New features in LearningGuide Manager 5.1

Visually, the user interface is the most striking change. We’ve given LearningGuide Manager 5.1 a Microsoft Outlook-style look and feel, complete with Microsoft Office-style usability and navigation. Menus and Toolbars and screen layout have all been revised along these lines, making the adoption LearningGuide Manager 5.1 quicker and minimizing user training.

Quick links to the Table of Contents, Publications and other main application items are provided (just like Microsoft Outlook’s quick links across its E-mail, Calendar and other Outlook applications).

The Table of Contents has moved to the left-hand side of the screen and now remains visible and offers the possibility to list multiple Tables of Contents.

On the right of the Table of Contents you will find the Topic List, which includes enhanced sorting, filtering and grouping features.

Previewing is considerably improved with the addition of a Preview Pane and single click previewing from within the Topic List.

The arrangement of Topic windows has been improved and made more intuitive. The layout of Learning Objects has been arranged to be the same as in the LearningGuide publication, improving recognition and usability.

Related Topics are listed within the Learning Object main window allowing users to more easily identify the publication’s navigation and manage its structure.

LearningGuide Manager 5.1 is a multi-user version of the application, which means that users are able to work simultaneously with other users* on a single LearningGuide Manager project. *Each user requires a LearningGuide Manager software license use this feature.

Multi-user aids and features:

Author field: identifies the author of learning objects and topics

Status field: shows the user the status of a topic in the development process. With use of a filter on this Status Field a user can show all relevant, filtered topics.

Notes: users may add annotations for other users to refer to

Flags: add flags to learning objects and topics for highlight actions and or drawing attention to particular topics

LearningGuide’s new Publication Manager has been integrated into LearningGuide Manager 5.1 improving publishing speeds by up to ten times over LearningGuide Manager V4.

Yes/No choices for publishing Deeper References, Exercises and External Content provide greater choice and flexibility.

View an entire LearningGuide publication, including each topic’s authoring properties, in a single flat document file. Project inventory logs provide the development team with a snapshot view of topic contents, attributes, development status and authoring properties of LearningGuide development projects.

By assigning text as ‘variable text’ it may be updated from a single source, saving considerable time when publishing new LearningGuides that share large parts of their content with each other.

Projects developed in LearningGuide Manager 5.1 may be edited directly from within the publication. A single click from within a topic opens an editing client from where the user may make changes as though in the LearningGuide Manager application. Multiple edits can be made, for example by a team member reviewing a LearningGuide prior to publication This feature is useful for making instant, quick edits to LearningGuide projects.

Users are able to customize, adapt and create toolbars, turning toolbars on/off and adding/removing buttons to and from the working environment. Users are able to easily remove unwanted buttons and add them in back at a later time.

LearningGuide Manager’s own help and support utility is built in LearningGuide and integrated with the application. It contains comprehensive support for users of LearningGuide Manager, covering both LearningGuide Manager’s development methodology and development tools.

The Tables of Content can be found in the left section of the screen and may be viewed underneath each other in a list. Users are able to easily move Menus and Topics from one Table of Contents to another.

You can save every Table of Contents or Book entry as a new Table of contents. In this way users can create various Table of Contents based on other Table of Contents, saving time. Users may also save a Table of Contents entry to another Table of Contents

Topics may be dragged directly from the Topic List to the Menu of the Table of Contents. Topics placed accidentally in the wrong Menu may be easily corrected by dragging the Topic from the Menu to the desired location.

The Topic List’s improved filtering, sorting and grouping allow users to quickly and easily navigate around LearningGuide projects.

Filtering options: Users are able to apply a filter on each field of the Topic List.

Grouping of topics: Users may group Topics by: ‘author’, ‘topic type’, ‘category’, ‘title’ and ‘modify date’, simply by dragging the relevant column header into the Topic List.

Sorting within sorting: Users may ‘sort’ within a previously sorted list by clicking on the column header while pressing the SHIFT key.

Users may add annotations (not for publishing) into individual Topics, enabling users to make information notes and collaborate effectively during the development cycle.

Users may mark topics with a user-defined colored flag to draw attention to Topics in the Topic List.

In order to save space and provide a clear, uncluttered Topic List users may define the columns which are shown in the Topic List. Simple drag and drop features provide the user with an intuitive approach to customizing their Topic List View.

A new field Category has been added. Users may define their own Category values and assign a Topic to a Category. Users may select previously used Category values. Users are able to use the Category field to sort, filter or group by user-defined Category values.

User may open an unlimited number of Topics. An overview of the open Topics may be found in the Open Topics window.

Adjusting row height and column width: Depending on the type of table users may adapt the row height and column width in a similar way to table formatting in a Word processor: by positioning the mouse cursor over the edge of the column and dragging it in the desired direction.

Merge and split cells: Users may merge and split cells that are contained in the same row, in a similar way to that using a Word processor.

In addition to inserting images with bitmap, gif and jpeg formats, png format images may be used.