Lectora 12 – Moving Ahead and Catching Up

When Lectora 12 was released in early December, there weren’t too many surprises, as most of the new features were previewed at the Lectora User Conference in April. The improvements focus on designer usability and provide PowerPoint-like flexibility when working with text, images, shapes, and buttons. We expect these new features will save us time on development, as we previously had to use external tools to create the effects that are now available natively in Lectora 12.

In addition, Trivantis has enhanced the back-end HTML in published courses to better comply with Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Lectora has long been Artisan’s go-to tool for creating 508-compliant courses, especially for courses that needed a strict interpretation of 508. These enhancements further that position.

With this release, Lectora inches closer to some of the rivaling tools when it comes to design usability, albeit by adding features that the competitors have had for years. There is one fundamental difference, however, that may still prevent e-learning developers from embracing Lectora – a timeline. Many of us are accustomed to working with timelines from our use of other tools like Flash, iMovie, Camtasia, Captivate, and Storyline. For developers incorporating elements timed to audio narration, being able to see a timeline that visually represents the narration and its synchronization with the appearance and disappearance of objects is a real necessity. If you can do without a timeline, Lectora is an incredibly robust authoring tool and has become easier to use with each new release for the last few years now.

If you’re interested in seeing the new features in Lectora 12, check out the short, self-paced presentation below. For a complete list of enhancements and fixes, be sure to check out the official release notes.

Lectora 12 - Moving Ahead and Catching Up Presentation-01

Now that Lectora has caught up in many ways to its rival e-learning development tools, we’re eager to see what they’ll come out with next! Download a free trial of Lectora 12, check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think.

Tanya Seidel
Artisan E-Learning

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