E-Learning Heroes - Advice and ideas from the Articulate Community

Does anyone know if it is possible to view published Articulate files locally on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet?

We have some training to load onto the tablets and the employees won't always have a WIFI connection available so we were wondering how to get it to work with local files on the tablet.

Thank you!

Have you tried to publish the content to CD-ROM/Web format and than put in on Dropbox - http://www.dropbox.com/android ?

No, unfortunately our firewall at work blocks dropbox.  Would that allow people to access the files even when their isn't an internet connection?  Thank you.

I'm sorry. But I also have the same problem.

have you tried putting the published file on an sd card and then try file:///sdcard/player.html

Thank you so much D'Arcy!  It works now!!! 

Phil,

Thank you for your response.  Unfortunately that wouldn't work for us.  We have 20 Galaxy tablets that will be used and we are looking for an efficient way to load and conduct the training on each tablet without any chance of user error (ie, losing or breaking the sdcard).

Ms. Lady,

May I call you Pink?

I'd like to know how this is working for you.  I'm looking for a way to demo Articulate courses off-line in something more handheld than a laptop.  Like when I'm networking at a tradeshow, sans booth, and sans internet access.

I'm looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but understand that running Flash (specifically the swf files) off-line is impossible.  I'm hearing mixed things about Dolphin.  Some say it does, some say it doesn't, and I wonder if the "doesn'ts" comments predate the current versions of Android (3.1 or Honeycomb) and Dolphin (HD or 7.3).

I am interested in this as well, as we are exploring tablets as delivery devices in our Training department. 

I am running Articulate tutorials via Honeycomb/Dolphin HD/Flash Player 11 and they are working without issue on my Galaxy Tab 10.1.

We haven't had any problems running it on Dolphin.  You do need to press and hold your finger on the screen to be able to put it in full-screen mode to see all the controls on the skin though.  One problem that we have come across though, is that that buttons/controls are very small.  It would be wonderful if one of our "skin" experts could create a free Articulate skin for the Androids with all the controls the same, just bigger {fingers crossed}. 

But the big question:  Are you running this with the published files actually loaded on the device?  Or are you pulling them in from a web server?

Pink, about the small buttons/controls, that's why I'm looking at the larger devices, like the Galaxy Tab 10.1.  I think you can change the font size in the nav panel, though I have not tried this:

• Re: Change navigation menu font?

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  it can be done. It takes a little knowledge of HTML and XML... After you publish your course look for data\presentation.xml open it in a text editor (notepad will do) change to Slide 2]]> (in my example one of my slides is titled "Slide 2") play the course and see the results. There are many font style/size possibilities I will leave it to you to google them.

I don't know about the buttons at the bottom, but those are less of a problem.

Well, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Honeycomb followed me home today.  Installed Dolphin HD, upgraded to Flash 11.  Loaded my course.

First problem is that the browser window is too big for the Galaxy's window.  The nav buttons are off the bottom of the screen.  I republished with browser window settings at "Display at user's current browser size" and "Scale presentation to fit browser window".  Didn't fix the problem.

Second problem is that visuals are very slow.  Audio play at correct speed with no pauses, but visuals very slow to load and audio just keeps getting further ahead.  Also, since the unit is so pre-occupied with loading the visuals (I'm presuming on this) that none of the navigation works until the visuals have all caught up.

Note: I have PowerPoint animations in most slides and Articulate annotations is many.

Note: Both of the above problems were experienced at BestBuy when I used their store demo to pull my training in from my web site.  I assumed (hoped) it was a bandwidth issue with BestBuy's router, which the salesperson confirmed that they have about a hundred computers all on the same wireless router.  Evidently not true because I have the same issue with my training actually residing in the Galaxy's memory.

Unless anyone has any ideas I might try, I'll be taking this back to BestBuy in a few days.

Thanks.

Hey Jim - yeah that sounds frustrating. I don't have a Galaxy so I can't speak to its performance, but I'm wondering if maybe a different browser might give you better results? Or maybe see if its speed & behavior are better when accessing courses from a different location, such as the demo courses on this page?

Hi Jeannette,

Sorry, been a few days.  Other problems with Galaxy dropping wifi connection.  Had to upgrade from Android 3.1 to 3.2 to resolve.

Back to Articulate.  I looked at the demo courses you suggested.  They play pretty well.  Some delay but I think doable.  My course is still problematic.  I solved the size problem and can see the whole player (or maybe Android 3.2 solved that).  But I'm still suffering a painful delay of the visuals while the audio just flies on ahead.

Could this be an overall course size issue?  I notice the demos have only a handful of slides.  My course has 80.  I believe I'm using the maximum compression by optimizing for web delivery.  As it is just for demo purposes, I suppose I could slash and burn.

Any thoughts?

Hmm, a delay like that does not sound normal; wondering if it's due to the server-side speed limitations on the site where the content is being hosted. Or perhaps the internet connection you're using for your tablet is causing the bottleneck. An 80-slide course really should be no problem; the Articulate player does a progressive load in the sense that it pre-loads a couple slides in advance so as to eliminate (or at least minimize) delays. For example when you're on slide 1, the player is busy loading 2 and 3, and so on.

Do your slides have a lot of video, swfs, or Engage interactions? Unlike other slide content, those items are not pre-loaded, so perhaps that could be causing some of the delay you're seeing? What happens when you view the same content via a desktop or laptop PC?

Also, have you tried any other Android browsers? Dolphin is reputed to be a very fast browser; the latest version of Opera Mobile is also getting decent reviews.

Server-side and internet connection is not an issue because I've loaded the course directly on the Galaxy.  Yes, I understood that the player loads progressively, so I wouldn't expect the number of slides or the overall size of the course would be an issue.

No video, no embedded swfs, no Engage, except for a glossary as a tab.  Maybe I should try removing the glossary.

For comparison purposes:

• My course, viewed with my laptop, pulled in from my web site: Fast
• My course, viewed with my laptop, sourced locally on my laptop: Fast
• Your demo, viewed on my Galaxy, pulled in from the Articulate web site: Small hesitation, but does not detract from experience
• Your demo, viewed on my Galaxy, sourced locally: Can't test, don't have the files
• My course, viewed on my Galaxy, pulled in from my web site: Horribly slow
• My course, viewed on my Galaxy, sourced locally on the Galaxy:  Same as above, horribly slow

Reason for using the Dolphin Browsers is that I understand that is the only one that can play swf files source locally, not delivered from a web server.  Indeed, using the stock browser, while the swf files play when sourced from the internet, they do not play when sourced locally.

Please understand that my whole point in using a tablet is to be able to demo while walking around.  In my field, exhibition booths are prohibitively expensive, at least for my current business size.  I can still work a trade show sans booth with a tablet.  Also, I need to source the files locally because non-exhibitors typically cannot get an internet connection at a trade show.

Does the Opera Mobile work on a tablet?  Many "mobile" browsers are really designed for a smart phone.  And can Opera Mobile handle swf files sourced locally?  (Perhaps rhetorical questions because I won't be able to test for a day or two.)

Yeah, that's a bummer and it sounds like perhaps it is device- or memory-dependent. I know that Opera did release a tablet-friendly browser earlier this month but don't know whether it will handle local swfs. I wonder if you'd have better luck using an offline browser app such as this one.

Success!!! 

I removed the glossary, which was an Engage player tab, and now my course runs as well as the demos at the Articulate site.

The nav buttons at the bottom are a little slow to respond (a little small, too), but my workaround was to put transparent objects on the left and right side of every slide and making them hyperlink to the previous slide and the next slide respectively.

The slide titles are also a little small.  My coding described above didn't work.  I'll try to repost here because some part of the above were treated as html tags when i simply pasted in this forum.

• After you publish your course look for data\presentation.xml open it in a text editor (notepad will do) change <Title><![CDATA[Slide 2]]></Title> to <Title><![CDATA[<font size="18" face="Times">Slide 2</font>]]></Title> (in my example one of my slides is titled "Slide 2") play the course and see the results.

Also, in the matching drag-n-drop question in the quiz, the objects are very slow to drag.

Not perfect, but good enough for my needs.  Thanks to everyone for your input.

Darn, that didn't work posting the code.  Here's the link so you can chase it down yourself:

http://www.articulate.com/forums/articulate-presenter/7922-change-navigation-menu-font.html

Hey Jim - thanks for reporting back, and that's great to hear that you got things working faster!  It's curious about how removing the glossary from the player seems to have improved performance. How big is your glossary? What happens when you try to play these courses, which also have glossaries as player tabs?

Artery Anatomy

Sexual Harassment

Office Ergonomics

Cardiac Life Support

Jeanette,

Those four work a little more slowly than the demos without glossaries, but still much faster than mine.  I note those four have rather small glossaries - Artery Anatomy the most with 41.  Mine has over 200 terms.  This may indicate that the glossary, and its size, is a factor.

Here's something else worth noting.  Using the stock browser (that came with the Galaxy), all Articulate publications display a little too large, with the nav buttons hidden "below the fold".  One can scroll, rather swipe, down, but then the top is chopped off.  I've found no way to re-size - pinching doesn't seem to work.

However, using the Dolphin HD browser (free from the Android app store), the entire player displays perfectly - but only if my Articulate Player Template Browser Window Settings are "Display at user's current browser size" and "Scale presentation to fit browser window".  using any other browser window settings results, as above, with the window too large and the nav buttons "below the fold".

Also, using the stock browser, the nav buttons are more responsive than when using the Dolphin browser.  I guess we can't always have the best of both worlds.  My workaround, as mentioned above, was to put transparent object hyperlinks on all slides for moving forward or backward.  While this works well enough for my on-board demo, for a real course, it may be desirable to use the hyperlinks with the player controls switched off.

One more oddity.  Sometimes when the course launches, it seems to commence playing more than one instance of the audio, offset by a half second or less.  Subsequent slides seem to continue doing this.  Only think to do is close it down and relaunch the course.

Are we having fun yet?

Hey Jim, glad to hear you at least found a workaround for the slow loading issue. And yeah, the mobile device arena is really a moving target right now (not to mention all the different browser anomalies), which is why it's really not possible for us to test/QA/support all the different permutations of devices & browsers. Officially, our content is tested and recommended for Mac, Linux, and Windows environments (as per the "Viewing Content" section at the bottom of this article), but going forward, we're looking at ways to make mobile playback more standard & predictable. One of the solutions will be an html5 publishing option in future versions of Studio and in our soon-to-be-released new authoring tool, Articulate Storyline. We are also adding an iOS publishing option which will provide learners with the ability to view content on iPads. Stay tuned; it'll get exciting.

Hello Everyone. I'm a student and I'm a little into heartbreakland. I bought an Android 3.2 and installed Dolphin thinking I could do my lecutres on my 2 hours of train ride each day. My lectures load up fine on a Windows PC, but on the tablet it only gets to that initial progress bar, maybe a 6th of the way across. I've waited a LONG time to see it do anything different. I've also tried HTML browser but it just gives me a blank screen. For some reason "Browser" on the Android desktop does not comeup as an option. Has anyone got any other new tricks? Thanks a lot. Margot

Hi Margot,

Does your course have an Engage element inserted as a tab, more than likely a glossary? 

Articulate Presenter is designed to pre-load the next few slides.  This is why you typically only see the loading bar for the first slide.  (Makes me wonder,then, if you use hyperlink navigation in the slide, and don't go through the slides in their natural order, how would Presenter know what slides to pre-load?)

I don't believe that Engage interactions does not pre-load.  This is why you see the loading icon, a wheel this time, whenever you land on an Engage slide.  Frankly, I've gotten to the point where I don't use Engage, except for a glossary tab; I don't like the change in appearance and navigation method.  (Sorry, Jeanette.)

But when the Engage interaction is a tab, like a glossary, it has to load along with the first slide.  It caused my course (with a huge glossary) to bog down, sometimes never finish loading at all (overfill the buffer?).  Moreover, I wonder if the Engage glossary re-loaded with every slide advance, because all of my slides were bogged down.

I removed the glossary and republished, then loaded that onto the Galaxy and it worked just fine.  Now I'm only using the Galaxy to demo to a prospective client where a laptop would be inconvenient to carry around, so I can live without it.

Thanks for that Jim. Could you please tell me if I might identify that with a file suffix or something? M

Jim Studio, loads the current slide plus the next two in numerical order, doesnt matter which navigation method you use