Product Development Blog
Friday, October 21, 2005
New Tools, New Resources and New TechnologyRecently members of our ToolBook Support team have created a tool called
Page Navigator, which is an outline style page navigation tool also known
from other tools such as Microsoft Power Point. Try it for yourself by
launching ToolBook Assistant or ToolBook Instructor and go to the Tool/developers
exchange menu.
We are pleased that the http://www.coursesbywire.com/
blog have noticed that our new web runtime is solid and is in front of
the technology curve by using modern web development techniques such as
the emerging AJAX. The ToolBook team is committed to ensuring a good user
experience and AJAX is all about just that. To learn more about AJAX here
is a good starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX
A note on ToolBook and AJAX: The authoring experience in ToolBook is the
same it has always been, i.e. you author in a user-friendly environment;
what is different is the HTML that is generated by ToolBook is as of ToolBook
SP2 more robust and more user friendly. In other words; using ToolBook,
you can create AJAX web applications without being a Web Technology Guru,
and that is pretty neat.
We have just hosted another webinar that went very well; the audience
was very engaged and asked many questions to our presenters. We generally
find this a great way to reach out to customers and prospects, and have
already planned the next events. Check out our schedule
of upcoming webinars and come join us the next time were we speak
about tracking ToolBook content from different LMS’s such as TotalLMS,
Docent, Aspen, and Pathlore.
Finally I would like to call out some other resources that will help you
be more efficient working with ToolBook; in our Developers
Corner we are posting resources that goes beyond the first glance
at ToolBook. Here is just a few of them: “Designing
Accessible Courses with ToolBook”, an article on Section 508
compliance and ToolBook, and in the “Overview
of Developers Exchange Tools” article you can learn more about
this, often overlooked, feature of ToolBook.
- Tomas Lund
Monday, September 26, 2005
We just published an article about SCORM on our web site that provides a good overview of this useful standard. The article discusses some of the technical details of SCORM as well.
If you hadn't heard, Brandon-Hall recently released a software simulation report. Brandon's design philosophy is "the closer the simulation resembles a learner's actual work environment, the greater the retention". The ToolBook Product team agrees with Brandon on this point! We feel it is critical to provide all of the functionality that authors need to create realistic software simulations. Tim Barham leads the ToolBook team in this area, and he is always exploring ways to create high-fidelity simulations with ToolBook.
We hosted another webinar recently: Cool Tools for Educators. This online session was very interesting. The presenters are very capable ToolBook developers who have implemented some fantastic solutions. If you have time, watch the recording of the webinar.
- Brad Crain
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
TBcon - The ToolBook ® User's Conference
This year’s ToolBook User Conference was very productive, and a lot of fun! There was quite a crowd plus many new faces at this year’s conference. Jeff and Chris have already posted information on the conference. SumTotal sent a large group to attend this year’s conference. Each of us learned a lot by talking with the conference attendees.
Winners of this year’s ToolBook Design Awards are Verizon and the U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense command. Michael Hersh’s course on satellite systems for the US Army won the award for Best Online Training using ToolBook. Peter Hoyt of Verizon won the ToolBook Productivity award. The awards were presented at the annual ToolBook User Conference TBCON. Both of these teams have created some interesting applications and everyone who saw their work were quite amazed. We are hoping to get their content posted on the e-learning showcase soon for you to view.
- Brad Crain
Thursday, July 14, 2005
New Free Tools and Add-On Products for ToolBook
Our friends in Australia have released some new add-ons that help you be more productive with ToolBook. One of their products I hear a lot about is Power Book Builder. This application makes it easy to convert PowerPoint presentations to ToolBook. You can use this tool to leverage existing PowerPoint content. For instance, you could add interactivity and/or assessments to existing content and edit it within ToolBook, or use PowerPoint to do storyboarding for new content development projects that can be edited, enhanced, and published with ToolBook. Check it out at:
- Brad Crain
Thursday, July 14, 2005
TBcon - The ToolBook ® User's Conference
Now that we are into July, be sure to look into going to the upcoming ToolBook Users Conference. It is a great event that provides a forum for sharing lots of technical tips and best-practices on using ToolBook. Key members of the SumTotal ToolBook development team will be presenting sessions at this conference, plus they are available to meet with you individually and discuss any content authoring topic you want. You can find information about this conference by visiting the website:
- Brad Crain
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Online Seminar about New ToolBook Update
The recent ASTD trade-show was a great event, with many ToolBook users dropping by our booth to say hello and get details on the new release. There was a lot of activity at the SumTotal booth, and at the show in general. It was good to see many of you there.
Don’t forget about the upcoming online seminar where we will be reviewing the new ToolBook update. Charley Delaney and Aaron Smith from the ToolBook product team will be presenting at this web event. You can register for this event by going to http://www.toolbook.com/community_whatsnew.php#sp2review. Also, the test drive version of the new ToolBook Instructor release has just been posted. You can find it by at http://www.toolbook.com/learn_testdrive.php.
- Brad Crain
Monday, June 6, 2005
ToolBook SP release at ASTD tradeshow
Today is the start of the ASTD trade-show in Orlando Florida. We are showing the recently announced update to ToolBook (ToolBook SP2) at the SumTotal booth. The SumTotal Enterprise Suite version 7.1 will be demonstrated as well. You can find us at booth #2007 in the expo area. If you are there, please drop by!
We have received a lot of positive feedback on the new ToolBook update. The beta program was fantastic, with thousands of users running various beta releases through its paces. The addition of SCORM 2004 support, ability to deploy content without users requiring a Java VM in their browser, and support for Mozilla and Firebox browsers generated most of the excitement from the ToolBook user community.
If you were one of the folks testing the beta release, let me extend our thanks to you. Your contributions really helped! For more information on the new release, visit our Website or email us directly at sales@sumtotalsystems.com.
- Brad Crain
Friday, June 3, 2005
Welcome to the ToolBook Blog!
The SumTotal ToolBook team will host this blog with information provided by ToolBook program managers, software engineers, product support engineers, and myself. My name is Brad Crain, as VP ToolBook, I have the privilege of working with the ToolBook product team and with many ToolBook users around the world.
On a regular basis, my team and I will be updating this blog with ToolBook news, tips and views on industry developments. We want to share our efforts and work in progress with you and keep you abreast of goings-on in the world of ToolBook and e-learning content authoring in general. We hope the information we provide here will help you in your work.
- Brad Crain
See how others are using ToolBook. Visit the ToolBook Showcase to view sample courses, read customer case studies and visit the Web Seminar archive to hear our customers share their tips and tricks.