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A Learning and Development Professional’s Continuing Education
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012Finding a way to put professional development into your working life is not easy to do. There are groups you can join, and you can follow people on social media (though often there’s too much information to comfortably consume). Professional groups and user communities can be helpful. For myself, I find a lot of value with Adapt meetings (a non-profit group that helps connect L&D pro’s with Technology), and heading up to Boston for Adobe User Group meetings (when the stars align for a sitter).
In the end though, it often comes down to the need for “Train-The-Trainer”. Some places will bring in a TTT course for their Learning and Development staff, though usually the success or failure of a trainer rides on the end of class evaluations.
I’ve been asked to use a huge variety of evaluations, mostly made by the site or by the training company I was contracting with. Generally they fall along the lines of “Did you find the class to be valuable” or “Was the trainer prepared?” These (as you may know) are known in the industry as “Smile Sheets” and what they really measure is how good the instructor was at making the students feel good – good about him or her, good about themselves, good about the material… you get the idea.Â
What do you do when that feedback is not enough? If you’re truly dedicated to teaching then it’s not enough to have people like you – they have to “Get it”. Teachers/Trainers – you know what I’m talking about. It’s that moment when the person you’re working with clicks into understanding. Their eyes sparkle and they smile or sit a little taller in their seat. It’s really addicting – if you do training (I’m using training and teaching interchangeably)Â you ride that feeling like a wave. Having an entire class really click-in is a huge energy boost. Having people not click-in feels horrible – it’s like death by paper cuts. To stay in the field you need to keep fresh. Bad habits develop over time, little things you don’t even notice.
So what do you do if you’re an independent or in a workplace that doesn’t have the time, or money to spend keeping trainers sharp?
Make it yourself
You can make your own Train-the-trainer class – I had to. Sign up for webinars, regardless of the topic. Go to seminars, user group meetings, anywhere where people are presenting. Keep doing this. Then do it some more. You’ll be making little comments in your head “Oh – never say that” and “Ooh, that works” while checking what the view is like from the student seat. It doesn’t need to be work related – I recently was at a dance seminar and saw a really talented dancer struggle with the multiple levels of students in the class.
Find the people you want to learn from. One the things I’ve enjoyed doing is building a list of people that are my touchstones for certain topics. For example, will always listen to Cindy Huggett, Lieve Weymeis, Cathy Moore… The list goes on for a while. This helps me for my own development and as a great shorthand for my students. When I teach Adobe classes, I will often say “you can always trust Deke – his info is solid!“. I do this because Deke Mc Clelland is not only a great trainer but also a really good resource.
So what can you do?
Here are a few things you could build into your own personal TTT program.
Webinars
(AKA Online Training, Virtual Training, that stuff you dread…)
- Sign up for a free webinar service, one that let’s you record the meetingÂ
- Give your friends some free 20 min class. Those videos will be very helpful.
Screen recording
- Sign up for Jing or some other screen cast recording service (Jing has 5 min free).
- Make a video on one feature or term from your work.
- Show the video to someone else, perferably several other people
Live video recording
- Record yourself presenting to a room. A real room; one that is NOT full of your people. This is the brutal one. DON’T watch it the same day!
- Watch it
- Cry
- Do it again
Your Turn
What have you done to keep your skills sharp in your work?
Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
Photoshop compositing and the never ending road
Sunday, November 6th, 2011Mastery doesn’t mean you’re done learning
Are you a “Photoshop Expert” or “Guru” ? *shudder* When was the last time you edumacated yourself? (yes. the spelling is deliberate)
The image on the left is of a composite I’ve been working on for class. I will play with more features when making “random art”. I’m a big fan of the Photoshop Disasters site. It kills me that some of those images manage to get the the approvals process all the way to final print without anyone going… “Wait! What the hell is that!“. I don’t have the same time pressures that they do and am grateful for it (one of the many reasons why I’m a software trainer and not a production artist). However, some of the mistakes that you’ll see are just nuts. Basic anatomy people. Normal human elbows don’t attach at the chest – It’s not that hard!
So… back to the purple fantasy picture… I don’t have any specific class that is if going to use those images – I just need to keep my hand in and work on all the techniques that I want my students to know.
There are specific tutorials I will sometimes use, and I need to work through those regularly too. Nothing, however, beats the value of grabbing some images on whim (bless you fotolia) and trying to make something out of thin air. I urge you to dig thru the stock photography database at your favorite site (I cannot give the Fotolia people enough love) and look for an image that captures your imagination. In this case it was the dancer and the purple background that did it.
Ok, Kirsten, we get it. So why the rant?
Someone recently expressed surprise that I have a Lynda.com membership. They said something to the effect of “but I thought you taught this stuff?” Yes, I do and have for over a decade. I also go to the NAPP website, Deke.com, have an RSS feed of tips and tutorials a mile long, and have a bookcase of software manual that takes up most of one large wall.
It’s simple – you’re never done
I’m well known for having three-too-many resources for people at the end of class. I have books and videos I recommend along with the names of people who are always worth listening too. There’s a reason I have that information – I’m a student too. Any technical trainer (heck, any teacher at all) will tell you that the best way to master a subject is to teach it to someone else. It’s true. It’s also true that you don’t really know a subject if you can’t explain it to someone. My favorite quote is on my desktop so I see it every day, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough - Einstein”.
Please don’t get caught up in the “I know that already” trap. I was fortunate enough to go to Photoshop World when it was last in Boston. Most of the classes I took covered things that I teach in class regularly – and yet I got a TON out of going. I got to see other trainers work, which is extremely valuable, and picked up lots of new ways of getting a topics across to an audience.
It’s scary to know that there is no end to what you can learn. Sometimes it seems like there’s too much to take in. I won’t lie – I sometimes curse Adobe’s release schedule, but focus on the positive. Every new features gives you a new toy to play with. There are so many fun, amazing things you can learn – become a master of – that you can pick and choose what suits you best.Â
Strive!
Mastery is a fantastic goal. It’s just not the last goal. The farther you go the easier that is to forget – we’re never done learning.
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What is rule one?
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011With apologies to Terry Pratchett, 
I am re-writing rule one. While it is always wise to follow his version … “Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men”, – mine will have to be “remember: software is not intuitive”.Â
Before you start screaming, I know that there are many cases where software is not challenging to figure out and some people find learning software to be very easy. What I am referring to is the habit that adult learners have when trying to do a task in some piece of software. Generally I get some variation on “I know it’s easy, but I’m not finding it” when people come to me for help.
Why assume that it’s easy?
I teach software for a living and am far more likely than the average user to spend time digging around in software to find what I need. **warning, long and rambling story** This morning I was cursing a long blue streak at Apple for the (to me very counter-intuitive) way they set up default email preferences. I use Outlook 2011 for work and gmail for everything else.
With the new division of Axiom that I’m building I wanted to be be sure to have some kind of online task-tracking and contact-tracking system for my business partner and I to use. After some digging and playing with some trials I chose CapsuleCRM. When I click on a contact email in Capsule I want it to open Outlook. Capsule has a setting to let me open Gmail if I wish, but not Outlook. The default behavior of my computer is to open Mac Mail.
So – how do I get the computer to open Outlook when clicking an email address link? I never had to look for this setting before and was verklempt when I discovered that I had to go into Mac Mail, start a new account and then go to preferences to change the default email settings for the computer to be Outlook.
WHAT?!? Who thought putting the default email settings inside Mail was a good idea. GAHHHH! I have to create an account so that I can NOT use Mac Mail?
And Kirsten, your point is?
OK, So that was a long way to go for today’s advice – Do not assume that software is intuitive.
Is is very easy to make software rules that are easy to understand for the other people writing the software. It’s not easy to make rules that are easy to understand for someone who is not already versed in the rules and regs of the development team. When you are looking at a new piece of software (or an update to one that you already use), please remember that is is the job of the software to help you – not the other way around.
But everyone says it’s easy
Everyone? no, not everyone (I don’t) – BUT when you encounter those people (your kids, grandkids, easily frustrated coworker…) keep in mind that they fall into one of two catagories:
- They did find it hard to learn and have forgotten how frustrated they were
- They have previous experience that makes the software familiar, and therefore easier to learn
How many people do you know that find it totally rational to click the Windows “Start” button to get to Exit? (Don’t get me started on the Windows 7 “Orb” – Gack!). How many Mac users think it makes total sense for a picture of an apple to be a menu? Why is Ctrl (or Command on the mac) and Z the shortcut for “Undo” almost everywhere? – “Because”, that’s why.
It’s almost zen really – “It is what is”. Zen – Yes, Easy – No
So… what was rule one?
All together now… “Software is NOT intuitive“.
Thank you. Class dismissed.
Intro to ePub – part 2 of 3
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011ePub Tips, Tricks, and Links
In the first post of this series, I had you create a very simple file (with a template the Terry White was nice enough to provide) and preview it in Adobe’s Digital Editions software.
In this post I’m going to share a lot of links and some general Do’s and Don’ts for epub and digial book creation. In the third and final post we will be making a file from scratch.
What am I getting into?
If you are a regular InDesign user making content for eBooks can be a bit of a brain twister. In essence you are making webpages. Much of the control you had is gone, and some of the really fun features that can be seen in interactive files won’t work in book readers. To give you a sense of how new this might be, I’m putting some of the tips I gathered together below
General
- .epub is an XML based format designed to enable text reflow. All content will be linearized so plan for one long stream for text and images.
Layout
- Make each page one text box with inline graphics
- Make the cover ONE image
- Create separate document for cover page – have it be one image or imported ID file
- The book panel is a good way to make separate chapters that are seen in the conversion
- InDesign has an option for automatically making a TOC in an epub file. Create a TOC style and specify it on export. The Automatic ID TOC is turned into navigation men
Formatting
- You are creating Cascading Style Sheets when you convert (think like a web designer)
- Change Nested or Grep styles to regular styles
- Use Space Above, Below, and Indent to make space around images
- Soft Returns are turned into hard Returns
- Use Paragraph and Character Styleson the text (these will convert to CSS for the .epub file).
- You can’t totally control the fonts the user will see (the type of reader that is used will determine how fonts are seen)
- Convert Nested and Grep Styles to Paragraph and Character Styles
- Epub does support font embedding, but not all eBooks formats do and not all eBook readers that support the epub format will use embedded fonts
- Use OpenType Fonts
Exporting
- If you don’t want to make a new file you can apply XML tags to existing content and use the Structure pane to reorder it for export
- For long documents break document into chapters and use the book panel
- Create a Table Of Contents – this will become navigation in the e-reader
- For a true TOC you may need to make a manual page with hyperlinks or cross-ref’s
- Un-anchored content will float and end up at the beginning or end of your file
- Keep main graphics between 300 and 600 px wide
- The cover is often best at 800×600
- Images are converted to RGB
- Add Metadata
Graphics
- Epub supports several image formats, including JPEG, GIF, PNG
- Anchor Images to an empty paragraph (then center align and use space before and after) or paste Inline
- Use color images
- InDesign coverts graphics to JPEG and GIF when exporting to epub unless you choose to copy the original images
- Convert InDesign art by Cut/Paste into Il or PS and Placing in ID
Conversion
Altered
- CMYK will be converted to RGB on export
- Convert Tables to lists or images if you can
Preserved
- Hyperlinks to URL’s, files, email addresses, and text anchors
- Cross Ref’s are converted to hyperlinks on export (Note: Some eBook readers don’t support any hyperlinks)
- Footnotes are kept, but are converted to endnotes
Discarded
- Multiple Carriage returns
- Empty Frames
- Frame attributes such as Fill and Stroke
- Custom settings for Anchored Objects
- Text wrap setting. Use Space before and After instead
- Hyperlinks that reference specific pages
- Master Page Items
- Automatic Page Numbers
- Page Breaks
- TOC generated by the InDesign TOC feature (do this anyway – it becomes navigation )
- Artwork made with InDesign vector tool (those you should copy into Illustrator and place back into InDesign)
- Not all text formatting is preserved
Links
- Digital Editions Reader
- Open-source EpubCheck program hosted by Google at code.google.com/p/epubcheck
- Free, standalone, cross-platform Javaâ„¢ app, ePubChecker
- More information on epub format -Â http://idpf.org/
- Free open-source eBook conversion tool www.calibre-ebook.com
- InDesign to Kindle – Adobe
- Terry White – http://terrywhite.com/techblog/
- Colleen Cunningham has a massive and massivly helpful list of resources here - http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/indesign-to-ebook-resources/
Ok, got it – now what?
Take an existing Indesign file (a reasonalbly fancy one) and export it to epub. Look at how the content is moved (and what doen’t convert). Next time we will finish will a soup-to-nuts tutorial – see you then!
Scooby-Doo and the Office 2007 Mystery Tabs
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011In the previous post, we looked at “The Office Button” briefly. Let’s take a quick look at another feature…
Scooby-doo mystery tabs
One of the biggest changes from a behavioral perspective in 2007′s Office Suite is the new “Contextual Tabs” – what I call Scooby-Doo Mystery Tabs. In short, you can’t see certain content from the main tabs.
If you want the see the details on manipulating a picture you must be touching the picture to get the options for it. If you click off the picture, the tab disappears.
In the screen capture you’ll see “Header and Footer Tools” in green. This is the tab you get when you insert a header or footer. When you click back into the document, the tab goes away. When you want the tab back you need to click into the header or footer.
It’s not a huge problem but it does take some getting used for for a lot of my students.
Just remember: Touch the content you want to change.
On My Computer in Entourage and Outlook 2011 for Mac
Monday, February 28th, 2011“On My Computer” is one of the searches that has brought people to my site. I mention it in my post on Outlook 2011 but not what it is. Here’s a quick explanation of what it is and why some people will find it in Outlook 2011.
Entourage and Outlook are both products that fall into the category of “PIMsâ€, or “Personal Information Managersâ€. They have Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Contacts all wrapped in one product. Generally the different sections work with each other to help users manage most aspects of work and/or home life.
Why mention Entourage in an article about Outlook?
Entourage was the Macintosh email/calendar app in MS Office before Outlook 2011 came out. Some of the confusion people are experiencing is because a few of the software “quirks” are really Entourage features that were brought over into the replacement application. “On My Computer” is an odd concept for anyone who is not used to Entourage.
What is “On My Computer”
?
Mail is brought into the application from another server using a few different methods; POP, IMAP, or Exchange. Your setup determines which method you use – which controls how some parts of the software look to you.
In one type of Exchange setup users will see a server copy of their Mail and a blank area called “On My Computer†which provides a place to archive mail messages locally on the hard drive. People can move mail from the server to the local drive easily.
There is generally a server version of the Calendar as well as a local calendar. The idea is that you can have a private local calendar (that can only be seen from that machine) and a server calendar that can hold meetings and other work-related items. However, many people keep all calendar items on the server so they can be seen from OWA (Outlook Web Access – the browser version) or their iPhone/Blackberry.
The Notes, Tasks, and personal Email Groups are usually local only but Contacts, Calendar, and Mail can generally be stored either locally or on the server.
To make things even more complicated – it’s sometimes possible to have items that are usually local only, like Notes that sync to a server. In a company, the organization that installs and implements the software will have many rules they have to follow for data management so, even though the software is the same, the behavior of the software can be different company to company (which for a software trainer is not a lot of fun to figure out, believe me).
So what is the practical result?
People using Entourage often have to remember to keep the “On My Computer” part closed and just ignore it most of the time.
For Outlook 2011 it depends on if the user is using POP, IMAP, or Exchange mail as to what they see. For users that do see it, but are not using it to store anything, “On My Computer” can be turned off in Preferences -> General.
If it can be hidden, why turn it on?
Because most of the time you can’t make private email groups (distribution lists) without it. It’s also a fast way of pulling mail off the server to archive on your local machine (you are backing up your computer regularly, right?) There is no way of hiding it from some screens and displaying it in others.
My head hurts. What should I do if I have the software?
Ok – here’s the simplest version I can think of.
- If you’re on Entourage and you see a server version of your mail and calendar and an “On My Computer” version – keep it closed in those screens unless you wan use it for local storage. You likely will only have an “On My Computer” option for notes, tasks, and private contacts though.
- If you’re on Outlook 2011 (not 2010, just the mac version) keep “On My Computer” turned off unless you need personal email groups or to have a local-only version of mail.
- If you’re in Outlook 2011 and your Mail lands in “On My Computer” from the server keep it turned on to see all of your content.
I hope that helps new users avoid accidentally putting items locally that they want to be on the server. When it comes to Outlook 2011 please keep in mind that it is very new software (it had a October 2010 release date) and should evolve over time. The version that you see at home or at work may look quite different that what you see in pictures on the internet. There are a stunning number of ways to change the behavior of the software during installation – most, if not all of which you will have no control over in a work setting. So don’t be surprised if your version is different that others.
A detailed article on visual perception
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010Jeff Johnson has written a detailed and fascinating article over at UX Matters. Check it out – Visual perception
Deke love
Thursday, April 15th, 2010If you haven’t checked out Deke’s Photoshop Top 40, and you love Photoshop, go to Deke.com and search for “Top 40″ videos.
Deke is made of awesome!
From the Blog
- WordPress, I both love and hate you
Saturday, April 28th, 2012 - A Learning and Development Professional’s Continuing Education
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 - Photoshop CS6 Sneek Peek #3
Monday, February 13th, 2012