Adobe Captivate - Custom Start for Mobile

Working with stakeholders can sometimes get challenging when you need to educate and set their expectations with regards to the norms that most of us take for granted. One example of this is the fact that mobile OS platforms don't allow for the auto-playing of content on the web. Unfortunately, this includes eLearning. What this means to you and I is that when you publish an eLearning course for the web and access it via a mobile device, learners will need to click an extra play button to get started. In this Adobe Captivate Quick Tip, I show you how you can customize the start project screen when publishing for mobile devices to at least make this a little more interesting to look at.

Default Currency

My website and ecommerce supplier allows for one currency for my clients. It's always made sense for me to bill in Canadian dollars since I myself operate my business from Canada. I've decided to change this starting with 2018. I've realized that the vast majority of my clients are from the United States. Since I've always believed in providing for my clients the service that I myself would expect, I've switched my default currency to US dollars.

This means that my hourly rate will change. Previously I charged $130 CAD per hour for my services. As of today, my hourly rate will change to $100 USD per hour.

Other items in my eCommerce site will remain the same, however, as a courtesy, I will be offering a 50% discount on all other items for the month of January, but you must use coupon code F6YW8GI to get it.

Adobe Captivate Alignment Toolbar

The Adobe Captivate Alignment Toolbar

I'm always looking for shortcuts in online learning design. One of my favourites is the Adobe Captivate Alignment Toolbar. To use for each session you will need to check Enable custom workspaces/panel undocking in your Adobe Captivate Preferences. This option can be found in the General Settings Category.

As the entry suggests you will need to restart Adobe Captivate for the changes to take effect, but the advantage is that you will be able to permanently turn various toolbars on or off as you see fit. Those changes will be persistent each time you start Captivate. You can then turn on the Adobe Captivate Alignment Toolbar by selecting it from the Window drop-down menu.

Once the Alignment Toolbar appears in your Captivate interface you can save time aligning, resizing, and ordering your on-slide objects with ease. Sure you can right click your objects and select the same settings, however, this requires two mouse clicks. Having the toolbar up on your screen saves you a mouse click for each of these alignment adjustments. Over the course of a lifetime of Captivate projects, the toolbar will save you time and many clicks.

Here is a simple and FREE job aid on what each icon from the toolbar can do for you. 

Provide Different Feedback for Each Answer in Adobe Captivate

In this Adobe Captivate video tutorial, I will share with you an almost hidden feature known as Advanced Answer Option. It's related to multiple choice single answer quiz questions but the feature isn't found in the Quiz Properties. Instead, you can find this feature in the Properties Panel for your multiple choice answers themselves. It's useful if you want to create unique feedback captions for each answer, but you can also assign unique actions to each answer as well. You can use Advanced Answer Options to create branching scenarios or simply use them to provide remediation for your knowledge check or quiz question slides. 

What Resolution Should I Use

From time to time I get this question about what resolution and for that matter, what aspect ratio should eLearning designers choose for their eLearning project. My expectation is that designers are hoping for a single super answer that will be applicable to all eLearning projects from now and into the future. The reality of the situation is there is no one single answer, however, I think I can offer some insight into this. 

When I begin an elearning project for a client, I start with a needs analysis. Included in that needs analysis is a technical needs analysis. For example, if everyone in the organization uses their desktop computer to complete their training and the stakeholder doesn't expect that to change any time soon, you should focus on a solution that is optimized for a desktop computer. If all their employees use iPhone 8 Pluses, then design for that size.

In this video tutorial, I show you an easy way to determine exactly what resolution you need to target for when designing for a particular device.

Using Javascript to Display Google Fonts in Adobe Captivate

In this video tutorial, I show you a method first conceived of by Steven Warwick. Steven shared his findings with the Adobe Elearning Community with a blog post entitled Using web fonts in Adobe Captivate. I reached out to Steven and asked his permission to share his method with all of you. 

Steven's original blog post:

https://elearning.adobe.com/2017/03/using-custom-fonts-in-adobe-captivate/

Steven's website:

https://www.elearningocean.com/

Steven's Twitter:

https://twitter.com/hdecisions

Recorded Live Streams on Patreon

In the interest of providing my Patreon subscribers with an added benefit, I will start making my live streams available to view from my Patreon channel as well. The live events themselves will continue to be accessible from my YouTube channel during the actual event, while the recorded versions of these sessions will reside on my Patreon channel as an exclusive benefit to those who subscribe as patrons. If you would like to subscribe to my Patreon channel, you can visit my Patreon channel using the button below.

Adobe Captivate - Converting to Responsive

I originally recorded an #eLearning #Livestream on this same topic but it felt sloppy so I didn't publish it. Today I decided to record this live stream as a regular video tutorial. In this video tutorial, we review some best practices when converting non-responsive projects into a responsive project. In this video I decide to go with fluid boxes, however, you can also use breakpoints if you prefer that style of design.

Adobe Captivate - Turn Bookmarking On / Off

Recently I've seen a lot of comments in the forums and within the comments of my videos, concerns over how bookmarking works with Adobe Captivate. The trick with bookmarking is that it works differently depending on whether you are using a learning management system or simply hosting your eLearning like a web page in the cloud. In this Adobe Captivate video tutorial, I show you how you can turn bookmarking on or off for your eLearning course when you have an LMS and when you are simply storing your eLearning in the cloud.

What Do I Use

I used to keep this information in the description of all my videos but it occurred to me that it would make more sense to have it on my website in one location. That way I can update it once instead of 250 or more times. Here is a list of the hardware and software I use to design and develop eLearning.

Adobe Captivate

My primary eLearning authoring tool. I have used others before but Captivate has been my goto eLearning software since the beginning.  https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/captivate.html

Adobe Presenter Video Express

I use PVX at least once a week when I create my Captivate Tutorials for my YouTube channel. As far as I'm concerned, PVX is the Garageband of eLearning software. It's simple to use and self-contained and available for an extremely reasonable price. https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/presenter-video-express.html

Storyblocks

I use Storyblocks for the vast majority of images in my eLearning courseware. Not only do they offer a wide array of choice when it comes to images but they are a great value as well. Use my referral link to save $50 on a yearly subscription.  https://videoblocks.go2cloud.org/SH8w

Tubebuddy

Managing a YouTube channel can be extremely time-consuming. I use Tubebuddy to handle all my SEO, as well as a bunch of cool features to save me time and effort. Use my referral link to install the FREE browser extension and consider signing up for their pro features as well. https://www.tubebuddy.com/PaulWilsonLearning

Adobe Creative Cloud

In addition to Adobe Captivate and PVX, I also subscribe to the Creative Cloud. Having access to tools like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Audition, and Media Encoder is a must for eLearning developers who build rich multimedia courseware. http://amzn.to/2y56Dtx

Logitech HP Pro Webcam C920

If you are going to be a YouTuber, you have got to have something better for your videos than what's built into your laptop. http://amzn.to/2hWhxZk

Blue Yeti USB Microphone

While video is important, probably more important is your sound quality. I use a Blue Yeti USB Microphone while I'm extremely happy with. Get one here. http://amzn.to/2i9ubIc

Microsoft Office 365

Hey, you gotta write an email, document or presentation file. Gotta have Office for all your basic productivity software. http://amzn.to/2AdZZm1