Using Help Authoring Tools as a CMS and Captivate 3 Workshop
On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, Neil Perlin returns to STC-Phoenix! Always a favorite at the international conference, Neil will speak at our chapter meeting on reducing the risk of adopting a new content management system (CMS) by using a help authoring tool in a unique way – to create a test-bed CMS. The next day, Neil will teach a one-day workshop introduction to Adobe Captivate 3.
Using Help Authoring Tools to Create Test-Bed CMS
As content management systems spread into technical communication, they add a lot of uncertainty. They bring new concepts and development processes, and demand more rigorous standards, all of which have to fit into your workflow and culture. A CMS also costs far more than our traditional tools. So buying a CMS can be risky.
One way to cut that risk is to create a test-bed CMS to test the effects on your workflow and culture. Interestingly, help authoring tools like Flare and RoboHelp, among others, offer that capability.
How? A CMS’ core functions are to let authors create content, store it, manage it, find it, process it for output, and control the workflow. Help authoring tools offer most of those functions today. Their ability to create and store topics, extract and customize them for single sourcing using features like conditionality and variables, store multiple versions in version control, create reports, and more all let us create test-bed CMSs for evaluating changes on your culture and operations.
This session discusses how to do this. It describes core CMS features and equivalent features in MadCap Flare and Adobe RoboHelp, and explains how to use those features to create a test-bed CMS on which to find operational kinks that might prevent you from making full use of your real CMS. Or even possibly to use your help authoring tool *as* your CMS…
Bring a new guest to the meeting at a reduced price for two.
Mark your calendar for the January 13, 2009, STC-Phoenix chapter meeting at the Phoenix Airport Hilton. And the one-day Captivate 3 workshop (more info below) on Wednesday, January 14, 2009.
About Neil Perlin
Neil Perlin has 29 years experience in technical communication, with 23 in training, consulting, and development for various types of online formats and tools including WinHelp, HTML Help, CE Help, JavaHelp, RoboHelp, ForeHelp, Flare, and many now known only in legend. Neil is a columnist and frequent speaker for the STC and other professional groups, a member of the STC’s Boston chapter, the creator and manager of the Beyond the Bleeding Edge stem at the STC’s annual conference from 1999 to 2006, and an Associate Fellow of the STC.
Neil is a Madcap Certified Instructor for Flare and Mimic, and an Adobe-Certified Instructor for RoboHelp and Captivate. He provides training, consulting, and development for online help and documentation, Flare, RoboHelp, Mimic, Captivate, nperlin@concentric.net, www.hyperword.com.
Dinner Options
Meat Entrée: Chicken Saltimboca – Prosciutto, mozzarella and port mushroom demi served with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Vegetarian Entrée: Pasta Ojeda – Penne pasta, diced tomatoes, and green onions tossed in a rose vodka and garlic sauce, topped with parmesan cheese
All entrees include a tossed green salad, rolls, tea, coffee and dessert
Location
Phoenix Airport Hilton, 2435 South 47th Street, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 85034-6410. Networking at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., and program at 7.
Registration Information
Cost: Members $25, Non-member $30, Students $15, Program only $10.
New Member Incentive: Member and first-time guest
* $40 for two dinner/program
* $10 for two program only
Registration Deadline: Thursday, January 8, 2009
Register Online: Registration is closed.
Workshop: One-Day Introduction to Adobe Captivate 3
For years, software training was primarily text-based… create a Word or Frame document with textual descriptions and instructions, add some screen shots, and voila!
The result worked, but how much more effective would it be to have someone walk you through the steps on the screen. That’s where Captivate comes in, letting you create that someone.
Captivate helps you inexpensively and quickly create visual training and help. It lets you capture what’s on the screen as you perform each step of a software-based task, save the screen shots as a filmstrip, add explanatory and instructional captions, special effects, even interactivity features to make users think they’re using the software, and play the result back as a movie. It’s a deceptively simple but powerful application that can create movies for use as training aids, software demonstrations, marketing presentations, interactive simulations, even fairly sophisticated eLearning. And, compared to old-line CBT authoring tools, it’s quick and easy to learn – a day to get up to speed on the basics, two days to get up to speed on intermediate features, and three days to get up to speed on most of the advanced features – and inexpensive at $699.
This hands-on workshop covers the first day of a full, two-day course. In it, you’ll get an overview of Captivate and learn how to use it to create training movies that can stand on their own, be integrated into a help system, or run off a web site. The prerequisites are a basic knowledge of Windows, Internet Explorer, and PC skills in general.
Location: Phoenix Airport Hilton
Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Time: 9 am – 4 pm
Bring: your laptop and a copy of Captivate 3 (download a 30-day trial if you don’t own a copy)
Cost: $100 for members; $150 for non-members, includes pastries in the morning and lunch.
Registration Deadline: Monday, January 12, 2009
Register Online: Registration is closed.