The Logical Blog

December 3, 2010

PowerPoint 2010: Secret Passageways, Part II

by AJ George

Last week I shared a couple of the lesser-known PowerPoint tricks to help speed up your workflow. This week, a few more…

Change Your Point of View… Faster

You can switch your View options by using the View tab on the Ribbon. A faster way is to use the buttons at the bottom right of the screen.

What you may not know is that holding down the [Shift] key when you click these buttons will provide even more shortcuts. To view the Master Slides, hold down [Shift] and click the Normal view button (the first one). To view the Notes Slides, hold down [Shift] and click the Slide Sorter view button (the second one). Holding down [Shift] and clicking either the Reading or Slide Show view buttons (the third and fourth buttons) will bring up the Set Up Show dialog box.

Move–But Just a Little

Have you ever tried to move something (clip art perhaps) with your mouse and found that it wouldn't move to the exact spot you wanted it to? Using the arrow keys on your keyboard will help this, but by default it will nudge the image 6 points. If this is still too far for that exact spot you are aiming for, hold down the [Ctrl] key when you are using the directional arrow key. This will move the object just 1.25 points each time instead.

You can also adjust your settings so that by default objects are nudged 1.25 points. On the View tab, click the more arrow from the Show group to open the Grid and Guides dialog box. Disable Snap objects to grid by removing the checkmark.

Be a Point Magician

I am constantly having to edit clip-art for clients so that they are more suitable for the overall look and feel of a project. Typically I do this by editing the points (right-click and choose Edit Points) of the graphic.

Be a Point Magician

If a graphic needs lots of points, adding and deleting them can become an arduous task. For instance, every time you come across a point you want to delete you have to select it, right-click and choose Delete Point. I discovered a simple time-saver to this process. Press [Ctrl] on the keyboard when selecting a point and the point is immediately deleted. Likewise, pressing [Ctrl] and clicking somewhere on the red line without a point automatically adds a point.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

December 1, 2010

Newest Flash Player Update Breaks Captivate Published Content

If you spent the Thanksgiving holiday away from your computer, the Internet and Captivate then you missed all of the excitement. It appears that the latest Flash Player update (10,1,102,64) is causing much angst in the Captivate community. It seems that if you are using Captivate 5 and included text animation in your projects, the published lessons will not play correctly in the newest Flash Player. Ouch! You can learn more about the issue here. And there is a fix for the problem here.

December 1, 2010

Adobe RoboHelp: Word 2010 Support

The following was recently announced by Ankur Jain, Product Manager, RoboHelp on the Technical Communication blog:

"Many of you must be wondering about Adobe's plans to support Microsoft Word 2010 in RoboHelp. Some of you have submitted requests for RoboHelp to support Word 2010, and many others have asked me about it in various forums. I'm pleased to announce that the next major release of RoboHelp will support Microsoft Word 2010 for all the workflows including import/linking and printed documentation output (.docx and .doc). Please note that we haven't made any announcements about updating RoboHelp 8 for Microsoft Word 2010."

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Looking to learn RoboHelp quickly? We've got a class coming up in just a few weeks.

November 30, 2010

Adobe Captivate 5: You Can Capture Time… Really!

by Kevin Siegel

You are recording a demonstration and you'd like to capture the amount of time a process takes. For instance, clicking a button in your application takes 7 seconds for the process to complete. However, when you record the demonstration, Captivate captures the button click and the resulting screen, but does not capture the 7 seconds it took for the process to conclude. In fact, Captivate's Timeline seems to have ignored the processing time altogether.

It's a real timing dilemma! As far as I'm concerned, it's a bad idea to capture the 7 second delay between one click and the next. Just because a process takes time, doesn't mean that you have to force your learner to experience the delays.

I recently worked with a client who wanted to show the actual delays a user would experience between one click and the next to make the demonstration more realistic.

Believe it or not, Captivate does have a little known or used feature that will allow you to record your clicks and the resulting delays that might occur between one screen and the next.

Show Captivate's Preferences (Edit menu if you're using Windows; Adobe Captivate menu if you're using a Macintosh).

From the Recording group, select Settings and, from the Audio Options, select Actions in Real Time.

Record Actions in Real Time

From now on, recording a 12-minute process will force your eLearning video to play for 12-minutes. A 20-second delay between clicks will result in a 20-second play time for the Captivate slide.

Fair warning however… most eLearning videos won't be better by recording Actions in Real Time. In fact, the published videos will be larger and will play longer than necessary. Be sure to go back to the Preferences dialog box and disable the Actions in Real Time option prior to recording if you don't want to use it.

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5? We are now offering Beginner and Advanced classes, as well as a half-day course on Advanced Actions. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend the classes.

November 23, 2010

PowerPoint 2010: Secret Passageways, Part I

by AJ George

When you work with PowerPoint frequently, every little tip could help improve your productivity time. A quick Google search will turn up a list of common keyboard shortcuts for working in and presenting with PowerPoint, but here are a few lesser known tips I'd like to share.

Give Yourself Room to Make Mistakes

Every time I upload a new version of PowerPoint, the first thing I do is increase the number of Undos I can make. This never fails to be a huge lifesaver for me. Choose File from the Ribbon and then select Options. Select the Advanced category. From the Editing options area, change the Maximum number of undos to 150 (this is the highest you can go).

PowerPoint undos

Setting the number of Undos this high may slow down your system. I don't notice a difference so I always keep it at the maximum number. If you notice your system being sluggish, try lowering this number by half.

Let Your Fingertips Do the Walking

Did you know that most everything in PowerPoint (and in all MS Office products, actually) can be done with keystrokes? With PowerPoint open, press the [Alt] key on your keyboard. Notice that each tab on the ribbon is assigned a letter.

The Home tab, for example, is H. Pressing any of the tabs' assigned letters will take you to that tab and reveal more key shortcuts for that tab's commands.

More PowerPoint keystrokes

Want to change your slide's layout? Press [Alt] [H] [L], use the arrow keys to move between layouts and press [Enter] to make your selection.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

November 23, 2010

Audio for eLearning: Do You Want to Sound Like a DJ?

by Rick Zanotti

One question I get asked a lot is "How can I get my eLearning audio to the point so that I sound like a DJ?"

The most sure-fire way to sound like a DJ is to have been born with great pipes (i.e. vocal cords)! But very few of us have been so blessed. So what's an eLearning developer to do? Here's some simple techniques to make your voice sound deeper.

Talk more slowly. The faster you talk the higher your voice gets. The slower you talk, the lower it gets.
Get intimate with your microphone. That means, get closer to it (maybe one to four inches away). Getting closer will engage what's called the "proximity effect," lower the sound of your voice, and make it sound fuller. But beware, if your breathing is too hard, you'll get popping sounds without a pop-filter as I discussed a few weeks ago.

These techniques won't guarantee a job in the radio industry, but they will help you get that sound you're looking for. Have fun playing with mic proximity!

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About the author: Rick Zanotti is an instructional designer, multimedia author, voice-over talent, video producer and Management consultant with more than 35 years of experience in IT and Learning. He has managed multi-million dollar projects and believes in a simple and practical approach to providing solutions. Rick founded RELATE Corporation 26 years ago, a successful eLearning and media development company. Rick teaches our Audio Basics for eLearning online class.

November 22, 2010

Adobe Captivate 5: One Spelling Option Not To Ignore

by Kevin Siegel

I am the most accurate typist in the world. Want me to prove it? Fine! I was recently working on a Captivate project that contained more than 70 text captions. I was the one who both created those text captions and typed the text.

Just prior to publishing the project, I ran Captivate's spell check utility by choosing Project > Check Spelling. And you know what? There wasn't a single typographic error on any slide… not a single one. See, that's proof that I am the most excellent typist in the world. I mean, when was the last time you aced the spell checker?

Of course, on further review, I realized that my accuracy wasn't so good. There it was, on Slide 2… the word Chicago was spelled Chiccago. Huh? Why oh why would Captivate tease me like that and have me staking a claim to the world's accuracy title? It's a cruel world!

If turns out that Captivate will not spell check words with capitalized letters (such as Chiccago). If you're like me and tend to type with two left hands, then you might want to turn that particular option off.

Show Captivate's Preferences (Edit menu if you're using Windows; Adobe Captivate menu if you're using a Mac). Select the Global category and then click the Spelling Preferences button.

Deselect Ignore Capitalized Words and click the OK button.

Captivate 5's spelling options

Run your spell check again… and prepare to relinquish your title of most accurate typist in the world (I know I did).

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Looking to learn Adobe Captivate 5? We are now offering Beginner and Advanced classes, as well as a half-day course on Advanced Actions. Both Windows and Macintosh developers can attend the classes.

November 19, 2010

PowerPoint 2010: Inserting YouTube Videos

by AJ George

According to their recent reports, every minute 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. (That's up 10 hours from their report released just last March of 24 hours of video a minute.) With all that content, there's a good chance you might find some videos on YouTube that you'd like to put in your PowerPoint presentation. I've previously written about how to go about doing this in PowerPoint 2007 with an internet connection and without an internet connection as well as how to do this in PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac. In the latest version (2010), uploading videos from the web is easier than ever. Here's how:

Find the video you would like to insert into your PowerPoint presentation on YouTube (or any other video site with an Embed code like Vimeo or MetaCafe).
From YouTube click the Embed button (found below the video) and copy the code.

Note: The latest version of YouTube offers Embed options, including video size and playbar colors. If you are going to edit these options, be sure to copy the embed code after you have made these changes, as it will change the code.
In PowerPoint, select the slide on which you would like to insert a video and from the ribbon choose Insert > Video > Video from Web Site.

Note: Your ribbon may not include the Shape Union and Shape Subtract tools seen above. If you would like to learn how to add (and use) them, check out this blog post.
The video will appear on the slide as a black box. Pull the handles at the corners to resize the video to your desired size.

When you view the presentation (by pressing [F5] on your keyboard or choosing Slide Show > From Current Slide from the ribbon) the video will appear with its playbar, ready to be played.

I was excited to see the option to easily embed YouTube videos added to PowerPoint. Unfortunately I don't think it's quite right yet, as many of the new, fancy video formatting options included with PowerPoint 2010 will not work on embedded YouTube videos. If you would like to insert YouTube videos into your PowerPoint presentation and be able to apply fancy formatting, follow steps 1-9 of these directions. When you have successfully downloaded and converted the video, choose Insert > Video > Video from File from the PowerPoint ribbon. This method takes a bit more work, but you will now be able to apply formatting to the video.

PowerPoint 2007: Insert YouTube Videos

PowerPoint 2007: Insert YouTube Videos, Part 2

PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac: Inserting YouTube Videos

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

November 19, 2010

Acrobat: CreatePDF Service in the Cloud

by David R. Mankin

There are many ways to create PDFs. If you have Acrobat Professional running on your machine, you have probably discovered that Acrobat's installation process installed a print driver for you. It's called Adobe PDF and can be used to create a PDF file from any application that has print capabilities. Some of you may even use this feature exclusively.

Now suppose you are away from your computer and you find yourself at someone else's machine, or you have a PC that does not have Acrobat Professional installed. You need to produce a PDF on the spot, but without your Adobe PDF print driver at hand, you're stuck… or are you?

Adobe has added another terrific service to their cloud. It's called CreatePDF and it offers some pretty amazing features. This is not Adobe's first online-PDF creation utility, but it certainly is the most flexible and capable. CreatePDF will allow you to convert many file types to PDF.

As useful as this is, it's just the tip of the iceberg. You can convert multiple documents into a single PDF file, and if you're using Windows, you can download and install a special print driver that will allow you to create a PDF file online from any application that can print. All this functionality is available for computers that do not have Acrobat Pro installed. Amazing!

CreatePDF Desktop Printer

Is the service free? Yes… and no. You can convert five files to PDF as a test drive, but the combining multiple files to a single PDF won't be available to you unless you subscribe to the service. The cost to use this service with unlimited conversions is only $9.99 per month. Visit https://createpdf.acrobat.com/welcome.html to give it a try or to subscribe to the service. You can access the tools from your Acrobat.com account too.

I believe the monthly fee is more than reasonable if you will be at various computers throughout your work-week, and Acrobat Pro is not always at hand. Remember, you can log in to the service from any machine with web access and a browser!

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

November 19, 2010

Grammar Workshop: Can I start a Sentence With “This”?

by Jennie Ruby

When a desperate-sounding student asked me this week why it was incorrect to start a sentence with the word this, I realized I was once again in Bogus Grammar Rule land. This bogus rule was a new one to me, but some editor somewhere was making my student miserable over it.

First, let's be clear that the actual rules of grammar, as found in grammar books, do not forbid starting a sentence with the word this. The only possible origin of such a rule is the problem of the unclear antecedent. An unclear antecedent occurs when a pronoun such as this refers back to a vague idea rather than to an actual noun or explicit statement. Some editor or teacher probably took a shortcut to help writers avoid unclear use of the word this by forbidding them from using it at the front of a sentence. Now the editor who was taught the shortcut is enforcing it as though it were a real grammar rule.

The actual guidelines for starting a sentence with this are a little more nuanced. Degrees of clarity or confusion can be created, depending on what the word this is referring back to.

Clear: The pronoun refers back to an actual noun.

To help make the process quicker, we created a document formatting template. This can be used to format new documents automatically. [If you can literally place your finger on the antecedent of this–in this case the word template–then you have a clear antecedent. You could have said This template.]

Shaky: The pronoun refers to a phrase, clause, or sentence.

The agency orders supplies from a number of different vendors. This means that no single vendor has a monopoly over the supply line. [The word this refers back to the entire sentence about vendors. Although using the word this to refer to an entire sentence is a little risky, most readers would not find this example confusing.]

Unclear: The pronoun refers to a vague idea that is not even stated explicitly in the preceding sentence.

The agency orders supplies from a number of different vendors who have different shipping practices, expense the costs through different accounts, and charge rates calculated through different algorithms. This keeps us honest. [What is it that keeps us honest? Is it having different vendors? Is it that the vendors have different methods? Is it that the complexity of the calculations keeps us from being able to cheat about the shipping costs? Most readers will have trouble understanding what the word this is referring to, and thus what the sentence means.]

The bottom line is that you can start a sentence with the word this. But you do have to make sure its antecedent–the noun or concept it points back to–is clear.

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Are you an eLearning developer who has been tasked with creating an effective voiceover script? If so, consider attending my Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts class. I also teach the Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts class.

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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. She is a publishing professional with more than 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.