The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: Dynamic Filters

by Willam van Weelden  

 

A few weeks ago I showed you how to use named Conditional Build Expressions to include or exclude content from your output. RoboHelp 2015 has a new feature to make tags even more useful: Dynamic Filters.

With traditional Conditional Build Expressions you choose to exclude specific content from your output. Once you generate the output, content is included or excluded from the output. If you use build tags to target multiple audiences, you have to create an output for every audience. Enter Dynamic Filters: With dynamic filters readers dynamically switch the information they want to see.

 

 

In the image above there are four holiday destinations in different countries. No country is selected in the Filter by area at the left so the reader sees all of the available content. If the reader selects US, only the content for the US (Mesa Verde, CO) is shown.

With Dynamic Filters you can create a single output where users themselves decide which content they need. You can use this to group content by user role, by module, or by locale.

Add Dynamic Filter to Output

1. Tag the content in RoboHelp.
2. Go to the Output tab and select your Responsive HTML5 Single Source Layout.
3. Select Use Dynamic Content Filter in the output.
     
4. Click Customize to open the Dynamic Content Filter dialog box.
5. From the Define area, click Add criteria button to open theTags and Expressions dialog box. (The Add criteria button is the second icon from the left.)
      
6. Select the tags and expressions you want to include as a filter.
     
7. Click the OK button.
     
8. Click Save to close the Dynamic Content Filter dialog box.
9. Click Save and Generate to generate your output.

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? Come join me for my live, two-day online RoboHelp class (held once each month). And if you'd like to learn more about Dynamic Filters, check out my new 3-hour mini course: Adobe RoboHelp: Advanced Content Reuse.

Adobe RoboHelp 2015: Conditional Build Tags and Named Expressions

by Willam van Weelden  

 

A project can easily contain thousands of topics. When you generate a layout, all of the topics are generated. But what if you want to exclude several topics from being generated? Using Conditional Build tags, you can mark topics or topic content. When the time comes to generate, you can choose to create conditions that control which tagged content is generated. Using conditions, you can maintain one large project but generate multiple layouts; each layout can have unique content. Content that is excluded from a layout is not seen by your users.

 

Tagged content appears in RoboHelp 11 and earlier as text with diagonal lines (first image below). In RoboHelp 2015 tagged content appears with an overline. The overline makes it much easier to read the content and see which content is tagged.

 

 

 

 

The downside of tagged content in RoboHelp 11 and earlier is that you can only create Conditional Build Expressions that show which tags are excluded. A Conditional Build Expression is a list of tags to exclude from your output. These expressions can get confusing because it is not always clear which tags to exclude for which situation. For example, a company has two divisions: East and West coast. Based on the name of the tag below, will the tag exclude content from the East coast or the West coast?

 

 

With RoboHelp 2015 you use common sense names to easily distinguish which Conditional Build Expression you need in which situation.

 

 

To create a Named Conditional Build Expression, choose Project > Pods > Conditional Build Tag and then click Create a new build expression.

 

 

 

The Define Conditional Build Expression dialog opens. Double-click a tag to exclude the tag from the output and then click Save.

 

 

 

Name the expression and click OK.

 

 

 

If you have existing Conditional Build Expressions, you can easily change their names. Open the Conditional Build Tags pod (choose Project > Pods > Conditional Build Tag).

 

Click Create a new build expression.

 

 

 

From the Define Conditional Build Expression dialog box, select an expression from the Expressions drop-down menu.

 

 

Click Rename this expression.

 

 

 

Name the expression and then click OK.

 

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Looking to learn RoboHelp? Come join me for my live, two-day online RoboHelp class (held once each month). And check out my new 3-hour mini course: Adobe RoboHelp: Advanced Content Reuse.

eLearning and TechComm: Click, Select, Choose, or Press?

by Jennie Ruby

Right at a time when flat design has become the rage, removing the three-dimensional look that for 30 years (happy anniversary to Windows this November!) has informed us that "this thing looks like you can poke it in! It must be a button!" people are starting to worry and become uncertain about the clear vocabulary that has helped us to write about software and computers for just as long.

In a recent class I had one participant tell me her office has forbidden the word "click" in favor of "select." Another told me that her office had done just the opposite!

The two concerns in question are whether the word "click" loses its meaning on mobile devices, and whether the word "click" is exclusionary toward individuals with disabilities or different abilities.

The good news is that using the word "click" is not ableist, nor is it declaring the hegemony of mouse users over mobile device users. It is just the standard word in technical communications to indicate "execute," on certain kinds of interactive items on screens. In other words, "click" means "hey you, button, do that thing you do."

The button, as with so many things in the computer realm, is an analogy to real-world little pokable nubbins that make things happen on electric devices from vacuum-cleaners to doorbells. Even real-world buttons have undergone some changes in the ways people use them. The buttons on my microwave and stove are now flat to the surface and covered with a plastic sheet so that spaghetti sauce and porkchop grease can't get in and ruin the mechanism. But you still actuate them by pressing them--and most of them still emit a satisfying "click" sound (or a beep) when you do so.

By analogy, "click" is whatever action you do to an on-screen button to make it do its thing. It is executed on various devices and by various computer users in various ways. Many of us already made the leap from "press and release the left button on a mouse device" to "press and release the left side of your mouse even though it no longer has a button" to "press and release the entire touchpad on your Mac laptop so that emits a click sound" to "tap ever-so-gently on the hair-trigger touchpad of your new Windows laptop" to "tap once on the screen of your iPad or phone" to "tap once on the screen of your touch-screen laptop" to "tab to the button and press the Enter key on your keyboard." And with Windows Speech Recognition, to actuate a button, you actually speak the word "click," as in, "Click OK;Click File; Click Bold; Click Save; Click Close," and so on.

To back away from the word "click" right now is as unnecessary, and even nonsensical, as deciding that the Save icon has to be changed because no-one has used an actual mini floppy disk since 2005. The Save icon has become a symbol that will retain its meaning like other permanent glyphs, such as the Arabic numerals or the smiley face. And the word "click" is the way you indicate "actuate" for certain screen items.

But that is not to say that the word "click" should be used for every screen action. By now I hope I have made clear that a "click" is a characteristic of certain screen items-buttons, icons, tools-not of the physical method by which you actuate them. So even though you may also click your mouse to execute the following actions, the word "click" is not the clearest vocabulary word for them.

You "choose" something from a menu, because you are "choosing" from a list of "choices," and once you "choose" the one you want, the chosen command is immediately executed.

choose File > Close

You "select" something that, once you select it, stays selected. You select a cell in Excel. You select part of the text in a document. You select an option from a list and the option stays selected-as in a drop-down list or a list-box. You select a radio button, and you select a checkbox. And they stay selected. Until you "deselect" them.

select the Portrait Orientation radio button

select the Kerning checkbox

from the Font drop-down list, select Verdana

select the first paragraph in your document

deselect the Enable Live Preview checkbox

You "press" a key on a keyboard or a real button on an actual piece of hardware. (The word "press" definitely cannot be used to describe what you do to an on-screen button, because it may create ambiguity: Does "Press Home" mean on the screen or on the keyboard?)

press the Enter key

press the F6 key

press the Power button (on the microwave)

And finally, you "click" an on-screen button, an icon, or a tool.

click the OK button

click the Bold tool

click the Wifi icon

As this vocabulary discussion continues, I would love to hear your take. Is your office using "select" for everything? Are you using "press" for mobile devices? Or tap? Are you combining commands, as in "click or tap the link"? Email me.

References

Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications: "Do not use choose as an alternative to click or double-click. Choose does not convey any additional information to those who do not use a mouse, and such users normally understand the equivalent action that they must take when a procedure step says to click."

Web page: Use Speech Recognition to operate windows and programs

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Do you need to learn how to write eLearning scripts? Come check out my live, online mini course.

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.

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.

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.

eLearning: More Reflection

by Kevin Siegel   

Last week I wrote about how you can use Reflector to create software simulations and demonstrations from your mobile device.

I received emails from several people who, having read the article, downloaded Reflector and attempted to create a simulation using Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline. While most folks were successful in reflecting the mobile device onto the computer, several people reported that none of the actions they took on the mobile device were captured by the eLearning tool. 

As I mentioned in last week's article, the reflection of the mobile device you see on the computer is passive; you cannot control the reflection with the computer. Instead, you can simply see what's happening on the mobile device through your computer.

During the simulation recording process, if you're creating a software simulation, programs like Captivate and Storyline only capture the screen if you click your mouse (or manually create a screen capture by pressing the appropriate keyboard shortcut). Since you're not clicking anything on your computer (remember, the computer is simply showing you a reflection of the mobile device), neither Captivate nor Storyline will capture anything.Unless...

On your computer, start the recording process using Captivate or Storyline. Just prior to performing an action on your mobile device, click the reflection on your computer to create a screen capture. Next, on the mobile device, perform the action. Back on the computer, click the reflection again to create a second screen shot that shows the result of whatever it is you did on the mobile device. Continue this process over and over until you have completed all of the processes you wish to simulate on the mobile device.

If clicking over and over again to create a simulation sounds too difficult, all three of the top eLearning development tools (Camtasia Studio, Captivate, and Storyline) excel at creating videos. If you create a video of the reflected mobile device, everything you do on the mobile device is captured because the video isn't creating individual screen shots, it's capturing everything you do without discrimination. 

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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.

Technical Communication: Applying Lean Principles to Documentation

by Megan Pitkin

 

While I was working as a bedside nurse, my organization decided to adopt a new way of approaching patient care and improve workflow: Lean. As described in this article about Lean in health care, "Lean is an industrial managerial system that aims to eliminate process waste in the forms of transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, and defects."

While Lean was originally intended for industrial applications, the article describes the efforts of Dr. M. Peggy Hays, associate professor in the UAH College of Nursing, to bring industrial Lean practices in healthcare.

"Nursing staff today have more and more duties," said Dr. Hays. "How can they make their job more efficient so they can focus on patient care, which is why they got into the profession in the first place?"

According to the article, Dr. Hays said that "healthcare applications [for Lean] include unearthing greater efficiencies in emergency room waiting times, operating room use, use of nursing rounds, medication rounds, processing patient paperwork in administrative offices, and workflow of the staff."

The planning and assessment phase for my unit started with the team receiving Lean education and concluded with a list of probable projects and action items needed for the week. Because the main action item was patient wait times, data was collected for the time it took for call lights to be answered.

An initial assessment found that we walked over five miles each shift between patient rooms for medication delivery, gathering of supplies, locating equipment, and patient care needs. After streamlining workflows, reorganization of the medication rooms, and standardizing equipment processes, my walking was reduced by a mile for my first shift of the implementation week. With the improved processes and reduction in the amount of walking required for the nurses to complete their tasks, there was a significant decrease in call light wait times.         

Seeing how successful Lean was in my unit and throughout the organization, I began to question if the Lean principals could be applied to the materials I used in my Electronic Medical Records (EMR) training classes. While adopting an industrial process in the creation of training materials may sound like a stretch, I'd like to illustrate one simple way that I applied the Lean principles to a PowerPoint presentation I use in my classes.

Since standardization is a key Lean component, I used my organization's approved fonts and colors on my first slide.



I also organized my lesson plan sections and agenda using approved colors, and I used the colors in a very deliberate way. For example, in the image below notice that "Locating the Patient" is a dark purple on my agenda slide.



I used that same dark purple banner on all of the slides in the "Locating a Patient" segment of the course. (One of those slides is shown below.)



Lastly, I color-coordinated the supporting training materials, like pocket guides, so that they match the colors used in the presentation.



As a nurse, it is encouraging for me to see more hospitals doing an excellent job of implementing Lean tools that manufacturing has been evolving for more than half a century. As an Instructional Designer, I have been pleased with the overwhelming positive feedback I have received by adopting these Lean philosophies into the creation of materials for EMR classes.

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If you like Megan's articles, you'll love her live, online classes such as Train the EMR Trainer.

Localization: Training & Development in the Netherlands

by Jen Weaver  

 

Ah, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Today let's explore some common cultural facts about the Dutch and their expectations when it comes to training and development.
  
Test your Knowledge of Dutch Culture

1. True or False? Another name for the Netherlands is Holland.
2. True or False? The Netherlands ranks among the top 12 trading nations in the world.
3. True or False? The Netherlands is part of NATO.

Quick Tips for Training & Development in the Netherlands¹:

• Guard your words carefully. The Dutch highly value honesty and will take your statements at face value. Avoid exaggeration or misinformation as well. Make sure every point is substantiated by real data.
• While Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, English is also widely understood. Find out from your in-country contacts if translation of your training materials is preferred.
• Outside information is often perceived as risky and viewed with caution. Greater importance is given to facts over emotion. Subjective arguments are not accepted as valid reasoning for decision-making.
• Decision-making is slow and involved, but resolutions are final.
• While it's difficult as a perceived outsider to form relationships with the Dutch, you'll find friendship and mutual respect go a long way in gaining buy-in from your students and local contacts.
• The Dutch favor hierarchy with clearly defined roles and structure. 
• Compliments and accolades are paid to the group as a whole, not to individual participants. In the same way, individuals are not singled-out for mistakes-rather, issues are attributed to a faulty system or failed oversight. If you must address an individual's achievements or shortcomings directly, do so in private.
• Consistent with their structured culture, punctuality is of great importance to the Dutch. Planning is a key component of daily life, and time must be used efficiently. In fact, people who arrive late may be assumed to be incompetent or untrustworthy since they are apparently unable to manage their time.
• Spontaneity is not a virtue.
• Dutch communication is straightforward and professional, with preference given to efficiency over pleasantries.
• In some industries, employees with higher rank may dress more casually than lower-level staff. Executives may dress in jeans and a button-up shirt while support staff are in suits.

Knowledge Answers from Above:

1. False. Holland, which includes Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague, is only a part of the Netherlands.
2. True.
3. True. It's also part of the European Community.

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.