Back to school with Adobe Mobile Learning Solution

Welcome back from your labor day break !  I hope you had a great summer.  If you have not paid attention to some of the announcements made by Adobe of the summer in the e-learning space, let me recap them briefly:

- Captivate 6 was introduced in July with the ability to publish to HTML5 , in order to publish e-learning content that can work cross devices.

- Presenter 8 was introduced in July part of the new e-Learning Suite release.  Along with Presenter 8 came an iOS app available for free on the app store.   It enables to play back Presenter authored content on any iOS device.

- Adobe Connect 9 was launched in August with the ability to support SCORM content and to support HTML5 content like the one out-put by Captivate 6.  It also introduced a brand new registration catalog based on Adobe CQ leading web content management platform.

- Connect Mobile 2.0 app became available both on the AppStore and Google Play as a free app.  It enables not only learners to attend a virtual classroom from any device, but most importably teacher to teach a class from any device, with the ability to whiteboard, load documents, change lay-outs etc…

All these announcements mean that today using all the tools that make up our Adobe Digital Learning Solution, you can author content that will run on any device, add this content in structured curriculum our courses, deploy these courses live or on-demand across any device and report on the pass/fail score but also on the effectiveness of the content.

We will talk more about this end to end e-learning solution for any device that we released over the summer at our coming e-Learning Summit.  To learn more or register, please visit:  http://bit.ly/MYEW9J

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Reading in the new Office

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Editor’s note: The Word team has been hard at work on the 2013 version. Today Tristan Davis joins the blog to discuss some of the investments we’ve made in Read mode.

Tristan Davis, Senior Program Manager Lead, Word

When Word is described as a word processing application, most people think of it as an incredibly powerful tool for writing documents. And that’s true. But once those documents are written and shared, they’re read (usually by many more people than were responsible for writing it).

In fact, from our user data we know that nearly two-thirds of user sessions in Word contain no editing at all – the only things that happen once the document is opened are scrolling and zooming changes as the user reads and processes the content.

With this information in mind, the Word engineering team wanted to focus on creating a refreshed, modern reading experience for the new Word; one that optimized for the times when the user is focused on consuming, not creating, content. The goal was to create a clean and distraction-free environment that went beyond presenting an electronic equivalent of paper to create an experience that felt at home on all types of devices – from tablets to laptops to smartphones.

The result is a new reading experience in Word centered on a feature called Read Mode, which essentially turns your Word documents into an interactive digital magazine. You can try it out by participating in the Office Customer Preview, and in this post, I will provide a quick tour of the changes we’ve made.

People read millions of documents in Word every day, and they’re generally happy doing it. So, how do you create an experience that’s optimized for reading?

To start, the Word engineering team spent time analyzing the act of reading itself, and existing research on what made reading “better” or “worse.” From that, we learned a few things. For example:

Text in a specific column width (approximately 66-75 characters per line) is more comfortable to read than text in wider columns.When people read, they often switch back and forth between what they’re specifically reading and related materials (e.g. you might look something up on Bing or take notes while reading this article).When reading on a device with a small screen, reading comfort/speed is reduced by having to pan in two directions (back and forth across each line, then up and down through the document). Making the text small enough to avoid this problem (fitting the content to the screen) causes similar problems/frustrations.

We took all of that knowledge, combined with research about what people liked and didn’t like about reading in Print Layout, Word’s existing Full Screen Reading view, and other devices (like their smartphones, tablets, e-readers, etc.), and used it to build up a fresh, touch-optimized, modern Read Mode. In Read Mode, document contents are reflowed according to the device being used, and tools like a dictionary, translation, and integrated web search help people consume documents easily.

When you open a document in Read Mode, you’ll immediately notice that we’ve minimized the application UI as much as possible. When you read, the UI can be a distraction. Our goal was to eliminate distractions so the content had your full attention. Here’s an example:

We also enabled the use of Office’s new full-screen mode in this view, so you can hide all of the application UI if you prefer, and dedicate the entire screen to whatever you’re reading; however, that’s a choice you can make independently of choosing to read the document in Read Mode.

Beyond its clean look, we designed Read Mode to be a fast and fluid experience on touch devices. When reading documents on a tablet, for example, you can effortlessly pan from one screen to the next, easily navigating the document with the flick of your finger. Even tapping on the edges of the screen smoothly animates the transition from one section to the next, allowing you to comfortably hold a tablet device and read, without having to move your hand each time you want to turn the page. In addition, the Navigation pane has been optimized to ensure that you can easily use it to navigate between the various headings in your document with a single tap.

One of the virtues ­(and pitfalls) of “paper” layout (i.e. 8.5x11 or A4 pages) is its rigidity – the pages are always the same size, regardless of whether those pages fit comfortably on your screen or not. And often, they don’t. We’ve watched countless times as users end up scrolling back and forth on their phone with each line that they read, forced to make an awkward tradeoff between a comfortable text size, and a size that “fits” the screen on which they’re reading.

Read Mode reflows the document to the constraints of the device on which you’re reading, ensuring that reading feels as comfortable on a 7” screen as a 24” one – a set of columns fit to the screen that scroll left to right. It creates these columns automatically based on three user-configurable settings: Column width preference – Prefer narrow columns? Or wide ones? By choosing your preference, Read Mode will automatically adjust the columns widths accordingly.Text size – Using the slider on the status bar, you can scale the text to the size that is most comfortable for you, whether that’s the original size, or scaled up to something easier on the eyes.Window size – Whatever size you make the window, or if you rotate your tablet between landscape and portrait modes, the screen will always be divided into equally sized columns that stay as close as possible to the column width you prefer.

For example, on the same screen, two different users might have very different “comfortable” reading preferences:

This adaptive layout enables us to always tune the experience to work optimally, even when the window is resized or viewed on different devices.

Once the document is laid out in columns, navigation is simple – pan right to go forward, and left to go back. For keyboard users, both left/right and up/down also move you through the document, as does the mouse scroll wheel (and a handy scrollbar at the bottom of the window).

When the document’s content is reflowed like this, pictures/charts/tables in the document are also resized to fit in the resulting columns – often, that means that they’re reduced from their original size. However, those elements can be the most information-rich part of a document (and hard to read when they’ve been shrunk down), so you can easily zoom “into” the object with a double-click or double-tap, bringing it front and center and allowing you to enjoy full focus on it at its original size.

Reading is an engrossing activity – when you’re in the middle of an interesting article, you want to stay “in the moment” as much as possible. As a result, we’ve included a set of tools within reading mode that allow you to complete common reading tasks without leaving Word, keeping that supplemental information right there in context. Those tools fall into two different categories: reference and document review.

One of the most common causes of reading disruption is the need to look up additional context – for example the meaning of a word or additional background information about a concept. When in Read Mode, those tools are right there in context:

If you’re not sure what a word means, the Definitions callout allows you to quickly look up words in the dictionary If you’re reading text that not in your native language, built-in Translation allows you to quickly translate text into the language of your choiceIf you need more background information, you can use Search on Bing to initiate a web search directly from within the application

Each of these tools aims to get you the information needed and get you back to reading as quickly as possible.

There’s a very common “reading” scenario in Word where you’re actually reviewing the document – providing or consuming comments and edits to content that’s still in progress. We did a bunch of work in Word 2013 to really streamline the document review experience (a simplified view of revisions called Simple Markup, using hints to show you where comments are in your document, etc.) – stay tuned for details on the Word blog – but all of that is available in Read Mode as well.

We designed Read Mode from the ground up with the unique aspects of reading in mind. Just as Word already helps people create and share information, the new Word makes consuming those documents on any screen a great experience.

Our goal was to create a fresh, distraction-free experience, optimized for any device and tailored to your preferences. We hope you try the Office Customer Preview and send us your feedback.

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OneNote Getting Started Tip 5: Connect task lists & turn notes into emails

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Did you know OneNote and Outlook are well connected? You can send emails via Outlook right from OneNote. And you can track your To-Do list in both of them at the same time. This post shows you how.  

Let's say you've just finished taking notes at a meeting and want to send them to meeting attendees. In OneNote, on the Home tab, click E-mail Page.

Outlook opens, and your OneNote page is turned into an email--just add meeting attendees and send. 

Maybe you've made notes in OneNote on a bunch of things that you need to get done. You can add these as tasks and track them in both OneNote and Outlook at the same time. 

In OneNote, highlight the tasks you want to add to your Outlook task list, then click Outlook tasks and decide when you want to complete them by:

They appear in Outlook on your To-Do list.

Also, when you mark a task as completed in Outlook, it will show up as completed in OneNote and vice versa--pretty cool.

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PowerPoint 2013: Present a PowerPoint File Online

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You want to meet in real time to create or refine a PowerPoint presentation, but often the people with whom you need to meet cannot be at the same place at the same time. With the growing usage of messaging and audio/video conferencing software, people are collaborating from multiple locations. Whether you’re a student who needs to finish a class project with your peers, a small business owner who wants to share a presentation with clients, or a family member sharing vacation photos in a slide show, we know it’s important for any PowerPoint user to be able to easily share and work together on their PowerPoint files.

We’ve improved the capabilities of the PowerPoint 2010 Broadcast Service, and we are calling this new service the Office Presentation Service. It’s a simple, rich sharing experience that gives the presenter confidence that their attendees are able to follow along, wherever they are in the presentation. By adding an interactive communication channel, such as IM or voice/video applications, you can create a complete real time collaboration experience. And it’s free for all Office 2013 customers to use; all you need is a Microsoft account and Microsoft Office 2013.

We wanted to create a natural experience, allowing you to easily transition from working on your presentation to sharing with others for comments, review, or collaboration. While working on your presentation, begin sharing by clicking File > Share > Present Online. From here, select Office Presentation Service and click Present Online.

To send your meeting invitation to attendees, select Copy Link to copy and paste the meeting hyperlink so others can access it, such as in a Skype chat window. Alternatively, you can select Send in Email to email the hyperlink using your email client or select Send in IM to send using your existing IM chat client.

When you are ready to start, click Start Presentation. When your attendees click the hyperlink, a browser window will open and the presentation will be displayed. They do not need to have PowerPoint or any other product installed on their computer.

Allowing you to focus on the content presented and be in control of the view were two goals we kept in mind while building these sharing features. We kept the experience as simple and natural as possible, so you can easily view and share your information with others. Here are a few new features we think you’ll enjoy.

The new Presenter View in PowerPoint 2013 is an amazing experience, and we’ve ensured you are able keep this experience when presenting via an Office Presentation Service presentation.

Playing videos during a meeting is an important feature we know customers will appreciate. When you share a presentation with an embedded video, everyone can watch the video together, and we’ve included media play controls so attendees can mute, pause, seek and play on their own.

Sometimes presenters want to distribute their file with meeting attendees and let everyone view the slides independently, like when classmates are working together on a class presentation. In the final Office 2013 version, it’s easy for you to share the presentation with everyone, or not. It’s up to you. To enable attendees to download the presentation and view the slides on their own, simply select the Enable remote viewers to download the presentation check box when starting the presentation.

Sometimes the presenter moves on to the next slide before everyone else has had a chance to read all the information presented. We’ve heard that feedback and have enabled everyone to independently view slides with the navigation arrows at the bottom of the slide, or using their keyboard. Doing this does not interrupt the presenter or change anyone else’s view.

When attendees are viewing the file independently, we’ve built two ways to alert them they are now viewing the content independently. Clicking the Follow Presenter button allows attendees to easily go back to the same slide the presenter is viewing.

Thanks for reading, and have fun trying out the new features when sharing a PowerPoint file!

Read about Sharing Meeting Notes

Read about Present a Word document online

Coming soon: Presenting a PowerPoint file into a Lync Meeting!

Kimberly Kamolz
Program Manager, Office Meetings

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Why you should try the Preview of SkyDrive for Windows or Mac

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It's so simple that explaining it is more complicated than doing it. And once you start using it, you'll wonder how you worked in Office without it. 

When you install SkyDrive for Windows, it creates a folder named SkyDrive on your computer which is just like any other folder with one big difference-any file you put into it is automatically added to your SkyDrive in the cloud. And any changes you make to a file--whether on SkyDrive or your computer--gets made to that file in both places. 

 

Say you're working on a Word doc and you save it to the SkyDrive folder on your computer. When you go home and work on another computer, you can open the doc on SkyDrive in the cloud, make changes and save it.  

 

The next day when you turn on your work computer, the new version is in your computer's SkyDrive folder.  (Goodbye thumb drive.) That's great but maybe you already haul your laptop home so what's the big deal? 

There is also a SkyDrive app for Mac OS X Lion, which gives you access to documents - online or offline - right from Finder.  You can also get SkyDrive for iPad, iPhone or Windows Phone to view or share docs from anywhere. And thanks to the Office Hub on Windows Phone, you can view, edit, and share documents on SkyDrive when you're anywhere that your laptop isn't.

How many people do you think reviewed this blog post?  Probably not as many as you think. But there were several people, and they work in lots of different buildings and places.  So instead of sending it in email and having to compare their suggestions in multiple versions, I saved it to my SkyDrive folder and visited SkyDrive.com where I could send a link to everyone's inbox.

All they had to do was click the link to open the doc in Word on their desktop or on a Windows phone, or in a web browser. Then they could make changes and save it back to SkyDrive.

If some people don't have Office, you can still collaborate with them. When they click the link, the doc automatically opens in a web browser (it does that for everyone else, too) and gives them the option of editing it right there.  They can make changes to it just as if it was a Word on a computer. Once they're done, they too, save it to SkyDrive. 

When you're working with each other on SkyDrive, you can add or change formatting by using all the formatting tools you're used to in Microsoft Office.  The changes come along with the doc when you share it or save it.

The same thing can't be said if you're collaborating in Google Docs.  In Google Docs you have to leave behind your impressive Excel pie chart unless, that is, you convert your Google Doc into an Office doc after you're done collaborating. What a hassle. 

If you install the SkyDrive app on several different computers, you can actually connect to any of them to find files you need-even if those files aren't yet in SkyDrive. For example, if at home you need a file that you left on your work computer, you can connect to that computer, look for the files in its folders, then add those files to the SkyDrive folder on that computer.  

Since those files are automatically synced with your SkyDrive, and since your home computer is connected to that SkyDrive account, you can now access them on your home computer.

Because you don't want just anyone nosing around in your computer, SkyDrive requires a couple extra steps to get inside another computer.

The SkyDrive app puts two security hurdles in place when you want to fetch files. First you have to log in to the same SkyDrive account on each computer.  After you do that, you'll see a list of computers in your SkyDrive account in the cloud. If you click on the computer's name, SkyDrive asks if you want to send a verification code to your mobile phone or alternate email address. After you type in that code, you can start browsing and adding files to that computer's SkyDrive folder. After you've done that, they'll be automatically added to your SkyDrive account in the cloud.

Wow.  Being able to fetch files from computers kind of makes your computers part of the cloud.

(One thing about fetch--you can use a Mac to fetch files on a Windows computer, but you can't use Windows to fetch files on a Mac.)

How can you not want to install the SkyDrive app? It lets you:

Work seamlessly in Office on your computer and the cloud Access and work on Office files from any computer and lots of devices Collaborate with others using all the Office features you know without worrying about losing your formatting

In short, the SkyDrive app combines the benefits of cloud computing and Office to bring you a new and improved work life.

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Setting One Dimension in the Crop Tool in Photoshop CS6

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