ToolBookConsulting Blog

Formatted Question Feedback

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:23:00 GMT

Today I am launching my first product for sale:

Formatted Feedback Editor for ToolBook.

I am very excited about this launch and hope that you will find it useful.

In short the tool allows you to use text formatting in the feedback you specify for your ToolBook questions - without using hidden fields or any action editor code.

Here is a screenshot of the editor.

See a sample and read more here.

I plan to make more of my tools available for sale in the time to come. So stay tuned.

PS. parts of the code in this tool is based on code originally written by Simon Price. (XHTML to ToolBook Text Formatting)

Disable browser printing in ToolBook

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:08:00 GMT

Disable browser printing in ToolBook

UPDATE 20 January 2009: Updated the sample and download to include some protection against the user pressing Printscreen.

This sample demonstrates how one can prevent users from printing elearning content created with ToolBook .

Updated samples are here: Live version or download the source from the Download page (file is called DisablePrint2(9)).

~~See~~ ~~the old version of the live version of the sample~~ ~~or download the source from~~ ~~the Download page~~ ~~(file is called DisablePrint(9)).~~ Note to access the downloads page you need to create a free account on this site.

Here is how it works

On the background of this page there is an on load background action which calls a JavaScript function which is responsible for dynamically loading a css file.

The contents of the css file is a clever way to prevent printing:
@media print {
body {
display:none
}
}

Here is how to read it: The style sheet will only be in effect when the document is printed (eg @media print)
There is only one css selector (body) which basically means the html document for our purposes has its display property set to none (display:none) which will make it invisible.

To clarify: While the print dialog is still enabled, the result is that a blank page is printed. Note I didn’t invent this CSS trick, I merely integrated it into ToolBook. To test this try printing this page by pressing CTRL+P (if you know how to, please print to a pdf or similar file to save some trees:-))

Note 1. Despite the added security of the printscreen prevention measures in this sample in this updated sample- This is NOT a 100% certain approach - nothing is 100% certain (except taxes and death). However in case this level of security is sufficient for some, I will refrain from providing "inspiration" to those trying to bypass the protection by going in more detail on how one might do that.

Note 2. This builds on a previous blog post I did on using an external css style sheet to change the visual appearance of ToolBook content when published to HTML.

Note 3. The css file is included in a hidden file placeholder on the last page of this book. The page has skipnavigation set to true to prevent it from being displayed. This automatically ensures that the file is copied to the media directory when the file is published to html. (For some reason my trick described in "Adding files to HTML media directory" doesn’t work with css files)

Using ToolBook to create Surveys

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Did you know that you can use ToolBook to create surveys and use your LMS to collect the information you collect?

The only thing that is required is ToolBook and an LMS which is able to show question level feedback in reports.

I have created a sample that you can download but will also explain what is required.

Download a free ToolBook SmartStyle and learn how to build one yourself

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:10:00 GMT

Build a smartstyle, or download a free SmartStyle, or win a custom SmartStyle

ToolBook 9.5 HTML Content on Google Chrome

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:44:00 GMT

I have tested HTML output from ToolBook 9 and ToolBook 9.5 on Googles new internet browser called Google Chrome and guess what, it works!

Controlling the Browser Window x

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:17:00 GMT

This article and sample files demonstrates how one can control if the user clicks the window x rather than the navigation provided within the content. This solves a very common problem which causes a lot of support: Users close a course using the x one last page thinking they passed a test, only to find later that the course was marked as incomplete.

Two online learning standards - twice as good as one?

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:17:00 GMT

There seems to be what I would describe as an elearning standards war looming: ADL recently announcing the Letsi initiative and SCORM 2.0 and late last week I got an email from IMS/GLC with a link to a FAQ about Common Cartridge.

KeyBoard shortcuts 3 - Alt key shortcuts

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:12:00 GMT

Implement keyboard navigation using the ALT key in combination with the arrow keys. Learn how to attach custom JavaScript handlers to DOM elements in ToolBook HTML files - without editing the ToolBook HTML files.

Keyboard shortcuts in ToolBook HTML 2

tlund@elearningspecialist.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:08:00 GMT

In my previous article "Keyboard shortcuts in ToolBook HTML" I showed how one can implement keyboard shortcuts using the arrow keys to navigate between the pages.

Now what if you wanted to use a combination of keys to navigate?

Keyboard shortcuts in ToolBook HTML

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:59:00 GMT

Improve the accessibility and usability of your ToolBook HTML content by providing keyboard shortcuts in addition to the onscreen navigation.