Adobe Learning Summit 2014

In a couple of weeks I will be flying out to Las Vegas to present at the Adobe Learning Summit 2014- to present with my colleague Linda Mahnken, on the

topic of Creating Accessible eLearning with Adobe eLearning Tools. Linda and I will focus on how you can use Adobe Presenter 10 and Adobe Captivate 8 to create elearning material that is accessible for individual with hearing, visual and learning disabilities.


During the session you'll learn:

• Accessibility features in Captivate and Presenter
• Which content types are and are not accessible    
• Best practices for accessible online content

If you have the opportunity this is a great conference that is co-located with DevLearn. I have been using Adobe Presenter for many years and with each version it gets better and better. For those of you who are not familiar with Adobe Presenter, Presenter is a PowerPoint plug-in that will give you a whole host of new features which are ideal for anyone who is creating material for the web. With more of my students accessing the web from mobile devices it is really exciting that I can now publish my courses in HTML 5, which I know will work on iPads and Android based tablets. One of the features which has always set Adobe Presenter apart from other PowerPoint plug-ins is the speed in which I can develop materials for the courses that I teach. In addition to being able to create interactive material- the ability to assess my students knowledge of the material is equally as important. Adobe Presenter 10 continues to excel in the ability to create quizzes which can be linked to an analytic dashboard so that as an instructor, I can quickly see who needs assistance and intervention. Adobe Presenter 10 also provides students with the opportunity to discuss ideas and leave comments when the material is presented which is truly a unique feature. 

For teachers who are considering flipping the classroom, Adobe Presenter 10 comes with Adobe Presenter Video Express which makes creating instructional videos from your computer a cinch. Adobe has really thought out this

application and within minutes you will be creating your first highly polished videos that you can publish to YouTube, Vimeo, & Adobe Connect.
Adobe Presenter Video Express includes the ability to add Closed Captioning-taking advantage of speech recognition to get the captioning done quickly. If you have been struggling to find an easy to use tool for creating instructional videos on you Mac or PC then take a look at  Adobe Presenter Video Express. There is a lot to like in the new Adobe Presenter 10-but for me it has always been that balance of features with rapid development. Hope to see you at the Adobe Learning Summit 2014 Conference.

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Adobe Presenter 9- Using the Drag & Drop Feature

With the release of Adobe Presenter 9 comes the Drag and Drop feature which gives developers a way to create interactive drag and drop questions to a quiz. The Drag and Drop feature is intuitive and allows you to create a number of different types of questions that can include both text and pictures. In the Halloween example, I created a simple Drag and Drop quiz called the Candy Challenge that allows the user to match a picture of the candy bar with the name of the candy. In the screencast below you will see just how easy it is to create a Drag and Drop question in Adobe Presenter 9.

To actually try the Candy Challenge click on the link.

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Adobe Presenter 9 - Powerful New Features!

Adobe Presenter 9 just might be one of Adobe's best kept secrets. As a long time Adobe Presenter user it is really exciting to see the evolution of this product and watch as the feature set grows. Adobe Presenter 9 has to be one of the best releases and one that will enable subject matter experts, teachers, and instructional designers to develop full blown courses with audio, video and multimedia. For those of you who may not be familiar with Adobe Presenter, it is a plug-in to Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows, that adds a full set of new features to PowerPoint making it easy to create eLearning modules. For those of you who have been using PowerPoint for years, having access to Adobe Presenter 9 will afford you opportunity to quickly turn your presentations into full fledged eLearning assets that can be published to Adobe Connect, a Web server, or your Learning Management System.

Adobe Presenter 9 Toolbar

As a subject matter expert, Adobe Presenter 9 lets me package my eLearning material in a very professional manner that is ready to be hosted on our college Learning Management System (Moodle). I will talk more about that a little later in this post. One of the new features to be added to Adobe Presenter 9 is Adobe Presenter Video Creator which opens up all kind of possibilities for creating high quality instructional videos from your desktop without the need to know a lot of about editing or videography. Being in the field of assistive technology, I want to applaud Adobe for making Adobe Presenter 9 a truly accessible tool for students with a range of visual, motor, hearing and learning disabilities. In fact, Adobe Presenter Video Creator lets you create Closed Captioning videos on the fly utilizing their proprietary speech to text engine when creating the video. Adobe Presenter 9 adds Section 508 compliance which is a welcome addition.

Once you install Adobe Presenter 9 it is easy to get started on crafting your eLearning material. The workflow could not be any easier, open up you presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint and click on the Adobe Presenter tab which now open up a whole new world for features for creating your materials. Depending on my goals there are times when I will add an audio narration to the slides which can be done simply using my built-in microphone on my laptop. There is always the option to import audio and utilize an external microphone for better recording quality. When it is time to sync the audio to your text Adobe Presenter 9 provides you with an easy to use feature to accomplish this. To spice up my eLearning material, I will often include one or two of the built in interactions that can be found in Adobe Presenter 9. Sometimes I will add a Word Search or a Jigsaw Puzzle to engage and have my

Interaction Types

students interact with the material in a fun way. Adobe Presenter 9 includes over 12 different types of interactions which you can add to your presentation. Having access now to both Characters and Scenes opens up the possibilities when using Adobe Presenter 9 to create scenario based eLearning materials. In fact of the newest features that is found in Adobe Presenter 9, is the Insert Scenario Interaction which lets you drop in a pre-set scenario whereby all of the characters and scenes with the associated paths have been programmed for you. This is ideal for doing what-if scenarios and gives your participants the option to test out what they have learned. At this

Insert Scenario

point in time the characters and scenes are slanted towards business and I have provided Adobe with my feedback that they need to include more characters and scenes that are relevant for K-12 and Higher Education. Despite the need for more relevant characters and scenes this is still a powerful tool to utilize as you put together your eLearning material.

OK, so I added my slides, audio narration, some interactions and maybe even some video-now I would like to assess what my students have learned from the module. From my perspective as a

Quiz Question Types

professor it is important for me know that my students are grasping the information and key concepts and what better way to do that than by adding a quiz to the material. Adobe Presenter 9 makes it easy to add a quiz and now includes 9 different types of questions that I can add to a quiz. One of the most asked for features, Drag & Drop was added to Adobe Presenter 9 which opens up all kinds of possibilities for assessing my students. While adding a quiz has always been a standard feature, I am particularly excited by the addition of the Collaboration feature and the Student Analytic Dashboard that was recently added to Adobe Presenter 9. With the Collaboration feature tuned on students can engage in an ongoing conversation about the material and learn from one another as they are interacting with the material. Adobe makes this feature easy to use and it doesn't require that you have a Learning Management System in place. Once this feature is turned on all users will see a question mark on the bottom of the learning module that they can click to view and ask questions. This is a great feature to get students more engaged and gives them the opportunity to learn from one another. One of the other benefits of Adobe Presenter 9 is that it supports Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) which makes it ideal of uploading to Moodle. Setting up the SCORM package is a cinch in Adobe Presenter 9 and when I am done I can upload it as a ZIP file to Moodle and my students can view the material and answer the quiz. Moodle handles the Adobe Presenter 9 SCORM files exceptionally well and will automatically report the students quiz scores to me.

The feature that I am most excited about in this release of Adobe Presenter 9 is the Student Dashboard which takes Adobe Presenter 9 to a new realm for me as I deliver more content online to my students. Adobe has done a masterful job of providing me with a way to monitor my students progress as they work on a learning module. I just started back teaching and have put up my first

Dashboard

module to see how this feature would work and all I can say is wow- this truly gives me a snapshot of where my students are in the module and if any of them need some assistance. The Dashboard is extremely visual and I have found easy to use. The heat map of where my students are in the process of completing the module gives me a quick overview of their progress. At any time I can email or share their progress directly form the Dashboard. Adobe Presenter 9 also gives me the capability to set an Intervention date that alert me of students who are not progressing through the eLearning Module- this giving me the opportunity to intervene. Having access to the Dashboard is a tremendous feature and one that I know I will take advantage throughout the semester. Kudos to Adobe for building this feature in!

When it comes time to publishing my course there are lots of options for output-you may want to consider uploading it to your Adobe Connect account, a web server, a LMS, or as a PDF that you can distribute. I have always been impressed with the options and the look and feel of the course when it is packaged within Adobe Presenter 9. Adobe Presenter 9 gives you complete control over how your published course will look and how users will navigate through the module. I for one like how Adobe

Published Adobe Presenter 9 Module

Presenter 9 creates an index and the sidebar, but if you choose you can completely remove that and utilize your own system for navigating the module. Adobe Presenter 9 also makes it easier to attach accompanying documents to your learning module which are then easily accessible to the learner. Adobe Presenter 9 opens up all kind of new possibilities for teachers, instructors, and eLearning professionals that are looking for ways to utilize their legacy PowerPoint presentations. With a little seat time you will be up and running using the powerful features in Adobe Presenter 9 to publish your courses to the web or mobile devices (IOS and Android apps are available). Adobe has added a number of new features to the recent release of Adobe Presenter 9 which makes this application even more powerful without the steep learning curve. As I said in the beginning Adobe Presenter 9 may just be the best kept secret in Adobe's suite of software applications -but I have a sneaking suspicion that they know they have a real winner on their hands with this release, and I'm sure they will do all they can to get the word out going forward.If you would like to try Adobe Presenter 9- Adobe has a 30 day trial version that you can download from the web.

Please look for another post soon on the Adobe Presenter Video Creator which opens up all kind of new possibilities.

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Livescribe SKY WiFi Pen Comes to the Rescue

It has been a long and tough week since our power went out last week due to Hurricane Sandy. My wife and I have been staying with family members who have had their power restored which can be a little disorienting- especially when your routine has been drastically altered. The college where I teach will be closed through Tuesday and hopefully I will get back the power before that- but who knows. Sandy has been devastating to our New Jersey towns! Trees are down all of the place and power lines are mangled and  strewn about.

Being displayed in the season of the general elections is a real problem for many people and recently our Governor announced that we would be able to vote via email or fax as long as we can get the Vote by Mail Ballot to the County Clerk's Office. With this in mind I set off to download the Vote by Mail Ballot from the website which I was able to save as a PDF file. Now how would I get a good looking signature on the ballot? Actually it was quite simple, since I had brought along my Livescribe SKY Wifi Pen with me to my sister's home. Now all I needed to do was to have my wife and I sign a page in the Livescribe notebook with the Sky WiFi pen and have it automatically uploaded to Evernote. Once the syncing was done, I was able to open up the page on my Evernote account and using the Snipping tool on my laptop, I saved each signature as a JPEG file. Now I was able to go back to the ballot which was saved in a PDF format and using the Signature Tool from within Adobe Acrobat X, I was able to import the image file and use it to digitally sign the ballot. The process took me less then 5 minutes and when I was done I used my eFax account to fax the ballots to the county clerk's office. The process was very quick and straightforward. I will give you an update when I hear back from the Clerk's Office. So remember to vote this Tuesday in the General Election!

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Using Adobe Presenter 8 with Moodle

This semester I have had the opportunity to teach an online class for one student that needed the course to graduate. Fortunately for me, I have had access to Adobe Presenter 8 and Moodle to teach and thought that it would be a great way for me to deliver the course to my student. We are now half way through the semester and using these tools has made it easy for me to deliver learning modules to my student that he is able to work through. The beauty of using Adobe Presenter 8 is that I have plenty of PowerPoint presentations that I have done over the years which I have been able to convert to learning modules. Having access to the features found in Adobe Presenter 8 has allowed me to add video, audio as well as quizzes to my modules which really has enhanced the learning experience for my student. Adobe Presenter 8 is great at wrapping up your PowerPoint presentation and delivering them as a stand alone eLearning asset.

One of the features that has really worked well for me using Adobe Presenter 8 is the ability to create a SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)  compatible course from my PowerPoint presentations that I can then upload to Moodle. Using the Quiz feature found within Adobe Presenter 8, I am able to create a variety of different types of questions that allows me to assess what the student has learned during the session. It also provides a valuable way for my students to receive feedback after they have worked through the module. Creating the SCORM compatible file from your course is a cinch when using Adobe Presenter 8 which makes it really easy to upload to Moodle. From within the Quiz Manager select the Reporting tab and simply select the SCORM option. Now you simply have to Publish your course from within Presenter 8 and save the course using the Zip package format.

Now that you have saved the course in the zip package format it is time to upload it to your Moodle course. First select the week that you would like your students to have access to the learning module and from the drop down select SCORM activity. Upload your course that you saved in the zip format to Moodle and you are done. If you like you can customize and control how many times the students can attempt the course. That's all you need to do. Now when your students access the course and take the quiz Moodle will report the students score to you and whether they passed or not. Using Adobe Presenter 8 along with Moodle has been a really fantastic experience and has allowed me to quickly create courses and provide a way for my student to receive immediate feedback. As a professor, I am always looking for new ways to efficiently develop eLearning materials and using Adobe Presenter 8 really foots the bill!

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Using Adobe Presenter 8 for eLearning

Having used Adobe Presenter 7 to create eLearning material it was exciting to learn that Adobe had released a new version of Adobe Presenter with a slew of new and exciting features. I have had a chance to work with Adobe Presenter 8 for the past two months to learn the ins and outs of the program and am really impressed with the product and some of the new features that have been added. Adobe Presenter 8 remains a plug-in for PowerPoint on the Windows platform which when installed appears as a new Tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon. Once you click on the Tab you will see a host of features that are specific to Adobe Presenter 8 that you can utilize. To get started with Adobe Presenter 8 just open an existing PowerPoint, click on the Adobe Presenter Tab and you can then bring in video, record audio and build an eLearning module complete with navigation and quizzes. Subject matter experts will enjoy the easy to use interface and be creating modules in no time. One of the real strengths of Adobe Presenter 8 is the intuitive interface which will ensure a fast learning curve.

As more and more students are learning online it is essential that as subject matter experts that we have easy to use tools to create rich online materials. Using a HD webcam you can bring in high quality video into your eLearning courses with Adobe Presenter 8 and display it on a slide or on the Navigation pane.  Adobe Presenter 8 lets you customize the Navigation pane and gives you control over the color selection. In the current version of Adobe Presenter 8 you can have the Navigation pane inherit the color and theme of your PowerPoint presentation giving it a lot of pizzazz and visual appeal. Narrating your presentation could not be easier with Adobe Presenter 8. When using the recording feature you can import all of your Slide notes and have them ready to access as you add audio to your eLearning module. If you have animations on your slides Adobe Presenter 8 makes it easy to synchronize the animations to your audio thus ensuring that the audio and animation matches during playback.

Adobe Presenter 8 has added a host of new features like Interactions, Characters and Scenes which will make your presentations more compelling and interactive. It is now easy to add a scene to your PowerPoint presentation by selecting from any of the built-in scenes provided. You can then overly that with characters that have added to Adobe Presenter 8 to give your eLearning module a polished and professional look. To add more interactivity into your module you can now select from several new Interactions that have been added to Adobe Presenter 8. When the eLearning module has been published students can interact with the presentation making it a more dynamic experience.

What has always impressed me about Adobe Presenter 8 is the ease of use and the way that it can wrap up your material up complete with navigation to make for a very professional looking course. Since so many professionals have legacy PowerPoint presentations-having access to Adobe Presenter 8 makes sense for those of you who are considering putting together online courses. Adobe Presenter 8 eLearning courses can be published to your Adobe Connect account,  or as a PDF that can be viewed with the Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 or above. Adobe Presenter 8 can also be viewed on an iPad using the Presenter App. Please note there are some limitations viewing eLearning courses on the iPad.

One of the most innovative new features in Adobe Presenter 8 is the addition of the Video Creator tool. Now it is possible to create highly engaging material with high quality video without the need for an expensive video creation application. Using a high quality webcam like the Logitech 920D-it is now possible to produce great videos right within Adobe Presenter 8. After hitting the record button you have the option to record within your PowerPoint presentation or you can use it to demonstrate any software application that you have access to on your computer. The editing tools are easy to access and use and the published video allows you to be on the right or left side of the screen as you demonstrate whats on your computer screen. Once you have finished creating your video you can easily output and share it via Vimeo or YouTube right from Adobe Presenter 8.

While creating engaging material for your online courses is one of the goals of Adobe Presenter 8, when it comes time to assess your students, Adobe Presenter 8 includes the ability to create Quizzes which can capture what they have learned. Adobe Presenter 8 supports AICC and SCORM making it easy to connect to existing Learning Management Systems (LMS). I have used this feature within Moodle which worked well and provided me reports as to how my students performed on the learning module. Adobe Presenter 8 allows designers and teachers to include True/False, Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blanks, Short Answer, Hotspots, Likert Scale, Matching and Sequence style questions. Adobe Presenter 8 will automatically create a summary slide to provide feedback and scores to the students.

Adobe Presenter 8 hits that sweet spot for individuals that are comfortable using PowerPoint and have made an investment in creating presentations over the years. Utilizing Adobe Presenter 8 gives them the ability to quickly convert their legacy presentations into interactive presentations that can be uploaded and utilized within a LMS or published to a server. Users will appreciate the easy to use interface and now having access to the Video Creator adds a new dimension to the program allowing users the ability to create high quality video demonstrations without the need for expensive equipment. You can download a trial version of Adobe Presenter 8 and kick the tires- you will be glad you did.

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Using Mindmaping Tools in the Writing Process

Over the years I have written countless articles about how I use mind mapping in the work that I do, but one of the areas which may be overlooked is in the writing process. As part of my consulting business I am often asked to write project proposals for new work as well as status updates on projects that I may be working on. While man of us may be inclined to open up Microsoft Word and start writing, I have always found it easier to structure my thoughts using mind mapping software.

As part of the process, having the ability to brainstorm what I am going to include is a natural using mind mapping software. Having the ability to move my ideas around the mind map helps me to organize my ideas and structure the content that I will include in my final report. Once I have completed the brainstorming phase, I move the ideas around the map until I am satisfied with the content. Next, I begin to attach notes to my topics to flesh out my ideas. The notes will serve as the content for my report once I have exported the mind map into a Word document. After adding notes to each of the ideas in my mind map, I am now ready to utilize the export feature to Microsoft Word- which quickly generates a structured proposal or status report. Many of the leading mind mapping applications allow you to export directly to a PDF file format. I prefer to first export the report to a Microsoft Word document first so that I can make any final edits and changes before converting it to a PDF file.

Utilizing mind mapping tools to help generate and structure the report gives my proposals and project updates a unique look and feel that sets me apart from other consultants. The cover sheet of my report includes the mind map along with a table of contents which allows the reader to easily navigate to a specific page in the proposal. Once my report is in Microsoft Word, I generally convert it to a PDF file for my client which ends the process. I might add, that for my final touch, I have been using Adobe Acrobat SendNow service to send my finished proposals which gives me the added feature of being able to track that it was received. So if you are looking for a way to help structure your writing then reexamine how you can use mind mapping software for this purpose- you will be glad you did.

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Free Upcoming eSeminars - Adobe Captivate & eLearning Suite

Adobe’s series of free eSeminars on Adobe Captivate and eLearning Suite continues into November – this month’s featured sessions focus on publishing and packaging. Please note the next eSeminar, covering the Multi-SCO Packager, is tomorrow, Nov. 10, at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern.

   

Using Multi-SCO Packager to Create a Single Course out of SCOs from Captivate, Flash and Dreamweaver

Thursday, Nov. 10 – 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET

Join Vish and Dr. Pooja Jaisingh to learn how to combine SWF and PDF from Captivate, Learning interactions SWF from Flash and Course Builder SCOs from Dreamweaver into a single course. You will also learn about using Learning Interactions in Flash and Course Builder in Dreamweaver.

Mobile Publishing Options in Adobe Captivate and eLearning Suite

Wednesday, Nov. 16 – 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET

Join RJ Jacquez, Adobe eLearning Senior Product Evangelist, to learn how Adobe is helping advance Mobile Learning (mLearning) through various technologies, including Flash, HTML5 and native mobile apps.

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Free Adobe eSeminars for Captivate 5.5

While Adobe Captivate 5.5 is an easy to use tool- it is great that Adobe will be offering free eSeminars to walk you through the finer points.  To register for one of the seminars just click in the link. Enjoy! Brian

Alternate Reporting and Quiz Result Analyzer in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, Sept. 22 – 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET

Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh and Vish to learn about the alternate options available for quiz reporting like Acrobat.com and Internal Server. They will also show you how to analyze the results using Adobe Captivate Quiz Results Analyzer.

Let’s Explore the Branching View in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, Sept. 29 – 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET

Join Vish and Dr. Pooja Jaisingh to learn how to use the Branching panel effectively in Adobe Captivate 5.5.

Deep Dive: Effective Soft Skills Training in Adobe Captivate: Part 3

Wednesday, Oct. 12 – 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET

Join Dr. Allen Partridge for Part 3 of an advanced tutorial on creating soft skills simulations with Adobe Captivate. This session is recommended for intermediate and advanced users and assumes fundamental awareness of Adobe Captivate. Dr. Partridge will demonstrate and break-down the elements commonly used in creating soft skills simulations. This will be a technically oriented session focused on advanced actions and creating the logical decision trees and complementary functions to make advanced branching dependent projects really sing.

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Adobe Certified Expert in Captivate 3

For the past month I have been soaking up every bit of information that I could find in preparation for taking the Adobe Certification Examination for Adobe Captivate 3. What better way to master the program than to jump right in and use it day in and day out, which is what I did. The Adobe Captivate 3 Certification Test consisted of 62 questions pertaining to different aspects of the program. If you go on the Adobe website they do breakdown the various topics that will be covered on the exam and even give you 10 sample questions to show you what you can expect. The exam is administered through Pearson and I took it in a designated Computer center about 30 minutes from my home. The Adobe Certification examination is administered on the computer and was very easy to navigate and to review questions. Some of the questions had picture exhibits which were very easy to access. Of course what was nice was that once I finished the exam-I received my results almost instantaneously. I did pass with flying colors and you will see that I can now place the Adobe Certified Expert in Captivate 3 logo on my blog.

In addition to using Captivate 3, I did find a couple of resources that were indispensable in preparation for the test that I would like to share with you. One of the first books that I purchased was Essentials of Adobe Captivate 3 by Kevin A. Siegel. This workbook takes you step by step through the process of putting a project together and helps you to understand the basic concepts and ideas on how to best use Adobe Captivate 3. Using this workbook, you will get up to speed quickly as you move through the project. A CD with project files accompanies the workbook which makes it very easy to apply the skills that you are developing. This is a must for first time users of Captivate 3.

The second reference book which I relied on in preparation for the examination was Adobe Captivate 3: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library) by Brenda Huettner. This guide proved to be more like a manual and really went into in depth on all of the topics that would be covered in the exam. As a reference guide this book was really fantastic and I was able to quickly use the index to look up information as I was studying for the exam. I must have read this reference guide 3 times from cover to cover in preparation, and it really paid off. If you are preparing for the Adobe Certified Examination for Captivate 3, I would highly recommend that you consider these two wonderful resources.

So if you are looking to do some internal training of your staff and need someone to help you develop your materials- I know an Adobe Certified Expert in Captivate 3 that is ready to help:-)

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Go Green with Forms with Adobe Acrobat 9

In my previous post I wrote about the new Portfolio feature in Adobe Acrobat that is bound to change the way you think about sending PDF files. In this blog installment I want to talk to you about how both business and school organizations can cut down on their use of paper and reduce their carbon footprint by using the Forms feature in Adobe Acrobat 9. If you work in any organization you know that there is a form for just about everything and anything that takes place in your office. Forms for travel Expenses, Sick Days, Vacation Requisitions, Tuition Reimbursement and the list goes on and on. I'm sure you know the drill- get the paper form fill it out and send it via inter-office mail. Or in some instances the form may be posted on your organization's website but you still need to print it out and fill it in and send it to the appropriate office. That seems like a lot of work, and if you multiply that by how many employees are in your organization that sure is a lot time and paper that is being used in the process.

Using the Forms feature in Adobe Acrobat 9 will not only make your organizations form flow more efficient-but can significantly reduce the amount of paper and time that it takes to complete and route forms. If you haven't looked at the Forms feature in Adobe Acrobat 9, I suggest that you do. You will find it very easy to create forms from your existing paper based forms, electronic forms that you may have in Word, or from a Acrobat PDF template. If your existing form is paper based you can scan it into Adobe Acrobat 9 and have Acrobat convert it to a fill in blank form for completing with Acrobat Reader. The process is very quick and within minutes you will have an electronic form ready to be filled in. If you are not familiar with the process you can use the Forms Wizard to walk you through the process for creating your form. Within minutes you will have your form ready to go. Once your form is complete the next decision you need to make is how are you planning to distribute the form? You have several options-you can distribute it on Acrobat.com, as an email, and to an internal server. Using the free Acrobat.com website makes it a cinch to distribute forms and all of the heavy lifting for distributing the forms is done within Adobe Acrobat 9. You can get a free Acrobat.com account and use it to distribute your forms-however, bear in mind that if you are dealing with information of a confidential nature you should consider hosting the form on your internal server. Once the form is distributed you can email it to select individuals or have it available on your website for completing on line with Acrobat Reader 9. The real beauty of using Adobe Acrobat 9 Extended is the ability to use the Track Forms feature to view the Responses. When you initiate this feature Adobe Acrobat 9 will go out to your server or to Acrobat.com and pull in all the completed forms. If you have never used this feature it is a very fast and efficient way to collect your information without the need to print out forms on paper. This can quickly change your entire work flow and help your organization move towards moving forms in a paper-less fashion. Now imagine the cost saving and just how good you will feel that you are doing something good for the environment!. If you want to try it out you can certainly download Acrobat 9 Trial version from the Adobe web site.

To see what it is like to fill out the form, you can complete this Contact Form and send it to me with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download the Contact Form click on the Menu in the Thumbnail below and download the form. After filling in the Form just click on the Submit Form button which is located on the top of the Acrobat Reader.

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Creating PDF Portfolios in Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended

I have been a long time user of Adobe Acrobat and use it extensively in the work that I do as a professor and technology consultant. While many of us are used to using Adobe Acrobat Reader- you don't really understand the power and utility of Adobe Acrobat until you start working with with the Standard, Pro or Pro Extended versions. When Adobe announced that they had just released version 9 of Adobe Acrobat, I knew that I had to take a look at it and see what new features it offered. I once again would like to thank Roman from A & R Edelman for providing me with a review copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended. There are currently four different versions in the Adobe 9 product line which include: Reader, Standard, Pro, and Pro Extended. Each version has a different set of features which are delineated on this matrix provided by Adobe. For the purpose of this review I am going to be speaking about Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended version which has the most advanced feature rich set.

In this post, I will highlight two very exciting features which I know will change the way we think about PDF's (Portable Document Format) and how we use them. On the top of my list is the introduction of portfolio's and the ability to play Flash assets within a PDF which takes this version to a whole new level. Let me start off by talking about the Portfolio feature which I know will make us all rethink how we create and distribute information that we produce. I'm sure that if you are like me, you often get emails with several PDF attachments. When the email is delivered into your inbox you have no idea which one to open first and once they are opened you then have to save them to a folder and organize them in some way so that they are useful to you. Well all of that has changed with the concept of creating a PDF Portfolio with Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended (Portfolio's can be created with the Standard and Pro editions of Acrobat).

Now imagine that you can now take your existing PDF files, SWF files, Word files, Excel documents, and picture files and create one unitary portfolio which stores all of your documents. When you are ready to share your documents via an email attachment there is only one file to attach. While this is certainly an improvement over the way we used to do it, now imagine that you have the ability to craft the portfolio so that it has the look and feel that you hope to achieve for your communication. Once you begin to create your portfolio you can choose a layout, add a welcome and header, select a color scheme, specify file details, and publish the portfolio. I found it very easy to create the look an feel that I wanted and I was able to add my picture to personalize my portfolio. I choose to use the Revolve layout which gave me a sort of cover flow effect that you might find on your iPod. To add the files to my portfolio- it was as simple as dragging them into the portfolio from my desktop where they were stored. You should note that my PDF Portfolio contains several different types of files, just to show you the power of this new feature. I included a Word document, a Captivate SWF movies, and several PDF files. Acrobat allowed me to use the nice blue color schemes from a large palette of colors. One of the really impressive features is the ability to present your documents in the order you desire when the recipient receives them. By creating an Order field within Acrobat, I was able to place a number from 1 to 6 into the field and then sort the documents so that they appear in the order that I want. As you create your PDF Portfolio there are lots of features that you can change to insure that it looks and behaves as you wish. Before publishing your PDF Portfolio there are lots of ways that Acrobat allows you secure your PDF portfolio. Click here to watch how I created a PDF Portfolio in Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended

What really got me excited is the way Adobe Acrobat 9 handles files within the portfolio. You will see if you download my PDF Portfolio that Acrobat will allow you preview your Word and Excel files right within the portfolio. You will also note that I placed a Captivate 3 swf demonstration video within the PDF file that plays right within Adobe Acrobat Reader 9, without the need of any additional players. This feature alone is huge. Imagine being able to great technical and training guides complete with Flash videos embedded right within the PDF. With Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended you can easily embed Flash video within your Word and PowerPoint presentations. Once you install Adobe Acrobat 9 Extended you will now have a new Acrobat menu embedded within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. By simply using the Embed Video drop down you can insert Flash and FLV videos right within your documents that are automatically converted to Flash when you publish your PDF's. This is truly an awesome feature and one that will change the way we think about how we use PDF's for training and distributing information. Remember you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 to view the Portfolio.

As part of Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended you also get the added bonus of Adobe Presenter 7 which is an add-in to PowerPoint. I must say a very powerful add-in to say the least. I have highlighted the use of Adobe Presenter in a previous post- so if you missed it here is the link.

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Adobe Presenter 7- Making eLearning Come to Life

While attending the NECC 2008 Conference this summer, I had the opportunity to sit through several of the Adobe presentations to see what new applications were on the horizon. Adobe was tauting their latest application called Adobe Presenter 7 which is a plug-in to PowerPoint. I would like to thank Roman from A & R Edelman for providing me with a review copy of Adobe Presenter and for his support. In a nut shell, Adobe Presenter 7, lets you convert your legacy PowerPoint applications into a Flash based presentation or PDF file. That being said, there is a lot under the hood of Adobe Presenter 7 which can turn your PowerPoint slides into a dynamic eLearning environment complete with video, navigation, attachments, quizzing, and audio. PowerPoint 2007, Adobe Presenter 7 installs a new Ribbon with all of the features. Adobe Presenter 7 is part of Adobe Acrobat 9 Extended version. Using the Help menu it was rather easy to build my first Adobe Presenter 7 presentation which included video, Flash based video tutorials that were authored in Captivate 3, and audio. Using a webcam I was able to include a video of myself introducing my company and services, which gave my piece a nice touch. Adobe Presenter 7 allowed me to customize the look and feel of the final project and even let me include PDF attachments which can make this a great way to deliver eLearning material on the web.

Having created Flash based software tutorials in Captivate 3, I could easily embed them in my PowerPoint slide presentation with complete control of how they behaved with the controllers. When thinking of the future of training, I for one am very excited by the fact that I can now embed Flash based videos directly into a PDF file which can be viewed with nothing other that the free Adobe Reader 9. This is a new feature with the release of Adobe Acrobat 9 this spring. Think about that for a moment. That is very powerful! With nothing more than Adobe Acrobat Reader 9, your students or clients will be able to take advantage of video and audio with the confidence it will just work. As long as you have Flash installed on your computer you can be sure that your presentation will deliver the content. According to the surveys more than 98% of all computer users have Flash installed. This is very exciting for me just thinking of all the possibilities of building engaging and interactive environments for others to learn new skills.


In the presentation that I created you will see how all of these elements have come together. I was able to include video from my webcam, audio from a lapel microphone, and Flash video tutorials, along with some training PDF files. What I'm most impressed about the product is just how well it wraps everything up and when you are finished you get a very professional looking presentation to share with the world. I found Adobe Presenter 7 easy to learn to use and without so much as a manual I was creating this highly interactive eLearning materials. Adobe Presenter 7 is a wonderful integrator, helping you to bring all of the pieces together to make for an exciting and interesting elearning experience. I for one really enjoyed putting this project together. Click here to view the presentation, right within your browser or if you want you can download the presentation as a PDF file here. The PDF file is 11 megabytes and will take a little time to download. This will give you some idea of the power of Adobe Acrobat in its current release. You will need to download Adobe Acrobat 9 Reader to view this presentation. Adobe Presenter 7 also allows you to create quizzes for the purpose of assessment, with a variety of different types of question formats that can be integrated into your learning management system (LMS). I will tackle this feature in another blog post later next week. You can download a trial version of Adobe Presenter 7 from the Adobe website.

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Adobe Captivate 3- Awesome!

While attending the NECC Conference this summer in San Antonio I had the chance to stop by the Adobe booth and connect with some of my colleagues who work for Adobe to find out what is the latest and greatest. At the Adobe booth I was shown several of the new releases which included Captivate 3, Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional, and Presenter 7. One of the Sales Engineers gave me a tour of Captivate 3 which really wowed me. Many of you know that I have been producing software video tips and tutorials for the past year or so for the Mindjet Newsletter which goes a long way for showing others how to accomplish tasks using MindManager 7 and JCVGantt Pro 3. Using screencasting software to demonstrated how to accomplish tasks with a particular software product makes the process of providing "just in time training" a reality and can cut down on support calls at the workplace. I want to thank Jody at A&R Edelman for providing me with a copy of Adobe captivate to review and to RJ at Adobe for doing a great webinar with me on Adobe Captivate 3.

For the past several years I have been using Camtasia Studio 5 extensively to do my screencasting work and find it to be an outstanding product to get my work done. Camtasia Studio 5 lets you record your screen and then provides you with post editing tools to fine tune your screencast. Camtasia's approach to screencasting is similar to that of taking a video camera and pressing the record button. With this approach every screen and all of the audio is continuously being recorded. Any mishaps or errors while doing the recording will need to be post edited or in some cases need to be re-recorded. Adobe Captivate 3 takes an entirely different approach to capturing your computer screen which has some real benefits. Adobe Captivate 3 captures individual screen shots only when you move the mouse, click on the screen, or type some text. When you are finished capturing your screens Adobe Captivate 3 pulls all of the screen shots together and builds a Flash video of your demonstration. You also have the opportunity to add audio to your demonstration while you are creating your video or after the process is complete. One of the really nice features of Adobe Captivate 3 is the ability to not only create demonstration-but you can in one fell swoop also create simulations, training, and assessment videos. You can watch my screencast to get an idea of how Adobe Captivate 3 works.

I have found that using Adobe Captivate 3, I can create custom demonstrations videos very quickly, with Adobe Captivate 3 doing a lot of the work for me. What do I mean by that? When I am creating a video demonstration Adobe Captivate 3 will automatically include captions when I am selecting menus, dialog boxes and clicking on the screen. Watch the video to see what I mean. In the demonstration video you will see a number of captions that have been generated by Adobe Captivate 3. All of the captions can be edited and formatted if you need to. Having Adobe Captivate 3 generate the captions saves a lot of time when producing these videos. I have chosen not to use audio in this demonstration but if I wanted to I could always go back and add narration to the demonstration video. As I work with Adobe Captivate 3 I I find it an outstanding tool to work with to create video demonstrations and training scenarios. I will over the next couple of weeks share with you some other tips and tricks that I have learned about Adobe Captivate 3 - so stay tuned.

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Acrobat.com-Embedding PDF's on Your Blog

Over the past year I have watched the Acrobat.com website flesh out its free offerings which I have to say are quite impressive. I have been a big fan of Adobe Acrobat for years and not only use it for my own work but have also used it as an access tool for some of the students that I work with that have physical disabilities. More about this feature in a later post.

While reading the Acrobat Blog I came across a couple of tips and features that I wanted to share with you. First off, if you don't have an Acrobat account sign-up for one- you will find it very handy. If for no other reason, just so you will have another online repository for your files-but it can do a lot more than that. In this tip you can upload or create a PDF file if you don't own Acrobat Standard or Professional right on the Acrobat.com website. Once you have your PDF file uploaded you can click on the Copy Embed Code which will then allow you to post the PDF to your website or blog in a widget. By simply pasting the code into my blog, I am now able to generate a widget that displays my PDF file. You can see the result of this technique below.


Using Acrobat.com gives you the freedom to post and share your PDF files using the embed feature without using a lot of overhead. It is a simple and easy way to share your information in the ubiquitous PDF format. From the widget, individuals can zoom in on the file and download it if they like. Take a look at this feature-with it it is now even easier to share PDF files than ever before on your website or blog.

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Adobe AIR version of Acrobat.com

In the past year I have written about Adobe and its unique set of online tools. Adobe continues to add features to their Acrobat.com site and provides all of us with an incredible tool set. I have written about Buzzword, Adobe's online word processing tool which has not only has a great looking interface but really gives you the feeling that you are working on a desktop application. If you have not given Buzzword a try it is worth checking out. I recently found that Adobe has released an Acrobat.com wideget that is written in Adobe AIR that gives you easy access to your files and application at Acrobat.com. Adobe's use of Flash and mix of Adobe AIR gives the applications a unique look which I find very pleasing to the eye. The programs work quickly over the internet and at times it is hard to belief that you are using these applications that reside on the internet. Here is how Adobe has described the widget:

The Adobe AIR version of Acrobat.com provides an easy way of interacting with Acrobat.com by dragging and dropping files and folders from your local computer directly into your Acrobat.com account, and browsing, previewing, sharing or publishing files easily from your computer. The application can be minimized to a widget on your desktop providing easy access to the Acrobat.com services.You can download the Acrobat.com widget and keep it on your desktop which makes uploading files and gain access to the applications that much easier.

Acrobat.com Widget



On the Acrobat.com website you can also use it to convert up to 5 documents to PDF format which could come in handy. You also get a fair amount of storage space where you can store your files and share them with others which can provide you with a way to collaborate on word processing documents. Buzzword does track all changes and revisions which makes it easy to see who did what and when.

One of the applications that I recently decided to try out on the Acrobat.com website was Adobe Connect, which lets you meet and share your computer screen online. Adobe ConnectNow lets you connect with two other computers which could make it ideal for doing small webinars and for providing technical support. Adobe ConnectNow allows you to use your webcam as well as setting up a pod for you to store documents and files that you would like your participants to have access to. Your participants are also provided with chatting capabilities and you can use your built-in webcam microphone to talk to your participants using VOIP. You can also choose to use the teleconference number that is available to you through Adobe ConnectNow. Considering the price of admission this is an invaluable tool and one you should look into. So if you get the chance download the Acrobat.com widget and let me know what you think.

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Adobe Photoshop Express Lands!

Adobe has announced the release of Adobe Photoshop Express which allows you to edit your digital photos right within the browser. I have had a chance to try it out and it is a slick Flash based application that is delivered through the browser. Adobe gives you 2 Gigs of space to store your photos and a slew of editing tools. This is a great tool for hobbyists who only occasionally edit their digital photographs. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

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Adobe Share beta

I recently did a presentation at the NJECC Conference on trends in the field of assistive technology and decided to model for my audience the shift to Web 2.0. For my presentation I decided to use Google Present, which worked out wonderfully. As I begin to migrate my presentations and documents to the web, I am always looking for a way to store my files on line. This afternoon I came across Adobe Share which is in beta right now, but it does provide a nice way to store and share your files when connected to the web. It was very easy to set up and use and allows you to invite others to share your documents, if you decide to. Adobe Share works right within the browser and like all Adobe Web 2.0 applications it looks to be done in Flash. If you get the chance sign up for the Adobe Share beta and start sharing!

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Xdrive -Free 5GB of Online Storage

If you are looking to store your files on-line you may want to take a look at Xdrive which will provide you with a free 5GB account. Xdrive announced the release of the Xdrive Desktop Lite client that has been developed using Adobe Air, which once installed lets you drag files from your desktop or USB drive right into your Xdrive account. I installed the Xdrive Desktop Client today and it worked like a charm. Within minutes I was able to drag my files and have them stored on-line. By setting permissions for files you can easily share files with friends and family. Once your files are stored you can access them with any computer with any internet connection. Give it a try! If you need more space you can subscribe for premium storage plans that start at $9.95 a month for 50GB of storage.

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Buzzword Has Been Updated

For those of us who are moving toward more collaborative tools on the Internet then you should take a look at Buzzword, a collaborative word processor from Adobe. I had a post earlier last year about the features and my first impressions but now it looks like with the support of Adobe that it is really becoming a unique product to take a look at. Once you are in the Buzzword environment you will find that the application is both fast and very visually attractive. I just received and email today about some feature enhancements which I thought you would be interested in knowing about.

New features in Buzzword Preview 7

Remember to clear your browser cache
before you try out the new version. If you would like instructions on clearing
your cache, go to: http://about.buzzword.com/support/emptycache.html



Colors in Tables

You can now add color to tables in
Buzzword - the background color can be set cell-by-cell or for the entire table.
You can create the look you want using both border colors and table cell colors
to enhance the contents.



Text Highlighter

Highlighting
text is one of the new features many of you have requested. Select the highlight
color from the font menu - for any color in our palette. It's a useful way to
draw attention to words, phrases or sections either for you, for others
co-authoring or reviewing a document.



User Information on Shared
Documents

When you're sharing documents, it's sometimes important to
know who has opened the document, which version they read, and so on. You can
now find that information by hovering over each user icon on the collaborator
bar. The new information tells you whether the person has opened the document
and, if so, whether he/she opened the current document or an earlier version. If
you want to send out a quick reminder, copy the document URL and email or IM
your team to remind them to read the document or review changes.



Sharing Invitation Links

Sometimes email inviting
colleagues to share a document can be delayed, or even worse, caught in a spam
filter. There is now a quick, direct way to invite people who are new to your
sharing list. On the collaborator bar, you'll see the option to copy the link
when you hover over the user's icon. Once you've shared a document, any new
documents you share appear in their Document Organizers automatically.



More Import and Export File Formats

Great news -
Buzzword now imports and exports .docx file formats for Microsoft Word 2007.
We've also added import/export plain text (txt), and export to HTML so that you
can use Buzzword to create documents that can be used with Wikis, web pages and
other applications.



Some Small Features and Tune Ups We Hope
You'll Like

Buzzword is a work in progress. We've made a number of
improvements based on user feedback. For example, the Font menu shows a sample
of the font; we've added strike-through; and Buzzword remembers the sort order
in the Document Organizer from the last time you used Buzzword.



And, there's a very cool new list type - check boxes. The list
gives you empty check boxes when you first create the list. You can check things
off just by clicking on the check box!



And, please, keep the
feedback coming!

We're very interested in your feedback - not just the
good news, but also any areas you think we need to improve. Please let us know
what you think! (http://forum.buzzword.com or feedback@buzzword.com.)


The Buzzword Team

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