Category: Uncategorized

Question: Captivate to AVI?

I am using Adobe Captivate to develop software demonstration video shorts and our Web developer is asking for AVI files rather than SWF.  To your knowledge, is it possible to generate AVI files in Captivate?  I have researched the Adobe Knowledge Base and have only found information on how to import AVI files to a project. Thanks for your help! 

Answer

You cannot publish AVIs with Captivate. However, there are aftermarket converters that may do the trick. I have an article on my BLOG that may help.

In addition, a quick Google search yielded several SWF to AVI converters you might want to investigate.

Question: Books for Captivate version 1?

I have recently attended a Captivate 3 course and used one of your books, "Essentials of Captivate 3 skills and drills learning." I found the book very helpful and easy to use however at my place of work we currently use Macromedia Captivate (Captivate version 1). Can you tell me where I can purchase a similar book, but for Captivate 1 please? 

Answer

You can still order that older book directly from IconLogic. Here’s a link. 

Question: Is there a Way to Reduce the Size of a Captivate Project?

Do you know what might cause a 6 min 41 sec Captivate file to bloat to over 200 MB? Is there something I can do to "de-bloat" it?

Answer

The culprit is likely unused assets in your project (such as backgrounds, animation or audio). Here’s a link to an article on my BLOG that will help you reduce the size of your project–often times significantly.

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

Before You Install Adobe RoboHelp 7

Peter Grainge has written an article for RoboHelp users who are upgrading to Adobe RoboHelp 7 from an earlier version. (You will also find useful information if you are installing RoboHelp for the first time.)

Peter’s article explains:

• What you need to do before installing RoboHelp 7
• What to consider before installing RoboHelp 7
• Where to find out about changes in RoboHelp 7

Click here to read the article.

by Quinn McDonald

You are a contract writer. You freelance for a living. One of your clients asks you for help with a project, and you agree to a meeting. When you get to the meeting, your client tells you about the client–a company that needs some help organizing their website, creating a site that’s easier to navigate.

You ask a few questions, and the job seems like a good fit. The pay is in line with what you ask. You agree.

And then you find out your client’s client is a company whose goals you disagree with. Not just a little, but a lot. There’s a wide breach between your beliefs and the company’s. What do you do? Refuse to take on the job? Tell your original client that you disagree with the viewpoints and turn down the job? Take the job, send a big invoice, and run?

Here are a few things to think about while you are struggling with your authenticity and the money.

• If the client’s values are repugnant to you, if you find the company unethical or immoral, don’t take the job. No amount of money will make you feel right about it, and you can’t do a good job. While you are speaking with your client, ask who the organization is. If you recognize the name, you can turn it down right away. If your client can’t reveal the name of the organization, you might want to reserve the right to withdraw once you research them. Give a deadline-24 hours.
• If the client represents a different viewpoint from yours, even one you strongly disagree with, consider taking the job. Every writer should be exposed to views they don’t agree with. It’s good for you-it helps you question your assumptions, see facts from a different perspective, and open your mind.
• If you take the job, you are required to do your best work. Every web reader deserves to read clear, concise, well-written copy. Your calling as a writer is your priority. You deliver well-written, well-organized, logical and precise writing. This is what every organization should be required to put on the web.

There are more than 100 million websites in cyberspace. Many of them are badly reasoned, horribly written and cramped with confusing and irritating navigation. A few stand out as beacons of clarity. You can contribute to the small number of sites filled with intelligent writing and good explanations. You can help others understand what the client wants to say, what they stand for. Every company deserves to have their cause clearly spelled out to let the readers understand and choose.

It’s your choice to contribute or step away. Think before you do.

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.

by Quinn McDonald

While reading a business article, I ran across a wonderful quote. But when I read the author’s name, I was surprised–it was so unlikely. Then it occurred to me: we all make assumptions about who authors, speakers, role models are, all without really knowing them. We think we know them because of what we read about them, or because what they write. But we’re just guessing. Sometimes we create entire categories and conveniently slip our favorite authors into them. There’s a name for this–stereotyping. We take our perceptions and apply them in big, broad strokes.

Test your perceptions about these popular writers. Match the quotes (1-6) with the authors. Then check your answers. The prize? A clear look at your perceptions. Have fun!

Quotes

1. "I learned from my father the value of hard work and ambition, and maybe a little something about telling a story."
2. "I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?"
3. "I loved fairy tales when I was a kid. Grimm. The grimmer the better. I loved gruesome gothic tales and, in that respect, I liked Bible stories, because to me they were very gothic."
4. "Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
5. "Life is like a movie–since there aren’t any commercial breaks, you have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of it."
6. "Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."

Authors

• Amy Tan (Author, The Kitchen God’s Wife)
• Ronald Reagan (40th President of the United States.)
• Neil Armstrong (Astronaut)
• Ernest Hemingway (Author, For Whom the Bell Tolls)
• Stephen King (Author, The Stand)
• Garry Trudeau (Cartoonist, Doonesbury)

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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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Answers: Ronald Regan-1; Ernest Hemingway-2; Amy Tan-3; Neil Armstrong-4; Garry Trudeau-5; Stephen King-6.

Publishing Adobe Captivate files on YouTube

Silke Fleischer, senior product marketing manager for Adobe Captivate, has written an article that explains how to post your Captivate projects to YouTube.

According to Fleischer, "YouTube is the number one video sharing site and a great place to post educational videos and how-to tutorials. The only problem is that YouTube doesn’t support the SWF file format, which is currently the only format Adobe Captivate generates."

Click here to read the article and learn Silke’s workaround.

Question: How Do You Force a Captivate Slide to Stick While Adding a URL Link?

One of my Captivate slides contains a button pointing to a website URL. After clicking the button and returning to the lesson, the lesson is no longer on the slide with the button. How do I stop this behavior from happening?

Answer

When setting the URL for the button, deselect "Continue playing project" from the drop-down menu at the right of the URL field.

Question: Where Can I Create Menus For My Captivate Lessons

I’m having a disagreement with one of my colleagues. He says that you can only use Dreamweaver to create menus for my Captivate published lessons. Is that so? 

Answer

Absolutely not. You can use just about any Web authoring tool to create eLearning menus. In fact, Captivate comes with an application called MenuBuilder. While not overly powerful, MenuBuilder allows you to quickly make a functional menu using many of the same features and tools found in Captivate. To start MenuBuilder, start Captivate and choose File > Record/Create > MenuBuilder project. 

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Question: Can I Keep the Tab Key From the Browser During a Captivate Simulation?

In Captivate, when I insert a Text Entry Box in a simulation with an Enter or Tab shortcut key enabled, the published movie jumps back to the beginning if a user presses the Tab and Enter keys sequentially in that order. The reverse order does not cause this bizarre behavior. The problem surfaces with and without the video controls displayed. However, I do notice when the Tab and Enter keys are pressed sequentially with the video controls displayed, they are highlighted individually in a sequential progression with each successive key press. What goes? Is there a way to prevent this unwanted behavior?

Answer

If your user is already focused on the slide, pressing TAB will move within the slide, not around the browser window. If, however, the focus is not within the slide, there is no way to prevent a TAB key press from being grabbed by the Web browser since the TAB key is used by the browser to allow navigation around the browser window.

There are some tricks you can use to help focus the text entry box on the slide so the browser doesn’t immediately grab the focus. Review this article from the Adobe forums.

Question: Why Can’t I Generate a PDF with RoboHelp 7?

I am having a problem with RoboHelp and don’t have a great internal resource to help resolve issues and was hoping you might be able to answer a question for me.

I am trying to generate an existing WebHelp project as a PDF file. When I try to generate as a PDF, the option is grayed out and not selectable. Do you know of any issues that would cause this? Any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated. 

Answer

The most likely culprit is that Adobe Acrobat Elements wasn’t installed when the RoboHelp software was installed on your computer. Without Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Elements (Elements comes free with Adobe RoboHelp 7), you won’t be able to generate a PDF when single sourcing to a Printed Document.

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

by Quinn McDonald

The evaluation form is my chance to find out if I’ve met the expectations of the class. Over the years I’ve been running training programs, a lot of interesting information has come my way. I’ve changed classes, added suggested topics, and, occasionally, wondered what would possess someone to write a particular comment on the eval form.

Adults learn differently from kids. Adults need to hear information more often, in different ways, in order to remember it longer. The word "educate" comes from the Latin "educare’ and it means ‘to pull out of,’ not ‘to stuff into." Most people in the training sessions learn a lot from sharing information with people who work in similar business environments. Maybe even more than from me.

From me, they need to hear a practical application, examples that resonate with their experience, and reinforcement. If I tell a participant they are "wrong" or their writing "isn’t up to standards" in a training class, they won’t hear anything else I say.

My classes are short–one or two days. I can’t teach someone how to write in that time, or how to do presentations. But I can give them tools to use that will make them a better writer or presenter over time. And one way I do it is to find something to praise in every piece the participant reads or demonstrates in a presentation. By praising them for something they are doing well, it is more likely they will continue to do it. That alone will make them a better writer or presenter, and that’s my goal. I’m not a magician, just a trainer.

But every now and then, I get a comment on the evaluation form that baffles me. "You should be harsher in your criticism," said one. A few months later I got the more enigmatic,"You did not criticize other people’s work strongly enough." I’m still not sure if they thought other’s work needed to be critiqued or if I had said something they interpreted as harsh. A few weeks ago I found this on an evaluation, "This isn’t a New Age training center, I expect some criticism that stings so I can improve." Really? What experience has that person had that makes a sting feel worthwhile? Is that person a manager? Does a sting produce good results and loyalty?

I’ll take being marked down if encouragement is New Age. I’d like to see a whole New Age of kindness and encouragement. I think we need it.

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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.

Question: What Do I Do if Adobe RoboHelp 7 and Word 2007 Are Not Getting Along?

I am using RoboHelp 7 as my Help authoring tool and Word 2007 as my word processor. When attempting to generate printed documentation with RoboHelp 7, I get a Word 2007 "macro" error. I have used Word 2003 in the past and could easily disable the macros. I am at a loss how to do this in Word 2007. Any ideas?

Answer

I can recommend two articles that will help. One is an article about the trouble people are having with macro security in Word 2007 and RoboHelp 7. Click here to read that article. And here is an article about how to disable macros in Word 2007.

Question: Can I Stop Captivate Text Captions From Resizing on Their Own?

Is there a way to prevent text captions from resizing after you go in and change one (or 2, or 10, etc.?)  I have Captivate 3, and this happens all the time to me when I have to tweak a caption. 

Answer

You sure can! Choose Project and deselect Autosize Captions.

Question: Can You Score Multiple Quizzes Independently in Captivate 3?

I have a simulation that has three branches.  The user makes a choice early on, slide 5.  When the user gets to the end of the first branch, the user can either end the whole simulation, or go to a different branch.  At the end of the second branch,  the user can either stop or  go through the third branch.  So the user can go through all three branches or do just two or just one. The problem is the scoring.  Whether the user goes through one, two, or three branches, only one branch will be scored, and the user will fail, because the simulation is basing the score on 108 slides, but the maximum it will score correctly is about 40. Any ideas on how to fix this? Or if it can be fixed? I am in Captivate 2.  We haven’t gone to Captivate 3 yet.

Answer

There is only one results slide for an entire Captivate project (even in Captivate 3). The three quizzes are actually considered one large quiz so the results slide considers the questions in the other quizzes wrong if they aren’t answered by your users. To get around this Captivate limitation, I would suggest that you split the branches into three different projects and "link" them together via a menu.

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Add Right-Click Functionality to Captivate Simulations

William Heinz, OpenSky Learning, Inc., has come up with a clever way to add right-click functionality to your Captivate simulations… and you won’t have to worry about knowing JavaScript.

According to Heinz, "Most software today uses right-click functionality to accomplish various software tasks. In Adobe Captivate, you can add click boxes that support left and double-click. The right-click functionality is trapped by the Flash Player to display the player menu. Right-click functionality is an essential tool for creating software testing using Adobe Captivate, and it greatly enhances the ability of Adobe Captivate to teach software applications. The approach described in this tutorial allows you to size and place the right-click area almost as intuitively as adding a Adobe Captivate Click box. The solution will work with Adobe Captivate 1.01, Adobe Captivate 2, and Adobe Captivate 3."

Click here to read the article.

Automate the Process of Creating Numbered Lists in Microsoft Word

David Knopf, president and founder of Knopf Online, wrote a wonderful article a while back about numbering lists in Microsoft Word. Specifically, you’ll learn how to actually make the numbered lists work, especially with RoboHelp.

According to Knopf, "…it’s difficult to number lists automatically. The (Word) Numbering  toolbar button doesn’t work reliably, and neither does RoboHelp’s Topic Text Numbered style.

"…many RoboHelp users have reverted to "manual" list numbering, which is both time-consuming and error-prone. You can automate the process of creating numbered lists in Word and completely insulate yourself from the Word bug that has plagued so many Help authors."

Click here to read the article.