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.

Adobe FormsCentral Adds Email Notification

I have been using Adobe FormsCentral since its release and have found it really easy to create very professional looking forms which I have used for workshops, webinars, and demonstration registrations. One of the missing features of FormsCentral when it was initially released was the ability to be automatically notified when a form was submitted. Well that has all changed this week with the addition of this feature and now it is a cinch to get an email notification as well as a summary of the number of people who has responded in the body of the email. See the image below to see how easy it is to turn on this feature.

With Adobe FormsCentral it is now easy to follow up with all of the submissions with email notification-give it a try and see for yourself.

Adobe is Offering Free eSeminars on Adobe Captivate & eLearning Suite

If you have moved up to Adobe Captivate 5.5 or the new eLearning Suite then you should consider signing up for these Free eSeminars that are being hosted by Adobe. Adobe Captivate 5.5 &  eLearning Suite 2.5 breaks new ground for designing and developing rapid elearning courses. Find out how to accomplish more with these tools by attending these free seminars. Information about how to sign up is below. HOpe yo can make it!

I would recommend registering for the eSeminars in advance by visiting Adobe’s Webinar site or using the links below. You’ll be prompted for your Adobe ID (creating one is easy and free) during registration and will receive detailed log-in information via email. NOTE: Click on the “test your computer” link to ensure you’ll be able to successfully log into the eSeminar.  

Reviewing eLearning Courses Made Easy with Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, July 21 – 9 a.m. PT/noon ET

Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh and Vish to learn how to use Adobe Captivate Reviewer to get your Captivate projects reviewed by the SMEs, internal team or customers. Also learn how to leverage Acrobat.com or your internal server in this process.

Getting started with Adobe Photoshop for Adobe Captivate users

Wednesday, July 27 – 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET

Join RJ Jacquez, Adobe Senior Product Evangelist, for a fun session on Photoshop, specifically designed for new users who are already familiar with Adobe Captivate. In this session, you learn how to get started using Photoshop for enhancing your Captivate projects, how to work with Layers and how to use the powerful content-aware fill tool for including just the right images in your eLearning projects.

Video Integration in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, July 28 – 9 a.m. PT/noon ET

Join Vish and Dr. Pooja Jaisingh to learn more on video integration in Adobe Captivate 5.5. In this session, they will show different ways to insert video in Captivate and use them as an object or slide video. They will also demonstrate how to distribute the video to multiple slides as well as how to add video to TOC.

Hands-on: Using Objects in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, August 4 – 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET

Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh and Vish for a hands-on session on how to add standard and interactive objects in Adobe Captivate 5.5. They will also discuss the best practices of using these objects in Adobe Captivate 5.5.

Roundtripping Adobe Captivate audio in Adobe Audition

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

Join RJ Jacquez, Adobe Senior Product Evangelist, for a session on how to take audio editing beyond the features in Adobe Captivate using Adobe Audition. In this session you will learn best practices for moving your audio between Captivate and Audition, as well as tips for adding background audio that you can control with precision and more.

Using Adobe FormsCentral To Create an Event Registration Form

Over the last couple of months Adobe has released a number of new online products that have made my life a lot easier. I now use Adobe SendNow service when sending large PDF's and in fact just yesterday I used it to send a colleague a large PDF Portfolio. With the the integration of SendNow with Adobe Acrobat X, with a click of the mouse you can now deliver large PDF files for delivery using this easy to use service. Recently Adobe released a new service called Adobe FormsCentral which lets you easily create, distribute and analyze online forms and surveys. Adobe FormsCentral has an easy to use but powerful online Form Builder that should have you getting your online forms up within minutes of logging into the service.

I had a chance to test drive Adobe FormsCentral this weekend to see how easy it was to create an online registration form for my upcoming  iPad Summer Institute. Adobe FormsCentral comes with built in Templates to get you quickly started . I first selected the Event Registration Form from the Template Gallery and within seconds I was able to fine tune the online form to meet my needs. I was able to insert new fields from the Insert menu and customize the form to meet my unique needs for my event. As the designer, you have controls to make each field required and if you like you can also add a Help icon to give users more explicit directions when completing the form. Adobe FormsCentral gives you a good range of field types to choose from and the online tools are fluid and logical when using. Not being a graphic artist, I am happy to say that Adobe provides the necessary tools so that when you are done the form looks very professionally done. Once you are done designing your form you are now ready to Distribute the form to your audience.By clicking on the Distribute tab you can now select from several different ways to distribute your form: email link, copy link, and embed link. Choose which ever way you would like to distribute your online form and now you are ready to sit back and start collecting the data. Adobe FormsCentral let you do a Test Submission which is a nice feature to check to see that your form works the way you want it to.

Once the forms are completed Adobe FormsCentral gives you a host of online tools to review the responses. In a future blog post I will talk more about the Response Tools and how it worked with my online Event Registration Form. If you have a chance give Adobe FormsCentral a free trial run which is available from this link. Adobe FormsCentral is available via a Basic Plan for $14.99 a month which enables you to create, customize, send, and analyze up to 5 forms and surveys in total with 500 responses per form or survey. With the Pluse Subscription Plan you can create unlimited forms and surveys and get up to 5,000 responses per form or survey. Overall, you will find Adobe FormsCentral an easy and powerful online forms design and analysis tool.

MindView 4 from Matchware- Quick Thoughts About the Upgrade

Over the past couple of weeks I have had a chance to review a number of software applications that have recently been released. All of the applications have represented a major commitment from the developers to release these upgraded products to give the user a better experience when using their product. If there is a trend that I see in the world of software, it is that rather than the developers adding a host of new features they really have spent the time on refinements in the user interface and the ease of use. Many of the companies are spending their efforts to really understand their user base and to  include only features that make sense for their product. Feature creep is always a problem with mature software applications and it was great to see that Matchware, Inc. choose to go down a path to refine and only add functionality that made sense to their flagship product, MindView 4, which was recently released.

Businesses that have invested in MindView 3 will feel right at home when upgrading to MindView 4. MindView 4 now sports the new Office 2010 interface which is both aesthetically pleasing and well organized. Moving about the program with the new Office 2010 interface is very intuitive and the functions are clearly organized to make it easier to use. MindView 4 has incorporated some new styles for your maps which are easy to apply and are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. It is much easier in MindView 4 to edit and format text and change the color of the branches. Likewise Matchware has made it very easy now to place your images on branches by simply dragging them to the location of your choice. You can now place your images on the top, right and left of the text within the branch. I am also enjoying the ability to attach an audio note to a branch which is a quick and easy way to capture my ideas. Matchware has also added the ability to export to a PDF file with different styles which makes it easy for me to share my maps for those individuals that don't own a copy of MindView 4. Exporting your mind maps to a PDF is fast and straightforward and the results are outstanding. The addition of the Presentation Mode is outstanding and one I know I will use more often when I use MindView 4 during the presentations and workshops that I often give. It is the little changes and the attention to detail that I feel really highlights this update and brings huge value to upgrading to MindView 4.

Look for additional posts as I delve into this upgrade with a focus on collaboration and project management.. To give MindView 4 a try download a Trial Version by clicking on this link.

Adobe Acrobat X & Adobe SendNow Perfect Together

One of the really nice features of Adobe Acrobat X is the integration of Adobe SendNow service. Adobe SendNow is a subscription based service that can right within Adobe Acrobat X send your PDF files as a link for your recipients to pick up and download. Adobe SendNow subscription services starts at $9.99 a month and there is a free trial period for you to try it out. If you tend to create large PDF files this is the perfect service for you. Now you can be rest assured that your recipients will receive your documents without the worry of  maxing out their email inbox.

Just today I received a call from a school that I will be providing some services to, and they needed my W-9 and New Jersey Business Registration Form to set up my account in the business office. Having scanned and stored these documents in a PDF file I was now ready to use the Adobe SendNow feature. Right from within Adobe Acrobat X, I clicked on the Share tab- entered the email address of the recipient and within seconds my PDF file was sent. Besides the convenience of emailing the documents from within Adobe Acrobat X- the service keeps a history and emailed me that the file was uploaded successfully as well as that it was successfully downloaded. Having access to Adobe SendNow is a welcome addition to my office toolkit and one feature that I know I will continually use with Acrobat X.

Adobe Delivers Technical Communication Suite 3

Streamlined, Simplified Workflows Powered by New Versions of FrameMaker and RoboHelp

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 11, 2011 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Technical Communication Suite 3, the latest version of its complete single-source authoring and multi-device publishing toolkit for the creation and publication of rich, standards-compliant technical information and training material. The new improved version of Adobe’s industry-leading suite enables technical writers, help authors and instructional designers to efficiently author, enrich, manage, and seamlessly publish content to multiple channels and devices. Adobe also introduced new versions of the suite’s core products: Adobe FrameMaker® 10, a powerful template-based authoring and publishing solution for technical content; and Adobe RoboHelp® 9, an HTML and XML help, policy and knowledgebase authoring and publishing solution. Adobe Photoshop® CS5, Adobe Captivate® 5 and Adobe Acrobat® X Pro round out the suite, integrating powerful image editing, eLearning and demo creation, and dynamic PDF functionalities. “Today’s technical communication end user – from an average consumer to a design engineer – expects content experiences that are clear, concise and more engaging,” said Naresh Gupta, senior vice president, Print and Publishing at Adobe. “Technical Communication Suite 3 customers can meet this demand by creating documentation that is increasingly interactive, rich and socially enabled – all with one set of tools, within one user interface.”
New Features
Technical Communication Suite 3
• Enhanced single-sourcing: Import FrameMaker content into RoboHelp with support for FrameMaker books. Directly link DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) maps, automatically convert table and list styles, and publish multiple RoboHelp outputs from within the native authoring environment.
• Dynamic “single-click” publishing: Create standards-compliant XML and DITA (1.2) content and output to multiple formats, including print, PDF, Adobe AIR™, WebHelp, EPUB, XML and HTML, and deliver it to a wide range of mobile devices, such as eReaders, smartphones and tablets. Lend your content to search engine optimization, via enhanced metadata tagging of published content.
• Expanded multimedia capabilities: Take advantage of more than 45 video and audio formats and engage audiences by adding 3D models, training demos and simulations.
FrameMaker 10
• Standards support: Take advantage of significantly enhanced XML/DITA authoring capabilities of FrameMaker 10, which is an early adopter of industry standards including DITA 1.2.
• Usability enhancements: Work more efficiently with standards-compliant, prebuilt tools and templates designed for easier authoring. Use utilities like Auto Spell Check, Highlight Support, scrolling for lengthy dialogue, and enhanced Find and Replace to get the job done faster.
• Content Management System (CMS) connectors: Integrate seamlessly with leading content management systems, including Documentum and MS SharePoint. While competitors often sell these connectors for thousands of dollars, they will be included in FrameMaker 10 at no additional cost. Single-source, review, manage and automatically publish content faster and smarter – all within your favorite technical authoring tool.

Adobe Announces Technical Communication Suite 3

RoboHelp 9
• More personalized, optimized end-user experiences:
o Enable users to filter help systems based on their role, department, geography, products, operating system, or any other parameter, ensuring the most relevant information is instantly available.
o Enrich the quality of documentation by allowing users to add comments, rate helpfulness or generate relevant content independently.
o Create rich, interactive materials by adding access to external Web content including Google search, blogs,
wikis and forums.
• Efficient Workflows: Collaborate with authors, subject matter experts and readers using advanced PDF shared reviews, live linking of shared resources, moderation-enabled workflows through Adobe AIR Help, topic-rating and other multiauthor environment capabilities.

Adobe FrameMaker Server 10 and Adobe RoboHelp Server 9, the server versions of the core FrameMaker and RoboHelp products, are two separate releases that complement the new suite and help streamline enterprise workflows.

Pricing and Availability
Technical Communication Suite 3, FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9 are immediately available in English, French, German and
Japanese versions through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store. Estimated street price for Technical Communication
Suite 3 is US$1899 (upgrades from US$699). FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9 are also available as standalone products.
Estimated street price for FrameMaker 10 and RoboHelp 9 is US$999 each (upgrades from US$399). For details on FrameMaker
Server 10 and RoboHelp Server 9 pricing visit http://www.adobe.com/products/framemakerserver.html and
http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelpserver.html
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
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© 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Adobe Unveils New Acrobat X Solutions

Easily Create, Review and Share Compelling Documents with Greater Productivity Across Organizations

SAN JOSE, Calif., — Oct. 18, 2010 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced the Adobe® Acrobat® X software family – Acrobat X, Reader® X, the Acrobat X Suite and new document exchange services at Acrobat.com – that empowers professionals to innovate and create higher quality content, driving tighter collaboration and productivity across teams in today’s dynamic business environments.

“Companies today need to work with their customers and partners in multiple time zones, languages and cross-functional teams,” said Melissa Webster, analyst, IDC. “Seamless, fluid content creation and collaboration is critical to how organizations use, repurpose and share information – it is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it is an imperative to success in today’s business world.”

Acrobat X delivers new guided Actions to simplify multi-step document preparation and publishing processes; completely new customization capabilities in PDF Portfolios unify multiple file types into a compelling presentation. New document services available at Acrobat.com give individuals the ability to collaborate more efficiently. Integration with Microsoft SharePoint enables consistency of PDF documents across the enterprise; re-use of content is now easier with higher quality export to Microsoft® Word and Microsoft® Excel.

New Acrobat X Highlighted Features

·         Automate routine, multi-step tasks with new guided Actions and easily share them with coworkers and collaborators, reducing the burden of training.

·         Change how users view, think and interact with content and its context with PDF Portfolios using new layouts, visual themes and color palettes.

·         Maximize the power of Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Acrobat to easily create dynamic communications with the new Acrobat X Suite. Quickly capture, edit and combine digital content right from the desktop.

·         Increase productivity across the organization with new Microsoft® SharePoint integration. Check-in, check-out PDF files for reviewing and editing shared documents.

·         Streamline the process for large organizations to deploy, configure and manage updates and conform to ISO standards, in both Adobe Reader X and Acrobat X, including support for Microsoft SCCM and SCUP.

·         Display the most commonly used tools all in one pane with the updated user interface.

New in Adobe Reader X

·         Commenting is now available in Adobe Reader X, with Sticky Notes and Highlighter tools available to all users.

·         Expands PDF access to mobile devices with free Adobe Reader X for Android, Windows® Phone 7 and Blackberry Tablet OS.

·         Safer viewing of PDF files with new Protected Mode security capabilities in Reader X.

New Services via Acrobat.com

·         Adobe SendNow, a valuable new document exchange service at Acrobat.com, enables users to send and receive large files and track them with proof of receipt, avoiding e-mail gateway issues, complicated FTP servers, or the costs of expensive overnight mail.

·         Adobe CreatePDF for easily converting files to professional PDF documents from within Adobe Reader X or any Web browser.

Quotes

Kevin M. Lynch, vice president and general manager of Acrobat, Digital Enterprise Solutions Group, Adobe

·         “Today, more than ever, people need to communicate and collaborate reliably and professionally with people outside their organization. Acrobat X is a response to this dynamic – to drive more fluid collaboration and to create richer experiences in today’s fast-paced, complex business environments.”

Larry Hawes, lead analyst, Collaboration and Enterprise Social Software, at Gilbane Group

·         “Collaborative documents is a visionary collaborative content model that is just now beginning to be realized. Perhaps the clearest, productized articulation of this vision that I have seen is the PDF Portfolios component of Adobe Acrobat, enabling content creators to bring together multiple related files into a single space without altering them, and then share that bundle with others. Think of a PDF Portfolio as a ZIP file in which the relationship between the individual files in the container is defined and sequenced, as are the slides in a presentation.”

Bill Rue, chief information officer, HASSELL, international network of architectural design studios

·         “Using advanced Microsoft SharePoint functionality in Acrobat X, we can seamlessly integrate documents into our workflows, simplifying projects and helping to ensure we have the right people working on the right project, at the right moment.”

Johnny Chloride, solution delivery manager, HASSELL

·         “Acrobat X offers a sleek user interface and tool panes that make the software extremely easy to use for anyone.”

Mason Farmani, COO and managing partner, Barkley Court Reporters, the largest court reporting firm in California

·         “With Acrobat X, streamlined document commenting and collaboration improves sharing ideas and information. For us, it helps accelerate our internal learning processes and gives our clients the tools to work together more effectively.”

Ron Usher, managing partner, Bell Alliance, real estate and estate planning leader

·         “The Action Wizard in Acrobat X empowers our staff to transform many of their time consuming tasks into simple one-step processes.”

·         “In the latest release, Adobe has found a great balance between rich features and delivering an intuitive application with a modern, clean interface.”

Helpful Links

·         Adobe TV: Top 10 New Acrobat X Features

·         Adobe TV: Insights on Protected Mode with Brad Arkin

·         Adobe TV: Insights on the Future of Services with Rick Treitman

·         Adobe TV: Customer video on Acrobat X: Bureau Veritas

·         Adobe TV: Customer video on Acrobat X: Universal Mind

·         Acrobat X product box shots and screen shots

·         Acrobat blog

·         Acrobat Twitter account

·         Acrobat User Community

Product Family

This release line-up includes the following Acrobat X products:

·         Acrobat X Standard

·         Acrobat X Pro

·         New: Acrobat X Suite, includes Adobe Photoshop® CS5, Adobe Acrobat X Pro, Adobe Presenter 7, Adobe Captivate® 5,  Adobe Media Encoder CS5, Adobe LiveCycle® Designer ES2 software.

·         Adobe Reader X

·         Acrobat.com services, including new Adobe SendNow and Adobe Create PDF online document exchange services.

Pricing and Availability

Acrobat X and its associated products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales.

·         Estimated street price for:

o    Acrobat X Standard is expected to be US$299 ($139 upgrade)

o    Acrobat X Pro is expected to be US$449 ($199 upgrade)

o    Acrobat X Suite is expected to be US$1199 ($799)

·         Pricing for Education available through the Adobe Education Store.

·         Free 30-day trial of Acrobat Pro will be available upon product ship.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

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© 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Captivate, LiveCycle, Photoshop and Reader are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Printing Your Own Livescribe Printable Notepads

I have been exploring my Livescribe Echo Smartpen and the Livescribe Desktop software and today I decided to see how easy it is to print my own dotted paper from my Windows laptop computer (Editors note: You can print dotted paper on you Macintosh computer from the Livescribe Desktop Application- 1. Open Livescribe Desktop.  2. From the top Menu select “Tools > Print Your Own Notebook…) . If you own or have access to a an Adobe Postscript color laser printer capable of printing at least 600 dots per inch you are in luck. I have been using digital pens for some time now and own an OKI Data 6100N, color laser printer, which is certified by Anoto to work with the digital pen and paper solutions, so I figured I would be in good shape attempting to print my own Livescribe notepads. So this evening I plugged my laptop into my OKI Data color laser printer and printed out a Test Page. Once the page printed out, I used the controls on the bottom of the page to record some responses and then docked my pen. Everything worked like I expected and the ink and audio worked just perfectly. Now that I know that it works, I can print out notepads which consist of 25 pages on ordinary 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It is good to know that I always have this option if I need it.

The Echo Smartpen from Livescribe

I have been using the Echo Smartpen for the past week and to say the least I am very impressed with the second generation pen from Livescribe. Livescribe evidently listened to customer feedback and made a more ergonomic offering with this release. With its new shape and design the pen feels much more comfortable in my hand. Adding the soft rubberized grip gives the pen a good feel when writing. With the new design the pen will not be able to roll of your desk as was the case with the Pulse pen. The Echo Smartpen is now available with 4 GB ($169) or 8 GB($199) of memory which would allow you to store and incredible amount of audio notes and apps which are available from the Livescribe Online Store. The 8GB Echo Smartpen is capable of storing over 800 hours of audio depending on the quality of the audio recorded. In any case the Echo Smartpen can store a huge amount of audio.

So what do you get when you purchase the Echo Smartpen? In the box you get the Echo Smartpen, a mini USB cable, one digital A5 Starter pad, two pen tip covers, and some Quick Start guides. To get started using the Echo you will first need to download the Livescribe Desktop software from the Livescribe website and register your pen. By registering your Echo Smartpen and setting up an account you will be given space on the Livescribe server to store your penscasts. More about pencasts later in this review. Once you have downloaded and installed the software you are ready to start using the Echo Smartpen. Now the fun begins, just touch the Record button on the bottom of the dot paper and everything you write is synchronized with what was said at the time. The quality of the recording is very good but on some occasions you do here some pen tip noise as you are writing on the paper. To listen to what you recorded you can use the Paper Reply feature by tapping the text with the pen tip on the dot paper to hear the recording. That part is almost magical!

The Echo Smartpen does not ship with the 3D noise cancellation ear buds as the previous model did, which I found to be very useful when recording in large lecture halls. Once you have written on the dot paper you can download the notes to your computer using the mini USB cable that plugs directly into the top of the pen. Changing to the mini USB cable I think is a move in the right direction and makes it easier for those that travel to carry it in their bag for fast syncing. The OLED display gives you visual feedback letting you know that the Echo Smartpen is transferring data to the Livescribe Desktop software. Once the process is done the Livescribe Desktop software provides you with a message that the transfer is complete. The process is straight forward and easy to do.

There have been lots of changes to the Livescribe Desktop software that bears mentioning. One of the new features which I believe will be used a great deal is the ability to create custom notebooks from selected pages you have downloaded. This works very similarly to how you can create Play Lists in iTunes. Simply create a Custom Notebook and drag pages into it. This gives you the ability to group pages of your notes as you see fit so that you can quickly access them. Having the ability to search through your notes to find specific information is one of the most powerful aspects of this system. Of course if you like you can listen to any of your pages played right from the desktop.

Sharing your files in different formats is one of the strengths of the Livescribe digital pen system. Educators will be able to export saved notes as a Pencast, PDF, orImage file. If you decide to save your notes as a Pencast anyone who has the Livescribe Desktop software will be able to view and listen to the recording. You can if you like also just download the audio portion of your pages which gives you another way to share information that was recorded. What I am really excited about is the announcement that I will be able to share my recordings as a PDF pencast that will be able to viewed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. I am told that this feature will be available sometime in the Fall. Likewise, Livescribe is working on an app for the iPad that will let me view my pencasts on the Apple iPad to be released later this summer. For those of you who missed my post about hand writing recognition and the Echo Smartpen click here to see how easy it is to convert your handwriting to editable text. It is really exciting to think about all of the possibilities for extending learning in the classroom with the Livescribe Echo Smartpen.

For those of you who may not be familiar with pencasts - this has got to be one of Livescribe's real strengths from and educational perspective. Over the past year educators have posted thousands of pencasts on all different subjects for others to access and view. With a Echo Smartpen a teacher can quickly record and model how to solve an algebraic problem for example that can be accessed from the web. Creating a pencast is as easy as writing and recording your voice and then uploading it to your Livescribe account. Once you upload your pencast to your account you can embed it on your website or link directly to it. You have full control of the file and who has access to it right from within the Livescribe Desktop software application. Just imagine the possibilities as a teacher being able to model a process and having your students watch you do a problem step by step. As more schools move to Learning Management Systems having a tool like the Echo Smartpen will become indispensable for creating digital content is straight forward and natural way. You can view a pencast that I did on how to solve for x below.

Solving for X
brought to you by Livescribe

The Livescribe ecosystem has really developed since the Pulse pen was released and with the release the Echo Smartpen, Livescribe continues to develop a very strong platform for pen computing that opens the doors for all kinds of possibilities. Look for another post on using apps with your Echo Smartpen and for ideas on how to use this technology in the classroom. For those of you that are using Livescribe smartpens I would invite your comments.

Adobe Announces eLearning Suite 2 & Captivate 5

SAN JOSE, Calif. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe eLearning Suite 2, a significant upgrade to its tightly integrated, end-to-end solution for easily creating, reviewing and maintaining eLearning content. The suite, now natively compatible with Mac OS in addition to Windows, enables eLearning professionals, educators and trainers to turn creative ideas into dynamic eLearning materials that engage learners with multimedia and interactivity. eLearning Suite 2 - anchored by the new Adobe Captivate 5 - includes Adobe Flash Professional CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, Adobe Presenter 7 and Adobe Soundbooth CS5.

"Today's educational and professional learning departments are under enormous pressure to deliver impactful content quickly and efficiently," said Naresh Gupta, senior vice president, Print and Publishing at Adobe. "eLearning Suite 2 is a major leap forward in eLearning content creation. It addresses the challenge with its tightly integrated toolset that allows content creators to develop powerful media-rich eLearning experiences without the time and expense of programming."

Adobe eLearning Suite 2 enhances productivity with smarter aggregation capabilities included in Adobe Captivate 5, eLearning extensions for Dreamweaver and Flash, and new application round tripping workflows between authoring and asset creation tools. For example, a course designer can now insert Adobe Photoshop CS5 (PSD) files as smart objects into an Adobe Captivate project and update the images with one click should the original files change without having to resave and reinsert images. Similar workflows exist between the other eLearning Suite components including Adobe Captivate, Soundbooth and Flash.

"Timely, effective training on the use of our products is critical for us and our customers to meet compliance requirements," said Mary McGivern, Instructional Designer, Omnicell, a leading provider of comprehensive, technologically advanced automation that enables healthcare facilities to acquire, manage, dispense, and deliver medications and supplies more effectively. "The new user interface in Adobe Captivate 5 lets me work more efficiently and is now similar to other Adobe products. This will speed up my workflow and help me meet timelines more effectively."

Introducing Captivate 5

Adobe Captivate is the industry-leading, rapid authoring solution for developing demonstrations, application simulations and branching scenarios - without requiring programming expertise while not compromising quality. Version 5, which introduces the software to Mac OS, offers exciting new features that allow users to do more complex tasks faster such as enhanced importing and round tripping for Microsoft PowerPoint.

The new user interface - similar to the Dreamweaver CS5, Flash CS5 and Photoshop CS5 interfaces - lets users create and revise content faster and more easily than ever before by supporting multiple document editing and personalized workspaces. The Properties Inspector tool also boosts time-savings, as course authors can edit object properties in fewer steps. Additionally, eLearning professionals can leverage an expanded asset library and use customizable widgets to quickly create tables and design graphical buttons. Other major enhancements include support for rich animation effects, the ability to import videos in popular formats (AVI, MOV, FLV, MPEG) and synchronize video across multiple slides.

For more effective collaboration, Adobe Captivate 5 customers can upload, exchange and review content, as well as track and report learner scores by signing up for Adobe's online productivity software, Acrobat.com (available separately). Also, a new widget lets students and educators interact via Twitter, facilitating online Q&As and group discussion.

To ease the process of maintaining content, Adobe Captivate 5 introduces Object Style editing, which facilitates changes project-wide with just a few clicks, allowing content creators to easily define and modify the look and feel of buttons, text, images and other elements. eLearning designers can also create Master Slides with preset themes and styles for text, shapes and graphics. This accelerates authoring as contributors can focus on content rather than formatting details, and ensures that the look and feel of an organization's presentations are preserved. Once eLearning content is published, training and learning professionals can track and report key performance metrics via Acrobat.com or their own Web server.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe eLearning Suite 2 and Adobe Captivate 5 are expected to be available via Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in June. Customers can pre-order Adobe eLearning Suite 2 and Captivate 5 today. Estimated street price for the suite is US$1799; upgrade pricing starts at US$599. Estimated street price for Adobe Captivate 5 is US$799; upgrade pricing starts at US$299. Educational pricing is available for both products.

Both products are compatible with Mac OS X v10.5.7 or v10.6, Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended), Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 or Windows 7 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7). The Mac OS version of eLearning Suite 2 does not contain Adobe Presenter.

Helpful Links

eLearning Suite 2 and Captivate 5 Customer Quote Sheet
eLearning Workflows in eLearning Suite 2
eLearning Suite 2 home page
What's new in eLearning Suite 2 (On-demand seminar)
Top new features in Captivate 5
Captivate 5 home page
What's new in Captivate 5 (On-demand seminar)

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

(c) 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, eLearning Suite 2, Captivate, Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Acrobat and Soundbooth are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6275652&lang=en

Press/ Analyst Contacts
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Stefan Offermann, 408-536-4023
sofferma@adobe.com
or
A&R Edelman
Gina Pucci, 650-762-2897
gpucci@ar-edelman.com

Acrobat.com Now Integrates Tables & Presentation

I have been following Acroabt.com since its inception and today Adobe has finally integrated their suite of services under one roof. Acrobat.com is an essential service for Adobe since it is tightly integrated into Acrobat 9 line of products. If you have a copy of Acrobat 9 you can easily upload your PDF files to Acrobat.com come and share them with others by providing them with a URL that is generated. Acrobat.com can also be used when distributing PDF Forms and becomes the repository for the information that gets submitted.

The Acrobat.com Suite now includes Buzzword, a collaborative word processor, Tables, a database tool, and Presentation, a slide deck presentation tool. All of your files are accessible to you when connected to the web and you can invite others to collaborate on your documents if you wish. All of the applications have the very aesthetically please Flash look to them and are very inviting to use. Additionally you can use your Acrobat.com account to connect and share your computer with up to two other people, which makes is easy to collaborate and do small trainings or webinars. While the feature set looks to me to have stayed the same having all of the tools under one roof really helps to solidify this offering. I still have my free Acrobat.com account but if you feel that you need more storage or would like to host larger meetings you can upgrade to one of their Premium accounts. Take a look at Acrobat.com and let me know your comments.

Creating Interactive Handouts with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended

Earlier this week I spoke about how you could easily create printed handouts from your Captivate 4 projects. While this is certainly an added benefit and a good approach when you are doing workshops-wouldn't it be even better if you could show your participants how to accomplish the skill in an interactive handout. Why not take the printed handout an add a video demonstration to it to make it even more engaging for your learners. If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro9 Extended it is easy to add a video to your Microsoft Word document and then convert it to a PDF file and distribute it electronically.

In this example I created my video demonstration using Captivate 4 and embedded the SWF file directly into Microsoft Word handout from the Adobe Acrobat Tab within Microsoft Word. Once I have slected the SWF file I can set the Poster view for the video that the user will see when they open up the handout. Because I am creating a PDF file I can be confident that the end user will be able to view the contents of the PDF with nothing else but the free version of Adobe Reader 9.1. Using this technique is a great way to explain and demonstrate to your participants how to accomplish a task on the computer. You now have the best of both worlds- you can print out your handouts or electronically distribute them with embedded videos. Either way I'm sure your workshop participants will appreciate your efforts, having the various level of supports available to them during and after your workshop. If you need a place to host your PDF you should take a look at Acrobat.com a free way to upload your PDF and share them. So go ahead and download my handout and sit back and watch the video demonstration on page 1. Just a tip if you Right click on the video when it is running you can view the video in Full screen view.

Adobe eLearning Suite- A Very Special Webinar

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be able to do participate in a one-to-one webinar on the new Adobe elearning Suite with RJ Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist for the Adobe eLearning Suite which was just recently released. I would like to thank Jody from A & R Edleman for making this possible and for keeping me abreast of all the exciting developments that are taking place at Adobe in the eLearning space. RJ was kind enough to highlight the key features in the Adobe eLearning Suite and show me how the individual software applications in the package add value to the suite. The Adobe eLearning Suite consists of the following applications that work together to enrich the users eLearning experience: Captivate 4, Adobe Flash CS4, Adobe DreamWeaver CS4, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, Adobe Presenter 7, Adobe Soundbooth CS4, as well as Adobe Bridge CS4, Adobe Device Central CS4, and a SCORM Packager.

Having been an avid Captivate 3 user I was glad to see some of the new features which have been added to Captivate 4 that will allow me more control and easier ways to personalize the eLearning experience. Captivate 4 now includes the ability to store variables which will allow the developer to personalize the experience in your courses. One of the really nice features which I was able to see yesterday was the ability for automatic panning which lets you capture an area of the screen which may be outside the original preset. All of us who use Captivate will be glad to find out that we can output the video as one SWF file regardless if your video has captured full motion recording. And last but not least Captivate 4 has the ability to send your video out and allow others to comment without the other party having to own Captivate. Using an Adobe AIR application individuals can comment on the video without the need to own a copy of Captivate. What I was most impressed by during the webinar was how the various software applications were integrated into the workflow and how Captivate 4 is able to communicate effortlessly with the other applications in the suite. In the next couple of weeks look for more posts on the Adobe eLearning Suite.

Adobe eLearning Suite

FYI: Today Adobe, Inc. released a number of products that I thought you would interested in learning about. As I learn more about the new offerings I will share the information with you.

Today, Adobe Systems Inc. today announced the Adobe eLearning Suite, a new content-authoring solution for learning professionals, educators and trainers. Users can create rich learning experiences that are deliverable via the Web, desktop, mobile devices and learning management systems using this integrated set of tools, which includes:

· The just-released Adobe Captivate 4

· Adobe Flash CS4

· Adobe Dreamweaver CS4

· Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended

· Adobe Acrobat Pro

· Adobe Presenter 7

· Adobe Soundbooth CS4

· Adobe Bridge CS4

· Adobe Device Central CS4

The full press release is below. Please let me know if you'd like additional information, including box shots and screenshots, or to schedule time with an Adobe spokesperson.

Best,

Gina Pucci for Adobe Systems Inc.

650-762-2897

____________________________________

Adobe Introduces New eLearning Suite And Captivate 4 -- Learning Professionals Gain Unmatched Productivity Through Courseware Authoring Tools

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 20, 2009 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the Adobe eLearning Suite software, a new content-authoring solution for learning professionals, educators and trainers to create rich learning experiences that can be delivered via the Web, desktop, mobile devices and learning management systems. The new suite boosts productivity by tightly integrating a major new version of Adobe Captivate®, Adobe Flash® CS4, Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4, Adobe Photoshop® CS4 Extended, Adobe Acrobat® Pro, Adobe Presenter 7, Adobe Soundbooth® CS4, Adobe Bridge CS4, Adobe Device Central CS4 as well as eLearning extensions for Adobe Flash® CS4 and Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4.

“The new Adobe eLearning Suite is a unique and highly integrated set of tools designed to help professionals author, enrich, review and publish rich eLearning content all within one environment,” said Naresh Gupta, senior vice president of the Print and Publishing Business Unit at Adobe. “By leveraging different applications and streamlined workflows, learning professionals can be truly innovative and reach learners in new ways anytime, anywhere and through any medium.”

Adobe Captivate 4

Adobe Captivate 4, a new point product release and also the cornerstone of the suite, is the latest version of Adobe’s eLearning software for creating professional eLearning content and courseware that combines simulations, scenario-based training, quizzing, rich media and interactivity. Professionals can take advantage of more than two dozen new features including single SWF file publishing, text-to-speech conversion, a drawing toolbar for simple graphics, enhanced project templates, and round-trip Microsoft® PowerPoint® workflows, which let users import and edit PowerPoint slides with audio and interactivity. Adobe Captivate 4 also preserves Photoshop layers, which can then be animated individually, and supports PDF publishing and Audio Video Interleave (AVI) output for publishing to YouTube™.

With Adobe Captivate Reviewer, a new Adobe® AIR™ application, learning professionals can capture reviewers’ feedback regardless of their operating system and insert comments directly into an Adobe Captivate SWF file, simplifying the review process. Adobe Captivate 4 also enables users to add customizable tables of contents that automatically update as a learner navigates a project. To further boost engagement, learning professionals can use system and custom variables to provide learners with a personalized learning experience. For example, a learner can be prompted to type their name into a blank field in the beginning of the course and Adobe Captivate 4 will automatically personalize upcoming slides with the learner’s name.

Workflow and Integration Benefits

By integrating Adobe’s industry leading content creation tools, the Adobe eLearning Suite presents learning professionals with workflow benefits that are unavailable when purchasing individual products. With the Dreamweaver CS4 CourseBuilder extension, course designers can use Dreamweaver CS4 to directly create HTML-based eLearning modules, complete with assessments, by utilizing standard question types. Using the new Shared Courseware Object Reference (SCORM) packager, designers can also combine Adobe Captivate 4, Flash CS4, Dreamweaver CS4 and Adobe Presenter content into a single course, which further simplifies course creation.

With the inclusion of Soundbooth CS4, learning professionals can easily remove noise from recordings, polish voice-overs, customize music to fit a production and mix multiple clips on several tracks. Course designers can further engage their audiences with powerful visuals created within Photoshop CS4 Extended, which includes added features for editing 3D images and motion-based content. The visuals along with media developed in Adobe Captivate or other components can be easily organized, browsed, viewed and directly placed into Adobe Captivate 4, Photoshop CS4 and Flash CS4 from one central location using Adobe Bridge CS4.

Once content is ready for delivery, users can select one of several standardized output formats, including SWF, HTML, PDF, AVI, and SCORM, enabling easy delivery to the Web, desktop and learning management systems. If course designers don’t have access to a learning management system, the Adobe eLearning Suite allows users to publish directly to Adobe Acrobat® Connect Pro™ (sold separately). Additionally, Adobe Device Central CS4 allows course designers to design, preview, and test content for viewing on more than 600 mobile device screens.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe eLearning Suite and Adobe Captivate 4 are immediately available through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store. Estimated street price for the suite is US$1799 and US$799 for Adobe Captivate 4 as a standalone product. Upgrade and education pricing for both products is available. Both the Adobe eLearning Suite and Adobe Captivate 4 are compatible with Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) and Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1. For more information about the Adobe eLearning Suite visit www.adobe.com/products/elearningsuite, for Adobe Captivate 4 visit www.adobe.com/products/captivate .

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Adding Mindjet Player PDF's to a Acrobat Portfolio

This has been a very exciting week as I explore some of the new features in Mindjet MindManager 8. As I have shared with you, one of the most exciting features from my perspective is the Export to Mindjet Player, which allows you to create shareable maps with anyone who has Adobe Acrobat Reader 9, on their computer. This feature allows you to open and close topics and subtopics and maintains live links to the web. Being one who likes to experiment with software, I wondered what would happen if I placed a Mindjet Player PDF into one of my Adobe Acrobat Portfolio's that I have created. At the present time the Mindjet Player does not support attachments so one of the ways around this if you own a copy of Adobe Acrobat 9 is to create a Portfolio and add the files you would like to the portfolio. Inserting the Mindjet Player file into my portfolio was very easy and worked right out of the box. Double clicking on the Mindjet Player opened the map and from there I was ready to go. Now I can have my MindManager 8 maps displayed and add whatever additional files I need right within the portfolio. You will find as I have, that creating Acrobat portfolios is a great way to package files for training and consulting.

You may have noticed that I have placed a new widget on my blog recently to have you sign for free premium assets and information. This will allow me to target my readership and provide you with timely information which may include video's, newsletter, and or articles. For those of you that sign up now I will email you a link to Portfolio so that you can see just how easy it is to package your maps and attachments. So if you have a moment, please subscribe for the free services at the top of the blog by entering your name and email address- thanks Brian

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:-)

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.