Restore the Windows 10 File Explorer in Windows 11

In this video, I show you how you can get back the full Windows 10 File Explorer ribbon in your new installation of Windows 11. Thanks to tomshardware.com for the steps. Key steps:

1. Open Regedit. You can do this in Windows 11 by hitting Windows + R

2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions

3. Create a registry key called Blocked if it doesn't exist and navigate to it

4. Right-click in the right window pane and select New String / Value

5. Rename your value to {e2bf9676-5f8f-435c-97eb-11607a5bedf7}

6. Close Regedit and restart your PC

Customize the Windows 11 Start Menu

In this video, I show you a number of ways you can customize the Windows 11 Start Menu.

Easy to Build Click to Reveal Example Recorded in Real-Time

As I'm sure most of you know, my video tutorials are edited. Here is an example of a video tutorial I recorded for Steven, one of my YouTube members, in order to answer a question he had about advanced actions and shared actions. I have not edited this video in any way. I wanted to not only show the steps to produce such an interaction but also demonstrate that it's not as time-consuming as some people might think.

Turn Your Camtasia Video into SCORM eLearning

In this video, I will show you how to turn your Camtasia Video into a SCORM eLearning package for your LMS.

Adobe Captivate Moving to Subscription License Model in 2022

Perpetual licenses are a traditional way of buying software. Over the years, I have purchased many perpetual licenses for software dating back to the 90s when I would buy MS-DOS or Windows from my local computer shop. Just thinking about Adobe Captivate, I have personally purchased Captivate 5, 5.5, 7, 8, and 9. In theory, I could install these programs on my computer today. But in all seriousness, why would I at this point? Calling these licenses perpetual might be overstating it. Full disclosure, I haven’t paid for Adobe Captivate 2017 or 2019 at all. More on that at the end of this article.

The hope with SaaS is that you see the benefit of having a lower cost of entry into that software, and you get more capabilities introduced over time. You are also automatically enrolled into the next major release of the software without incurring any additional expenses. 

When Adobe Captivate 2019 came out, you could purchase it using either the monthly fee or the perpetual license model. For argument’s sake, let’s say that you started using Adobe Captivate when Adobe released it in August 2018. To buy the perpetual license, you would have paid $1399. However, if one were to sign up back in August of 2018 for Adobe Captivate 2019 monthly, they would merely pay $34 per month. If you add up all those $34 payments until the end of this year, that would be 41 months, times $34 which works out to $1394.

Of course, starting in January, your monthly expense would exceed the cost you would have paid for the perpetual license. But here is where the monthly plan works in your favour. At some point in 2022, we know that the next major release of Adobe Captivate will get released. So the people who are presently paying $34 per month will get to update their copy of Adobe Captivate to that new version for no additional fee. The last time I purchased an upgrade license for Adobe Captivate, it cost me $449. At $34 per month, that $449 would last me for thirteen months. So when you factor in the extra time, I might have to pay a monthly fee versus the cost of upgrading when the time comes; it’s actually about the same.

Now I did mention that I haven’t paid for Captivate 2017 or 2019 at all. Adobe has given me this software for free, which anyone can take advantage of. I and many others participate in the Adobe eLearning Community website (https://elearning.adobe.com). I accumulate points for that participation. Once per quarter, you can “cash in” those points for complimentary benefits from Adobe. If you earn just 150 points per quarter, you can get a 3-month complimentary license of Adobe Captivate. Showcasing your work, writing a blog post, or posting a video tutorial will earn you 100 points. If you wrote just one blog post (like this one) about Adobe Captivate per month, you would easily earn enough points for free Adobe Captivate. Learn more about this program here: https://elearning.adobe.com/levels/

I challenge you to turn this into an opportunity. Write just one article per month until the next major release of Adobe Captivate and see if you can avoid all the fees associated with Adobe Captivate.

Why Make These YouTube Videos?

Recently someone in the Facebook user group was critical of my YouTube channel for not providing my videos in a particular order conducive to their learning everything about Adobe Captivate. Building an entire training course was never my intent when I started with video number one in August of 2014.

I had been using Adobe Captivate to produce a variety of elearning courses over the years. Still, I had not used the video demo feature to capture my screen for software training. My employer had asked me to investigate using the video demo feature in Captivate to produce training for some software we were rolling out to all the managers. My initial tests of video demo were recorded with one instance of Adobe Captivate while I demonstrated how to use Adobe Captivate on a second instance. It worked well, and I had these recordings of me teaching how to use Adobe Captivate. Rather than just deleting the recordings, I uploaded them to YouTube. I remember thinking that it would be interesting if anyone watched these videos.

The following few videos I recorded and uploaded to my YouTube channel were strictly for me. I had started to use variables and advanced actions in Adobe Captivate to expand what I could do with the software. Knowing that my memory was like a sieve, I captured the steps so I could refer to these procedures later if I needed them.

In addition to Adobe Captivate videos, I also uploaded other things to my YouTube channel. For example, another video I recorded was of a phenomenon involving how sound reflected off the Chichén Itzá Mayan Ruins in México. Because a popular website embedded my video as an example of strange things related to sound, the views on this video shot up to 40,000 over a one-week period. While one or two people would look at my Adobe Captivate videos, this taught me that something I produced could get the sort of views that would later prove to be profitable to my business. Sorry to those who want to see that video. I deleted it from my channel as I’ve dedicated my channel to just eLearning tutorials.

In the beginning, my collective videos would get a dozen views per day, but after the Chichén Itzá video, I started to see hundreds of views and occasionally a thousand views per day. Eventually, I began to include messages in my videos encouraging people to like, share and subscribe to my channel. It wasn’t long until I was able to monetize my videos. I remember that you could set the payout once you earned $100. When I started, Google would mail me a cheque for that hundred dollars, but eventually, I had to connect my bank account to my channel to get direct deposit payments. I should have kept one of those early cheques from Google. They would be a neat keepsake today.

At first, I merely uploaded a video and made it available to the world when I finished recording it. Later, I became more disciplined by recording a new video, uploading it to YouTube, and publishing it on Wednesday morning each week. Being consistent proved to be a good strategy as subscribers began to expect a new video and visit my channel on that day. I think consistency is a solid strategy when building a YouTube channel. I began to follow the same format that I saw other YouTubers use when creating videos as well. I would divide the videos into the following sections:

• Me introducing what the video is about

• Music and animation

• A longer explanation of the video

• Tutorial

• Closing with a suggestion to like, subscribe, and share

Following this format seems to be the correct approach. As a result, my channel has steadily grown to have 21,000 subscribers, over 2.7 million views, and the payments from Google have steadily grown as well.

Speaking of the money from YouTube, it’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a small amount when you compare it to how I actually make money from my YouTube channel. Most people watch my videos for free. I get a portion of the advertising revenue that YouTube collects for ads that run alongside my videos, but every month, a handful of people reach out to me for one of two things that I offer through my website.

The first is one-on-one instruction. If you like the format of my videos and my style of teaching Adobe Captivate, I offer one-on-one instruction. The benefit of these sessions is that I focus solely on your needs and not the needs of a class of forty or fifty people. This way, you learn just what you need to know. I usually record these sessions and make those recordings available to my clients afterwards.

The second is that I am a working eLearning developer. Some of the viewers of my channel try to develop their eLearning courses, but because they already have a full-time job or simply don’t have the aptitude for learning the software, they hire me. I have developed training courses for clients all over the world.

Whether I teach a student one-on-one or do the development work for my clients, I owe it to my YouTube channel for bringing me these potential customers. It has allowed me to quit my day job and work for myself. I’ve had a few job offers over the years, but I would rather work for all of you than return to the corporate world.

Custom Accordion Interaction with Forced Navigation for Adobe Captivate Project

In this video, I show you how you can build a custom accordion interaction with forced navigation in your Adobe Captivate eLearning project.

Add a PDF as a Popup In Your Adobe Captivate Project

In this video, I show you how you can add a popup to your Adobe Captivate project that appears as a popup when you press a button.

Delayed Next Button Appear Immediately on Your Captivate Slide Revisits

In this video, I show you how to have your next button appear immediately when your learner revisits a slide where the appearance of the next button is delayed until all the content on the slide has played. This tutorial uses a simple advanced action and if you plan on using this technic on multiple slides you can save it as a shared action and use it over and over again.

Free Download members of my YouTube channel can download the sample project that goes with this video. If you're a member you can look for it on the COMMUNITY tab of my YouTube channel.

Set An Expiry Date for Your Adobe Captivate Elearning Project

In this video, I show you how you can set an expiry date for your Adobe Captivate eLearning project. This can be useful if you are licensing a copy of your eLearning course for a set amount of time and want to ensure the organization comes back to you to get an updated copy for next year or whatever period of time you wish to license it for. This feature is documented on the following Adobe Help page: https://helpx.adobe.com/captivate/using/projects-project-preferences.html#define_how_a_project_starts_and_ends