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Localization: Training and Development in Mexico

by Jen Weaver  

Because Mexico is  our neighbor to the south, Mexican culture may be familiar to most Americans. Whether you will find this information new or just a refresher course, let's explore some common cultural facts about Mexicans and their expectations when it comes to Training and Development.

Test Your Knowledge of Mexican Culture

1. True or False. The official name of Mexico translates to "The United States of Mexico."
2. True or False. Mexico's official religion is Catholic.

Quick Tips for Training & Development in Mexico¹:

• Mexican communications include elaborate and extensive demonstrations of courtesy. Culturally, many Mexicans find it difficult to say "no," so they may agree to decisions or tasks without fully understanding the expectations but will avoid asking clarifying questions. You may find that those with higher levels of education may be more prone to request further details.
• While generally deemed acceptable in business interactions, intense constant eye contact may be interpreted as aggressive or threatening in other settings. During casual interactions, for example, intermittent eye contact is more appropriate.
• Authority figures are commonly perceived as corrupt, so most Mexicans will be skeptical of those in positions of leadership. Overcome this by being warm, personable and courteous. Demonstrate trust and goodwill while building relationships and maintaining professionalism.
• Mexicans are typically risk-averse and highly resistant to change. Subjective feelings on a topic guide an individual's perspective on what is true or right. Generally speaking, however, those with higher levels of education will give greater weight to objective facts than straight emotions or gut feelings when making decisions.
• Family is highly valued, and individuals will commonly make decisions based on the best interests of their family unit. Even with such a prevalence of machismo in Mexican culture, the mother is typically viewed as the central figure in the family due to her protective nature. However, the father may still garner the most respect.
• Business opportunities rely heavily upon building relationships, with relationships taking priority over expertise. Take time to get to know your students and key decision-makers in advance, especially when interacting with high-ranking professionals or governmental officials, as this will aid in their receptivity to your message.
• Priorities in time are given to building relationships, not to necessarily ending the meeting on schedule. While business meetings often end late, they will typically begin on time. So, be sure you are punctual. For casual gatherings, everything will typically start and run later than planned.
• As relationships develop, your Mexican counterpart may transition to using first names when you communicate. Wait for him or her to make this change; otherwise, use educational or business titles to address each other.
• Business settings are more relaxed than here in the States, and decision-making is a lengthy process. Build buffers for delays into your class timelines to allow for multiple conversations. Once a decision has been made, implementation processes are usually faster than here in the States, as Mexican businesses face less requirements and paperwork.
• Be mindful not to publicly criticize anyone, as individual dignity and respect are highly valued.
• High-end sharp-looking visuals are appreciated, so be sure to use quality graphics in your training materials.

Answers The Trivia Above:

1. True.
2. False. Mexico does not have an official religion, although Roman Catholic beliefs are very prevalent.

References:

 

¹Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.

 

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Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions. And if you love Jen's articles, check out her new Localization mini courses.

Writing & Grammar: Synch or Swim?

by Jennie Ruby 

 

How do you spell the shortened form of the word synchronize? Is it synch or sync? I have seen it both ways recently, so I checked out the Webster's dictionary. I found that sync is the more frequently used variant, but that both spellings are listed. So which one is better?

It turns out that when Webster's lists two spellings of a word, they may have the word "or" or the word "also" between them. The word "or" tells us that the two variants are used equally and often, whereas the word "also" tells us that the second one is significantly less often used.

Meanwhile, the next listing in the dictionary was lip-synch, spelled with the h. Go figure.

How about dialogue versus dialog? The dictionary lists dialogue first, in such uses as for a dialogue in a play, or dialogue between two people. However, dialog box uses the variant without the -ue on the end. So in the software training industry we see the secondary variant far more often.

This week's challenge is not so much a test to see if you can get the answers right, but more a survey to see which is your preference. Survey results (and correct answers to the last two Confusing Words challenges) will be coming soon.

1. During the role-play we set up a dialog/dialogue between two class participants.
2. We catalog/catalogue the results from all of our quizzes for later data analysis.
3. I need to synch/sync my phone with my Outlook calendar.
4. The two devices were already in synch/sync.
5. The professor served as an adviser/advisor for the online class.
6. The high-tech/hi-tec solution did not work.
7. The wifi/wi-fi in our office was down all afternoon.

When ready, post your answers below as comments.

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If you love Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

eLearning: Add Some Character to Your Lessons

by Kevin Siegel   

Let's face it, some of the eLearning content you are required to create is a bit... shall we say, dry? A tad boring? A teeny bit heavy on the text and short on graphics?

One easy way to spruce up your eLearning content is to add characters (or guides). But where do you find quality images to use as guides? The good news is that both Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate offer some awesome, and most importantly, free Characters--out of the box.

Let's take a look at the Character features in both programs. While Characters have been around for several years in Captivate, and in both versions of Storyline, the images below are taken from the most recent versions of both programs, Captivate version 8; Storyline version 2.

Articulate Storyline 2

To insert a Character on a Storyline slide, open a slide and from the Insert tab on the Ribbon, click Character. You'll find two choices in the Character drop-down menu: Illustrated Character and Photographic Character.

 

In the image below, I've selected Illustrated Character, which opened the Characters dialog box. From here, you'll find multiple Characters, Expressions, and Poses.



I found the Expression options particularly cool... plenty from which to choose.



Shown below are Storyline's many poses. And if you look in the lower right of the dialog box, you'll even find three pose directions (Left, Front, Right).



And perhaps my favorite thing about Storyline's Characters is how easy it is to change the appearance of an inserted Character. In the Image below, notice that you can select a Character and totally change it to another character, change its Expression, Pose... even its Perspective. Simply awesome!



If you'd rather work with Photographic Characters, go back to the Character drop-down menu and choose Photographic Characters. As with the Illustrated Characters, you'll find multiple actors and poses.





Adobe Captivate 8

To insert a Character in Adobe Captivate, simply choose Media > Characters.



Similar to Storyline, Captivate's Characters dialog box presents you with several Categories, Characters, and Poses. (In the image below, I've selected a Character and Pose from the Business Category.)



If Captivate's Illustrated Characters work better for you, choose Illustrated from the Category drop-down menu and you'll be presented with four Illustrated Characters and various poses.



If you want to change the Character's pose in Captivate, you'll need to manually delete the Character from the slide and replace it with another (not as cool as Storyline's edit-on-the-fly technique, but perfectly functional).

Note: The Characters shown above aren't limited to Storyline and Captivate. You'll find many of the same Characters in Presenter.

 

Downloadable eLearning Characters

If you're not happy with the selection of characters that come with those programs, you'll find resources on the web offering thousands of eLearning characters. While you'll need to purchase those characters (typically in groups or packs), you are almost guaranteed to find the perfect character to fit within your scene. 

Two companies in particular jumped out when I went on an Internet search for characters: the eLearning Brothers and eLearning Art.

Between the two, the eLearning Brothers is likely the better-known company (orange anyone?). They call their Characters "cutout people," and they've got thousands of them. 

Over on the eLearning Art website, characters are referred to as "people cutout images." And like the eLearning Brothers, there are plenty from which to choose.

Another quick Internet search took me to eLearning.net where I found several free characters.

If you'd prefer stock photography for your eLearning projects, the eLearning Coach has compiled a handy list of resources. 

Lastly, check out AJ's article on free zombie characters... perfect for the season. 

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Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes. If Articulate Storyline is more your style, we've got you covered there too. 

Adobe RoboHelp: In Word We Trust

by Willam Van Weelden  

 

If you have attempted to create printed documentation with RoboHelp, there is a good chance you have run into a macro error. RoboHelp uses Word for printed documentation, and this error occurs if Word's security settings don't allow macros.

You can enable macros in Word, but that may not be enough. Some Help Authors receive unspecified errors when generating printed documentation even with macros enabled. To solve this, RoboHelp projects must be added to Word's trusted locations. I'll show you how to both Enable Word Macros and add projects to the trusted locations.

Enabling Word Macros

1. Start Word.
2. Click the Office button (Word 2007) or go to the File tab (Word 2010-2013).
3. Click Options.
4. Select Trust Center and then click Trust Center Settings.
   
5. From the Macro Settings area, select Enable all macros.
   
   
6. Close the Trust Center and the options.

Go to RoboHelp and generate the printed documentation. In most cases, RoboHelp will create a Word document out of your Help System. If RoboHelp still doesn't generate the printed documentation, you likely need to add your RoboHelp projects to Word's Trusted Locations.

Add RoboHelp Projects to Trusted Locations

1. Start Word.
2. Click the Office button (Word 2007) or go to the File tab (Word 2010-2013).
3. Select Options.
4. Select Trusted locations and then click the Add new location button.
   
5. In the Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box, click the Browse button and open the folder containing your RoboHelp projects.
6. Select Subfolders of this location are also trusted.
   
7. Click OK to close the Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box.
8. Close the Trust Center and the options.

Go to RoboHelp and re-generate the printed documentation.
 

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? We offer a live, two-day online RoboHelp class once a month. Feel free to contact us to learn other ways to meet your RoboHelp training requirements.

Adobe Captivate 8: Custom Theme Colors

by Anita Horsley  

 

When working in Adobe Captivate, it's possible that you will need to use colors that match your corporate brand. In that event, you'll be happy to learn that Captivate 8 allows you to easily create custom Theme colors. And once you've created your Theme colors, you can apply those colors to just about any slide object or learner interaction.

The first step to creating custom Theme colors is to apply a Theme to a project. To do that, click Themes on the toolbar and select any of the available Themes (Captivate provides several Themes out of the box).

Each Theme comes with a collection of Theme colors. You can use those colors as is or customize them. To access the Theme's colors, click Themes and then click Theme Colors.

 

Scroll through the list of colors and select any one of the Themes you like.

 
To customize the Theme colors, click the Customize button.


Click the title of the current color theme and type your own theme name.

 

Click the color swatches to replace the existing colors with your own. (Note: If your company does not have a style guide and you're looking for some guidance when it comes to selecting Theme colors, you may consider using your website colors. You can use the eye dropper tool to match the colors used on your website.)

 

As mentioned earlier, you can apply your custom Theme colors to just about any selected Captivate object. For instance, if you insert a Smart Shape, the Fill area on the Properties Inspector will include your custom Theme colors.


You can use customized Theme colors on Interactions. There will be a Theme Style option at the right of the Interaction. If you click Custom, you'll have access to Theme colors.


    

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Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

Adobe Captivate Keyboard Shortcuts

If you've spent any amount of time at all using Adobe Captivate, it's a good bet that you've used some of the more basic keyboard shortcuts (copy/paste, save, etc). But check out the image below for some keyboard shortcuts you might not have known existed. (Feel free to right-click the image and save it to your computer for future use.)

Looking for Captivate training? Check out our online classes.

Free Captivate 8 Update Now Available

Adobe has announced a free update to its popular Adobe Captivate 8 software. The update fixes several bugs and includes some nice enhancements.

To get the update, choose Help > Updates from within the Captivate program. Once the update is installed, your new Captivate version will be 8.0.1.242.

Here's a partial list of what's new in the update:

• Responsive drag-and-drop interactions
• Google Maps enabled geo-location support
• Native app publisher
• Custom shapes and lines are now supported in responsive projects
• Streaming video support through embedded code in Web objects
• Success/Failure/Hint captions in quiz questions can now be replaced with smart shapes
• Swatches integration in color palette
• Symmetrical shapes
• The EXE publish option is back

More information.

eLearning: Adding Videos to eLearning... The Results

by Kevin Siegel   

 

Last week's poll about how eLearning developers work with the storage demands of video in eLearning garnered several responses. Here are the results:

Which eLearning development tool do you use the most?

• Adobe Captivate
• Adobe Presenter
• Articulate Storyline
• Articulate Presenter
• TechSmith Camtasia Studio
• Other (please specify)

While many developers use two or more of the tools listed above, the majority of respondents use Adobe Captivate the most (56%). Second was Camtasia Studio (24%) followed by Articulate Storyline (16%).

When adding video to your project, which option are you using?

• Video stored on your computer or network
• Your corporate media server (or a server you created on your own)
• A media service
• Other (please specify)

Most developers (54%) store the videos on their computer or server. Media service placed second (38%).  

If you set up your own media server, tell us your story. Specifically, what hardware and software did you use? What did it cost to set up?

Top comments about this question: "Previously attempted to do this with Adobe's Flash Media Server but it was too complicated and expensive. Did Windows Media Streaming as it came with Windows Server years ago. Generally due to cost, I have customer setup private Vimeo account and stream from there. We're getting a beefy streaming service setup (Kaltura)."

"We have a central server for our L&D team, run by operations."

"IT set-up MediaMill for us... and we set-up YouTube channels."

If you're using a media service, which one are you using?

Top responses:

• Amazon 
• YouTube
• Kaltura

Respondents were able to select any or all of the options above. Most selected the first two (creating or including videos feature themselves/talking head or video of industry-related tasks). Plenty of people also said that they use video of a demo already created in an eLearning authoring tool.

PowerPoint: Using the Microsoft Office Website to Find Related Clip Art Styles

by AJ Walther  

While Microsoft PowerPoint's clip art sometimes gets a bad rap, you'll often find a perfect image buried among the clip art gallery.

Let's say you find this image in PowerPoint:



For your purposes, the image looks nice, is relevant, and using it won't get you judged and/or fired at your office. The only problem is that now you need 20 similar-looking images for the rest of your project. After scouring the remaining clip art  available in the gallery, you find other animals, but none of them look like the image above (they're drawn in a completely different style). Now what? Believe it or not, clip art images on the Microsoft Office website are grouped by style number. You may just need a bit of guidance locating them. And here's how...

1. Find a clip art image in PowerPoint's clip art Gallery that you like.
2. With the Clip Art pane visible, click the More Arrow to the right of the image to view the image's drop-down menu.
   
3. From the drop-down menu, choose Preview/Properties to open the Preview/Properties dialog box.
   
4. From the Name field, highlight the name of the image and copy it.
5. In a web browser, navigate to http://office.microsoft.com/.
6. In the search bar at the top of the page, paste in the name of your image and press [enter] on your keyboard. (The image you used in PowerPoint should appear in the Image Results area.)
   
   
   
7. From the Image results area, click the clip art image to open the image page. (To the right of the image you will see a Download button, Dimensions, Resolution, File size, Downloads, Style, Rating, and Keywords.)
8. From the Style area, click the style number link. (You will be redirected to a page, or multiple pages, of clip art images of the same style.
   
9. Click any image you like to be redirected to that image's page. There you can either download the image or use the listed keywords to find the image from within PowerPoint.

The Microsoft Office website is a great resource, as PowerPoint's clip art pane does not list the style numbers for images, nor does it let you search by style number if you already know it.

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If you love AJ's articles, you'll love her PowerPoint mini courses.

Training: Live Training vs. eLearning... Which is Better?

by Jennie Ruby 

 

I felt like a video star the other day. Well, at least in a tiny little way. I taught a class a few years ago. It was for a fairly large organization. The section of the class I taught had an attendance of about 40 people, and they had several more sessions scheduled. But I didn't teach them--at least not in person. They videotaped the first session, and although the audio quality of their equipment was pretty terrible, they used the videos for the remaining sessions, and then continued to use them for new hires for a couple of years afterward. I walked by that company's building the other day, and a stranger said "Hey, Jennie Ruby!"

I think I am still pretty far from needing to wear sunglasses to avoid public recognition, but the incident made me think about how asynchronous learning extends the reach of one trainer. With one day's work, I had trained hundreds of people. However, people in the live seminar were able to ask questions and have them answered, while people who saw only the video did not have that opportunity.

On the other hand, people who saw the video could presumably stop the action, take time to practice the skills being taught, and then re-watch the action if needed. Even just the ability to re-wind and re-watch the action provides added value. That is still far from the interaction and involvement we try to encourage when creating eLearning courses, where we include constant opportunities for learners to practice the skills and actions they need to learn. Nevertheless, asynchronous training has some pretty compelling advantages.

But the reason I am thinking about all of this today is that I was recently asked how to show that live classroom training still has an advantage over eLearning. What? For years I have seen people struggling to prove the opposite--to prove that eLearning works. And now I was being asked to justify classroom training.

My question for you this week is probably an old, familiar one, but one that comes up in both directions in the training world. Which is better, classroom training/live interactive training or self-paced/asynchronous eLearning?

Are classroom trainers going the way of the dinosaur? Will we ever? Are there different reasons for different kinds of training? Is there room for both? Are there new ways to combine classroom and eLearning modes of training? Are you being asked these kinds of questions in your work?

If you have been dealing with these issues and questions, we would love to hear from you. Whether you have long since reached an opinion, or whether you are doing on-going research about this, I would like to know. I'll share the results here down the road.

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If you love Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.