The RCAT (rapid content authoring tool) market continues to be healthy with nothing to slow it down – uh, except maybe one thing (more on that later). Yeah, I know we have just jumped into January, but in a review of the past several months, authoring tools continue to follow a similar path amongst themselves with certain feature sets. am still surprised on how vendors who are offering assessment only tools are staying in the game. Perhaps their audience is unaware of LMSs who offer assessment tools. There is a reason Dragon software is hot. MORE >>

PowerPoint's SmartArt allows you to visually communicate information. You can create SmartArt graphics that are lists, process diagrams and organizational charts. With the graphic selected, right-click on any of the individual elements and select Group > Ungroup (or select Drawing Tools > Format > Group > Ungroup from the ribbon). About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both " PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials " and " PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." MORE >>

Last week I detailed how to turn a PowerPoint 2007 presentation into a movie that could be uploaded to popular video sharing sites like YouTube.  Follow the instructions from last week to create a movie from your PowerPoint presentation with audio and save your movie as a.wmv file. Once you have saved your PowerPoint presentation with the audio as a.wmv file in Windows Movie Maker you will not be able to adjust the length of each slide.   Click the Narrate Timeline tool.  " PowerPointby AJ George. Note (And this is important!): MORE >>

Over the last two weeks I've introduced PowerPoint 2010's Shape Union and Shape Subtract tools. Now I'd like to give a quick example of how you could incorporate this into your eLearning projects made with PowerPoint. Your end result would look something like this:     Using what you've previously learned about the Shape Union tool , construct a few puzzle pieces. Select one of the puzzle pieces you created. Click the Shape Subtract tool from your ribbon. " Tags: eLearning PowerPoint by AJ George. Click Close. MORE >>

I came across this mind map by Cammy Bean which covers nearly all the tools available for creating/authoring eLearning content. She tries to find answers to three simple questions regarding each tools mentioned in the mind map –. For many tools, the answers are as expected. Again, the fact surfaces that not all tools are perfect but each tends to be targeted for specific use cases. The mind map can help learning professionals choose the right authoring tool for  their requirements and expectations. When do I use it? SCORM 1.2, 2004, AICC). MORE >>