Solving technology problems, one at a time
The error “The document “filename.pdf” could not be exported as filename.pdf” started appearing in Safari on attempting to save PDFs from the browser.
The problem appears to be update-related: apparently a recent Acrobat update left an old file in the plugins directory that needs to be deleted.
Continue readingAdobe Presenter is an add-on to Powerpoint that produces Articulate-like Flash presentations from your Powerpoint slides. At around $500.00 list price it’s out of reach for a lot of content developers, but with an academic discount the price drops considerably, to about $150, and it starts to be a viable option for SME’s to purchase for Rapid Elearning development.
But even with the lower price, it may not be convenient for everyone involved in producing a course to have Presenter installed, so it is useful to know how to import and sync narration created outside Presenter. This way, a narrator can take their own laptop and a USB microphone off into a completely quiet room, which often makes more difference in the quality of the audio than almost anything else.
Continue readingWriting notes and sketching on PDF’s using a Tablet PC can be an excellent replacement for a blackboard or whiteboard in the classroom, meetings or lectures. Easier than using Powerpoint, especially when you want to improvise, it is particularly useful for annotating complex diagrams, music, mathematical problems, or anything requiring gridlines or graph paper.
On a Lenovo Tablet PC, you can use the clipping function to drop PDF’s into the Journal application and type or write on them with the pen. The pen has good enough resolution to write legibly, and draw lines and curves.
Continue readingIn my search for the best way to synch video with slides, I’ve tried a number of different software packages. At this time, I’ve settled on the Rich Media Project’s flash extensions as the most reliable way to create synched presentations, but I’m always looking for a better way.
When I came across Adobe Presenter, it seemed like another promising tool for this purpose, and possibly easier for clients to use than anything else so far.
Unfortunately it does not yet seem to be the case, at least not yet. When I tried to sync a video of a lecture with a powerpoint using Presenter, it proved to be a hopelessly frustrating and tedious task.
Continue readingI got a chance to take a look at a new Captivate eBook the other day, “GooberGuides – Captivate Tips & Tricks,” and I really wish I’d had this months ago. Captivate Tips and Tricks is a compendium of all the time-saving answers the other books never tell you. For example the tip on how to use wildcard text in text entry boxes would have been well worth the modest price of the ebook when I ran into that problem on a recent project.
The chapter on preventing project corruption is brief but extremely useful. If you’ve worked with Captivate for a while, you’ve probably corrupted a project. The tips in this chapter should be on the opening splash screen when you first launch Captivate.
Continue readingDownload file I’ve been experimenting a little with dual brushes. The ones here are good for producing multi-hued textures and backgrounds. They will automatically shift color, size, etc. Drop me a line if you use
Continue readingIf you do any work with Adobe Captivate, you probably have experience with Captivate’s tendency to corrupt files. The last Captivate project I worked on gave me a chance to get reaquainted with this feature, so I am posting the solution which saved my work:
First, you must know the exact size of the old project. If you are using an odd size, be sure to note it down. Create a new, blank project at that size. Select “File>Import Slides/Objects” and import all the slides and their objects from the corrupted project. If you don’t see any slides to import, you are probably out of luck.
The knowledgebase article on adobe.com does not seem to be available anymore, but the cached version is still available on Google:
Continue reading