ISPRING SUITE 9: Video Demos with Annotations Equals Awesomeness!

If you have content in Microsoft PowerPoint and need to use it for eLearning, you'll be happy to know that the top eLearning tools (Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and TechSmith Camtasia) allow you to import PowerPoint content and then output HTML5 or videos. In the case of Storyline, the imported PowerPoint content can even be edited from within Storyline post-import.   But what if you wanted your PowerPoint content to stay in PowerPoint and still be able to add eLearning-type features such as a quiz and interactive objects? Unfortunately, while PowerPoint excels at visually stunning presentations, it's not an eLearning development tool. Fortunately, tools like Adobe Presenter, Articulate Presenter, and iSpring Suite allow you to add eLearning capabilities to any PowerPoint presentation.   I've spent a significant amount of time over the past few months using iSpring Suite, a PowerPoint-based authoring toolkit that allows developers to create mobile-friendly eLearning courses complete with slides, quizzes, dialog simulations, software video demonstrations, selfie-videos, and other interactive learning content. The finished course can quickly be published as HTML5 or as a video and uploaded to a web server, Learning Management System, or to video services like YouTube or Vimeo.   In the next few articles, I'm going to delve into some of my favorite iSpring Suite 9 features. I'm also rolling out an iSpring Suite book ("iSpring Suite 9: The Essentials") and an iSpring Suite 9 instructor-led class!   This week I tested iSpring's ability to create a video demo similar to what you can do in Captivate, Storyline, and Camtasia. During my testing, I was happy to see that iSpring even adds Annotations to the recording (automatic text captions).

To begin, I visited the iSpring tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon, Insert group, and then clicked Screen Recording to open iSpring Cam Pro.

I clicked New Recording which opened a recording area with controls similar to the other top eLearning development tools.

I clicked the red record button and within seconds had an awesome video demo.

When the recording was complete, I expected a standard video just like the other tools. However, the resulting Recording Complete screen offered a nice surprise--the check box Add annotations to the screen recording (shown circled below).

Of course, I selected the Add annotations option clicked the Continue button. I was surprised by how awesome the resulting text was (almost no editing needed).

I was also happy to see that, like the other competitors in the eLearning development tools space, there's a Timeline allowing me to quickly change when the annotations appear onscreen, and for how long.

I was able to edit the annotations and change the way they looked via the Formatting toolbar. All-in-all, this is awesome!

Next time: Dialog simulations.

***   Looking for iSpring Suite training? Check out these live, online, instructor-led training classes (all Guaranteed to Run).

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Kevin Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written hundreds of step-by-step computer training books on applications such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe RoboHelp, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia. Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has three decades’ experience as a trainer, publisher, technical writer, and eLearning developer. Kevin is a Certified Master Trainer (CMT), Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+), Certified Online Professional Trainer (COTP), and a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions.