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What's New in Expert Author Version 3.0
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Enhancements to the Authoring Experience
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- Capture features used to capture functioning menus, toolbars, and "document" objects -
including lists, edit fields, text labels, buttons, areas with rollover and selection
states, and more. (learn more)
- Bitmap capture supported within Expert Author (learn more)
- Enhanced multi-path interaction wizard (learn more)
- Simultaneously move and hide multiple document objects (learn more)
- Export Views and Components so they can be added to a library and imported into other
lessons (learn more)
- Export a lesson's narrative text, make changes to it, and then import it back
into the lesson (learn more)
- Enable, disable, and add a checkmark to menu items while working in the
Timeline (learn more)
- New caret object used to place a seemingly "live" caret in the Document (learn more)
- Replace a defined Display with the previous Display (learn more)
- Replace the current Display with any other Display (learn more)
- Enhanced audio indexing (learn more)
- Ability to simulate unique or custom menu styles (learn more)
- Lessons are now stored in a single file -- allowing for easy transport (learn more)
- Getting Started dialog box at startup for quicker access to helpful features (learn more)
- Additional drag-and-drop support (learn more)
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| Enhanced 508 Compliance |
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- Sophisticated screen reader support (learn more)
- Enhanced keyboard navigation allows student to navigate the entire lesson interface without using
the mouse (learn more)
- Alternate keyboard interactions created automatically for menu and dialog box interactions (learn more)
- Tooltip support for toolbar buttons and document objects (learn more)
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| Enhancements to the Learning Experience |
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| Enhanced AICC and SCORM Support |
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Enhancements to the Authoring Experience
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| Sophisticated menu, toolbar, and "document object" capture capability |
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Expert Author includes a capture feature that enables you to capture all of the
interactive components and objects directly from the live application - including
functioning menus, toolbars, and the interactive objects found in the "document"
area of the application. Examples of interactive document objects are lists, edit
fields, text labels, buttons, areas with rollover and selection states, just to
name a few.
It takes less than 30 seconds to capture a complete menu system, a functioning
toolbar, or the interactive "document" area of the application - including all
of the functioning objects contained in the document area. Once captured, each of
the interactive components can be used in the current lesson, or any other lesson.
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Bitmap capture supported within Expert Author
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Expert Author enables you to capture bitmaps of the
application you are simulating, assuming the application is running on your
computer. The capture feature supports ten different types of capture,
including object, area, entire window, and active window.
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Ability to create multiple interactions (branching) at a single point in the lesson
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The ability to create more than one interaction at a
given point in the lesson, which is often referred to as "branching," has been
extended in version 3.0. It is now possible to create up to four types of
interactions at a single point in the lesson. The four types of interactions
that can occur at the same point in a lesson are Full Menu Interaction, Toolbar
Item Selection, Document Object Selection, and Keystroke. This feature enables
you to create a situation where the student can use multiple methods to reach a
goal. For instance, you could enable the student to copy the selected item to
the Clipboard by (a) choosing the Edit, Copy command, (b) clicking on the Copy
toolbar button, or (c) pressing Ctrl+C on the keyboard.
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Ability to simultaneously move and hide multiple document objects
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You can now "group" multiple document objects, and then
simultaneously move all of the grouped objects to a new location on the Display
simply by changing a single x and/or y coordinate. This feature is particularly
helpful when you are using multiple objects to simulate a structure, like a
Task Pane in Office XP, and you want to move the objects -- as a group -- to a
new location on the Display. Once the objects have been grouped, you can move
all of the objects in the group simply by displaying the Group dialog box and
changing the x and/or y coordinate.
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Ability to export views and components so they can be imported into other lessons and stored for future use
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The Import/Export
feature is very powerful because it lets you quickly use components (menus,
toolbars, documents, and status bars) and views in other lessons. This feature
provides you with the foundation you need to work in a collaborative authoring
environment. Once a component or view has been “exported,” it can be used in
another lesson, organized and stored with other packages for future use, or
e-mailed to other authors to be included in their lessons.
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Ability to export a lesson's narrative text, make changes to it, and then import it back into the lesson
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Expert Author has always enabled you to create a new lesson by importing
a written narrative, commonly referred to as a storyboard, or written
script. You can now also export a lesson's narrative text, and then
import it again after you have made changes to it. This feature is
helpful when you (a) are involved in an editorial/review process, (b)
discover that the narrative text needs more work than you choose to do
in the narrative text editor, (c) are localizing a lessons narrative
text, or (d) have finished the lesson and are ready to prepare the
narrative text for audio recording.
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Ability to alter menu item properties while working in the Timeline
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You can now change certain menu item properties while working in the
Timeline. You can enable, disable, and "check" a menu item while in
Author mode. This is great for those situations where the properties of
one or more menu items should change from one step to the next. For
instance, there are times when a check mark should be displayed next to a
menu item because of an interaction that was just performed. You can
now enable, disable, and check a menu item while working in the Timeline
simply by clicking on the Edit Display tab, and then displaying the
Menu Item Properties dialog box.
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New caret object used to place a seemingly "live" caret anywhere in the document
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Prior to Expert Author version 3.0, the only time a live caret would
appear on the Display was when an interaction involving text entry was
waiting to be performed. The new caret object enables you to associate a
seemingly live caret with any object on the Display, which means you
can display the caret on every Display in a lesson, if you wish.
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Ability to replace a defined Display with the previous Display
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It is now very easy to replace the current Display with the previous
Display. Expert Author has always supported the ability to define a new
Display by using the previous Display, but until version 3.0 you could
not use the previous Display to "redefine" an existing Display.
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Ability to replace the current Display with any other Display
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You can now quickly replace the current Display with any other Display
in the lesson, as long as the steps containing the Displays are of the
same step type. For instance, you cannot use the Display in a Summary
Step to replace the Display in a Standard Simulation step.
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Enhanced audio indexing capability
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Two new controls have been added to the Audio Properties dialog box that
enable you to "mark" the points in the audio file where the audio
should begin and end for each step or interaction. This feature has
simplified the process used to associate audio with a step, and the
interactions in a step. You start by clicking on the Play button to hear
the selected audio file. While listening to the audio, click on the
Mark button when you hear the beginning of the audio, and again when you
hear the end of the audio.
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Ability to simulate non-standard, custom menu bars and pull-down menus
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Expert Author has always enabled you to accurately simulate menu bars
and pull-down menus, assuming they were 95, 97, or XP style menu bars
and pull-down menus.
Using Expert Author version 3.0, you can also simulate virtually any
"custom" menu bar and pull-down menu. This is accomplished by enabling
you to control all of the characteristics associated with the states of
each item on a menu bar and pull-down menu. Among these characteristics
are background images, background colors, border style and color, and
text color. Additional characteristics are the height of each menu item,
and the width and color of the checkmark area.
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Lessons are now stored in a single file
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In previous versions of Expert Author, the data associated with a single
lesson was stored in several files. This made it difficult for an
author to locate the files, and then gather them together to be zipped
or moved to another location. All of the data associated with a lesson
are now stored in a single, compressed file. It is now very easy to
locate and transport a lesson. This makes it much easier to share
lessons in a collaborative environment where multiple authors are
working on the same project.
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Getting Started dialog box at startup for quicker access to helpful features
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The Getting Started dialog box provides you with a single location where
you can create a new lesson, open an existing lesson, or access the
Help system.
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Additional drag-and-drop support
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You can now drag-and-drop a lesson file onto Expert Author to open a
lesson. You can also drag-and-drop bitmap files onto Expert Author and
the files will be added to the lesson.
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Enhanced 508 Compliance
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Sophisticated screen reader support
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Interactive lessons created with Expert Author provide an ideal
interactive learning environment for blind or vision-impaired learners
because screen readers can read the entire lesson interface, and the
interactive content.
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Enhanced interface navigation using the keyboard
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Students can now navigate the entire lesson interface without using the
mouse. By using the keyboard alone, it is now possible to:
- Advance to the next step by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + right arrow keys.
- Go back one step by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + left arrow keys.
- Display the Options dialog box by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + O keys.
- Quit the lesson by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Q keys.
- Navigate all of Expert Author's dialog boxes, prompts, and messages by using the standard Windows navigation keys.
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Alternate keyboard navigation for menu and dialog box interactions
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Students can now navigate all simulated menus and dialog boxes by using
the keyboard, just as they could in the real application. And, Expert
Author creates the alternate keyboard interactions automatically.
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Tooltip support for toolbar buttons and document objects
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You can now easily add tooltips to toolbar buttons and document objects.
The tooltip text for a toolbar button or document object is simply
another property of the button or object. Tooltips are important
accessibility features because they are read aloud by screen readers.
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Enhancements to the Learning Experience
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|
Ability to create multiple interactions at a single point in the lesson
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|
The ability to create more than one interaction at a given point in the
lesson, which is often referred to as "branching," has been extended in
version 3.0. It is now possible to create up to four types of
interactions at a single point in the lesson. The four types of
interactions that can occur at the same point in a lesson are Full Menu
Interaction, Toolbar Item Selection, Document Object Selection, and
Keystroke. This feature enables you to create a situation where the
student can use multiple methods to reach a goal. For instance, you
could enable the student to copy the selected item to the Clipboard by
(a) choosing the Edit, Copy command, (b) clicking on the Copy toolbar
button, or (c) pressing Ctrl+C on the keyboard.
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New multiple response quiz type
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It is now very easy to create multiple response quiz questions. Multiple
response quizzes are tracked and scored, and the results are passed
back to the LMS using the same AICC/SCORM conformant methods used by all
of the other quiz types.
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Lessons are smaller and load faster
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Lessons created using Expert Author have always been very small -- often
under 100K for a 12-minute, 35-step lesson. Lessons created using
version 3.0 are even smaller because unused assets are now being removed
when a lesson is built. This is done automatically -- there is no
additional work required by the author.
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Enhanced AICC and SCORM support
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AICC level 2 support with objectives
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If you are building a lesson and you choose to create AICC level 2
files, the Lesson Builder wizard will ask for the lesson's objectives,
which are then written to the appropriate AICC file. When the lesson or
course is imported into an AICC compliant Learning Management System
(LMS), the objectives are imported and used appropriately.
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SCORM 1.2 manifest and meta-data
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If you are building a lesson and you choose to create SCORM files, the
Lesson Builder wizard will create the manifest and meta-data, and write
them to the appropriate file. When the lesson is imported into a SCORM
compliant Learning Management System (LMS), the manifest and meta-data
are imported and used appropriately.
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AICC HACP support
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The HACP interface is now available when a lesson is launched. When a
lesson is launched, it will first try to locate and use the CMI API. If
the CMI API is not available, the lesson will attempt to establish a
dialog with the server using the HACP interface.
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