The Logical Blog by IconLogic

eLearning: Creating a Self-Video with Adobe Video Express

by Jennie Ruby 

Adobe Presenter Video Express is a new version of the video software that comes with Adobe Presenter 10. With it you can record a video of both you and your computer screen at the same time. When you open it from the Presenter ribbon within PowerPoint, you can create a video of yourself and your PowerPoint slides. Once you have recorded your video, you can then edit the project to show either your face, the computer screen, or both. Its intent is to allow you to record yourself presenting your slides just as you would to a live audience.

Tips for Improving Your Videos 

Set up your camera so that you can look into it as you give the presentation. On a laptop with a built-in camera, this is easy, because as you look at the screen, the camera typically faces you from the top center of the screen.

However, even this placement means that often your eyes will be looking down at the screen instead of up into the camera. If you have to read every word of the script, or if you look at your slides while talking, your eyes will be down the entire time.

Try printing your script landscape, in large print, and tacking it up behind the camera so that you can glance at it and then back to the camera very easily. (Think: teleprompter.)

Better yet, memorize the script, or become very familiar with it, and then just have note cards posted in back of the camera.

If you can purchase professional photography lights, that's a great way to go. With a lower budget, daylight is your best bet--but not direct sunlight. Set yourself up so that you face a window, with curtains or blinds at least partially drawn to even out the light. You may need to supplement the light with some lamps. Make sure there are no shadows or patterns on the wall behind you. The camera's back should be to the window as it faces you.

What is behind you? Some of it will show in the video. A blank wall is best. If there are bookshelves, make sure the books are neat and organized. A potted plant might be a good thing. For specialized topics, you might want a backdrop that relates to the topic. If your office is messy, consider getting a curtain to hang behind you.

Check out my video showing how you can inexpensively set up your office for creating videos.

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Looking for training on Adobe Presenter? You can't go wrong with our $79 mini courses. There's a three hours on Adobe Presenter and another on Video Express.

Social Media: Creating a LinkedIn Summary That Gets You Noticed

by Sally Cox  

There is an art to creating a strong LinkedIn profile. One of the most powerful assets in your LinkedIn profile is the Summary. Most people put minimal thought into it, but honestly, it's a golden opportunity to make yourself shine.

Tips to Creating a Stronger Profile

Be clear on your objective before you begin. What do you want recruiters and prospective employers to gain from reading your summary? How do you want them to feel?

Gather your content. Put everything in place so you can begin to write the summation. List your greatest accomplishments, and a sentence about each one. Try to capture not only what YOU got out of the experience but more importantly, how the company benefited. If the team cut costs by 70% under your management, that needs to be part of the sentence.

List your values and passions. If saving African wildlife is high on your priority list, make sure you notate that in some way. Aside from your professional accomplishments, people like to see snippets of the real you.

List things you can do better than anyone, things that make you stand out. If Project Management is a strength of yours, or you're a competitive swimmer, these traits can both accurately portray your dedication and look good on a profile.

Awards, accolades, achievements--gather them and include both personal and business accomplishments.

List things that make you unique. Find out what they are and include the strongest ones. For example, I worked for "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in the 1980s, as designer. It was long ago, but that one event on my resume or LinkedIn profile is a conversation starter, more than any other. It may not even pertain to my current work, but it's a great way to start a conversation that gets me noticed--and remembered.

Writing Your Summary

Begin with a strong statement, a "bang," if you will. You could ask a question, make a statement, or just list a few of your skills for a dramatic opener. Make it memorable. 

Weave your story, including snippets from the information you gathered in earlier steps. Mix up your content to make it more interesting, so it doesn't read like a list, and use correct grammar and punctuation.

End with a call-to-action, remembering your summary needs to be 2,000 characters or less. Tell your readers where they go to learn more about you, or how they can contact you. (This may not be necessary if you've listed it elsewhere on your profile, but make sure they know how to find you.) 

 

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Check out Sally's 3-hour mini class on Building a Strong LinkedIn Profile.

Adobe Captivate: The Cure for Blurry Zoom Destinations

by Kevin Siegel   

 

Zoom Areas are typically used to emphasize an important area of a slide background. They are especially useful if you want your learner to automatically get closer to a specific area of the screen.

To insert a Zoom Area, click Objects on the Main Toolbar and choose Zoom Area.

 

Zoom Areas consist of two parts: the area of a background that you want to highlight (Zoom Source) and where the zoomed area of the background will appear (Zoom Destination).

 

In the image below, I have positioned and resized the Zoom Source over the area of the slide background that I want to get larger.

 

Then I positioned and resized the Zoom Destination on the slide. Remember, the Zoom Source won't move or resize when the lesson is viewed by the learner... that's the job of the Zoom Destination.



Right away you can see that there is a problem with the image in the Zoom Destination. Because a Zoom Area simply enlarges the Zoom Source, and I've resized the Zoom Destination quite a bit, the image in the Zoom Destination is blurry.

To fix the problem, you'll need a larger version of the image shown within the Zoom Source. In this case, I have the original photo of the handsome male model shown on the screen (in addition to being much larger, it has also been cropped similar to the image in the Zoom Source).

To swap out the blurry image in the Zoom Destination with the better image, double-click the Zoom Destination to open the Properties Inspector. On the Properties Inspector, click Add new image.

 

Click the Import button and open the larger version of the photo.



Compare the Zoom Destination below with the version above. The quality of the Zoom Destination image is much better.



If you would like to see a free demonstration of this concept, check out the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

Designing Mobile Learning with Adobe Captivate (Free Online Adobe eLearning User Group Event)

Wednesday, February 25, 7:00-8:00 p.m., Eastern
Location: Live, Online... You Can Attend from Anywhere in the World! 
Price: Free!

Presented by Joe Ganci

More and more people are using mobile devices to access content. You know this and realize that the mobile world is different than the desktop world. You're ready to take the plunge into designing and developing true mobile learning, but where do you start?

During this session, Joe will explain the pros and cons of including certain instructional design features and show how to design and develop alternatives for those elements that will not work on mobile devices. In addition, Joe will discuss features that you may find advantageous when implementing mobile learning. Joe will also make himself available for questions and answers and hopes you'll weigh in with your own observations and experience!

In this session, you will learn to:

• Apply the correct features to a mobile learning design that will also work for desktop.
• Avoid features that will cause you problems in your design. 

Sign up for this live, online session here.

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Joe Ganci is President of eLearningJoe, LLC, a consulting and training eLearning company located outside of Washington, D.C. Joe has been involved in every aspect of eLearning development since 1983.

Localization: Training and Development in Poland

by Jen Weaver  

As we continue our journey around the world, let's explore some common cultural facts about Poles and their expectations when it comes to training and development.

Test Your Knowledge of Polish Culture

1. The name "Poland" is a descriptor of the country's geography. Does it mean:
1. The borderlands?
2. The hill country?
3. The flatlands?
2. True or False? Polish businesspeople often speak German.
3. True or False? Prussian is also a common language in Poland.

Quick Tips for Training & Development in Poland¹:

• Poland is a male-dominated society. Female trainers may find it hard to be taken seriously, even though women have been advancing into more predominant roles in recent years.
• Polish is the official language, but many businesspeople speak German as well as English. Clarify language preferences before beginning your class. Just because most Poles can understand English does not mean it's the preferred language for training.
• Catholicism is a highly predominant religion, with less than two percent of the population identifying with another religion. Approximately ten percent of Poles describe themselves as "nonreligious."
• Security is a high priority for Poles, and they are determined to maintain their freedom after a difficult history with both Russia and Germany. As such, Poles tend to prize individualism and the contributions a person can make in larger groups as a whole.
• Poland is a hierarchical society, and there is a tendency for decisions to be made at a higher level or by consensus of "privileged" individuals.
• Truth is a combination of facts along with subjective feelings and personal relationships. An individual's religious ideologies also often come into play when making decisions.
• Business appointments start and end on time.
• Many Poles opt to not take a lunch break and to work straight through the day. "Work lunches" are often scheduled for around 4 or 5 p.m., and employees do not go back to work after taking lunch. Keep this in mind and clarify time expectations when determining your class schedule.
• A local Polish advocate will go far when establishing new business relationships. Try to identify a champion of your initiative within the company or someone closely associated and respected through corporate connections.
• Poles tend to be more soft-spoken than North Americans, and business attire is conservative professional.

Knowledge Answer from Above: 

1. (c) Poland is mostly flat.
2. True. Not much of a surprise, considering Poland's location along the German border.
3. False. While once used, Prussian became extinct in the 1700's.
    

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.

Microsoft PowerPoint: Fixing Tables

by AJ Walther  

I've said it a thousand times: when it comes to eLearning (and presentations in general), PowerPoint is not the problem. Bad design is the problem. That being said, I wouldn't let PowerPoint off the hook altogether. Many PowerPoint defaults serve to lead users down a path of poor design choices (starting on a slide that encourages a title followed by a bulleted list, for example). 

Let's take a look at tables. When you insert a table in PowerPoint, you will probably end up with something that looks a lot like this:



The table shown above isn't deplorable, but there's a good chance that if you show it to an audience, eyes will glaze over (people will not know where to focus). To fix this table you first need to decide what message you are trying to convey. Do you want your audience to really see all of the information? Are you trying to show a progression over time? Are the totals really important? Maybe just one month is important and the other information is just supporting data? You might find that a table really isn't the solution you want after all. Maybe a simple graphic would do the trick instead.

For the sake of demonstration, let's say you are presenting the chart above and the main point you want to drive home is the 2013 totals. Here is a step-by-step guide to fixing such a table:

Remove font and fill colors

Don't worry, we'll add in some design-y elements later.



Remove Borders and Gridlines

Use your best judgment here to decide whether there should be absolutely no lines, lines in specific places, or a line after each row. Generally you will find that despite temptation to add them, few lines are really needed. This may depend on your audience, how much data you are presenting, and from what size screen your end-users will view this content.



Remove Bolding
 
Traditionally you may find that the trend is to bold all items in the top row and the left-most row. Think carefully about whether this is really necessary.



Left align text

Ignore the titles for now and align all of the data's text (not numbers) to the left.



Right align numbers

Still ignoring the titles, right align all of the numeric data.



Align titles with data

Now for the titles. Match the alignment of titles to the data below them.



Resize columns to data

Working within the table in PowerPoint, hover your mouse over the gridlines between each row of data. Your mouse will change to parallel lines with arrows. Double-click and the row to the left will resize to perfectly fit its data.

 

Use white space

In the example below the data is divided by months of a year so a logical place to add space and provide a rest for the eyes was after each quarter. Use your best judgment when deciding how you might break apart your data to make it more readable.



Round numbers and use consistent precision

There are some fields where it is truly important to show numerical data several units past a decimal point. For most of us, however, that is not the case. Decide where you want to round your numbers and be consistent throughout.



Remove repetition

In this case, repeating 2013 for every month of the year was not necessary. Instead the title was changed to "Months of 2013."



Format fonts

It's easy to forget to apply the fonts you've used elsewhere to your table. Take the time to do that now, making sure you are being consistent with the rest of your content.



Add emphasis

Now, finally, add in emphasis thoughtfully to illustrate your main point.

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If you love AJ's articles, you'll love her Optimizing PowerPoint Design for eLearning & Presentations mini course.

Adobe RoboHelp: List Images

by Willam van Weelden  

 

When you create a list, there are several list styles you can use in RoboHelp: bullets, squares, lowercase alphabet, and numbers. But RoboHelp brings one more great feature: you can use images instead of bullets.

Create a List Style with Custom Images

1. On the Project Manager pod, double-click your style sheet to open the Styles dialog box.
2. Right-click List and choose New.
3. Enter a name for the list style and press [enter].
4. Click the Create a bulleted list button.
5. Select the list images option.
   
6. Click the browse button to open the Image dialog box.
   
7. Select the image you want to use as a bullet and click OK.
8. Then click the OK button to save your changes.

Apply an Image List Style

1. Open or create a topic, and then create a regular bulleted list.
2. Select the list.
3. Right-click and choose Bullets and Numbering.
4. Go to the Custom tab and select your list style in the left section.
   
5. Click the OK button to apply your list.

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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.

Design: Custom Fonts Made Easy

by AJ Walther  

 

Ever wanted to create your own font but then realized you have no idea how to do that? I feel ya, friend. And I'd like to suggest you check out FontStruct. FontStruct is pretty intuitive and easy to use for even (and perhaps especially) novice font designers. Fonts you design can be installed on any Mac or Windows computer. 

 

Click here for a nice introduction video on FontStruct with instructions for getting started. 

What I think is particularly nice about this tool is the social aspect. After you've created your font you can choose your own licensing for the font. This means you could protect the font with an All Rights Reserved copyright (preventing downloads), or you could share the font (making it available for download) under a variety of Creative Commons licenses. 

The ability to share fonts means that not only can you create and share your own fonts, but you can also download fonts made by other users who are willing to share their work. Make sure you check the license for each font before you download and use it; I was able to find a decent selection of fonts available for commercial (and non-commercial) use. 

To find a font, click the Gallery tab on FontStruct. From there you'll find fonts divided into a few categories: What's New, Top Picks, and Everything. You also have the ability to search, but I do wish the search feature was a bit stronger and had the ability to search by license type. When you find a font you like, click its title to access the font's page. From there you can download the font, rate it, and see more information. Be sure to check the Shared section for licensing information. Each license is a clickable link, so if you're unsure what the license means, click the link to learn more.

Here are some great fonts I found.

Zastava, fruit stripes, tockice, and circuit breaker all by usertime.piece:

 

 

Nova Thin Extended by user laynecom (I love this one!):

 

 

Robot Raid by user vertigokid (this one's a bit less useable, but how fun!):

 

If you create a font on FontStruct, don't be shy! Send it along and we'll share your font here!

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If you love AJ's articles, you'll love her Optimizing PowerPoint Design for eLearning & Presentations mini course.

 

Writing & Grammar: Do You Get Mails?

by Jennie Ruby 

 

We have a good collection of peeves this week, starting with one from Geri Moran:

Emails--I have given up using the original form with a hyphen (e-mail) because the Microsoft Manual of Style finally capitulated, but it drives me crazy to see the word emails used for multiple email messages. I don't get "mails" from the U.S. Postal service, I get mail.

Right, Geri! Some editors used to say that email is only an adjective, not a noun, so that it should always have the word messages after it. I think we mostly gave up on that idea long ago, but email as a noun should certainly parallel the usage of mail!

Anita Weiler brings us an incorrect pronoun usage, a substitute word, and a misspelling, followed by a pronunciation peeve:

• Saying myself instead of me. It isn't more polite, it's just wrong!
• Ask as a noun: "That's a good ask.: (Makes my skin crawl.) [I received other complaints on this one-you are not alone.]
• Loose instead of lose: when did you loose your keys? [I hate it when people unleash their keys and loose them upon the world!]
• Mispronouncing nuclear as "noo-kyoo-lar"

She brings us another word that is similar to the aforementioned use of ask instead of question or request:

I understand that language evolves. I just don't like many of the changes. Often the result is language that is less clear, or just ugly. For example, I really detest when people say (and mispronounce) INvite to mean invitation. "Did you get the invite I sent you?" However, after checking some online dictionaries I see that invite is now listed as an informal word for invitation. Which means eventually it will likely be considered standard usage. Ugh!

Barbara Kennedy takes us into a more esoteric realm: the use of the subjunctive mood. She is peeved by these errors:

Incorrect: "If he would have"

Correct: "If he had"

Incorrect: "If I was you"

Correct: "If I were you"

Incorrect: "I suggest is that he is removed."

Correct: "I suggest that he be removed."

Incorrect: "I recommend they do not enter the competition."

Correct: "I recommend they not enter the competition."

She says she is afraid she'll have to let this bit of grammar go, but I think it is not on the brink quite yet. These incorrect uses would be corrected in any professionally edited context, I hope!

A few weeks ago, I asked people to send in their memory aids.Julie Robertson has one that she would like to ask all of you about. She remembers one that started like this:

 

"Capitals SHOUT; italics whisper. Bold [does something]; underline points the way, and so on.

Have you heard this one? she asks. It is not familiar to me. If you know this one, please help us out by filling in the gaps.

I'm sure there are more peeves out there, free to add them as comments below.

Articulate Storyline: Recolor Art

by Sally Cox  

 

One of my favorite hidden gems in Storyline 2 is an obscure feature called Recolor Art. It allows you to alter the color of an object within Storyline-not affecting the original art, but merely "recoloring" it within the project.

 

In my workflow as an Instructional Designer, I create my own artwork in Adobe Illustrator and export as transparent PNGs. This works out nicely, but there are times when I need to create rollovers from icons or buttons. I want to avoid returning to Illustrator to create separate versions. Enter "Recolor Art."

 

In the image below there are a few examples of icons you might use in your eLearning project. I'll demonstrate how to use Storyline's Recolor Art feature to alter the Hover state, creating a rollover.

 

 

To begin, select your artwork (remember, transparent PNGs work best) and open the States panel by selecting the word "States" at the bottom of the Storyline window.

 

 

Click Edit States, click New State, choose Hover from the drop-down menu, and then click Add.

 

 

You've created the Hover state; now you'll alter the appearance. With the Hover state still open, select the object on your slide. Then right-click and choose Format Picture.

 

 

Choose Picture from the menu at the left and then click the arrow next to Preset.

 

 

You'll find a number of options for recoloring your art, and you'll see the categories listed above the icons. No Recolor means you see your original image. Color Modes and Dark Variations are the ones that give the best result, for me. Experiment with Brightness, Contrast, and Transparency for different effects.

 

These are limiting however, so if you want more, go to Blend.

 

Choose a Color from the Blend section and apply a Blend Mode. These behave just like Photoshop Blend Modes and give you a variety of effects based on the color you choose.

 

 

If you don't like what you've done, you can click Reset Picture, or use Storyline's Undo command.

 

When you're done with Recolor, click Close. Lastly, and most importantly, click Done Editing States in the States panel to save the changes.

 

Here are examples of before (left) and after (right) applying the Recolor feature to an icon. It can always be removed later, and edited as needed. Any way you cut it, it's a real timesaver!

 

 

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