Leaving the cave

Put your #AdobeCaptivate animation in the middle of the page

Dieter — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:16:40 +0000

When you publish a Captivate project to HTML, the animation is always at the top of the page.

Let’s say you want the animation to be in the center of the screen, e.g. because the animation will run fullscreen. How can you do this?

You just have to change some of the HTML in the published .htm file.

This is the business part of the default htm file for a project of 1024*768 (lines 17 and 18 in HTML output, lines 212 and 213 in SCORM 1.2 output):

The only thing you need to do is change the style of the

tag like this (found it here):

Let’s take a look at what this piece of code does.

1. Position: absolute
This is used to detach the div from the rest of the page content.

2. Top:50% and left:50%
This code sets the top left corner of the animation in the middle of the screen.

3. Margin-top:-384px and margin-left:-512px
We change the position of the div with negative margins half the amount of the size of the swf.

Let’s take another example:

Can you guess for what size of project the code above is?

Are all of your projects the same size and do you always want them centered?

For the HTML output, change the file “Standard.htm” in this (default Win7 64bit) location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 5.5\Templates\Publish. This file is used as a template when publishing the project. All projects published after you changed this file, will have the changed code in it.

Easy, if you know it.

BTW, the project site of the last example is 800*600. I guess you figured it out by now.

Touch interface and games – Vice Versa

Dieter — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:11:41 +0000

As discussed in a previous blogpost, the interface is important for a game. I gave an example of a PC game that was recoded for an iOS device.

This time it’s the other way around. If you are familiar with iOS games, you certainly know Angry Birds. Something similar is the game Cut The Rope (iTunes Link). Since a few weeks, it is available as a browser game, completely written in HTML5: http://www.cuttherope.ie/ (I tried it in IE9 and Chrome).

This game has been around for a while. If you do not know it, a look at the trailer will learn you a lot more: http://youtu.be/8xPUdFaraoQ.

Having played Cut the Rope from time to time, I really enjoy it. The only thing that can be frustrating is that sometimes I am not fast enough. Yes, you read that correctly, not fast enough. Even with TEN fingers.

If you are from time to time not fast enough with ten fingers, how can you be fast enough with one mousepointer in the browser version?

The developers are no idiots, and that’s probably one of the reasons why some levels from the iOS app are not available in the browser version.

Let’s take a look at two identical levels in the two versions:

As you can see, there is no real difference in look.

The difference is the interface. This game works great if you can control it with your fingers, and cut the ropes, or push the balloons. When using a mousepointer, you lose all the feeling.

On the plus side, the browser version is a great demo for the capabilities of HTML5.

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

Touch interface and games

Dieter — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:56:34 +0000

I use my iPad for casual gaming, and discovered something annoying.

IMHO, it is not possible to transfer all games to a touch interface. Take these two examples.

1. Bejeweled Blitz (iTunes App Store link)

Most of you are familiar with the concept of this game, but for those who are not: you must score as many points as possible within 60 seconds by aligning three or more identical gems. You can only switch the position of two adjacent gems, if one of those gems will form a line of three or more. You tap the gems to select them.

This is the interface:

2. Diamond Dash (iTunes App Store link)

A very similar game. Within 60 seconds, you must score as many points as possible by removing three or more adjacent blocks. In order to remove the blocks, you need to tap on them.

This is the – rather equal – interface:

Here is the issue I face: being a lefty (and proud of it), and tapping along the right side of my iPad screen, I cannot see the left side of the screen. How can I play a game like that, when I cannot see half the interface?

Is it me? Should I use both my hands? Being in my early thirties, I am not yet trained to do that.

Or are the game developers jumping on the iOS cart, because it still is the mobile operating system with the largest user base?

Whatever the reason, it is not a given that everything that works on desktop computer with a mouse, can work as well on a touchscreen device. Just like learning content: because a presentation works in a classroom environment, it will not (a priori) work in standalone mode with a voiceover…

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

Hide and seek

Dieter — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:41:58 +0000

Ever since my kids were born, I wondered how they would perform in the hide and seek game. I now have a 2y and a 4y old. You can spot them both in the picture below.

And there are some things I noticed:
The 2y old does not get it (neither did the older one when she was 2), but learns fast by imitating his sister.
The 4y old starts to get it, but does not yet realise that her hiding place must be a secret. When she is hidden, she do is invisible for me (most of the time, not when she hides behind a tree). But she must always make some noice, like saying “I am here”.
And she understands the concept of the game: someone counts, the others hide, and then the searching starts.
Nevertheless, it is a great game to play regularly. Each time we play it, she learns a new hiding place, and she even find new ones.
Kids are so great!

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

One week of Google+

Dieter — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:58:02 +0000

It has been more than a week since I’ve been using Google+.

Here are my findings so far:

Circles are a great concept, but the more you think about it, the more difficult it gets. It has to do with the whole platform. I’ll come to that in a sec.
If you want something in your stream, you must follow enough people. This certainly is caused by the the fact that there are not enough users on G+ from e.g. my Twitter community.
I really like the idea to share stuff with circles, like my family. The problem here is that G+ is – in it’s current form – way too difficult for them. I am by far the only geek in our (small) family. It would be great to organise hangouts with my aunts in France and the US, e.g.
This is the first platform where I can target my shares based on language, i.e. I have a Dutch circle to post in Dutch. When I post in English, I posted publicly or to theme circles.
There seems to be much more engagement, which is a good thing.
There are a few annoying things currently, like the order of posts in the timeline, the lack of a default circle for your stream, the diarrhea of comments on some posts (not mine),… Some of those things can already be solved with browser extensions, but that can easily become a myriad of plugins and settings. I am certain this platform will grow out of these annoyances.

Google+ first reminded me of Twitter, but I got it all wrong. I heard @JeffJarvis discuss this on TWiG: it is a sharing platform. In my opinion, Twitter was as well. But there is a huge difference.
When using Twitter, you share everything publicly, or private. This means, if you follow people, you can read everything they post. On Google+, on the contrary, you van only read public posts of the people your following, except if they put you in a circle. Furthermore, you have no clue in what circle others put you. This implies that you do not know what your followers share with you…

This bring me to the ambiguity of circles. You can organize them to share (push content to), and/or to read them in a stream (pull content from). Is it me or do you need different circles to achieve both functionalities? If so, you would have too much circles to manage (say 8 circles for 200 people).

I can certainly see the value of this net platform, but it does not have a purpose yet. If I compare with Twitter, it took about a year before I discovered the value of it. So I will give it more time, and see how it goes…

Feel free to give your comments, opinions,…

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

G+ again

Dieter — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:24:34 +0000

I just gained access to Google+. From now on I will use it for a week, and write down my thoughts on the use of it. You can find me here: gplus.to/dblancquaert

Just yesterday, I had the idea to use it as a your personal home page, and perhaps as my own PLN.

Let’s see in about a week.

Oh, and if you want an invite, you’ll find me .

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

XML won’t import #AdobeCaptivate

Dieter — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:32:15 +0000

In Captivate, you’ve exported an XML file and got it translated. When importing the translation, Captivate tells you everything went well, but in fact, it didn’t. How come?

The reason for this is the fact that an (invisible) special character is used in a ‘Text Caption’, like e.g. a bullet point or a soft return.

This special character was possibly copied from Word or some kind of other word processor. More often than not, you copy some (invisible) code.

How can you solve this?

Execute these steps to remove the special characters:

Open the XML file in a simple text editor (I always use Notepad++).
Scroll through the text until you see this:
Select the code “ETX”.
In the menu bar, select Search > Replace.
The in step 3 selected code (e.g. a square) is already copied in the Find What field.
Leave the Replace with field empty.
Click the button Replace All.
Save the XML file.
Try the import again.
If the file will not import, scroll a second time through the text, there could be another special character in the text.

Good luck!

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

New Theme

Dieter — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:27:10 +0000

Today I changed the theme on my blog, and added a few bells and whistles.

Do you like it?

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

Progress indicator #AdobeCaptivate 5

Dieter — Sat, 14 May 2011 20:03:26 +0000

This post is a comment on @lilybiri’s article Customized Progress Indicator. In this article she explains how to use advanced actions to create a custom progress indicator for Quizzes.

Having needed this functionality, I had a few remarks, and an issue with it.

Let’s start off with the remark: the whole process looked fairly complex for something simple like a progress indicator. This is not an offense, it worked great. However a colleague of mine had an issue with it: to give feedback on a HotSpot question, he added a slide with the correct answer. In that case, the method described in the referenced article, cannot be used, because of the use of the system variable ‘rdinfoCurrentSlide’.

So I created another, more easy solution:

Create a user variable v_Q_Nr to store the number of the question. Make sure the value is 0 (zero).
Create an advanced action like this:

All it does is take the current question number, and add 1.
Put the variable v_Q_Nr on a master slide to use for the question slides like this: “Question $$v_Q_Nr of $$cpQuizInfoTotalQuestionsPerProject$$.”
Set the “On Enter” action of each question slide to trigger the advanced action created in step 2.
Preview your project.

I believe this to be as effective as the method described by @lilybiri, and more easy and flexible to use and control.

Feel free to post your comments here.

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.

Social Media during Belgian event. #edubit #elearningday

Dieter — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:59:41 +0000

Yesterday it was Elearning day 2011 in Brussels (http://www.elearningday.be/).

As I could not be there, I checked Twitter to follow the event, and had to set up two columns in Tweetdeck.
This was necessary because apparently two hashtags were used: #edubit and #elearningday. It is also possible other hashtags were used, but I did not check.

This brings me to a first point. A conference about e-learning is taking place, and there is no ‘official’ hashtag. Even some shows on national television have official hashtags nowadays!

The second point is the number of tweets. I was told there were around 300 visitors.
#elearningday has 31 tweets, #edubit 24. Some of them are the same. Is it me, or are those numbers really low?

Timeline for #elearningday

Timeline for #edubit

And finally there is the content of the tweets: presenters announcing their presentation, visitors telling they have arrived, and more tweets that are irrelevant for people who try to follow the event on Twitter.

What could be the reasons for this?

Let’s give it a try:

Twitter is not big in Belgium. In The Netherlands, the opposite is true.
Furthermore, it was an event with a lot of visitors from the education world. Twitter is not very well known in the education world (shame). Again, in The Netherlands, they stream Teachmeets.

Can I conclude that the Belgian e-learning scene needs to play a game of catch-up?

Leaving the cave by Dieter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at blog.dblancquaert.be.