Document digitization is the process of converting paper documents into a digital format. There are various tools and techniques to convert hardcopy documents to digital format. Some are more successful than others.

Document digitization is done for a variety of reasons such as archival purposes or to repurpose data that to date, was only available in paper form.

Becoming a digital-based business is no longer an option. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we must be exceedingly agile to adapt to disruptive occurrences.

What is Document Digitization and Why Convert?

Document digitization is the process of creating electronic versions of paper documents. Digitization facilitates capitalizing on data, that to date, has only been available in a physical format.

The benefit of digitizing files goes beyond, storage and a reduced need for physical storage space. It enables us to capture critical analog information and store it as digital data in a single repository for subsequent retrieval and repurposing. Digitized documents are easier to take care of, store, secure, and share.

The Document Digitization Process

Before you begin scanning, the first thing to determine is what should be digitized, how it will be organized, and how it will be secured. Preplanning is sure to save you time and headaches.

Establishing a document management system (DMS) is key to be able to find the data once it is digitized. There are a number of DMS services out there such as Microsoft SharePoint. Once you have determined the what and how, you can begin the conversion process.

Scanning, creates a digital copy of the paper documents either as an image or PDF. While the files are now electronic, the data within those files are not able to the accessed as if it were content in a Word file. If your goal of digitization goes beyond storage you should consider using an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanner.

OCR technology converts the image data and renders it as editable text. This can be done with any document that was created either laser printed or via a typewriter. It will not work with a handwritten copy. There are a variety of technologies out there to meet different needs including:

• Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) – An advanced OCR, it can convert handwritten text to editable digital text through machine learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) – Remember all those bubbles you filled in during standardized tests? Well, OMR was used to read your responses. Used to process evaluations, surveys, ballots and etc. While this technology has been around for a long time, it continues to advance.

One thing to keep in mind, these systems are not flawless. You will need to check your final document and confirm that it captured the data accurately. Highly formatted forms (tax returns) and special characters sometimes will not render properly and therefore will require manual input or form recreation.

Digitization and Translation

Many times, clients will only have a PDF (scan) of a document (source file) that they need to be translated, whether it be tax returns, contracts, technical papers, etc. In this format, it is essentially the same as working with hardcopy. The disadvantage to this, is that it is not possible to utilize translation memory (TM) software, which can help with terminology management.

Depending on the length of the document, it may make sense to convert the PDF to a format where the copy can be edited, and TM software can be used. This is where OCR will be used, however, before the project can be sent to the translator, it must be proofed to ensure that all content has been rendered properly. Special characters and forms may not render correctly and will need to be fixed or recreated. In the case of large documents, if the resulting OCR output will require significant clean-up, a conversation with the client explaining the issue and the time/cost impact of cleaning up the file should occur so that the client can make an informed decision.

The Top Document Digitization Benefits Are:

• Save space for storing
• Increase productivity
• Easy accessibility
• Boost security
• Automate business processes
• Boost collaboration
• Data recovery
• Integration with other systems
• Environmentally friendly
• Enhance compliance

There are many to document digitization, it allows for easier access to documents and can help preserve them for future generations. Additionally, digitizing records can help to save lots of space and make it easier to share documents with others. Converting them to a format where the content can be accessed is another step in the process that requires careful review once done to ensure all content has been rendered properly.

Reference:

How to Pick a Document Management System for Business

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Articulate 360 includes an interesting tool that enables you to create, manage, and publish eLearning courses within one review link. It also allows all team members to check courses in one place and add comments related to their fields of expertise. This tool is Review 360. It is an online space that is very similar to the Learning Management System (LMS) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) hosting, Review 360 enables you to show the course as everyone else will see it. In this blog, I will go through the steps on how to publish an eLearning course to Review 360.

Step 1: Publishing a New Course or Editing an Existing Course

1. Click on the Home tab and click Publish.
2. Select the Review 360 tab on the left (as shown below).

3. Choose to publish a new course or update a course that has already been published before.

• To create a new item: Choose this option to publish a new course to Review 360, then give it a name.

Note:
– The title on the player will display up to 80 characters.
– The name of your course will be either the name of the placeholder in the first slide or the name of the file itself.

• Publish a new version of an existing course: Select this to update an existing already published course in Review 360. Select the item you want to update.

Note: One of the best features of this option is that Review 360 keeps version tracking so you can get back to any old version at any time.

• Publish locally for manual upload: Select this option to publish a course on your device to manually upload it.
Note: This option is great if you have a slow internet connection.

Step 2: Update a Course Thumbnail Image

This is optional but you may need it upon client marketing or SEO instructions. The default is that Storyline uses the view of the first slide in any course as the thumbnail image for the course on Review 360. However, you can choose a specific image.

1. Switch to the Web tab on the left side of the Publish window.
2. Click the ellipsis button (…) beside the Title field to open the Project Info window.
3. Click the hyperlinked text below the default image, then select a different slide in your course, or click Picture from File to choose an image on your hard drive.
4. Click OK to close the Project Info window.
5. Switch back to the Review 360 tab to finish the publishing process.

Step 3: Adjust the Quality Settings and the Player Properties

Use the Properties section of the Publish window to make any changes to the player and quality settings.

1. The Quality options enable you to control the compression settings for audio, videos, and images. The quality options default is always set to whatever the last used settings. To change them, click the Quality property, change what you need, and click OK.

• Choose Standard if you want to use the default settings: optimal video quality of 5, audio bitrate of 56 kbps, and JPG image quality of 100%.

• Choose Custom if you want to define your desired quality settings. Drag the slider for any of the three values to change the compression. Higher values give you higher-quality output but also larger file sizes (which means longer download times). Lower values give you smaller file sizes and faster download times, but the visual and audio quality will be lower as well.

• Mark the Optimize Audio Volume box to normalize audio throughout your course for consistent volume across all slides.

2. The Player property shows the name of the player currently assigned to your current course.

Note: To make changes to your player, click the player name to open the player editor.

Step 4: Choose to Publish a Slide, a Scene, or an Entire Course

The default action for publishing is to publish your entire course. However, you can now choose to publish a certain scene or just a single slide. This is very helpful when you want to test a particular scene or slide. To do that, just click the Publish property, then choose the entire project, a single scene, or a single slide.

Step 5: Choose a Tracking Option

If you insert your Storyline 360 project into a Rise 360 course as a Storyline block (see below), you get to choose how to track the completion of the Storyline block. Click the Tracking property, then select one, two, or even all three of the following tracking options. Whichever option a learner completes first is the one that Rise 360 uses to mark the Storyline block complete.

• When the learner has viewed # slides: Mark this option to trigger completion when learners view a certain number of slides. You can choose a percentage or a fixed number. Then decide which slides get counted—all slides or just those with slide numbers.
• When the learner completes a quiz: Mark this option to track learners based on their quiz results. You can let Storyline 360 keep track of multiple quizzes and send results to your LMS/LRS for the first quiz each learner completes.
• Using triggers: Mark this option to track learners based on course completion triggers you added to your course.

Step 6: Publish

When done adding all the options you want, click the Publish button. Your course will get published and uploaded to Review 360 at the same time. Please note that the speed of finishing this step depends on many factors. For example, course size, number of multimedia items, and your internet speed. When the Publish confirmation window appears you can View Project to open it on Review 360 using your default web browser.

Step 7: Giving Access to Your Published Course

To give viewers access to your published course:
1. Open your web browser to your Review 360 home page and click your course to open it.
2. Click Share in the upper right corner.
3. If you want to password-protect your course, mark the box to Set a password and enter a password in the field provided.
4. Copy the shareable link, then send it to your viewers. Be sure to give them the password, too, if you added one.

If you don’t want viewers to post comments on your course, click the ellipsis (…) button in the upper right corner and choose Disable comments.

It is recommended to always use Review 360 as a quality assurance step before you deliver your final product to the client. It is easy, time-saving, and guarantees the best collaboration between various teams.

Globalization Partners International has a rich collection of eLearning topics, download it for free.

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Adobe InDesign is a powerful tool and over the years it has become one of the most sought after desktop publishing tools. InDesign has many features that make the life of any user easier. In this tutorial, I will explain three powerful tips and tricks for working with images in InDesign.

Add an image or an object to multiple boxes

Adding images has never been a problem in InDesign. However, adding one image and dividing it into many frames can be a challenge for some users. InDesign enables us to import one image inside of multiple frames. Here is how anyone can do this.

After creating the desired number of frames, you want to import the image, click the “Selection” tool and then shift-click each frame you would like the image to appear in:

Tip: You can use the “Alt” option key to duplicate the boxes across your document.

Once you have selected all the boxes, choose Objects > Paths > Make Compound Paths, now all these boxes are combined in unison.

Go to File > Place, and navigate to the image you want and click Open.

InDesign will automatically spread the image throughout all the selected frames.

So, not only can we add an image or an object to just one box, we can spread that image across multiple boxes. This is an awesome trick for making magazines and other print media look more interesting.

The next tip is about converting shapes by choosing from a list of options.

Shape Conversion

Adding images to rectangle boxes can become boring especially if you want to make your design standout. To change the shape of an image, go to Object > Convert Shape, choose from the list of options, and select the shape you would like to use. For this example, I will choose to convert the shape from a rectangle to a triangle.

Voila! That is how simple it is.

The third and last tip in this blog is how to generate QR codes. InDesign makes it extremely easy to create QR codes.

Generating QR Codes

With InDesign, you can create and modify QR codes, allowing users to encode hyperlinks, text messages, email messages, or business cards. Since InDesign deals with QR codes as graphics, you can modify them just as you would graphics.

Let’s add a QR Code to this business card template. What we need to do is go to Object > Generate QR Code.

Then we can decide what kind of information we want to share. I’ll choose a “Web hyperlink”, so my QR Code sends the viewer to “https://www.globalizationpartners.com” when they scan it with their smart device. After adding your web link target, click on OK.

Now, I have a functional QR Code.

It’s that simple!

InDesign is full of useful tips and tricks which can enhance your skills and enable you to work in the most efficient way possible. I hope that you found this topic “Working with Images in InDesign” helpful.

The post Working with Images in InDesign: Three Helpful Tips appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Working with text is an essential part of eLearning course development. Articulate Storyline 360 makes working with text a pleasure, introducing a variety of options and styles to work with. Text styles is a powerful feature that enables you to update text throughout the course with only one click.

Let’s go through this feature and explain how it works in Storyline 360. In this blog we will learn the following:

• How to define styles
• How to create custom styles
• How to apply styles
• How to reuse styles
• How to reset styles
• How to copy & paste text

How to define styles

To define a new style, follow the below steps:

1. Start by creating a text box and format the text as you need exactly. Define the font, size, color, etc.
2. Open the Home tab > Text Styles. You will find the style list. You will notice a check mark and an asterisk beside the style that is applied to your text. The asterisk means that the style of the selected text is modified. See the screen below.
3. To update the style according to the edits you made, go to the Home tab > Text Styles and click on the style name. Then from the style menu options click Update style from selection.

NB: The style you updated automatically will be applied to the text you select.

How to create custom styles

Storyline allows you to create unlimited custom styles for any text element; such as quotes, buttons, tables, image captions, and speech callouts. There is also an option to create two versions of the same style that suits different backgrounds. For example, a white and black version. Below are the steps to create a custom style for a block quote.

1. Start by creating a text box and format the text defining the font, size, color, etc.
2. Open the Home tab > Text Styles > Add Style from the bottom of the list.
3. Choose a Name for your style and enter it as below.
4. Choose the style level that the screen readers will read. For example,

• • You can select the (<P>) for the Normal Text
  • You can select the (<h1>) for Heading 1
  • You can select the (<h2>) for Heading 2
  • You can select the (<h3>) for Heading 3
  • You can select the (<h4>) for Heading 4, or
  • You can select the (<blockquote>) for Blockquote

5. Then Click OK to confirm your settings.

How to apply Styles

Applying styles has never been easier. All you need to do is point the mouse to a text block or select the text box edges; Go to Home > Text Styles and pick a style from the list. That’s all!

To work more effectively, you can apply text styles to the slide master and feedback master. This will reflect across all the course slides. If you need to override a text style, you can do it simply by editing the text directly in the specific slide.

Within the same text box, you can have a different paragraph style for each paragraph – there is no limitation.

How to reuse styles

Any styles used within the course are saved within the design theme of the project. You can have more than one per course and each one will keep its own list of text styles. To reuse these styles in another project, do one of the following options:

Save the theme(s). You can save the custom design theme and apply it to other projects.

Save a template from your current project. By saving your current project as a template, you will be able to use this template in other projects using the styles you created.

Copy text from an old project. You can simply copy text from an old project to a new project by choosing the basic Paste function.

How to reset styles

If you want to reset your style(s) to the default, all you need to do is the following:

• Select the text style(s) one by one.
• Go to Home > Text Styles.
• Select the style you want then choose Reset style.

How to copy & paste text

Copy and paste text from one slide to another depends on the following:

• If you paste the text using the Ctrl + V shortcut or the Paste option from the menu – the text will keep the original formatting.
• If you paste the text and used the Use Destination Theme option – the text will match the destination theme.
• If you copied the text from an external document like Word, PowerPoint, or Excel – the text will check the slide format.

Important tips and notes for working with text

Choose unique names for your styles:

• Always use slide and feedback masters to apply text styles.
• Always start editing styles from the higher level to the lower one. For example, if you want to edit the styles start with H1 until you reach the normal text.
• You can update the styles of the hyperlink states by updating the style from selection option. Right click on each state and choose Update Style from Selection.
• Use the format painter to copy the formatting from one object to another. Format painter doesn’t only allow you to copy the text formatting, but it copies the text fill, outline, shadow, and any other text effect.
• You can also change the text styles across the entire course by replacing the Theme Fonts with another one. This will change all the styles within the course with just one click.

Working with text in Articulate Storyline 360 is a pleasure for any instructional designer. It makes it easy to keep consistency across the course and use any number of styles and themes to achieve the authors’ educational goals.

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Slide layers are used to create different interactions and sequenced scenarios within Articulate Storyline 360 eLearning modules. As indicated by its name, slide layers provide an extra layer of content that appears over the main slide. You can add many layers to a slide, which provides a lot of flexibility on how you want your content to be displayed. In this blog, we’ll talk about how to do some of the functions with slide layers:

• Add Layers
• Duplicate and Copy Layers
• Rename Layers
• Change Layer Properties
• Hide Individual Base Layer Objects
• Delete Layers

Add Layers

You can add as many layers as you want to each slide. To add a layer, click the New Layer icon in the Slide Layers panel.

Alternatively, go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click Slide Layer.

Duplicate and Copy Layers

To duplicate layers that already exist on the same slide, select the layer(s) in the Slide Layers panel and click Duplicate Selected Layer icon.

To copy layers from one slide to another:

1. Select the layer(s) you want to copy in the Slide Layers panel, and then press Ctrl+C or right-click and choose Copy.
2. Go to the slide where you want to place the layer(s), and then press Ctrl+V or right-click and choose Paste.

Rename Layers

It’s always a good idea to name your layers with a simple, descriptive name to make it easy to identify when you’re creating triggers. To name a layer:

1. Double-click the layer’s name in the Slide Layers panel to open it for editing.
2. Type the new name.
3. Press Enter on your keyboard.

Change Layer Properties

You can change the properties for each layer on a slide. Select the layer(s) you want to edit, and then click the icon.

Make your choices as needed and click Close.

You have slide visibility options.

Here are the visibility options.

You can find different options at the base layer to control the slide navigation and gestures for the buttons and swipe. You can choose which buttons or swipes to add or remove, and you can customize these options for specific slides. For example, you may choose to only have the “Next” button for this layer with no option “Back” button.

You can also customize the player features. For example, you can choose whether to use the default player features or add custom ones for a specific slide. Similarly, you may need to add resources for a specific slide or remove the notes of this slide, etc.

You can also reset all the settings to default by clicking on the Reset button.

Hide Individual Base Layer Objects

Layer properties give you a feature to Hide objects on the base layer, which allows you to hide everything on the main layer. If you want to hide a base layer only:

1. Expand Base Layer Objects in the timeline.
2. Click the eye icon for each object you want to hide.

Delete Layers

If you want to delete a layer, select the Layer and click the trash can icon or just press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Conclusion

Working with layers won’t be complete without adding triggers to show interactions, animations and/or achieve scenario goals. You’ll be able to add triggers to display or hide a layer, start a media, show steps and create feedback layers.

Articulate Storyline 360 Slide Layer features and options provide a variety of ways to help you design interactive eLearning modules for your audience to encourage engagement with the material. Enjoy using layers’ capabilities and properties to achieve the best possible results.

Reference Links:

Articulate Storyline 360 Tutorial: What are Slide Layers and how to Work With it?

Slide Layers in Storyline 360 – E-Learning Heroes

Best Tips For Working With Slide Layers in Articulate Storyline

How to Create Fading Layers in Storyline

The post Engage Your Audience with Slide Layers in Articulate Storyline 360 appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Whenever you create a new eLearning course, the first thing you should do is ask yourself some key questions:

• Who is the audience
• What is the objective of the course?
• What resources do we have to develop a course?
• How will we approach the course development?

Answering these questions in detail before you start to develop a course will save you time and help you to produce the best content for your audience.

Who Is the Audience and What Is the Objective?

It’s essential to know who the audience is and what they need to learn about the topic. Also, it’s important to understand what they currently know about the subject to then figure out what topics to cover in your course. This isn’t always possible, especially if your audience has a wide variety of backgrounds, so just do your best.

Let’s take a look at an example audience and subject. The subject is “Conflict Resolution,” and here are some examples of potential audiences:

1. A university course to teach students about handling conflict as part of a Human Resources degree
2. A company to teach ways of handling conflict to their internal employees
3. High school students to work through conflict in groups

The topic of “Conflict Resolution” is the same, but the approach will be very different. Let’s take a deeper dive into these example audiences using a table for easy comparison.

Once you identify the goals of the course (and always keep these at the top for easy reference), you can start thinking about the types of content that will help meet those goals. In general, it’s a good practice to make a list with the most basic items and then work from there. This list is like a mission & vision for the course. It’s the first step to keeping it going in the right way.

What Resources Do We Have to Develop a Course?

In an ideal world, your team should have a content developer, an instructional designer and an eLearning engineer. If your resources allow it, you can add different participants, voice talents, illustrators, photographers, etc. to make it more interesting.

However, most of us don’t live in an ideal world and have all these types of resources. So once you’ve captured what you need to cover for a course, look at your available resources and be honest with what’s possible to do with your course. Many courses fail because we aspire to develop something that’s not feasible, like have an amazing design or create multiple videos and audio, etc. However, without the appropriate team and budget, your course development platform may not be able to do what you want it to or you might not have enough funding to do things the way you want. So look at what resources you do have, and create a realistic plan.

Here you can find some tips to keep in mind when you look at resources:

1. List the members of the team and their roles.
2. Define what platform you’ll use and look at what features are available.
   For example, Articulate RISE is more limited than Articulate Storyline, but it has an advantage: it’s very simple to create a layout for your course on this online platform. Just as an example, platforms offer multiple features at a variety of costs.
3. List all the resources that you think are relevant.
   Do you have existing graphics or an image library? Do you need to show something technical using screenshots? Do you have the ability to create videos or illustrations? Think about the realistic possibilities that you have and work within those resources and constraints.
4. Make a realistic timeline to develop the content, keeping in mind that projects oftentimes take longer than we expect.

If you consider all these factors, your expectations should be realistic and your project should be doable.

How Will We Approach the Course Development?

Be specific when you’re developing content. Create clear topics in each chapter, and highlight the main ideas. eLearning courses must be dynamic to keep students’ attention. You can add downloadable material to expand on the content, but always be clear about the key points that you want the student to remember when the course ends.

Another point to remember is while a good graphic design is nice, it should never come between the content and the student. Some eLearning courses have amazing designs, but the only thing you remember when you finish is how beautiful it was. So whenever possible, work with an instructional designer who’s experienced with developing eLearning courses and that makes the content stand out.

Also, make sure you have a good internal team to provide you with feedback. You can get too close to the subject matter and miss things, and good reviewers will help improve the course.

Conclusion

In summary, the key points to creating a successful eLearning course include:

• Ask yourself some KEY QUESTIONS
• Look at your resources and BE REALISTIC
• Keep your OBJECTIVES AT THE TOP when developing content
• Keep a good internal TEAM FEEDBACK

References:

eLearning Industry

Articulate

PUNTOMOV

The post 4 Questions to Ask Before You Develop an eLearning Course appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Electronic Publication, also known as EPUB is an e-book file format with the extension: .epub, that can be downloaded and read on devices like smartphones, tablets, computers, or e-readers. It is a technical standard and published by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

EPUB defines a means of representing, packaging, and encoding structured and semantically enhanced web content — including XHTML, CSS, SVG, images, and other resources, for distribution in a single-file format.

EPUB Versions

EPUB 2 was initially standardized in 2007 as a successor to the Open eBook Publication Structure or “OEB”, which was originally developed in 1999. In October 2011, EPUB 3 superseded EPUB 2 when EPUB 3.0 was approved as a final recommended specification.

Preparing RTL InDesign file, to be exported as EPUB

Before you can export a high-quality ePUB file from InDesign you must prepare the files for export.

Organized Content Flow

Organize your content into a one text flow, if possible, remember to set the story direction to be from right to left like below:

Set the Language Setting For the Document

Set the language for all the documents by assigning the language to all the paragraphs and character styles like below:

Use Latin Numbers Only

For the right to left documents, do not use Hindi or Farsi numbers, as only English and Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3,  ..) will appear correctly in EPUB files.

Be Careful With Diacritic

Always give extra attention to the diacritic position and view especially if it is related to the right to left documents. You must adjust the diacritic setting and review it carefully before you publish.

To set the diacritic setting, see below:

There is no recommended combination of settings, just choose the best for your publication. Below you can see the most common setting, but you may need to change it depending on the publication nature.

Divide Long Documents Into Separate Files if Needed

If the document is too long or contains a lot of footnotes and/or any other items that make the file slow, then it is recommended to split the document into many files based on logical order and then combine all the documents together in an InDesign book file (File > New > Book).

To split the document at a certain level, you need to set the below option on the Paragraph Style Options – see below:

To complete the action, you need to select the below when exporting to EPUB.

Anchor Graphics and Design Elements

Images and other document elements, such as sidebars and callouts, need to be anchored within the main body of the text, so they are incorporated with the text when it reflows.

An anchored object is part of a paragraph, and will always appears in line with the specific paragraph when viewed in an eBook reader.

Apply Paragraph and Character Styles

The most reliable way to ensure that your formatted text is preserved in the exported EPUB file is to apply the paragraph and character styles to all the text in your document.

When doing this please make sure to:

1. Set the direction of the paragraph, character, and table style to match the right to left direction
2. There must be NO overrides
3. Style naming is particularly important, do not use Arabic letters as style names

Create a table of contents

A table of contents (TOC) is an essential element of any eBook because it allows a reader to quickly jump to specific sections. Two kinds of TOCs can be included in an eBook: a TOC located at the beginning of the eBook and one that functions as a navigation menu in an eBook reader.

Document TOC

Creating an automatic TOC in InDesign depends on using styles to allow InDesign to recall to the TOC page. InDesign allows you to add the styles you want to include in the TOC, assign certain styles to each entry, add page numbers or exclude them, and many other options.

Navigation TOC

To create a TOC that functions as a navigation menu, you must set up a TOC style by choosing Layout > Table of Contents Styles. You can then specify the TOC style when you export the EPUB file, then InDesign uses it as the basis for generating the TOC.

How to export to EPUB

After the file has been correctly formatted, it is time to export it to EPUB. To export a document, choose: File > Export >  EPUB (Reflowable).

Below a list of options that are included in this window:

• Version – Choose either EPUB 2.0.1 or EPUB 3.0.

• Cover – On the cover, you have three options:

1. None: it is recommended to use this option and create the cover page at the start of your document
2. Rasterize the first Page: this will outline the first page of your document. It is OK if you are sure 100% that you will not need to change anything in your image because it will not be editable if you used any of the EPUB editors
3. Choose Image: this allows you to choose the image from any location on your device. This is like “None”, except that you must be sure about the size of the image you choose

• Navigation TOC —you have two options:

1. File Name: this will show the file name only in the TOC Navigation Tab on the EPUB viewer
2. Multi-Level: (TOC Style): this means that you will have complete TOC of the document contents. Please refer to the “Create a table of contents” section for more details

There are 3 options in the ‘Content’:

• Split Document —you have two options:

1. Single Paragraph Style: For this option, you can choose the specific paragraph style from its drop-down, however, in this case, only one paragraph style can be chosen.
   

    

2. Based on Paragraph Style export tags: using this option you can choose more than one style to split the document into the required sections.

Remove Forced Line Breaks —forced line breaks can cause problems when a document is converted to EPUB. Problems can occur when we leave the line breaks in the document, but also when we simply remove them to understand the issue clearly.

After exporting to EPUB there is still some work to be done in the CSS and HTML files to set the fonts, unicode, direction to match the RTL language needs.

For Unicode use: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>

For direction use:  <div id=”_idContainer009″ class=”Basic-Text-Frame” dir=”rtl”>

For Language use: <dc:language>ar</dc:language>

Conclusion

ePUB is the preferred format for a broad range of publications. It is considered essential for creating documents adhering to the best practices regarding accessibility. Today,  ePub formats are embedded in many systems and workflows for document authoring and publishing and it is not just a distribution file format.

The post Preparing RTL InDesign files for EPUB appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

“Comic dogs don’t talk in Times New Roman”, thought Vincent Connare. In 1995, Microsoft published a new program called Bob. The intention of Bob was to facilitate the experience using Windows on PC and make it more intuitive.

Image by: Microsoft

The Beginning

Type designer Vincent Connare designed Comic Sans to be used in the dialog balloons of a little animated dog who will help first time users to navigate the Windows interface. He created a typeface which looks fun and friendly, inspired by the typefaces used in comic books and designed to have a handwritten look and feel and targeted at younger people. “My original idea was it was going to be used for kids. It wasn’t made for everybody to like it”, said Connare. In addition, it was designed manually due to European copyright laws and that is why it does not look or feel like any other typeface used in comics. On that note, David Gibbons (creator of Watchmen) said: “I think the Comic Sans font is dreadful”.

Fun fact: Comic Sans did not meet the deadline to appear in Microsoft Bob 1.0, and Bob 2.0 was never published. Nevertheless, Comic Sans persisted.

Expansion

Unexpectedly, the prevalence of Comic Sans rose and the font started to appear in formal documentation, billboards, posters and advertising. In 2002, Dave and Holly Comb, both graphic designers, started the movement “Ban Comic Sans”. This initiative drew attention from designers all around the world, which started to raise the voice criticizing and mocking the controversial font. The situation magnified in such a way that when Connare asked to give a conference in the London Museum of Design, he received complaints arguing that he should not be there. “I think I had a bodyguard!”, he joked.

In the early 2000’s, Barbara Chaparro led an investigation at Wichita State University, Kansas, with results showing that humans perceive the characteristics of type families in three main aspects: “robustness and masculinity”, “beauty” and “emotion,” said Chaparro.

Later studies showed when having to decide on the suitability of a typeface for a formal document, alternatives classified as “readable” or “beautiful” are preferred over the “emotional” or “noisy” ones. According to Chaparro, this implies that humans have the ability to specify when a font is appropriate for a given context.

“Historically, serif fonts were used for business documentation. Maybe that’s why we linked them to formal writing,” suggests those who led the research. The terminations at the ends of the antlers reflect elegance to the average eye. Therefore, professional documents tend to use formal fonts. Sans fonts, by not having these serifs, look more casual than serifs.

“What is clear to typographers is that Comic Sans is a sans typeface, designed for informal, casual use and for material similar to a comic book. I don’t think it was created for serious documentation”, said Barbara Chaparro.

Why Do We Hate It?

Comic Sans is a very particular case. Choosing it is problematic because of the hatred it brings. According to Connare, when computers became the norm in homes, users began to have a possibility that they lacked before, that is anyone could choose from a variety of sources to personalize their documents. “This was the first time that people had a choice, so they were picking crazy things because they could do anything,” he says. And adds: “People did not have much experience, and so they just picked what was different.” Due to its appearance, Comic Sans began to gain adoption quickly.

Connare said when meeting people and talking about Comic Sans, surprisingly, he received confessions regarding the fanaticism for his creation. “Most people are friendly and nice about it. It’s like it’s a song that they don’t want anybody to know that they like.” On the WIRED2015, he said: “Twenty years ago, I made the best font in the world”.

So Is It Better Than We Think?

Comic Sans is a typeface that favors the reading of those who suffer from dyslexia. In principle, because it is one of the first digital fonts to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing is a “smoothing” process to facilitate screen legibility.

The vast majority of typeface families repeat some morphological patterns to create different letters. For example: “p”, “q”, “b” and “d”, at first glance, it looks like the same sign reflected or rotated. However, this does not happen in Comic Sans. Its irregular shape helps to differentiate the letters much more quickly and effectively. To that point, it is one of the few fonts recommended by organizations such as the British Dyslexia Association and the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.

This irregularity forces us to make an effort to read and retain the information, avoiding distractions and this makes it ideal for dyslexics and people with attention deficit.

Comic CERN

One of the most striking aspects of the announcement of the Higgs’ Boson was the use of Comic Sans for the slides of its presentation.

Image by: CERN

In this regard, the person in charge clarified that the choice is due to the fact that “it is a sweet and pleasant typeface”. In addition, he was surprised by the repercussions that this fact had, to the point that there was a campaign in the United Kingdom to rename Comic Sans to Comic CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).

Conclusion

Here seems to be the dilemma for those who make fun of the Comic Sans’ characters. The font started to be used for contexts for which it is not prepared. This makes some designers angry since it conveys a mismatch between what is meant and how it is said: a fun and childish typeface for a potentially serious subject.

The post Comic Sans: The Typeface We Love To Hate appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

What Is Outline Text?

InDesign is a great application for designing a wide range of multilingual documentation. Designers and desktop publishers will always find themselves dealing with a range of image and text handling options to properly format translated documents.  Outline text means turning text into a graphic image. Once the text has been converted, an actual font is no longer necessary for viewing and printing the document. This can be handy if your recipients don’t have various language fonts on their computers.  This happens often with Japanese and Chinese translated documents headed to a printer based in the USA or UK. Outline content can be a solution to any font problems that arise when you send a file to an outside printer.

How To Outline Text?

A great InDesign tip that allows multilingual desktop publishers and designers to convert a whole file into outlines is to use the regular outline option from the InDesign menu: Type > Create Outlines.

While this seems to work at first,  you will notice a lot of problems if you do it this way. For example, in the image below, if we convert the text, it looks like it works. However, you will notice that:

1. The yellow line was created with a rule below.
2. The underline disappeared.
3. The bullets created with automatic numbering disappeared.

The biggest problem is, what if you later need to go in and edit this. It is not text anymore, so there is no way to make any edits unless you keep another editable version and repeat the action every time you want to make an update.

Now, there is another process that can keep all the text editable and produce an outlined PDF at the same time.

1. Go to the Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets.

2. A pop-up window will appear. Click on the [High Resolution] preset and click “New”.

 

3. Give it a name called “outline” and make sure the “Raster/ Vector Balance” is to the right on vectors. Then turn on the “Convert all Text to Outlines” checkbox.

Make sure you have transparency in your document. It is important to have something transparent on every page. To check if you have transparency go to the “Pages” panel menu and choose Panel Options.

Turn on the “Transparency” checkbox click “OK”.

Now, you can see that there is transparency on this page

Go to the File > Export and then save this as a printable PDF.

Click “Save” and inside the export Adobe PDF dialog box choose “PDF x1a”. If you have some other preset that you usually use, you could choose it there, but the main thing is you want to make sure that the compatibility is set to Acrobat 4, not 5 or higher.

Go to the “Advanced” Tab and choose “Outline” from the preset’s popup menu.

Click “Export” to create the PDF.

When it is done, open it in Acrobat and you can see that everything looks just the way it did in InDesign.

But what about the fonts? Are they still fonts? Well, there is only one way to be sure. In Acrobat, go to the File > Properties, the document properties dialog box will open. Click on the “Fonts” tab. This option shows exactly what fonts have been used in this PDF and as you can see on the screen below no fonts appear at all, which means that everything has been converted to outlines.

Conclusion

The above tip is extremely useful and will enable you to get the benefits of having an outlined layout and keep your original text in an editable format without losing any of the text features.

Editing any text that has been converted to outline can be resized, colorized, and printed, however, because the type is no longer a font, after conversion, it is impossible to edit the text itself.

The post Turning Text To Outlines Globally In InDesign appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

People are turning to videos to share and access content like never before. For example, YouTube’s users upload more than 500 hours of new videos per minute, which equates to 720,000 hours of new content per day. And it’s becoming essential to add subtitles and closed captions to videos for several reasons:

• Videos are more accessible to a wide audience, as subtitles are ADA-friendly and match most of the 508 compliance standards
• Viewers who can’t watch videos with the sound on can still understand the videos
• Captions improve engagement by non-native speaking viewers
• Subtitles increase the types of audience who can follow up and benefit from the content in the videos
• Boosts SEO of your content to make it more findable

Subtitling doesn’t involve simply adding the transcription of the spoken text. Creating good subtitles involves the art of delivering a message of the video content in an artistic way. When you work on subtitles, you need to deliver the speaker’s message, and every caption should deliver a message, so if you don’t hear the sound and just watching, you can understand the whole message.

There are many guidelines for creating subtitle standards. Below is a list of some of the more important things to consider.

Length of Time to Read Subtitles

Naturally, readers vary in the amount of time it takes them to read subtitles. However, in general, you can use this information as a guideline. Remember to keep these guidelines in mind when you’re creating subtitles.

Number of Lines

Two subtitle lines are the maximum number of lines allowed, as you don’t want the screen to be covered by the subtitles. Here are some screenshots of what two lines look like versus three lines. You can see how much of the screen that three lines occupy.

Number of Characters Per Line

The number of characters per line shouldn’t exceed 42 characters including spaces. If you’re planning to translate your subtitles, it’s important to know that some languages, like German and Russian, take up more space than English, so you’ll need to take this into account when you’re developing subtitles, and ultimately, translation subtitles. For translated subtitles, 35 characters including spaces is the limit in order to be able to fit the subtitle within the space and make it look acceptable.

Text Alignment

The subtitle text should be center-aligned in the screen and in the lines, as a reader’s eye travels a shorter distance in order to reach the start of the subtitle. The only exception is the dialogue text, which could be left-aligned in the screen and the lines preceded by “N-dash” before the start of the speaker line. For example:

– How are you, Sam?

– Going well, John

Position on Screen

A subtitle should be always positioned in the lower part of the screen while leaving enough space on either side and the bottom.

Font Choices: Bold, Underlined, and Italic

Bold and underline typing conventions are not allowed in subtitling. Italics can only be used in a subtitle to indicate that the spoken text or noise is off-screen. For example, if someone is talking on the other side of a conversation or a dog is barking in the background, you can use italics to note that. Otherwise, you can’t use italics, and you can’t use bold or underline at all.

Font Color and Background

It’s best practice to use white font for the text and gray for the background. However, the majority of the time, the background isn’t used, especially in movies. In this case, make sure to add some stroke to the text in case the screen image has become white for any reason.

For More Best Practices

Working on subtitles is a form of art that can take your content to unprecedented dimensions. If you’re planning to add subtitles to your videos, our GPI Professional multimedia team can provide you with professional and artistic subtitles for your content.

References:

https://www.tubefilter.com/2019/05/07/number-hours-video-uploaded-to-youtube-per-minute/

https://translationjournal.net/journal/04stndrd.htm

https://bbc.github.io/subtitle-guidelines/

The post Why Video Subtitle Standards Are Important and Tips on Creating Them appeared first on Globalization Partners International.