Using Engage differently than intended

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Hey Rachel! Are you just looking for examples and inspiration? Or did you have something specific in mind?

In addition to the ones that Pete posted, here are a few more links that I think you'll like, but let us know if there's something else you're looking for:

Using an Engage Tabs interaction for a knowledge-check

Using an Engage FAQ interaction to add attachments to your Presenter course

3 Ways to Use Engage as a Video Player

3 Creative Ways to Use Engage Labeled Graphics

Hey I thought of a few more! Open this Ergonomics course by Prometheus and click on Self-Assessment Tools in the sidebar. That section contains a series of nice Engage interactions - in particular you might be interested in these:

• Monitor Distance - this is a very innovative use of a Timeline interaction.
• How Are Your Wrists Positioned - this is a fun and interesting way to use a Labeled Graphic instead of a multiple choice question.

Prometheus won Gold in the 2007 Articulate Guru Awards with that course - isn't it a cool example?

Also, this post that David did on Engage Labeled Graphic ideas was inspired by Prometheus' use of the Labeled Graphics in their Ergonomics course.

Hope that helps, Rachel!

Yeah, I just reviewed some of the 2007 winner.  I have a question about that.  I am new to the Articulate software so I apologize if this is basic, but in the Who's Touching Your Chair slide in that course, how did they edit the slide to where the background is silver and the buttons are just orange.  It seems like in the Color Scheme you just have one way to change the color and it's an all or nothing thing.  I guess what I am asking is if there's a way to customize the color scheme of the background, buttons, and the current button that is selected?   

Oh duh. I see Pete already shared the Prometheus course for you.

Great question - and yes, you can customize all sorts of aspects of your Engage colors. Here's a tutorial that shows how: http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/changing-your-interaction-s-color-scheme.aspx

Also, here's a good cheat sheet that tells you what's what on each of the interactions:

http://community.articulate.com/blogs/jeanette/archive/2010/12/21/an-engage-09-color-diagram-you-can-use-for-customizing-your-interaction-s-color-scheme.aspx

Thanks!  Can't wait to learn and implement!

The Macdonalds course from last years guru awards is great use of the FAQ as well

Jeanette,

In the Tabs interaction, how do you center the image?  There are four options in the Edit properties I ask b/c it looks like on Slide 13 (Who's Touching Your Chair question) in the Prometheus course), that the image is centered, but in the options under the Edit Properties, center is not an option, just Top, Right, Left, and Bottom.

Thanks,

Rachel

Is there a way to edit the font color on the buttons?

Hey Heidi! Yes absolutely. You can publish Engage interactions as standalone content if you'd rather not embed them in a course. You can check out the Engage publishing tutorials here. (They're listed in the right-hand sidebar.)

@Rachel: Regarding centering the image... "Top" and "Bottom" will both center the image. Top will place the image above your text, and Bottom will place it below the text, but either way it'll be centered within the detail area of the tab. And unfortunately in a tabs interaction there isn't an option to change the color of the text on the tab buttons -- it'll always be white.

• Thanks Jeanette!

I have a question about the McDonald's FAQ slide.  Does anyone know how they got the FAQ interaction to display on a PP slide with a backdrop (in the McDonald's one the backdrop is the brown and yellow with the logo and menus at the bottom, etc. (that's how I am thinking of it).  I attached a snapshot of it for quick reference.

Thanks.

Hey Rachel! You can definitely create a transparent background for your Engage interaction to allow the PowerPoint slide master to show through behind it ... here's how. The McDonalds course is also kinda unique because they created a custom skin for the player, which is why it has some different-looking controls than many other courses. It's a neat design.

Jeanette, Its so neat we copied it some of it  for one of our projects, we are currently building 100 of these module sections for March 2012 release (they will all be free access as well)

Good artists copy, great artists steal!

That is really a handsome player skin, Phil! Thanks for posting! I especially like the progress meter.

Thanks Jeanette, although I built the skin, I have to give a lot of credit to KIneo, thats where the idea came from, Ithis is an early build module and we have removed a lot of the kineo navigation references now, but they gave us a great starting point

The progress bar came about when we showed our early stuff at a conference and noticed people wondered how long was left, because we only have a small menu they cannot work it out from there, this progress meter is nice because it even works in the lms with resume

Hey Phil,

How did you set up the three branches to be non-linear - Where you can select any path in any order, go through that section and land back on the menu page with a check mark showing that section or all sections have been completed?

Thanks,

Lance Stephenson

Hey Phil,

How did you set up the three branches on page 8 to be non-linear - Where you can select any path in any order, go through that section and land back on the page 8 with a check mark showing that section or all sections have been completed?

Thanks,

Lance Stephenson

Lance, I think I can answer your first question.  Under the Articulate menu in PowerPoint, go to Slide Properties.  You might be able to do branching just in PowerPoint alone using the same technique.  To show a check mark, it may be a duplicate slide with a check mark (not sure about this as I'm fairly new to Articulate Studio) .