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Adobe RoboHelp: Microcontent

One of the most powerful features in any Help System is Search. In my experience, more people will use the Search feature to quickly try to find answers to questions than will use the Table of Contents or Index combined.

Search has been an essential part of RoboHelp's output for years. If a searched word is contained within a topic, and the topic is included or referenced on the TOC, the topic will be shown to the user. However, it's possible to use RoboHelp Microcontent feature and allow the user to pose questions to the Search feature using full sentences. You can prepare for those questions and create short bursts of information–microcontent–and have that content appear onscreen.

Here a quick video that shows Microcontent in action.

And if you're looking for vILT classes on RoboHelp, look no further!

 

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Adobe Captivate Mac: Fix the Missing Themes Error

I was mentoring a client on Adobe Captivate for the Mac. She received the following theme files error message when starting Captivate 2019.

ThemesError

According to Adobe support, here is the fix:

  1. Close Captivate and all other Adobe applications.
  2. Choose Go > Applications.
  3. Open the Adobe Captivate 2019 folder.
  4. Open Gallery > Layouts > 11_8 > En_US.
  5. Copy the available Themes under the En_Us folder.
  6. Choose Go > Documents.
  7. Open Adobe Captivate Project folders > Layouts > 11_8 > En_US.
  8. Paste the copied themes in the En_US folder.
  9. Start Adobe Captivate again and the error message should be resolved.

Note that if you are using more recent versions of the Mac OS, you'll need to ensure that your version of Captivate is up to date. Here's a link to the most recent build on my Dropbox.

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“TechSmith Camtasia 2022: The Essentials” Workbook

Learn to Use TechSmith Camtasia 2022 in Just One Day!

2022_0617_IP_camtasia_2022_frontcover"TechSmith Camtasia 2022: The Essentials" is a hands-on, step-by-step workbook that will teach you the essential TechSmith Camtasia skills you need to quickly get up and running with this powerful eLearning development tool.

During the real-world, hands-on activities in this book, you will learn how to create eLearning projects from scratch, how to edit existing Camtasia projects, and how to leverage existing PowerPoint presentations as eLearning.

You will learn how to use Camtasia's powerful screen recording features to create software video demonstrations.

You will use Camtasia to add animations, record and edit voiceover audio, add graphics, background music, text annotations, closed captions, quizzes, and more.

Learn to export your finished Camtasia projects so learners can access them using desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. You will export a project so it can be hosted on a web server, report results to a Learning Management System, upload to YouTube, Screencast.com, and more.

This book features:

  • All of the Camtasia projects, images, audio files, videos, and other assets needed to get started (Download and install the free Camtasia 30-day trial from the TechSmith website and jump in.)
  • Dozens of step-by-step, hands-on activities
  • Confidence Checks to challenge your new skills
  • Hundreds of supporting screenshots

Note: You will need to download the book’s data assets that have been created specifically to support this book (instructions for downloading the data assets are in the “About This Book” section at the beginning of the book). The TechSmith Camtasia software does not come with this book. The software can be ordered directly from TechSmith.

Purchase Options:

  1. Amazon.com as a physical book or Kindle
  2. VitalSource as a PDF
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TECHSMITH CAMTASIA 2022: Cursor Path Creator

I'm hard at work on my new Camtasia book, "TechSmith Camtasia 2022: The Essentials." As I poke around the new features, I'm loving one that I just found: Cursor Path Creator.

If you create videos using Camtasia, the cursor in the resulting TREC files can be modified in the Camtasia Editor (you can add highlights, sounds, etc.). However, if you create a video demo in another recording tool and forget to turn on the mouse pointer, you're out of luck… until now.

Using the Cursor Path Creator in Camtasia 2022, you can now add a mouse and control its path even if the cursor wasn't in the original video.

Check out a recording I made of the process in the video below.

 

 

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CENARIOVR: Set an Initial View

When a learner first enters a scene, they’re seeing a default initial view. You can easily control what the learner sees onscreen by editing the initial view.

To set the Initial View, click open a scenario with CenarioVR and select a scene.

On the Scenes list, right-click the scene's thumbnail image and choose Set Initial. (As an alternative to right-clicking, you can also click the Set Initial View icon just above the thumbnail image of the scene.)

Cenario-vr-initial-view

Drag the Canvas until you're happy with the view.

Cenario-vr-new-initial-view

Click the Done button.

Looking for CenarioVR training? Check out our virtual instructor-led course.

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CenarioVR: The Essentials (Book and Training)

We are proud to offer a full-day training course on CenarioVR.

Learn to create awesome virtual reality projects complete with text, images, interactive hotspots, motion paths, timed events, actions, quizzes, and more!

This beginner CenarioVR course will introduce you to the core CenarioVR skills necessary to develop awesome virtual reality projects.

As your class begins, you’ll learn about the CenarioVR interface by importing and exploring a finished project. After exploring a bit, you’ll create a project from scratch. You’ll add scenes, 360-degree images, regular images, hotspots, and audio to a scenario.

Once you’re comfortable creating projects, it’s on to the cool stuff. Add panning jumps, actions, conditional actions, motion paths, quizzes, and more.

Finally, you’ll learn how to publish a finished project for the widest possible audience (you’ll learn to publish as both HTML5 and SCORM) so that your content can be consumed by learners on just about any device, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

The course includes a digital copy of our book, “CenarioVR: The Essentials.”

CenarioVR_FrontCover

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Adobe Captivate 2019: Error Message “Update required – Your browser or operating system is no longer supported”

I was mentoring someone on Adobe Captivate 2019 today and when attempting to start Captivate she received the alert message: "Update required – Your browser or operating system is no longer supported."

UpdateRequired

Here's what her IT team did to resolve the issue:

  1. Close all Adobe applications
  2. Use this link to download a file named AASIapp.exe
  3. Once downloaded, copy AASIapp.exe and paste/replace at this location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\P7
  4. Restart Captivate
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ACCESSIBLE COLORS FOR ELEARNING: Strategies for Selecting Appropriate Color Palettes

I was teaching a virtual Camtasia class recently and, while selecting colors for a canvas annotation, we had a robust discussion about colors. Specifically, which colors work for learners who are color blind?

According to Dr. David Nichols, University of Connecticut, approximately “one in 20 people are colorblind in some way.”

When someone is colorblind, “one or more of the types of cone cells in the eyes — the cells we use to detect color — does not work normally,” said Nichols. “A person who is colorblind sees a reduced color space; two colors which appear distinct to a person with normal color vision may appear to be the same to a person who is colorblind.”

Nichols went on to say that “most people who are colorblind have some form of red-green colorblindness, such as deuteranomaly, deuteranopia, or protanopia.”

“It can be difficult or impossible to distinguish whether a given color is red or green, and shades of red and green may have very low contrast. Instead of using a color palette of red and green, consider using a similar magenta and green color palette instead,” stressed Nichols.

When adding colors to your eLearning projects, Nichols suggests using accessible color palettes. Here is an example as seen on the “Coloring for Colorblindness” website.

And check out this awesome color contrast analyzer. The tool is helpful when adding colors to your Camtasia, Storyline, Rise, and Captivate projects.

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ISPRING SUITE 10: Now with Text to Speech

iSpring continues to improve its eLearning development suite of tools. The latest improvement is Text to Speech and it works really well.

To use the Text to Speech feature, first, add the voiceover script to the slide notes. (You'll be able to use this script along with the Text to Speech feature. No retyping, no extra work.)

Ispring-suite-10-VO-Script-Narration

Select the iSpring Suite 10 tab on the PowerPoint ribbon and click Manage Narration.

Ispring-suite-10-Manage-Narration

Click the Audio drop-down menu and choose Text to Speech.

Ispring-suite-10-VO-Audio-drop-down-menu

From the lower left of the dialog box, click the Insert text from notes button.

Ispring-suite-10-insert-notes

The script you added to the slide notes earlier appears in the main area of the window.

Select the language and voice from the menus as appropriate. If you'd like, preview the voice by clicking the Preview voice button.

Ispring-suite-10-language-agent

Click the Insert button, select the slide you'd like to receive the audio, and then click the Insert button again.

Ispring-suite-10-insert

The audio appears on the Timeline. You can edit the audio clip as you would any other audio file. And you can preview the finished audio here as well.

Ispring-suite-10-done

If satisfied with the results, click Save & Close to return to the project.

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If you'd like to learn more about iSpring Suite 10, check out our step-by-step workbook: iSpring Suite 10: The Essentials.