adobe – Page 2 – The Logical Blog

August 7, 2023

Adobe Captivate 12: Button Icons

As I continue exploring the all-new Adobe Captivate 12 and its sparkling new interface, "hidden" gems are discovered. One such gem is button icons.

Add a button to a slide by clicking Add interactive components and choosing Button.

On the Canvas, select the button. Then, on the Visual properties panel, Appearance area, click Icon.

Toggle the ICON on; the selected button gets a star icon by default.

Change the icon by clicking the Choose icon folder.

The Assets in the current release of Captivate 12 include nearly 300 icons (I'm hoping the next release has thousands). I used the bell icon and clicked Replace icon.

And then I changed the icon's color.

Check out this video demo on Adobe Captivate 12 and button icons.

If you'd like training, mentoring, or Adobe Captivate development, we're here to help! And if you are still using Adobe Captivate Classic, we've got you covered there too.

April 25, 2023

Adobe Captivate 2019: Is a Non-Responsive Project Still Mobile-Friendly?

I received the following question from a former student who attended one of my vILT Adobe Captivate training courses.

During the class, you told us how to make a project responsive without creating a “responsive project.” I’ve tried to find that part of your recorded sessions, but I’m not having much luck. Can you remind me of how this is accomplished?

You cannot create a responsive Captivate project without creating a responsive project (File > New > Responsive project). If you work in standard Captivate (File > New > Project), as most people do, the output will not be responsive at all. However, being non-responsive does not mean that your published output will not work on mobile devices. Because you’re publishing as HTML5, mobile support is there by default. However, you need to remember to select “Scalable HTML Content” in the Publish dialog box prior to publishing.

Once you do that, not only will the project work on mobile devices, it will resize automatically to support all screen sizes.

March 9, 2023

Adobe RoboHelp 2022: Update 1 Now Available

Adobe recently released the first update for RoboHelp 2022. The update contains several improvements, including a redesign of the CSS editor, table header row styles, an additional field for topic notes, a collapsible right panel, integration with DeepL translator, and custom metadata for PDFs. There are fixes for Word import and security-related issues as well.

To get the update, start RoboHelp and choose Help > Check for Updates.

Here's a list of what's new and changed:

And here's a list of the bugs that were fixed.

March 7, 2023

Adobe Captivate: Understand Project Cache and Save Some Cash

When I teach my Adobe Captivate Classic classes, we cover application Preferences fairly early. If you're on a PC, choose Edit > Preferences. If you're on a Mac, choose Adobe Captivate > Preferences. From the top of the Preferences, click General Settings.

You will see two options in the Default Locations area: Publish at and Project Cache.

The Publish At option allows you to specify where your projects are published. That makes sense. The less obvious feature is the role of Project Cache. According to Adobe, the Project Cache folder contains all of your projects' components until you click the Clear Cache button. The cached assets make the process of opening, saving, and working on a project faster.

Note: In the image above, I created a folder named Cache directly on my hard drive. You can create the Cache folder anywhere you like, provided the location is not a network resource. Do not delete your Cache folder (or click the Clear Cache button in the image above) unless you have a project backup. Without the contents of the Cache folder, the steps listed below to recover a corrupt project will not work.

Should your Captivate project become corrupt or get misplaced, and you have the backup file, change the name of the backup file to new_name.cptx and you're all set. If you don't have a project backup and the only version of your project refuses to open, the cached version of the project will come to your rescue. Assuming you know the location of your project cache folder, you should be able to resurrect a project by following the steps below (the xxx in the example below will be different on your system).

Special thanks to fellow Captivate developer Rod Ward, Director of Infosemantics, who had the misfortune (or fortune, depending on how you look at the world) of working with a Captivate project that refused to open. Rod used these steps and was able to get back in the game.

Find the project cached folder (for example, C:\Users\your name\Documents\Adobe Captivate Cached Projects\CPDxxxxx\db).
This is the default location of the cached project, and you can change this via the Global Preferences, as mentioned above.

The folder will contain the following:

A folder called Compressed_data. (This folder will contain several cpd files.)

A folder called Objects. There should be a file within the folder called objects.cpo. The size of this file should be greater than 0 kb.

A folder called uncompressed_data.

A file called audio.cpad.

A file called info.cpi.

A file called text.cptd.

A file called thumbnails.cpth.
Select the files named above and use them to create a zip file.
Note: There may be other folders and files in the db folder mentioned above. Be careful to not include any other files in the zip other than those listed above. According to Rod, "the other files that might be there seem to be files used in locking the project so that you cannot inadvertently edit two of them at the same time."
Change the extension of the zip file to cptx and the file should open in Captivate.
"Captivate saves one of these db folders each and every time you save a project file," said Rod. "If you don't have success with the first one you try (possibly because it is too corrupted), you can always try another one further down the list by looking at the time the folder was added."

Rod went on to say: "The naming structure of the folders provides no clue as to which CP project corresponds to which cached folder. If you happen to be working on several projects simultaneously, it can take a bit of digging to find the one that you want. You have to keep creating and opening these zips until you get lucky. This, of course, is not a problem if you know the exact time when you happened to be saving a particular project."

February 15, 2023

Adobe RoboHelp 2022: Expanding Text

Given the speed of today's internet, modern users help fast when they need it. And gone are the days when help topics bloated with too much text are acceptable.

Instead, users expect easy-to-read topics that are short and to the point. If your RoboHelp topic is long and you are truly unable to cut content, expanding text might be a viable option. Using expanding text, the content remains but only appears "on-demand" should a user click a link.

To create expanding text, highlight the content you want to expand and cut it to the clipboard.
Select the text that you want to be clickable.
On the toolbar, click Create Expanding Text.
Paste the clipboard contents over the expanding text placeholder content and you're done!

To see expanding text in action, check out this video demonstration.

If you need training on Adobe RoboHelp, check out our vILT options.: https://www.iconlogic.com/instructor-led-training/software-title/robohelp.html. Prefer a RoboHelp mentor or help with development, we've got you covered there, too: https://www.iconlogic.com/consulting-development-design/consulting-mentoring-services/consulting-and-mentoring-all.html,

February 13, 2023

Adobe FrameMaker: Symbols, Superscripts, and Character Formats

I recently mentored someone on Adobe FrameMaker. As a follow-up, I received the following request for help regarding working with symbols and baseline shifts.

I hope this email finds you well. I’m still improving upon my FrameMaker skills, thanks to you! I’ve been searching for a way to change the baseline of a character. In the legal copyright and trademark statement, I want a symbol such as a copyright but have it large enough for the general public to read. I can set my character designer at a larger font; however, it is too high. Does Framemaker have the ability to change the baseline of a character?

Here is one quick solution:

Choose Format > Character > Designer and set the window to As-Is. (The As-Is option will let you select which specific attributes get included with the new style.)

From the lower left of the dialog box, select Superscript.

Create a new style called something like Copyright symbol.

Type some text in the FrameMaker document and then go to the Insert menu and choose Symbols > Copyright.

For the moment, the symbol is aligned with the text. But not for long.

Choose Format > Character > Catalog.

Select the symbol and then, from the Character Catalog, click your new Copyright symbol character style.

The selected symbol is now raised above the baseline.

February 6, 2023

Adobe RoboHelp: Searching Made Even Better

When I teach RoboHelp, I tell my students and the three main areas users will rely on to get help in a help system are the table of contents (TOC), Index, and Search. Of the three, Search wins the award for being the most used feature.

One thing to avoid in a TOC is bloat–a TOC that has so much content that it's difficult, if not impossible, to find anything quickly. Because users will first rely on Search, keeping the content on the TOC streamlined is a great idea. However, if a topic is not on the TOC or referenced by a link or cross reference by something on the TOC, the topic won't be searchable. This presents a conundrum. If you want to keep your TOC streamlined, but the TOC is tied to Search, what's a RoboHelp developer to do?

The solution is to create an extra section on the TOC. Put anything you want to be searchable in that section. (You can add all of your topics if you'd like.)

On the Content Properties panel, select Hide in output.

Generate the output. The "hidden" TOC content will not appear on the TOC, but will be searchable.

Check out this video demonstration of the process.

January 19, 2023

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!

September 30, 2020

ADOBE CAPTIVATE 2019: The Fastest Way to Start a New Project with Content and ID

Adobe Captivate makes it possible to rapidly create new eLearning projects. The process is as simple as File > New Project > Blank Project.

If you go that route, you'll get a new project with a single slide that looks like this:

It's a simple thing to add text to the slide (double-click the placeholder and type the new text). And adding slides to the project is simple too (Insert > New Slide from). However, if you're not an instructional designer, it's likely that you're not clear on the structure of the course or that the project should include standard slides such as an overview slide and a lesson review slide. If you're not a graphic designer, adding some cool visuals to your project may be out of your comfort zone as well.

And that's where Captivate's Project Assets prove invaluable.

From the top right of the Captivate window, click Assets.

From the list at the left, click Projects. From here, you can add single slides to your existing project or create a whole project, complete with instructional design ideas.

In my example, I selected Projects. Then I selected the Earth project and clicked the Open as a New Project button.

The resulting project is as complete (45 slides containing images and placeholder objects) as it is visually stunning. There are instructional design suggestions, navigation slides, interactive slides… everything you need to get your new project out of the starting gate and moving at a full gallop.

In the image below I edited the text and replaced the placeholder image in about 10 seconds.

Give the free Captivate assets a try and I'm betting that you'll agree that there's no faster way to get new eLearning projects up and running.

***

If you're looking to learn Adobe Captivate, we've got a nice collection of live, online Captivate classes (all of the classes are taught by certified trainers who are also experienced eLearning developers).

April 27, 2020

ADOBE CAPTIVATE: Updating Images Project-Wide

Adding an image to an Adobe Captivate project is simple: use the Media tool on the toolbar or import the assets into the Library and then drag the imported assets onto Filmstrip slides.

But what if you've imported an image into Captivate and then the image is updated outside of Captivate. How can you get the updated image into your project and have the image update across the entire project?

In the image below, notice that I've imported an image of a city skyline. I'm using the image on multiple slides. The image's slide location and size are different on each slide.

I originally imported the image from my corporate server. The designer edited the image in Photoshop by adding a filter.

I received an email alerting me to the change and was instructed to use the updated image in my Captivate project. I opened the project. Sadly, the image did not update automatically on any of my slides. No worries. On the Library, I right-clicked the image and chose Update.