Category: Uncategorized

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What Freelancers Wish Their Client Knew

by Quinn McDonald

 
The meeting had been postponed from Tuesday to Thursday to now, Friday afternoon. My client looked at me and said, “I need this piece on Monday.” I’d waltzed over those green fields before with this client. Her chronic disorganization resulted in many ’emergencies.’
 
My weekend was fully planned by then, so I said, “Tuesday is the earliest I can get this to you.”
 
The client looked at me and said, “You are a freelancer. You work nights and weekends. That’s why we hired you. Monday.”
 
I looked her directly in the eye and replied, “I’m a freelancer because I own my business. And this weekend I’m booked.”

She didn’t blink, “What are you doing this weekend that’s so important–more important than this job?”
 
“Not part of this discussion,” I said. “Let’s continue to focus on the due date of the project.”
 
After a few more tart responses we agreed on Tuesday.
 
I’m sure clients have a long list of the trespasses of freelancers–I’ll write that article, too. But today it’s my turn to wake up clients to behavior that gets the best response from freelancers.
  1. Just because you put off a project does not give you permission to set the freelancer’s hair on fire. If you like working under pressure, if you enjoy saving the day by causing emergencies so you can ‘solve’ them, please do it in your own office with the door closed and the phone firmly on the hook. Diva-like behavior is not appealing to anyone else, not even a freelancer. At this moment, you aren’t the boss, you are a client, and there is a world of difference there.
  2. Please know what the project is about. You should be capable of summarizing the main point in under 60 seconds. You should be able to tell the freelancer what the end product should be in the same time. When you start with the history of the project, we don’t know what to listen for or what the important details are. So, you’ll be repeating that part anyway.
  3. Freelancers have lives, just like you do. We may work on weekends on occasion, but most of us have plans on weekends, evenings, and early in the morning. Don’t assume that time is available for you.
  4. Freelancers typically have client meetings every day. That means we don’t check our emails every two minutes. When I am with a client, she has my full attention. I won’t take phone calls or check my emails. I will do the same when I am with you.
  5. Please do not send me every email you have ever received or sent on a project and expect me to read them “for background.” If the project is due in three days, don’t send 12 files totaling 60 Gigs of data. I won’t have time to read them. And yes, reading emails and files is billable time.
  6. Be honest about the job. If I’m the fourth writer and you’ve fired the other three, tell me. There may be a good reason I don’t want to be stuffed through a meat grinder. On the other hand, I may not mind in the least, but let that be my decision. 
  7. Please pay on time… and write my invoice number on your check stub. Please tell me if you don’t pay in 10 – 15 days. My other clients pay on time because they have automated invoice delivery systems. If you don’t pay in time, I’ll be carrying your debt on my credit cards, it adds interest and subtracts profit.
  8. Freelancers will almost always jump through some hoops, even ones that are on fire, to please a client. We sympathize with your emergencies, unless we sense you don’t care. Which brings me to the last plea–if you care about quality, please don’t expect a 24-hour turnaround. When you insist on an impossible deadline and we meet it, no fair complaining about lack of quality.
 

About the Author: Quinn McDonald is a writer and nationally-known speaker who has achieved the “Professional” designation from the National Speakers Association. Contact Quinn through her website, QuinnCreative.com.

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Questions of the Week

Captivate Question: What's the Best Way to Create Project to Project Links?

 
I
have a series of sequential lessons that I have published using the
output option Export to HTML.  I've set up a MenuBuilder project and
have used the Save file with project checkbox so that the file path to
each mini lesson is local instead of absolute.  Thus, I can move the
project to any folder location and the menu builder will still link to
each lesson.  This works well. However, in some cases I have a lesson
(which I'll call Mini Lesson H).  At some point in mini lesson H the
user is presented with two buttons, one to branch to Mini Lesson J and
the other to branch to Mini Lesson K. 
 
Using
the button properties dialog box, I selected Open URL or file on
Success.  And then I selected the published mini lesson J.  For the
second button I did likewise and selected the published mini lesson K. 
My problem is this:  The reference to Mini lesson J and K in the two
buttons is absolute and not local.  So, if I move the folder that the 3
mini lessons are contained in from hard drive C to let's say my
external hard drive F, the buttons will no longer open mini lesson J or
K because the button references were set absolute to hard drive C.  Is
there any way to set a button's reference to local as can be done in
MenuBuilder using the Save file with project checkbox.
 
Answer:
 
First,
keep in mind that the published name of a project must match the name
of the Captivate project you linked to. (If the project name was
ProjectK, the published files much also be called ProjectK.html,
ProjectK.swf and so on.) You'll also need to ensure that you publish
the "sub-projects" to the same folder as the "master" project. If you
update your version of Captivate 3 to the just released patch via your
Help menu, you'll find an option to stop creating a new folder every time you publish a project (which may help with the process).
 
Also, this link may help.
 
Captivate Question: Can I Import PowerPoint Designs?
 
My
company has templates for PowerPoint designs.  Is there a way to import
a PowerPoint design/skin into Captivate and make it the project
template?  Basically, I want to import the design and add navigation
buttons that complement it.
 
Answer:
 
Yes,
you can import PowerPoint slides as background and then save the
project as a Captivate template. Once the PowerPoint backgrounds are
in, you will have to recreate the interactivity you had in PowerPoint
in Captivate via click boxes and buttons.


Got a question you'd like answered? Email me.
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Link of the Week

Integrating Adobe Captivate More Tightly with Acrobat Connect Pro Using the New Adobe Captivate Patch

 
Suresh Jayaraman, a member of the Adobe Captivate development team, has written an article about how Captivate integrates with Acrobat Connect Pro.

According
to Jayaraman, "The launch of the latest release of Adobe Acrobat
Connect Pro is a major part of Adobe eLearning solutions and is a
milestone for learning professionals who want to offer amazingly rich
virtual classroom experiences.
 
"New
features range from offering breakout rooms to editing and downloading
recorded sessions, as well as remarkable enhancements to the back-end
reporting capabilities."
Jayaraman said that there is "smart integration between Adobe Captivate and Acrobat Connect Pro" including:

  • Captivate
    projects are automatically published with a skin that contains an Exit
    button. The button closes the window the content displays within. When
    loaded into a virtual classroom, this results in closing the classroom
    window. The exit button of a skin now deactivates smartly when loaded
    into Acrobat Connect Pro. (If you mainly author content that is used in
    a virtual classroom, you may want to consider removing the exit button
    using the skin menu.)

  • When publishing to Acrobat Connect Pro, Adobe Captivate saves
    you a few mouse-clicks and automatically turns on tracking for the
    Connect Training server.

  • Hotspot questions, a new question type introduced in Adobe Captivate 3, are now fully supported with Acrobat Connect Pro.

Click here to read the article.

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Reader Feedback

How Long Should Your eLearning Lessons Last?
 
I ran an article a few weeks ago about the preferred length for eLearning lessons and courses. Below is one of the emails I received about that article.
 
From Christopher Ninkovich, Technical Communicator, SpeedLine Solutions, Inc.
 
With
our "non-interactive" eLearning modules, we create them to run no
longer than 5 minutes. Any longer, and our audience starts to
"tune-out" rather quickly. The key to success for longer modules is
interactivity. Break up a 20 minute module with a couple of interactive
segments. Show them, then make them demonstrate what they've learned.
This will reinforce your subject matter and cement those concepts into
their brain. And if you're using Captivate, creating an interactive
module is a breeze!

Improving Audio in Adobe Captivate

 

From Ken Lash

 

I
was forced to move to Captivate 3 because I purchased a new computer
with Vista. I'm happy I did.  There were some glitches in Captivate 2
that I found rather inconvenient.  Occasionally, I would publish a
project and then when I played the published project there were
problems with the sound.  Sometimes I would get a double voice with two
identical narrations out of synch and playing at the same time.  Other
times the narration would simply stop at a slide and not come back.  To
fix it I needed to go back into the unpublished project, move the
narration bar a little in the timeline of the slide where the narration
problem began and then republish the project.

 

Another
problem I had with captivate 2 was, after saving and closing out of an
unpublished project I would sometimes get an error message when
attempting to open the project back up.  The error message indicated
that the file was damaged and could not be opened back up.  The only
solution was to make backup copies of the project often so that if it
did become corrupted I would not loose too much work. I've encountered
none of these glitches with Captivate 3.

 

Another
issue that I solved after much experimentation was getting rid of
background noise. I found the level of background noise to be
unacceptable when I first began recording. I upgraded soundcards but
without solving the problem.

 

I
did a lot of research and determined that the background noise was a
result of the computer itself and the sound card being in the
case surrounded by a bunch of electronics. 

 

I purchased a microphone headset–the Sennheiser PC166 USB.  This headset allows you to bypass the computer's soundcard by using an inline USB soundcard that comes with the headset.
So the USB soundcard is plugged into a USB port completely outside of
the computer case. This reduced the background noise to a very minimal
level. It's a high quality headset that provides excellent voice as
well as sound, and since the soundcard is part of the headset you can
move between computers with no variation in the sound. It cost around
$95 and was very well worth the price.

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Adobe Releases Patch for Trial Software That Expires After One Day

If you downloaded and opened the trial version of several Adobe programs in June (including RoboHelp, Captivate, FrameMaker, and Acrobat 3D), you may be saddened to discover that the trial period expires after just one day (instead of the expected 30). Adobe is aware of the problem and has issued a patch that will extend the trial period to 65 days.
 
To download the patch, Mac users can click here. Windows users can click here. For more information about this issue and instructions for installing the patch, click here.
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Adobe Captivate: How Long Should Your eLearning Lessons Last?

by AJ George
 
Today's working professionals have more on their minds than ever.
"Is the courier going to get here on time?"
 
"Am I going to get that raise?"
 
"Is the project on budget?"
 
"Am I on schedule?"
 
"What time do the kids need to be picked up from daycare or school?"
 
"What's for dinner?"
 
"Is the dry cleaner going to be open this late?" 
eLearning developers face a daunting challenge when it comes to engaging adult eLearners. Not only are adults distracted, but many industry experts believe that attention spans in general are shrinking.
 
Distractions and shrinking attention spans aren't the only hurdles facing eLearning developers. Many professionals who take eLearning courses don't necessarily want to take them. In fact, your eLearning students may have been forced to take your course as a mandated part of their jobs.
 
Given the distractions, waning attention spans and an audience that may be less than enthusiastic about taking your eLearning course, you might want to seriously consider how long each of the eLearning lessons that make up your eLearning course should take, on average, to complete. Should the lessons last 10 minutes? 20? 30? Should the course itself last 60 minutes? 90 minutes?
 
Let's assume you're developing a 60-minute eLearning course. How do you go about dividing the course into bite-sized lessons (chunks) that will maximize learning before minds begin to wander?
 
As Neil Postman pointed out in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, there was once a time when people would sit and stay captivated by speeches for 8-10 hours. But those days are long-gone. While prior studies have put attention spans at around 20 minutes, a study conducted at Simon Fraser University found that for literate humans, the average continuous attention span was 8 seconds, with a maximum of 30 seconds. In addition, it was determined that the average general attention span was from 10-12 minutes.
 
In his book, The Media How-To Guide for Nonprofits, David Perry said the continuous attention span for adult learners is 15 seconds. 15 seconds!
 
Ralph A. Burns conducted a study on adult learners, finding that the bulk of information the students were later able to recall was received during the first 5 minutes of instruction. Burns said that the lowest level of retention occurred between the 15 and 20-minute mark.
 
At Arizona State University, a group of professors realized the fault in the standard teaching method of having a professor lecture at the front of a classroom for no less than an hour. They banded together to create the Arizona Collaboration for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT). The professors cited the adult attention span as being a mere 8 minutes and structured their new methods of training around this short attention span.
 
John Talanca, Director of Technology & Distance Learning at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, is not a fan of long eLearning lessons.
 
In his article, Let's Get Small, Talanca says that the majority of today's online surfing for learning "occurs in small chunks: a web search here, some investigative reading there, a few minutes in a chat room, followed up with a conversation in a break room."
According to Talanca, "My department's eLearning strategy includes the design and development of brief eLearning modules as a main staple. The majority of eLearning courses we offer our employees take less then 12 minutes to complete, and many take only eight to 10 minutes of the learner's time. Sure, we have some longer courses in our catalog, but they're the exception. We constantly receive learner comments on these mini-modules to the tune of, 'Exactly what I needed and no more,' and 'It [the module] didn't waste my time.' "
 
Clearly the adult attention span is decreasing. And things aren't likely to improve any time soon. Rather than fight fate, consider creating your eLearning lessons for the ever-shrinking attention span of your learners.
 
Many eLearning professionals that I spoke with agreed with Talanca and felt that adult learners retain the most knowledge in small chunks. When asked how they would approach a 60-minute eLearning course, it was recommended that the course be broken into 12, 5-minute lessons or 6, 10-minute lessons.
 
Of course, not everyone agrees that tiny, 5-minute lessons are better. For instance, Chris Bennett, the Founder and CEO of Ah-Ha! Media, an e-learning company providing employee compliance training, said the following about eLearning lessons: "30 minutes is about the maximum; less than 15 is too short. The exact number of minutes between 15 and 30 should be dictated by the depth and number of objectives in the learning lesson. In a one-hour course, it's absolutely fine to have two 18-minute lessons and one 24-minute lesson."
 
On his BLOG, Dr. Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, a software, web and eLearning development firm based in Los Angeles, says he's discovered the perfect timing for eLearning lessons, and it's much longer than 5 minutes.

"I have found a sweet spot for learning chunks around the 10-15 minute range," said Karrer.

 
When it comes to eLearning lessons, Karrer feels that "Most people are satisfied with just the most basic information and the ability to get more as needed."  
 
What are your thoughts on this subject? How long are your typical eLearning lessons and courses? Send your comments by clicking here… we'll include your comments in a future issue of this newsletter.
 
Do you have a Captivate production problem that's making you pull your hair out? Email your problem and let others learn solutions from your experience.
 
 
Want to learn more about Captivate? Click here.
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Questions of the Week

Captivate Question: Can I Add Closed Captions to Failure Caption Audio

 

I've just discovered — to my horror — that I can add Closed Captions to Captivate slide audio but not failure caption audio (e.g. the failure caption for a click box). Is this true or have I missed something? 
 
Answer
 
You haven't missed a thing. You cannot add closed captions to failure captions in Captivate 3. That sure would be a nice addition to Captivate 4! 
 
 
Captivate Question: Can I Force Closed Captions to Appear Automatically?
 
Is there a way to have the closed captioned text appear automatically without the user having to click on the CC button on the control panel – maybe a setting that I missed?

Answer:

 
Captivate does not support this feature. However, as a workaround, you can add a widget to your project that would take care of this for you. Here's a link.
 
RoboHelp Question: Why Am I Getting a Message to Install a Web Browser?
 
I'm using Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML. When I try to compile my project I'm getting a message that says something like Please install a web browser. What can I do? My project will not compile at all. I'm using Internet Explorer as my Web browser.
 
Answer:
 
It sounds like Internet Explorer needs to be associated with your HTML files. Here's how you can fix the problem:
  1. Find any HTML file on your hard drive
  2. Right-click the file and choose Properties
  3. On the General tab, click the Change button to display the Open with dialog box
  4. Select Internet Explorer from the list of programs and click OK twice to close both dialog boxes.

Back in RoboHelp, you will now be able to successfully generate your project. 

Got a question you'd like answered? Email me.
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New “Skills & Drills” Books

 
This user-friendly, concise grammar workbook and reference is designed to help all of us become "word" people.
 
Whether you are a writer, editor, proofreader, manager, staff-person, or student this book is for you. "Abrams' Guide to Grammar" demystifies the rules–it provides practical experience to reinforce learning and build confidence for improved usage.
 
"Abrams' Guide to Grammar: Second Edition" covers problems of grammar and punctuation. If you communicate by composing a letter, memo, report, or email you'll benefit from this lively and instructional tutorial. What's more, if the following topics intimidate you or fly right over your head, this is definitely the book for you.
 
Here are some of the topics covered: 
  • Sentence Fragments
  • The Run-On Sentence
  • The Parts of Speech: Definitions
  • Commas with Independent and Dependent Clauses
  • Commas After Introductory Constructions
  • Commas and the Short Phrase
  • Interrupters
  • An Interrupter vs. The Conjunctive Adverb
  • Parenthetical Phrases or Clauses
  • Explanatory elements
  • Appositives
  • Possessive Case
  • The Pronouns Who and Whom
  • Verb Tense
  • Rules for Verb Tenses
  • Mood
  • Squinting Modifiers
  • Misplaced Modifiers
  • Dangling Modifiers
  • Careless Placement of Only
  • Verbal Phrase
  • Parallelism

This book also includes confidence checks and answer keys.
There is no faster way to master grammar… at any price!

About the Author:
 
Ellie Abrams is president of ESA Editorial and Training Services, Inc. Ellie has conducted training seminars to a wide spectrum of clients. Writers, editors, secretaries, managers, administrative staff, proofreaders, lawyers, educators, and scientists have befitted from her expertise. Ellie co-authored The New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage and STET Again!. 
 
Click here to order this book (or for more information).
 
Here's a special offer just for readers of this newsletter. Use coupon code 1189731762 when you order the book using the link above, and you will save 10% off of the retail price. (Note: This offer expires June 1, 2008.)
 
 
Robo-Like Efficiency Using Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML

 

By Request: Available in Downloadable PDF Format

 
If you taught yourself RoboHelp, there is a good chance that you managed to cobble together a functional Help system. But was learning the software and creating the Help system on the fly a painful experience? Did you get your work done as efficiently as possible? This book offers step-by-step lessons that will increase your efficiency with RoboHelp 7.
 
Lessons Include:

  • Environments
  • Working efficiently with MS Word
  • Variables
  • Snippets
  • Cascading Style Sheets
  • Templates
  • Conditional build tags
  • Using multiple TOCs and indexes
  • Publishing

 

Note: If you have already purchased IconLogic's "Essentials of Adobe RoboHelp 7" book, much of what you will read in the "Robo-Like Efficiency Using Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML" book can be found in the RoboHelp book (although the RoboHelp book is much larger and contains many more lessons). However, if you're using Microsoft Word as your text-authoring tool, and plan to import your Word documents into RoboHelp, we've been told that the section on Working efficiently with MS Word is worth the small price of the book all by itself. 

 
Click here for more information, or to order the book.
 
(Reminder: This book is only available in PDF format. You will be able to download and print the book almost immediately–your paid receipt will contain a link to the PDF. However, you must have the free Acrobat Reader on your computer to be able to open and print the PDF. )
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Save Gas, Save Travel Time: Attend a Live, Virtual Training Class

Learn Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite (Captivate, RoboHelp and FrameMaker) From the Comfort of Your Office or Home!

You can attend a live training class from the comfort of your home or office. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection, the necessary course software (trial versions work fine), a headset for your computer and a few hours to master the following:

Course Menu:

Adobe Captivate 3 Essentials
2-day course
Instructor: Kevin A. Siegel  


Adobe RoboHelp 7 Essentials
2-day course
Instructor: Kevin A. Siegel




Adobe FrameMaker 8, Introduction
2-day course
Instructor: Barbara Binder 





Adobe InDesign CS3, Introduction 
2-day course
Instructor: Barbara Binder




Adobe Technical Communication Suite Integration
1-day course
Instructor: Kevin A. Siegel 





Here’s how our virtual training works:

  1. Register for a class and pay your tuition.
  2. Check your email after registering… you’ll receive a receipt within minutes. The receipt contains a link to a PDF with important information about the course including date, time and login information.
  3. On the date of your class, use your computer and go the web site specified in your confirmation PDF. (If this is your first time attending a virtual class with us, we recommend you go to the class site at least 24 hours prior to ensure accessibility to the training site and download the necessary meeting software.)
  4. Also on the day of the class, hook a headset/microphone up to your computer (we use VOIP) so you can hear and speak with your fellow classmates and instructor … and that’s it.

 Note: The software courses above are taught by trainers who have consistently ranked as Adobe’s Top Five Most Highly-Rated Certified Instructors Worldwide.


Adobe Top-5 Instructor Worldwide






Need to schedule a custom class for your team? Email your inquiry.


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Ground Floor Video Production for eLearning and Web Delivery: Part 3

 
The following is the conclusion of a three-part series for the beginning to intermediate eLearning content developer. It's designed to teach, from the ground up, how to add video to content for eventual delivery on the world wide web. If you missed the first two parts, I recommend you start with the first article, Part One: Setting Up for Success. 
 
 
Part Three: Capturing, Editing and Encoding for Delivery
 
Last week you learned to shoot your video. What now? You've probably got a lot of footage in your camera. The next step is to transfer the video from your camera to your editing station. Nowadays, this step is pretty automatic. You open up the software, create a new file, attach your FireWire cable (FireWire is a cross-platform implementation of the high-speed serial data bus that can move large amounts of data between computers and peripheral devices) to your video camera, and click Import. If you've been using a mini DV camcorder, this step might take a while. On the other hand, if you've got the big budget and have been using a High Definition video camera with Flash memory, this won't take long at all.
 
Once the import process is complete, you have the raw footage ready to go. Save it, and back it up somewhere.
 
While editing techniques and practices are really outside the scope of this series, let's look at a few things to get you started.
 
Most editing software has a preview function. This is the palette that contains a preview of your raw footage. Even if you shot in relatively low fidelity, going through that footage can be very costly in terms of RAM usage, meaning your computer will begin to run very slowly. Fortunately, you should be able to lower the percentage of your preview, from 100% to, say, 50%. This will let you know what you are previewing without getting so detailed that your computer responds slowly.
 
The next step is to cut the raw footage down into the pieces that you need. You might want to backup the entire raw footage onto a portable hard drive or other inexpensive media for later use, or simply for posterity, but only keep your new, slimmed down clips on your editing machine. This will help speed things along, and you don't want your hard drive cluttered with rarely used, giant-sized video files.
 
Try to keep things as short as possible. Keep in mind that your finished video will be deployed over the Web. Longer videos usually mean longer load times or buffer under runs. If you have your choice between two takes, choose the one that has a shorter run time. That is not to say, however, that your editing should include rushed takes, or takes where the actor speaks too quickly. Just make sure that you trim time where it makes sense.
 
Don't overdo the special effects and graphics. You might run into some situations where "dazzle" is appropriate, but for the most part you won't need too much of it. I find that typography that looks good and a nice background is all I typically need. You want the learner to pay attention to the entirety of the script, not the graphics.
 
Once you are done editing the video, go ahead and extract the audio track, open it up in your editing software, and put on your headphones. Now that you don't have the video portion of your content to distract you, go to work on the audio. Save a copy, as always, in case you go a little too far. The important thing to remember, and something that really divides professional product from amateur, is that your audio collateral is just as important as your video collateral. Make sure you take the time to make it sound right. Pull out things you don't like. Augment things you do like. If it calls for it, put a very subtle filter effect on a particular word to emphasize it (be careful here, it's easy to go too far). Up the bass a little if you like, or lower the mids.
 
Listen to the audio with your eyes closed to get a good picture of what is going on in your mind's eye. This simple step can be the difference between a decent piece of content and an award-winning one.
 
Once you are done, bring the audio back into your video editor. Make sure that your timeline ends on a full second. Some encoding algorithms trip up on clips that don't end on full seconds.
 
Save your project and render it out with some good settings. This can be relatively high quality, as the next step will encode and compress. You want something here that you can archive and re-encode later if the need arises.
 
You want the rendering to be high-enough quality that if a client needs something on a DVD for a presentation, you can use it for that. For example, if I was using Adobe After Effects to render my movie, I might render it at "best" quality at 29.97 frames per second as a QuickTime movie with animation compression (I commonly change animation to H264) and the audio at 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo format. This will give you a good rendering which you can archive.
 
When the rendering is done, ask a team-member to watch the movie. A second set of eyes is crucial at this point. You want to make sure that everything makes sense and your team-member will undoubtedly see something you didn't, or hear something you didn't.
 
The final step is encoding your movie. The industry standard for eLearning content is the Flash Video (FLV). Why? FLV's are platform independent, are a brilliant codec that gets files small enough for rapid transit across the Web, and is the native video format for Flash, which is a tool pretty familiar to most eLearning developers. FLVs also integrate seamlessly with the native video capabilities of Captivate.
 
When encoding for Flash with the Flash Video Converter you want to be aware of a few things. First, the lower the bitrate, the lower the quality of the final video. Second, compressing your audio will make it sound a little weird. These are two things that you have to balance for yourself, usually via trial and error.
 
A general rule of thumb I follow is:
  • On2 VP6 video codec
  • Custom quality at 300 kbps
  • Frame rate same as source
  • Audio at mp3 64 kbps mono (this can change to a higher bitrate and stereo if you need it, but the file size will go up)
  • Crop and resize as needed. If you are delivering in a piece of Flash content, you want to size this to your player within Flash. If you are using it in Captivate, you are in luck. Captivate helps you resize this on the fly!
  • If you didn't do it before you rendered your movie, your duration should be shaved down to the nearest full second if possible. Take a little off the front and a little off the back if you need to.
That's about it. Your movie is now ready to be delivered on the Web. Go out there and make it happen! I realize that the information presented in these past three articles is a lot to digest, but you'll get through it. Video is in demand, and all the tools you need are out there. You just need to add your own perspective and make some interesting content!
 
I hope you had as much fun with this series as I did. And please don't hesitate to email me with any questions.
 
 
About the Author:
 
William A. Collins Jr. is the Creative Director for Multimedia Development at Learning Evolution. An honored graduate of San Diego State University, Will has a B.F.A. with emphasis in Graphic Design. Will infuses the entire creative department at Learning Evolution with the ideal blend of art and science. He brings a professional, abstract and friendly demeanor to all his work. Will enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife Carolyn and their one year old darling daughter, Molly Jean.
 
About Learning Evolution:
 
Learning Evolution is a recognized leader in providing best of class customized eLearning and performance improvement solutions available to clients on their Learning Management Systems and Portals. In addition to eLearning services, Learning Evolution provides in-house video and audio production facilities and expertise.