The Logical Blog by IconLogic

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.

Articulate Storyline 360: Background Audio Now Supported

Earlier this month, Articulate released an update to Storyline 360 (build 3.74.30180.0) that allows you to include background audio in your published eLearning project. 

To add background audio to a Storyline project:

1. Ensure you have the latest update. (To get the latest Storyline update, start Articulate 360. If there's an update available for any of the tools that make up the Articulate 360 suite, you'll be alerted via a drop-down menu to the right of the application name.)
2. Open a Storyline project and open a slide.
3. Go to the Insert tab on the Storyline ribbon and click the Audio drop-down arrow.
4. Hover over Background Audio and choose Create Playlist to open the Background Playlist window.
5. Click the Add Audio icon (the plus sign) and select Audio from File or Media Library to upload your audio. (Note: You can import the following audio formats into Storyline: AAC, AIF, AIFF, M4A, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA.)

Your playlist can contain as many audio files as you like. From the Playlist Settings area, it's ideal to fade the music in and out. From the Slide-Related Settings area, lowering the background audio if there's competing audio added to an individual slide is also a great idea. You'll need to experiment with the exact percentage for lowering the audio. In my experience, the default 50% setting isn't always enough. To avoid distractions, I've found that lowering the background audio by 80% or more works best.

If you need to remove audio from the playlist, select the audio from the list of tracks and click the Delete button (the trash icon).

Looking for Storyline training, development support, or mentoring? We've got you covered with vILT classes and one-on-one support.

Adobe RoboHelp 2022: Update 2 Now Available

Fresh on the heels of Adobe releasing update 1 for RoboHelp 2022, there's a new update. Normally, updates can be accessed by going to the RoboHelp Help menu and choosing Check for Updates. You won't get the update that way this time. Instead, head over to the following website and download the update manually: https://helpx.adobe.com/robohelp/using/whats-new-robohelp-2022-release-update-2.html.

After installing the update, you'll know you're up-to-date by choosing Help.

Here's a list of the bug fixes:

Application

• When changing topics on the Style panel, the stickiness of the Preview button does not work as expected. (Bug ID: 11471)

Publishing

    General

• In the German locale, after setting Publish Profiles for File System, the error message "Invalid destination path" displays. (Bug ID: 11482)  

   PDF output

• Sometimes, the PDF metadata is missing after upgrading from Adobe RoboHelp 2022. (Bug ID: 11460)
• A notice about the evaluation version of the PDF reactor is displayed when using the Save As PDF option. (Bug ID: 11473)
• Headings are missing for Front Matter and Back Matter items in TOC. (Bug ID: 11492)
• In the PDF template, the Use Headings up to Level option under TOC Structure is not working. (Bug ID: 11495)

Translation

• Project files (.rhpj), PDF, and Word template files (.plt and .wlt) are not exported during translation. (Bug ID: 11502)

TechSmith Camtasia: Reducing the Size of Video Output

I received an email from someone who recently attended my TechSmith Camtasia virtual classes. She wanted to know some best practices for reducing the size of exported Camtasia projects. That is an excellent question!

To begin, TechSmith says that "larger videos (in resolution) will dramatically increase file size. Limit your video size to no larger than 1280 pixels (width) by 720 (height)."

I completely agree with what TechSmith is saying. In fact, project (canvas) size and recording area size are two concepts that I cover early in my beginner Camtasia vILT class.

You can control the size of your Camtasia project by choosing Edit > Preferences > Project.

Set your project size right away. While it's easy to change the size of your project at any time, once you have added media to the project the new size will likely have a negative impact on media objects already added to the timeline/canvas.

TechSmith also suggests not recording the entire screen unless it's necessary, or consider adding zoom and pan actions in Camtasia. This way, you can still scale down the video but still focus the viewer's attention on a specific portion of the screen.

Here are some other great suggestions direct from TechSmith for lowering the size of the exported video:

Amount of Movement in the Video

The more movement in the video, the larger the file size. Importing PowerPoint slides as images will result in a smaller file size than recording an on-screen video of the PowerPoint presentation. If possible, try not to drag windows around and limit some of the animations in PowerPoint.

Audio Type

It is rare that uncompressed audio is going to make an audible difference to your learners. You can reduce the file size by compressing the audio upon production. The default MP4 format uses AAC audio compression, which has a good combination of sound quality and file size.

Frame Rate and Encoding Mode

The frame rate indicates how many frames per second are shown to the viewer. The custom production settings allow between 1 and 60 frames per second (FPS). The default is Automatic FPS, which is good for most videos. However, for many screen recordings, 15 fps is fine. If you're recording something static, like a PowerPoint presentation, you can drop the FPS down, which will save file size. You can also adjust the Encoding mode to increase or decrease the video quality. The higher the quality, the larger the file size.

The frame rate and Encoding mode options can be changed by choosing Export > Local Legacy Files > Video Settings.

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:

• Redesign of CSS editor
  
  • Search and filter styles list
    
  • Style list settings
• Support for @import in CSS
• Non-publishable notes
• Default Location of "My RoboHelp Projects"
• Sticky right-panel
• Table header styling
• Integration with DeepL translation API
• Repeat header rows in the PDF output
• Additional metadata in PDF output
• JavaScript to style PDF output

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

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.

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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."
   
   
3. 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."

"Adobe Captivate 2019: The Essentials" 4th Edition!

It's coming...

Adobe Captivate 2019: New Text-to-Speech Voices

Last week I told you about an awesome (and free) update to Adobe Captivate 2019. In that post, I told you how Adobe removed most of the outdated (Flash) SWF features. But there's more to this update, and I'm loving it. Specifically, Adobe has enhanced the Text-to-Speech feature.

Choose Audio > Speech Management to open the Speech Management dialog box.

 

At the bottom of the dialog box, you'll see a note about ReadSpeaker. If you're a veteran Captivate developer, you'll notice that Captivate used to rely on NeoSpeech. ReadSpeaker voices replace NeoSpeech.

Click the Download new and enhanced voices link. (Note that the download is nearly 4 GB, so if your internet speed isn't fast, prepare for a long wait while the package downloads.)

Exit (quit) Captivate, extract the downloaded file, and run the installer. Once the voices are installed, restart Adobe Captivate.

Choose Window > Slide Notes, create a new note, and then write some text into the note area.

From the upper right of the Slide Note, click the uppermost check mark and then click the Text-to-Speech icon.

The Speech Management dialog box reopens.

From the left of the slide note, click the voices drop-down menu.

The original NeoSpeech voices are still available, such as Paul and Kate. However, you'll see plenty of new voices like Adam, Ashley, and Mark. 

Select the voice you'd like and click Generate Audio.

You can preview the audio by clicking the Play icon.

If you'd like to learn more about Captivate, check out these training opportunities. If you need development support or one-on-one mentoring, I'm an email away.

Adobe Captivate 2019: New Update Removes Flash Output

While the world awaits the all-new Captivate to be released (the new version, currently called Project Charm, is in beta), Adobe continues to support version 2019.

A new update, 11.8.1, was recently made available, and you'll find it via Help > Check for Updates. Once the update is installed, you can confirm you have the latest build by choosing Help > About Adobe Captivate.

Beyond some tweaks to the overall look and feel of the interface, this update finally removes references to SWF output in the Publish dialog box (File > Publish).

Also, the Preview options no longer include SWF in Web Browser. While it's nice that Adobe removed the SWF preview option, I'm not happy that both the Preview from and Preview Next 5 options were removed.

And there are some additional assets, too... but Adobe needs to up its game here and include more varied assets seen with competitors like Articulate and TechSmith. I'd love to read your thoughts on that in the Comments area.

Also note that while many Flash options were removed from this build, you can still add non-HTML features such as Rollover Captions.

It's still a good idea to run the HTML5 Tracker and ensure you're not adding anything unsupported in the HTML5 output. (Project > HTML5 Tracker.)

Adobe RoboHelp 2022: Reusing Image Alt Text and Titles

When adding images to a RoboHelp project, it's a best practice to add Alternate Text and an Image title to every image.

Alternate Text serves two purposes. The alternate text appears in the published output if the image cannot be displayed to the user for any reason. For visually impaired users, assistive devices such as screen readers read the Alternate Text out loud, making alternate text critical if you're trying to meet or exceed Section 508 standards.

An Image title is a brief description of the image. This title appears when the user runs their mouse over the image.

If you plan to reuse an image in multiple project topics, I've created a short video demonstrating how to repurpose the image, the image title, and its alternate text all in one shot. (Spoiler alert: the copy and paste command is your best friend!)

Looking for RoboHelp training or support? We've got you covered with our classes and virtual mentoring.