The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Adobe Captivate 4: Backup, Backup, Backup

by Kevin A. Siegel

It's the beginning of a new week. Look at you... all rested from a glorious weekend. Now it's time to start Captivate, open that pesky project and continue along your merry way to eLearning glory.

Before moving forward with your Captivate development today, I suggest you back up... or should I say "backup."

As simple as the concept of backing up your work might be, I am constantly surprised when I hear from even veteran Captivate developers that a project has become corrupt (the project, which was fine yesterday, won't open today). The fix? If the project won't open, there's a good chance that the only thing anyone can do is copy a backup project to the local disk and then open the backup. Oh, you don't have a backup? Ouch!

Save yourself a lot of aggravation by copying your project files from your local disk to a backup drive on your network (even a Flash drive is okay). On my computer, I have a folder called Captivate Projects. I drag the entire folder to my off-site network drive before I leave my computer for any length of time. Why offsite? What happens if, God forbid, your office is broken into and your fancy laptop ends up in the wrong hands? What happens if there's a fire? A flood? If your backup was on the same computer that was just stolen, or your network drive is in the same location as the fire, you're asking for trouble.

What's that you say, you can't remember to backup your stuff. I feel your pain... it's not fun to backup your stuff and it takes time. In addition to manually backing up my project folder each day, I purchased a program that automatically backs up my stuff to an off-site drive once a week. The program I use is called PC Backup Pro. At $50 it's inexpensive and well worth a look (if you are looking for a side-by-side review and comparisons of the top 10 backup programs, this site might prove interesting--PC Backup Pro made that list).

BAK, BAK, BAK!

Another way to protect yourself from corrupt files is to allow Captivate to creates a backup file of your project when you save it.

Choose Edit > Preferences. In the Preferences dialog box, select General Settings from the Global menu. Select Generate Project Backup. (Note: The option is enabled by default.)

From now on, when you re-save your Captivate project the changes will be saved to a backup file with a .bak extension.

If your Captivate project file becomes corrupt, and you forgot to backup the project to a network drive, you can use the backup file to recover your project. All you will need to do is rename the backup file using a .cp extension and then open it with Captivate.

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Need to learn the basics of Adobe Captivate 4 fast? I have two live, online classes that will have you creating killer eLearning lessons with Captivate in a few short days. Click here for more information about my Captivate beginner class. Looking for more Advanced Captivate 4 training? I've got you covered. Click here for more information.

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Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic.

Adobe RoboHelp: What's Up With the Yellow Alert?

Question:

 

I'm using Adobe RoboHelp 8 and my Single Source Layout is WebHelp. When I generate the project and View the results, I notice there's a yellow warning in my browser window. I can click the alert and the WebHelp looks great. Is there any way I can get rid of that yellow alert? I know it's going to make my customers nuts.

 

Answer:

Because of increased security restrictions found in newer versions of Internet Explorer, you'll need to enable Add Mark of the Web. Show the Properties of the layout and select Add Mark of the Web. Regenerate and view the layout--your problem should be solved.

Acrobat 9: Clear the Decks!

by David R. Mankin, the Acrobat Czar

Loaded to the brim with features, Acrobat 9 has something for everyone. Need to deliver a video? Acrobat's got you covered. Want to send a friend a poster, images and a recording from that great performance you attended? Acrobat can do that. Need to send out a form so your customers can fill out your survey with the responses tracked automatically? Need Full screen presentations that will play on a Mac or Linux machine? Acrobat, Acrobat!

With all of these amazing "super features," Acrobat's interface can become a bit cluttered, and therefore distracting if you want to simply read the text of a PDF document. Here is a screenshot of what Acrobat looks like on my computer on any given day:



There are toolbars and navigation panels everywhere, and although they are useful they can get in the way of reading the words on the page. One way to minimize clutter is to use Acrobat's Reading Mode. Either choose View > Reading Mode or press the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl] [H] (I think Hide).

Once in Reading Mode, the navigation panels vanish, the toolbars go away, and you are left with essentially an electronic piece of paper on your screen.



If you were to press [Ctrl] [h] again, you would quickly find yourself back in your original view.

Believe it or not, Acrobat is loaded with wonderful features like Reading Mode. Interested in learning more? Join me online and learn, hands-on, how to unlock the power of Acrobat. Click here for more details.

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In addition to being the nation's Acrobat Czar, 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 Acrobat.

Adding a Text Panel to a Captivate Project Using Photoshop

In a short how-to video, RJ Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe, demonstrates how Captivate and Photoshop can be used together. RJ uses one of Photoshop's default actions to quickly add a Text Panel to a Captivate project. Click here to watch the video.

Adobe FrameMaker: Custom Dashes

by Barbara Binder 

I don't need dashed lines very often in FrameMaker, but when I do, sometimes I need something different than the standard fare found in the Dashed Line Options dialog box (you can display this dialog box by clicking the set Dashed Line Pattern button on the Drawing Toolbar).



If you'd like to have custom dashes appear in the dialog box shown above, you can customize dashes and lots of other cool stuff by editing the FrameMaker initialization file called maker.ini. This file is read each time FrameMaker is started and any changes you make to maker.ini will affect FrameMaker from that point forward. A word to the wise, however: back up the maker.ini file before you make any changes. You may need to restore it later if your edits don't work.

Here's how you can edit the maker.ini file:

Open C:\Program Files\Adobe\FrameMakerX\

Find and open maker.ini in a text editor like Notepad.

Scroll down until you find the following text:

[DashPatterns]
;---------------------- Dash Pattern Definitions ------------------
1=Dash, 8, 6
2=Hidden, 4
3=Longdash, 16, 10
4=Dot, 2, 4
5=Dash-Dot, 12, 6, 2, 6
6=Dash-Dot-Dot, 12, 6, 2, 6, 2, 6
7=Chain, 12, 6, 6, 6
8=Phantom, 20, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

You can change any of the text by using numbers representing the line lengths and gaps (in points). For example:

[DashPatterns]
;---------------------- Dash Pattern Definitions ------------------
1=BasicDash, 4, 4
2=ShortDash, 2,4
3=LongDash, 8, 2
4=ReallyLongDash, 16, 2
5= TooManyDots, 1,1
6=DashDotDashDash, 12, 6, 2, 6, 12, 6,12,6
7=TheBarbBinderDash!, 12, 8, 2, 2, 12, 6
8=Chain, 12, 6, 6, 6

Save the make.ini file and resart FrameMaker. Display the Dashed Line Options dialog box and voila! Your custom dashes appear in the Dashed Line Options dialog box. Cool!

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Need some more help with FrameMaker? I've got an online Introduction to FrameMaker 9 class coming up October 22-23, 2009. Sign up today.

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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.

Security Update Available for RoboHelp Server 8

A critical vulnerability exists in the current version of RoboHelp Server 8. This vulnerability could result in an unauthenticated user uploading and executing arbitrary code. Click here for more information and the fix.

Adobe Captivate 4: Form Meets Function... Drawing Shapely and Interactive Objects

by Kevin A. Siegel

I received an email from a Captivate developer last week wanting to know if it was possible to create click boxes into any other shapes than the boring old squares or rectangles. Interesting question, and the answer is: "Nope." When it comes to click boxes, the shape of the box has always been rectangle or square.

Bummed out? Don't be. In Captivate, things aren't always black and white. While click boxes cannot be made into complex shapes, you can accomplish much of what you can do with a click box by using a Rollover Slidelet instead--and Rollover Slidelets can be redrawn on the fly into complex shapes.

Insert and Reshape a Rollover Slidelet

To insert a Rollover Slidelet, choose Insert > Standard Objects > Rollover Slidelet.

Upon inserting the Rollover Slidelet, you will have two objects on your slide: the Rollover Slidelet and a Slidelet.

To make the Rollover Slidelet behave like a click box, right-click the Rollover Slidelet and choose Properties. On the Rollover Slidelet tab, select Navigate from the "If the user clicks inside the Rollover Slidelet" area. Then you can click the desired navigation from the On Click drop-down menu.

If your goal is to make the Rollover Slidelet behave like a click box, you'll probably want to ensure the Slidelet doesn't appear on the slide when the customer clicks the Rollover Slidelet.

Right-click the Slidelet and choose Properties.

On the Options tab, deselect Visible (remove the check mark from the box) and then click OK.

And that's that... ummmm, except for the complex shape part that was what you were trying to create all along. To take care of that final chore, simply right-click the Rollover Slidelet and choose Edit Points.

Drag the points around to suite your needs--or your shape. When you click outside the shape, the Rollover Slidelet will take on the its new form.

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Need to learn the basics of Adobe Captivate 4 fast? I have two live, online classes that will have you creating killer eLearning lessons with Captivate in a few short days. Click here for more information about my Captivate beginner class. Looking for more Advanced Captivate 4 training? I've got you covered. Click here for more information.

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Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic.

Acrobat 9: Look Up!

by David R. Mankin

When I went off to college, my family bought me a dictionary. It was new, crisp and up to date. Oh yes, it weighed a ton! I still have it, but it is certainly not new, crisp, or even up to date now. It is, however still heavy. That's one reason it has remained untouched for years on my bookshelf. The other reason it hasn't been used in a while is because many dictionaries have been made available online for anyone to use for free.

Adobe has wisely anticipated this workflow scenario: While reading a PDF file, you come across a word you don't know. You'll want to either memorize or copy the word, open your web browser, navigate to an online dictionary site, type or paste in the word and then finally read its meaning. Whew... that's just too much work. To jump from the first step to the last step immediately, try this cool trick:

1. Highlight a word.
   
   
2. Right-click the word and choose Look up.
   
   
   
   
   Acrobat opens your default web browser and takes you directly to dictionary.com--AND queries the highlighted word (you are presented with the definition immediately).
   
   
   
   
   
   Not only is this feature available in Acrobat Pro, but it even exists in Reader. To illustrate this visually (along with just how universal PDF files are), here is a screenshot of the same document open in Reader... in Linux! Sweet.
   
   
   

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Join me online and learn, hands-on, how to unlock the power of Acrobat. Click here for more details.

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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.

Adobe FrameMaker: Table Ruling Styles

by Barbara Binder 

So you are designing the first of oh, let's say, 500 tables in a FrameMaker book. You are knee deep in Table Designer, trying to come up with a nice clean way to present your tabular data. You get to the Ruling property sheet of the Table Designer, and just don't like any of the standard choices: None, Double, Medium, Thick, Thin, Very Thin. What's a designer to do?

A little known fact about table rules is that they live in the Custom Ruling & Shading Dialog box. If you don't like the ones you see you can either change them or add new ones. It's this easy:

1. Choose Table > Custom Ruling & Shading.
   
   
2. Select a rule from the Apply Ruling Style list and then click the Edit Ruling Style button.
   
   
3. If you'd like to simply change an existing rule, pick a new color, pen pattern or line width (or if you'd like to preserve the default rules and add a new one, type in a new name and then pick a new color, pen pattern or line width).
   
   
4. Click Set.

The next time you look at the drop down lists in Table Designer, your new and/or improved choices will be there!

Need some more help with FrameMaker? I've got an online Introduction to FrameMaker 9 class coming up October 22-23, 2009. Sign up today.

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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.

BYOL eLearning Conference

I'll be presenting a session on "The Convergence of eLearning and Online Training: Effective Tools and Techniques" at this year's DevLearn 2009 on November 12, 2009 in San Jose, CA. I'll also be participating in a panel discussion about Trends in Software User Assistance and Its Application to eLearning.

Click here to learn more about DevLearn 2009.