregator list except the first lesson, the audio from the lessons may bleed as mentioned above. (I say may because, as I understand it, the issue doesn't always make an appearance and is most widely reported in FireFox).

Here is how you disable the "Auto Play" preference for the individual Aggregator lessons:

1. Prior to publishing each of the lessons you intend to include in the Aggregator project (except for the first lesson), choose Edit > Preferences.

2. Select Start and End from the Project category.

3. Deselect Auto Play from the Project start options area of the dialog box and then click OK.

   

4. Publish each project as a Flash SWF and then add it to the Aggregator project.

So, you've been working with Adobe Captivate 4 for a while; now you want to see what else the program can do to push your eLearning to the next level! Great! This class is for you.

Instructor: Kevin Siegel

To learn more about this class, click here.

We use the Sennheiser PC 166 USB Stereo Multimedia Gaming Headset. Here is a link to Amazon.com where you can learn more and read some reviews. We have had great luck getting rid of background noise and static using this model. You might also want to review this article from my archives where fellow Captivate developers offered up their advice.

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In my experience, that statement is far from true. For us, the audio is recorded late in the process. It is true that you should have a general idea of what the narrator will be saying throughout the project. However, we attach voice overs at the slide level (not at the object level). When the narrator records the audio, the audio files are given names to match the slide they'll be imported onto. We don't have any idea as to slide counts/numbers until the project is a bit more mature.

Answer:

Appropriate Imagery

Some educators draw on libraries of stock photography and "found" images for their course graphics. More often than not, these images are only marginally related to the course content. True, they add visual breaks in the story, but they often fall short in supporting course content. A common example that we've all seen is business courses that use stock photos of executives and secretaries sitting at desks and talking on phones, but who are not actually doing anything related to the course material.

The challenge here is to build cost-effective courses. A typical photo shoot, with all of its models and studio expenses, can be quite pricy. But there are some great traditional stock-photography agencies that sell royalty-free photos for reasonable prices. The web has also become a tremendous source of content-specific images. The Stock Xchange, iStockPhoto, Creatas, Veer and other agencies have a wide variety of image categories related to specific areas of business. Most times, you can order these photos online, download comps, and use an online lightbox to view and select graphics. Of course, be careful to follow appropriate copyright guidelines when acquiring online imagery!

Over the years, SyberWorks has built its own library of in-house photos, which continues to grow. These images are a great resource for our courses, but if we need something more, we ask the client if they have a library of pertinent photos. Some larger corporations, for example, use their own targeted marketing images for sales collateral. If available, your own organization's images may lend themselves well to a related course.

Finally, more and more public-domain photos are becoming available. Often, they have outlived their copyrights and are now freely available. You should especially consider public-domain photos if you are building a historical course.

Figures for Learning

Figures and diagrams with supporting text can really help learners accomplish your course objectives. Edward Tufte has written several superb, classic books about the effectiveness of figures, diagrams, charts, and graphs. Tufte single-handedly changed information design, as it is called, with the publishing of "Visual Explanations." Creating figures and diagrams to support courses is a craft in itself. Basically, the most effective supporting graphics can quickly convey important information that their corresponding text descriptions cannot. It is extremely important that such graphics be appealing, easy to understand, and adequately labeled.

These images should help learners achieve specific instructional goals. A plain image of a semiconductor with supporting text may be enough for some learners, but the same image, with labels and arrows that are referenced in the text, can be much more effective for others. So always target your image presentations toward all appropriate learning levels.

Specific features of these graphics should be considered for effectiveness. Line weight, color, legends, and other features should all directly relate to, and support, course material. If there are multiple graphics within a course, consistency in design is important. Far too often, colors and styles will shift from graphic to graphic, and present a continuously changing look and feel. Learners may easily construe this stylistic meandering as a shift in topic or objective. Consistency of style and color can support broad themes, help learners to know when they are in a topic, and alert them when they move on to the next subject.

When labeling graphics, it is important to use contrasting colors and color fields behind the labels. Consider layering the labels and ordering them appropriately. Legends for color associations are very useful for charts and graphs, and the same holds true for figures and diagrams.

Charts and Graphs

Charts and graphs are very useful for conveying statistical or historical information. Most people can create charts and graphs in Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint, but these quick charts will always benefit from some additional work. For example, a pie chart that expresses a target sales quota may be presented with a specific piece of the pie enlarged, extruded, or in some other way more prominent than the other pieces. For quickly showing the relative importance of data, this is a visual parallel to the text hierarchy that we already mentioned.

Again, style and consistency throughout a course is important. You may have a series of column charts that express specific sales quotas from city to city across the country. Each chart might use gray bars for all states that are not currently being discussed and a blue bar for the state that is being discussed.

The width and height, (and now with 3-D) the depth of bars can be exaggerated, to bring attention to specific parts of a chart. Adding dimension, shading, and drop-shadows to a chart, although appealing, should be done only after the chart's basic information is being conveyed effectively. Be sure to adequately label charts, and make sure that the labels don't obscure other information or data. Legends are useful guides for reading a chart, and should be both adjacent to the chart and clearly labeled.

Another way of improving charts is to use imagery that is directly related to their topics. For example, a bar chart about populations could use silhouettes of people (instead of rectangles) for its bars. A bar chart about oil prices could use barrels of oil instead of rectangles. Every chart should be examined first for clarity and accuracy of its presentation, and then examined for alternate methods of presentation that might be employed.