Articulate Studio Cookbook

Table of Contents

Articulate Studio Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Software

Hardware

Concepts

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with Articulate Suite

Introduction

Launching Articulate Presenter

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Recovering from startup errors

Publishing a simple, slide-only course for a website

Getting ready

How to do it…

Creating the template

Publishing the Course

How it works…

Adding a background theme

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Changing theme colors

Changing theme fonts

Changing theme effects

Saving your changed theme

Adding a theme from Microsoft.com or third-party websites

Modifying slide masters

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Turning on Date, Slide number, and Footer placeholders

Hyperlinks and the slide master

Creating transparent hyperlinks

Adding a learning game to your course

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

2. Create Your Course with Presenter

Introduction

Animating images and objects

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Animation timing

Multiple animations

Checking your animations

Adding audio narration to your slides

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Importing narrations into your presentation

Editing audio

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adjusting the view of the waveform

Recording narration

Importing narration

Exporting narration

Adding background music to your presentation

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Syncing the animations with narrations

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding animation timings in the Audio Editor

See also

Adding video to your course

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Video Playback Settings

Video formatting

Multiple videos

See also

Adding video from the Web

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Videos from YouTube

Videos from Vimeo

Videos from your computer

Highlighting specific slide information

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Timing annotations

Clearing annotations

3. Preparing Your Player

Introduction

Adding your company's logo

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Setting up a player template

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Customizing the player navigation

A variety of player controls

Changing the language of the player labels

Full customization of color schemes

Setting up course defaults

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Setting outline level

Changing the template used for viewing the presentation

Hiding slides in the presentation navigation pane

Attaching external resources to your course

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Previewing and publishing your course

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Publishing to Articulate Online

Publishing to an online LMS

Publishing to a CD

Publishing to Microsoft Word

Publishing a podcast

4. Creating Assessments and Courses with Quizmaker

Introduction

Setting up a quiz template

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding a basic graded question

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding hyperlinks to question text

See also

Adding a basic survey question

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Modifying questions

Creating a hotspot question

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Using hotspots with video

See also

Customizing the question and answer

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Adding images to a slide

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding images in Form View

See also

Changing a slide's background color and theme

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Modifying the background style even more

Applying textures to the background fill

Using a picture as a background

Creating slide masters

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Adding audio to a slide

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding video

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

5. Taking Your Quiz to the Next Level

Introduction

Creating a simple storyline in Quizmaker

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Adding animation to your quiz

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding slide transitions

Creating a branched story

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating a randomized question bank

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

What about the results?

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Setting up results for surveys

See also

Previewing and publishing your course or quiz

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

6. Creating Interactive Content with Engage

Introduction

Setting up an Engage template

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Step-by-step approach for a Process interaction

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Graphic interactions

Adding images and video in Engage

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding video

See also

Adding and editing audio

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Using Engage to create a glossary

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Creating a labeled graphic

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Previewing and publishing your interaction

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

7. Basic Video Editing with Video Encoder

Introduction

Creating an FLV video for using in your course

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Cutting out a specific video segment

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Branding your video

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Editing audio in your video

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Creating your own webcam video

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

A word about lighting

A word about audio

See also

Customizing your encoding settings

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

8. Combining All Three

Introduction

Adding a quiz to Presenter

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Editing a quiz

Creating a quiz

See also

Adding an interaction to Presenter

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Editing an interaction

Creating an interaction

See also

Using hyperlinks and branching to create a story

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Adding screencasts to your project

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Editing your video

Adding overlays to your video

See also

Placing a glossary in the tab area

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Adding video to the logo and presenter panels

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Creating consistency when combining everything

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Creating transparent frames in Engage

See also

Getting a new wardrobe

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Creating special images or video questions in Quizmaker

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Index

Articulate Studio Cookbook

Articulate Studio Cookbook

Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: November 2012

Production Reference: 1121112

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK

ISBN 978-1-84969-308-0

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Cover Image by Asher Wishkerman (<wishkerman@hotmail.com>)

Credits

Author

Robert Kennedy III

Reviewers

Eleanor Mante

Mary Pienzi

Acquisition Editor

Joanna Finchen

Lead Technical Editor

Kedar Bhat

Technical Editor

Devdutt Kulkarni

Copy Editor

Insiya Morbiwala

Project Coordinator

Vishal Bodwani

Proofreaders

Maria Gould

Bernadette Watkins

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Graphics

Valentina D'silva

Aditi Gajjar

Production Coordinator

Shantanu Zagade

Cover Work

Shantanu Zagade

About the Author

Robert Kennedy III is a former High School and College Educator turned Entrepreneur. He has owned web development and now e-learning/training companies, and has spent almost a decade as a trainer in topics ranging from music industry preparation to technology and learning. Currently, as the owner of RKCS Learning Solutions, Robert spends a great deal of time teaching others how to integrate technologies into their business workflow and training companies on how to develop effective learning modules for their employees.

Robert earned his Masters degree online through the University of Maryland University College and is currently completing his PhD in Educational Technology with Walden University. Although he was a former classroom teacher, he will tell you that online education saved his life.

He is an admitted tech lover; when not working, Robert spends his time playing with or catching up on the latest gadgets. Sites such as CNET, Tech Crunch, and Engadget are probably permanently burned into his screen at this point.

Robert grew up in Bronx, New York, and is therefore legally obligated to be a fan of the New York Yankees. He takes this obligation seriously and watches every Yankees' game on his phone, iPad, computer, or TV. He loves sports in general and can be found playing softball, golf, basketball, or bowling at any point during the year.

I'd like to thank some pretty important people, who have helped me with the production of this book through their time, their sacrifice, and their skill. I'm probably going to forget some names but I hope you'll simply attribute that to age rather than intent. Yeah, I'm getting older and I'm dealing with it. Anyway, on to the names, in no particular order, my wife, Nadia, my lovely kids (yes, this is partly what daddy does when he is in the home office), my parents, Robert and Seslie, and some other really important people, Tom Kuhlmann, David Anderson, Rich Murphy, Christine Abunassar, and of course the team at Packt Publishing, Sarah, Joanna, Vishal, and Kedar. This has been AWESOME!

About the Reviewers

Eleanor Mante is an E-Learning Development Manager for one of the UK's largest newspaper publishers. She has been involved in IT and training in Canada and the UK for over 10 years.

As a Project Manager, E-Learning Designer, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and CIW Associate, Eleanor has worked with colleges, universities, and businesses to help them design and implement solutions.

She has worked with the following employers:

Royal Bank of Canada

Human Resources Development Canada

Medbuy Corporation, Canada

Fanshawe College, Canada

University of Liverpool, UK

Trinity Mirror PLC, UK

I'd like to thank my wonderful family, partner, and friends for all of their support and encouragement over the years.

Mary Pienzi is an accomplished E-learning Developer who has been developing courses for 12 years. She began developing courses using tools such as Toolbook and Authorware, and then gradually moved into using Flash development as a courseware solution. Realizing that corporations were moving toward rapid development, she learned Articulate Presenter and its companions Engage and Quizmaker.

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Preface

Articulate Studio '09 is a powerful authoring tool built to help both the expert trainer and the novice developer to quickly create useful learning experiences. While they can all work together, Articulate Studio '09 is a suite that contains four pieces of software that may be used individually or together. Therefore, this book will contain sections that may be used non-sequentially.

This book is meant to provide technical guidance for building a basic or complex course using the suite. While you are not limited in the creativity you can use in your course, this book will only provide a basic foundation for helping to develop a solid, polished course. You may find many additional and advanced techniques by visiting the Heroes forum on Articulate's website.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Articulate Suite, covers the basics of the suite, what its capabilities are, and how to begin conceptualizing a basic course.

Chapter 2, Create Your Course with Presenter, covers the basics of creating a simple course using Presenter by itself. It teaches the basics of inserting media elements and assets, as well as preparing basic animations and finally publishing a simple course.

Chapter 3, Preparing Your Player, covers the features, setup, and capabilities of the Articulate Presenter course player. It provides guidance on how to edit color schemes, player elements, and functionality.

Chapter 4, Creating Assessments and Courses with Quizmaker, covers the core concepts behind the creation of basic assessment questions using Quizmaker. It covers the editing of the Quizmaker player and its functionality, and provides basic guidance on assessment creation using basic instructional design principles.

Chapter 5, Taking Your Quiz to the Next Level, shows the user how to use Quizmaker as more than just a basic quizzing tool. This chapter will include concepts on creating a more useful slide in the slide view, basic branching, and scenario concepts, as well as information on how to use Quizmaker to create a standalone course.

Chapter 6, Creating Interactive Content with Engage, discusses quick ways of adding interactive content to your course with Engage.

Chapter 7, Basic Video Editing with Video Encoder, guides the user through the process of basic video editing and file encoding using this tool. The user will learn how to perform basic tweaks as well as customize the video size and performance for your course.

Chapter 8, Combining All Three, shows the user how to finally combine all the three major applications from the suite into one cohesive course. They will also learn how to customize properties and course functionality.

What you need for this book

In order to get the maximum from this book, it is best to have the recommended software and hardware available, as well as an understanding of some basic concepts. It is recommended to have the following.

Software

Following are the software requirements:

A PC running a current Windows operating system—Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 or later (32 bit or 64 bit), Windows Vista (32 bit or 64 bit), or Windows 7 (32 bit or 64 bit), or a Mac computer running a Windows OS through Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMWare Fusion

.NET 2.0 or later installed

Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, 2007, or 2010 (32 bit)

Microsoft Word 2000, 2003, 2007, or 2010

Adobe Flash Player 6.0.79 or higher

Hardware

Following are the hardware requirements:

At least a 1-GHz processor

1 GB of RAM (memory)

A minimum disk space of 100 MB

A working sound card and microphone (for recording narration), and optionally a webcam

Concepts

Following are the basic concepts required for this book:

A basic understanding of PowerPoint and basic Word processing

How to navigate to the ribbon in MS Office applications

Who this book is for

The typical readers of this book would be involved in the authoring of training or presentations, and would have a basic understanding of Microsoft Office tools such as PowerPoint and Word.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: They must be recorded in either the .wav or .mp3 format.

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: To import these files, click on the Import Audio button in the Narration section of the Articulate ribbon.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses