Monday, March 4, 2013

How to Capture Screenshots in Windows 8

It's not Snagit, but it's free.

These directions are specific to a Toshiba Laptop, where you must use the FN key for functions, but will work for other computers with a few alterations.

To save a screenshot as a png file, hold down the Windows key and press the FN key and PrtScn (Print Screen) button on your keyboard.

Now press the Win + E keyboard combination to open Explorer. In your Pictures library, you will find a newly created Screenshots folder which contains the screenshots you have taken, listed in chronological order.

You can still copy the screenshots to your clipboard, using FN+PrtSc, and Alt-FN-PrtSc captures just the active window to your clipboard.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Use Captivate Animation on your Website.

What a great idea! Create a standalone text animation to use on a web page, blog, or non-Captivate e-learning project.

This article tells how:

http://blog.integratedlearningservices.com/2011/08/using-captivate-to-create-cool-text.html

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

They Give Away Cool PowerPoint Stuff

http://www.presentation-process.com/powerpoint-steps.html#.UL4VDKzAd8E

So many sites are just for sales. "We'll sell you this diagram or that template," but this site gives away stuff, and, better yet, teaches you to build it yourself. A real find!

3D PowerPoint steps

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Change the Background, Keep the Objects

Adobe Captivate 5.5: Change the Background, Keep the Objects

by Kevin Siegel

A fellow Captivate developer sent me an email asking for advice. It seemed that he had just completed a slick eLearning lesson in Captivate. But as soon as he published the lesson, an email arrived from his application developer informing him that the application had just been updated. There were "minor" changes to the interface that needed to be included in the eLearning lesson.

I was asked if there was anything that the developer could do to show those "minor" updates short of re-recording and re-producing the lesson. (He had spent 40 hours producing the lesson and didn't have another 40 hours to spare.)

I asked him if the interface changes were, in fact, minor.

"Yes."

I asked him if he had included a significant number of buttons, text captions and other objects in the original project.

"Yes."

"Yes."

and "Oh yes!"

One final question from me: Was it possible to record the new lesson using the same width and height of the original?

"Yes."

After his final yes, I had a "yes" of my own. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you will love the instructions you find at this link:

http://iconlogic.blogs.com/weblog/2011/07/adobe-captivate-55-change-the-background-keep-the-objects.html

Adobe Captivate 5.x: Web Page Widget

Bring the web into your presentations. This widget allows you to insert a web page into your Adobe Captivate 5.x web projects.

What can it do?

It can insert a web page using a:

Web address such as http://CaptivateDev.com
Relative Path such as “myfolder/myHTMLFile.htm”
HTML string such as “<html><head></head><body>Hello Wolrd Wide Web!</body></html>”
Captivate User Variable such as $$UserVariable$$ that would contain the html syntax in a string like the above.
It can also interpret variables so you could have a string or a URL such as http://mywebsite.com?user=$$myUserVariable$$
You can have two-way communication between the web page and Captivate 5 if you know JavaScript.

Use Cases:

Inserting PDF files (embedded into your web page).
Displaying Legacy AS2 .swf files (such as Articulate Presenter files or Captivate 3 or 4 files) in your AS3 Captivate 5 projects.
Showing corporate policies that must be kept to date. No need to republish your Captivate 5 project every time a policy changes if you’re displaying a web page that already has the current info from your corporate intranet.
Display a Google Form, Spreadsheet, or Doc that shows up-to-date information.
Create your own web mashups with Facebook, or Twitter and place them inside of your presentation.
Have users take a training evaluation survey from http://www.surveymonkey.com/ or http://polldaddy.comall within Captivate.
Whatever you can stuff into a web page, you can now show inside of Captivate.

http://captivatedev.com/2010/11/05/adobe-captivate-5-web-page-widget/

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

I am using Captivate again after many years, and, of course I'm looking for tips and tricks all the time. This seems a good place to list the useful ones I find. Then I can come back to them and you can take advantage of them too. (Oh, by the way, I'm using Captivate 5.5, but if you have a choice, go to 6.0. Worth the upgrade in my opinion because of how it works with PowerPoint and grouping. You do need grouping.)

Today, I'm leaning about Advanced Actions

What's That: Episode 7: Working with Advanced Actions in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Video. I'm coming back to this one when I can actually follow him and build a math interaction.

Captivate 5.5 Advanced Actions (can’t move on until all clicked)

Three videos. Watched first two. Three is recap. Learned a lot.

Controlling Audio with Advanced Actions and Variables

Video. Use advanced actions to play audio on the decision screen only the first time learner visits the screen. I'm coming back to this one when I have time to actually create one too. Today I'm after pretty basic stuff.

USING CAPTIVATE: Chapter 11-Variables and Advanced Actions

Fantastic find! Saving to desktop! Actually, I can't download unless I'm a premium Scribd member, but I did put a link on my desktop!

Advanced Captivate Tips, Tricks, & Tutorials

http://www.infosemantics.com.au/book/export/html/207

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

11 Free Authoring Tools for eLearning

In this post I will present you a list of Free Authoring Tools that you can use in your eLearning design and development process. If anyone of you have used these authoring tools I will very much appreciate if he/she share with us a demo of the final output!

If you know a free authoring tool that is not included in the list I will highly appreciate if you leave a comment with a link!

Feel Free to embedded the Presentation to your website/blog:http://www.slideshare.net/elearningindustry/free-authoring-tools-for-elearning

1) authorPOINT by authorGEN Technologies
authorPOINT is an authoring tool that allows users to capture presentations and add pre-recorded audio/video, all inside of Microsoft PowerPoint. authorGEN also offers authorPOINT Lite, which converts PowerPoint presentations to Flash.

2) Dipity by Dipity
From what we can glean from their website, Dipity is an online timeline creator. Users, known as Dipsters, can create their own content on subjects that are meaningful to them and share them with other users. Dipsters can also integrate social media into their timeline, utilizing real-time updates.

3)Document Suite 2008 by JetDraft Software
Document Suite 2008 is an authoring tool that helps transform documents into online help modules.

4)Izzui by QuickLessons LLC
Izzui is a hybrid social learning application that can be linked with QuickLessons. Izzui uses Facebook as an LMS to track and deliver courses. Izzui also has an e-Commerce capability allowing users to charge and pay for courses that they have created.

5) Jackdaw by e-Learning WMB
Jackdaw produces SCORM 1.2 compliant content that is easily integrated into any LMS. Users can create interactive content either from scratch or with the the help of over 100 templates. Jackdaw also lets users create content that they can then sell on the Open Elms webstore.

6) LessonWriter by Lesson Writer
From what we can gather from their website, LessonWriter is a tool for teachers that allows them to create lessons from any passage. These courses allow teachers to be creative with their lesson plans and also saves them a great deal of time.

7) MOS Solo by MindOnSite
MOS Solo offers a way for users to create content on the go without having to rely on a constant Internet connection. Even though they are using an offline content creation tool, they do not lose any of the functionality or power to create their multimedia content.

8) myUdutu Course Authoring Tool by Udutu Online Learning Solutions
A free online authoring tool with a suite of WSIWYG tools, allowing users to create courses in an approachable environment. Claims to export SCORM 1.2/2004 conformant courses to be used in a 3rd party LMS or integrate into social media sites, such as Facebook.

9) QuickLessons Authoring Tool by QuickLessons LLC
QuickLessons was built from the ground up to be a completely SaaS based content authoring tool, requiring the user to only have access to a web-browser. QuickLessons comes equipped with quizzes, games, characters, out-of-the-box animations and other customizable content to allow users to create truly unique and interactive flash-based content to meet their needs. Users can either use QuickLessons for free, publishing their content only to Facebook, or they can buy an individual, corporate or academic account.

10) Scratch by MIT Media Lab
From what we can gather from their website, Scratch is a creative tool that helps users create content that is beyond the barriers of traditional page-turners. Scratch users can create interactive stories, animation, music, and art, then share their creations on the web.

11) xtimeline by Famento Inc
xtimeline is a tool that allows users to create timeline based content for free. Users can also share their timelines with other users, creating a community.

The Creative Trainer

Pages