Apr
29
Written by:
Tomas Lund
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:51 AM
When I am out doing ToolBook training I often run into the problem that my customer does not have tools to edit files they want to use in their training. For someone like me who spends most my time developing - not having the right tools for the job is quite frustrating, so I started looking for good free applications that could help my customers out. They might still have to fight with corporate IT to be allowed to install the programs but at least you don’t have to worry about the budget.
So here goes:
IMAGE/PHOTO EDITING
Gimp www.gimp.org.
It’s a quite capable image editing program with more features than most people need -and the User interfeace might be a bit overwhelming. Still it does the job. I was recently teaching a group of teachers at a flying school in the UK, the subject of image size and resolution came up and we ended up installing Gimp on all their machines (it was a onsite training session so they were each using their own computers) and then helping each individual student how to crop and resize and image they wanted to use.
Or you could use the free, one version of Photoshop: Photoshop Express. This might suit people who work in a very IT regulated environment better – that is as long as you have a flash player installed.
Go to https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html and create a free account. The tool is quite easy to use and has the most basic features. However if you have a slow connection you might run into problems.
AUDIO RECORDING/ EDITING
Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net)
I use this for recording of voice over and basic editing of audio, like gimp it has more features than most people need but I do find audacity quite intuitive to use.
ONLINE MEETING/DEMO
I use this for online demos, training and meetings where I have to share my destop. The service is free and provides a meeting room for up to 3 people. The free service doesnt provide any facility to record sessions.
https://www.acrobat.com/
PDF FILE (ADOBE ACROBAT ALTERNATIVE)
PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com/)
PrimoPDF installs a PDF printer allowing you to print to PDF from 300+ file types
Allows you to tweak the out put for screen or print and so on. Works great, does the job well and I have never had any problems with it.
PDFhammer (http://www.pdfhammer.com/)
PDFhammer lets you "..edit PDF files online, without the need to install anything. Upload your PDF files to PDF Hammer from your Web browser, perform your edits, and then download back to your computer. The visual editor lets you see the pages of the PDFs as you edit them."
This list is a subjective list; it is intended to be short and not to list every single alternative out there. If you feel one of these tools should be replaced with another, post a comment if you have any good suggestions.
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2 comments so far...
Re: USEFUL TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING ELEARNING
Hi Tomas,
Two tools that I use that are free that I could not do without are:
Color Picker: Will read and report color values of anything on your screen. In addition, you can create custom palettes to store color themes in. So, for example, I have one palette for each of our interfaces. That way I can quickly open up the color picker to determine the color that a matt, text field, or button should be in my toolbook interface. http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/
Screen Calipers: Will measure anything on your screen in pixels. Very helpful to determine exactly how much space you have in your toolbook for a specific photo, etc. Here is info http://www.iconico.com/caliper/ (Actually, it looks like they are charging for it now, but it is well worth the $29US price.)
Both tools are from Iconico.
By Robin McDermott on
Thursday, July 03, 2008 10:49 AM
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Re: Useful (free) tools for developing elearning
Thanks for sharing this, Robin. Just an note on this: If you are using a Color Picker with ToolBook you might want to check out my (free) ToolBook Color Picker. http://www.toolbookconsulting.com/blog/entryid/3.aspx.It integrates with ToolBook and it will read any color on the screen and you can quickly apply the color to ToolBook objects you have selected as either strokecolor or fillcolor. It also supports conversion from HEX to RGB and vice versa. Maybe I should expand my ToolBook Color Picker to support color schemes (that feature sounds quite handy).
By TomasLund on
Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:37 AM
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