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Subject:Re: Nicely done multimedia "show me" From:aschiff -at- factset -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:18:13 -0400
David, thank you for pointing this out. Jasc did a terrific job. In
addition to the points you mentioned, I'm a big fan of letting users choose
their path -- "suggesting" (not mandating) a sequence while ultimately
giving the user control. This was done quite nicely here.
My department actually developed (and continues to develop) an eLearning
suite similar to this but it was targeted a bit more at a training
audience. It wasn't a single self-contained Flash file (which is what this
*looked* like, although as you pointed out I suspect they used many smaller
Flash files to minimize loading time and combined them into a single
shell.)
Our approach was a series of steps loaded into an ASP template, using
straight HTML, static images, and embedded Flash files whenever we wanted
to provide something interactive. The ASP template takes care of all the
navigation (back, next, first step/last step, lesson name, etc.) The HTML
allows us to do all of our non-interactive "talking/explaining" in
easy-to-edit HTML files (instead of cumbersome Flash files). And the Flash,
of course, lets us do demo's, drag-&-drop quizzes, and all that cool stuff.
There's a picture of a sample step in our eLearning suite at http://www.factset.com/www_323.asp if anyone is interested in taking a
gander.
Abby Schiff
Director of Documentation
FactSet Research Systems
203.863.1593
==============
David wrote:
I just looked at some of the new features of Paint Shop Pro 7.0 at Jasc's
web
site, http://www.jasc.com. I was impressed with the great job they did with
this particular piece. (I haven't always been a fan of their online help,
so
this was a pleasant surprise.)
(snip)
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