Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Grammar Workshop: When Not to Use a Colon to Introduce a List

 
Since I discussed semicolons last week, I must this week give the colon its due. There is nothing semi about the colon. The colon is a full stop. Full stop is, of course, the British word for that other important punctuation mark, the period. And just like a period, a colon should be placed only after a full sentence.
Because the colon is used to introduce things, many of us are tempted to use it when the first, incomplete half of a sentence introduces a list, like this:
  • My favorite fruits are: blackberries, strawberries, and bananas.
The colon does not belong in this sentence, because "My favorite fruits are" is not a complete sentence. You would not put a period after are, and likewise, you cannot put a colon after are. The word are is perfectly capable of introducing the list by itself. The same is true of the words include, were, and contained, as in these sentences:
  • My specialties include baking pies, creating salads, and barbequing ribs.
  • The foods at the party were fried chicken, baked beans, and banana pudding.
  • The basket contained biscuits, rolls, and sliced bread.
As for using the colon correctly, if I know my readers, you have already noticed that I have used two colons to introduce sample sentences. Both of those colons are at the end of complete sentences. Here are some more examples of colons concluding sentences and simultaneously introducing lists:
  • There were several green vegetables on offer at the open-air market: bok choy, cabbage, lettuce, and chives.
  • Many foods evoke spring: asparagus, water cress, strawberries, fresh spinach.
Of course, introducing lists is not the only job of the colon. It can also introduce explanations and examples. More on that next time. By the way, that last example contained an asyndeton. Stay tuned for what that is all about.

About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
 
Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we'll turn Jennie loose!
Posted on

Adobe InDesign CS3: GREP Searches

 
What in the world is General Regular Expression Print (GREP)? Wikipedia defines it as "… a command line utility that was originally written for use with the Unix operating system. Given a list of files or standard input to read, GREP searches for lines of text that match one or many regular expressions, and outputs only the matching lines."
 
In other words… GREP is a way to a take InDesign's Find/Change to a whole new level. Got a problem in a document that you can't fix with a basic find and replace? Try GREP.
 
For example, the en dash is commonly used to indicate a closed range of values, such as those between dates, times, or numbers. As Jennie Ruby once told me, use an en dash when you would say the words "to" or "through", as in "see pages 14-20 in the reference guide." So what do you do when your writers use hyphens between digits instead of en dashes? You certainly can't just search for all hyphens and replace with en dashes (you'll mess up all the hyphenated words).
 
Find/Change Text comes so close. You can use the special character list to search for any digit, an en dash and any digit, but there's no way to replace the digits.
 
GREP 1
 
Enter GREP. You can enter in a fairly simple GREP query that will find all Arabic numerals with a single hyphen and change those hyphens to en dashes. Don't forget to save the Query so that you can use it again and again!
 
GREP 2
 
Intrigued? The best resource I've found so far is "GREP in InDesign CS3" by Peter Kahrel. You can purchase his 47-page PDF document here. It offers clear explanations and numerous examples of common searches.

 

About the author: Barbara Binder is the president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training. Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and was recently recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide for 2007. Barb will be your trainer for our virtual Adobe FrameMaker 8 and InDesign CS3 classes.

Posted on

Grammar Workshop: The Dreaded Semicolon

 
If there is one punctuation mark that rivals public speaking and clowns as a thing that people fear most, it is the semicolon. Maybe that is because grammar mavens and middle-school teachers tend to describe it something like this: "The semicolon functions to join somewhat causally related independent clauses within compound sentences and to separate elements of a list at least one element of which contains a comma." Ok. Got it. Well, maybe not so much. Let's break that down into what really are only two jobs for the semicolon.
 
The easier job to understand is when to use a semicolon in a list. Of course, normally commas separate the items on a list, like this:
 
  • On the hike we saw squirrels, deer, and a bear. (the second comma is optional)
Sometimes, however, an item on the list might have a comma inside it for some reason. As soon as that happens, the list becomes confusing. Readers can no longer tell which items are being listed. Here is an example:
 
  • Lyon, France, New York, and Amsterdam are the cities we will visit on the tour.
Wait a minute–France isn't a city! That's right, France is included to identify where the city Lyon is. To make this clear, we need to upgrade the commas to semicolons in order to clearly separate the list:
  • Lyon, France; New York; and Amsterdam are the cities we will visit on the tour.
The other job of the semicolon is to separate two sentences that have been combined into one. Normally, you use a comma plus a joining word like and, or, nor, yet, but, or so to separate two joined sentences, like this:
  • The designer added the final graphic, so the layout was almost complete.
Each half of this sentence could have been a separate sentence, but I chose to put them together because they are closely related. To be a little more arty, I could have used a semicolon instead of the comma and then left out the joining word (called a conjunction):
  • The designer added the final graphic; the layout was almost complete.
That's it for the semicolon. Just two jobs: Serving as an upgrade from a comma to separate list items, and separating two sentences that have been combined into one. What's so scary about that?

About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
 
Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we'll turn Jennie loose!
Posted on

Ground Floor Video Production for eLearning and Web Delivery: Part 2

 
The following is 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 it, I recommend you read last weeks article, Part One: Setting Up for Success. 
 
 

Scripts, Actors and Shooting the Video

 
The script…
 
Good scripts mean good content. A script-writer needs to think about the content to be presented, and the audience. Knowing the demographics of the audience will help you address the audience, and cater to them–a very powerful part of any eLearning course. For instance, you would write your script differently for a group of high school seniors than you would for a group of experienced software engineers.
 
The written word is very different than the spoken word. As you write your script, you need to break out, momentarily, of that narration or voice-over shell in which many developers have a tendency to feel comfortable. I would encourage you to use a conversational tone in your script-writing to avoid a stiff delivery and jarring content. Pick up a textbook and read it aloud to a friend. Then try to explain the same concepts to your friend in a conversational manner and you'll quickly see and hear the difference.
 
While writing a script, it can help to pause every once in a while and read your script back to yourself. Even better, ask a colleague to read your script to you. This simple step will most likely key you in to anything that sounds "off" or "strange."
 
The actor…
 
When the script is finished, you're ready to find your actor. Knowing your target demographic will help you pick your actor. Do you want the content to come from a peer? A supervisor? How about a character?
 
Your project might call for a round of auditions–get used to that and really pay attention to quality. Remember, the script you write and the actor who brings the script to life are likely intended for a paying customer. Both the script and actor should be of the highest-possible quality.
 
The introduction…
 
Once you've written your script and selected your actor, take the time to do a crucial, oftentimes overlooked step: introduce the script and actor to each other well before the shoot! Send the script to your actor as soon as possible. Ask the actor to come in early to go over the script with you. You can even teleconference (and use a Webcam), and make sure the actor understands the script.
 
It's important to allow everyone on your team enough time to become familiar with the content and the actor. There is nothing worse than getting someone in front of the camera for the shoot, and handing them a script to read cold. Trust me, it just doesn't work. Shooting a video isn't as simple as recording a voice-over (where you can "magically" splice things together). With video, you really have to get it right in the first place.
 
I would recommend that you prep the actor directly before the shoot. Take the time to put the actor at ease with your direction, and always treat your actors with professionalism and respect. Things will go much smoother if you direct the video in your mind before the shoot–iron things out in your head before expecting your actor to understand.
 
The shoot…
 
Once you've microphoned the actor and done a quick dry-run of the process in your mind, the first rule of thumb is to make sure you shoot as many takes as possible. I can't stress this enough. Shoot and shoot and shoot again. You don't need to be a taskmaster; give people ample breaks. But you don't want to let people leave the shoot until you have at least three good takes of everything you need.
 
Timing…
 
For a minute or two of video, you should expect to shoot for at least one hour to ensure you get through the entire take in one shot, several times. A key here is to not get frustrated. Keep your direction strong and professional, and keep a pace in keeping with the content. If you are naturally energetic in your day-to-day life, push pretty hard while recording. On the other hand, if you are a mellow kind of person, keep things mellow on the set. It's also a good idea to let the actor do a few loose takes, using his own words. Oftentimes this can yield surprisingly good results.
 
Once you are sure that everything has gone well and you can't possibly do just one more take, wrap it up. Be sure to schedule a possible date for re-takes before everyone leaves the set. You probably won't need to, because you got everything you needed, right? It's always possible that a client will request a change after you shoot. If all goes well and changes aren't necessary, the scheduled re-take day gives you a chance to follow up with your actors and team-members and tell them you won't need re-takes after all.
 
Next time: What to do with the video you've just shot 
 

 

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.
Posted on

Question of the Week

Question: Can I Force Users to Complete Captivate Lessons in Order?

 

 
We are putting together Captivate training courses that will consist of multiple modules. We would like each module to have a pre and post test. We need to have a results page after each quiz and a total of all quizzes at the end of the entire training program. If the subject fails the post quiz we want them to review the material again before heading to the next module. Is this possible? 
 
Answer
 
If your Captivate lessons are going to be individual projects, including the quizzes/assessments, your best bet is to use a Learning Management System (LMS) that features lesson prerequisites and lesson ordering (I cannot imagine an LMS that doesn't offer both of these features standard). For instance, in my LMS, I can force the learner to take specific lessons in order. In addition, I can set it up so that if the learner doesn't pass a test, they cannot move to the next lesson until they take a previous lesson (and then take, and pass, the same test.
 
While you can set up much of this in Captivate using branching links to other projects, it really works best if handled through an LMS (especially if you need to track user success/fail rates and award certificates).
 
Got a question you'd like answered? Email me.
Posted on

Link of the Week

FrameMaker 8.0.3 Patch Now Available

 

The FrameMaker 8.0.3 patch is now available. According to Adobe, the patch (8.0p276) can only be applied on top of FrameMaker version 8.0.2 (8.0p273).
 
Here are some of the features/fixes found in the patch:
  • DITA conrefs get resolved properly
  • Extended characters do not have a preceding space when using Arial Unicode MS font.
  • Catalogs sort properly.
  • Use of page range in Index does not randomly add question marks left and right in the generated index file.
  • The NextPfgTag is correctly applied when pressing Enter at the beginning of the line. 

For more information about the new features found in the patch, click here. 

Posted on

Adobe Captivate: Text Entry Box Buttons

I've had this problem sent to me via email several times in the past few months so I felt it warranted an explanation here…
 
Here's the scenario: You want to add a Text Entry Box to your Captivate simulation and allow users to type something into a field within a dialog box; and then allow them to either press [enter] on their keyboard or click the OK button to close the dialog box.
 
If I was to approach this challenge logically, I'd go ahead and insert a Text Entry box (Insert > Text Entry Box) on a slide. On the Text Entry Box tab, I'd type the correct entry into the Correct entries field.
 
Text Entry Box showing the correct entry
 
Then I'd use the shortcut keys area of the dialog box to attach a keyboard shortcut to the Text Entry Box. In the picture below, Enter is set as the shortcut.
 
Shortcut key attached to a Text Entry box
 
It's at this point that many Captivate developers go wrong. As I said at the outset, I've received several emails where developers also want to allow users to click a button (like the OK button) or press the [Enter] key. Again, following logic, they choose Insert > Button and add a transparent button onto the slide. Then they simply drag the button over the image of the OK button. Done! Not!
 
Upon previewing the slide, developers then discover that they can either type in the Text Entry Box or click the OK button (without typing anything in the Text Entry Box), but not both. Huh? What gives?
 
The problem isn't really a problem. Captivate has already assumed that you might want a clickable button on the same slide as a Text Entry Box (that works with the Text Entry Box). Curious how to get this "companion button" to appear and work with a Text Entry Box? Read on…
 
Show the properties of the Text Entry Box (you can right-click the box and choose Properties). On the Options tab, select Show button and then click OK. 
 
Show Button selected
 
In the picture below, you can see the button that goes with the Text Entry Box (it's the one that says submit) and the OK button you'd like users to be able to actually click. The final trick will be to make the button transparent so move it into position.
 
Text Entry Box button and the OK button
 
Show the properties of the submit button (you can right-click the button and choose Properties). Change the Button type to Transparent, change the Frame width to 0 and the Fill transparency to 100. (You can also attach a shortcut key for good measure.)
 
Submit button made transparent
 
Preview your work. You should be able to type text into the Text Entry Box and either press [Enter] or click the OK button.
 
Nice!

 

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.
Posted on

Questions of the Week

RoboHelp 7 Question: How Do I Get Topic Titles to Appear Instead of File Names

I am working through the Essentials of Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML. On page 96, in the Link View section the image displays the title of the individual files and the linking structure. My computer is displaying the file names (which are a tad cryptic). How can I change this to display the title?

Answer

You are currently viewing the files by File Name. Choose View > By Topic Title and you should be all set.

RoboHelp 7 Question: How Can I Get Right-Clicking to Work on the Topic List Pod?

In chapter two, p. 45, or your Essentials of Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML book, you mention that in the Topic List, topics should sort automatically.  However, in my copy of Version 7, there is not File Name/Title at the top of the Topic List.  Is there some way to turn this feature on?  Also, I’m unable to right click on any of the topics in the Topic List.  I know that it’s not a hardware feature because I’m able to right-click other areas in the application.  Any help would be appreciated.

Answer

To show the details of the Topic List pod, choose View > Details View. Your inability to right-click is another matter. I tested the Topic List pod and I was able to right-click topics in either list or detail view. Upon playing a bit more, however, I noticed that if the pod is not tall enough, right-click functionality doesn’t work if you are in list view, but does work in detail view.

Captivate vs. Presenter Question: What’s the Difference?

Do you know of any written comparison of same or different features Captivate and Presenter?  Our IT department is wanting us to try Presenter instead of Captivate saying it’s a better product.  Frankly I’m just now getting decent with Captivate and not excited about switching products.  Do you have any advice?

Answer:

The programs meet two entirely different needs. Adobe Presenter is used from within PowerPoint and allows you to basically create SCORM compliant presentations. Adobe Captivate allows you to create interactive software simulations.

Got a question you’d like answered? Email me.

Posted on

Link of the Week

Free Training Video, Part 3: Adding FrameMaker books and Documents in RoboHelp 

For the past two weeks, I’ve been telling you about free Technical Communication Suite training videos created by RJ Jácquez, Adobe’s Senior Product Evangelist. This week, I encourage you to complete RJ’s trilogy and watch Part 3, where you will learn about adding FrameMaker books and documents in RoboHelp as live links, and reusing FrameMaker content for creating Online Help systems, Searchable Knowledge bases, Performance Support systems and even Policies and Procedures.

Note: The video includes all exercise files needed for you to follow along with RJ.

Click here to watch the third video.

Posted on

Question of the Week

Question: Why Don’t My Branches Jump Backwards

Ripppp!!!! That’s the sound of my hair being yanked out in bunches! Please help! I’ve created branches in my Captivate 3 project. The buttons that go to the next slide work great. The buttons that go back to a previous slide do not work at all. When I click those buttons, the slide seems to refresh, but that’s it! Help!!! Wrrrripppppp! Help!

Answer

Unhand your hair… the solution is probably very simple. First, is the misbehavior occurring when you preview the project? Does the branch work if you publish the project?

Response from the Questioner:

Arghhhhh! I just got your response to my email and published the project as you suggested. The darned branch works wonderfully! What the heck??? I swear that the branch didn’t work when I previewed the slides prior to publishing. I spent hours on this thinking there was a problem! Rip, rip, rip! (One hair left.)

Dear Mr. Uni Hair:

You are not the first person to run into this. If you have a button on slide 10 that branches back to slide 5, but you only preview from slide 10, the button won’t be able to jump back to slide 5 since you didn’t include slide 5 in the preview. While previewing a few slides at a time is a great development strategy, keep in mind that branches may not appear to work unless you preview all of the slides in the branch.

Now, may I suggest Rogaine?

Got a question you’d like answered? Email me.