Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  GENERAL INFORMATION

  TACTIC! AND MULTIMEDIA DOCUMENTS

  TACTIC! AND COURSES FOR CD-ROM DISTRIBUTION

  TACTIC! AND HTML FORMAT COURSES

 

Q Using Tactic! 6.0 actions under Internet Explorer

A Edu-Performance Canada would like to advise you that we noticed a problem with the parameter “Transition” of the action “Show/Hide” with Internet Explorer.

Usually, the use of the parameter “Transition” of the action “Show/Hide” works without a problem. It allows to animate and improve the general aspect of the multimedia content.

However, we have noticed that in certain cases, the Internet Explorer navigator can cause final aspect problems as it doesn’t show some objects using a transition effect. This has been noticed when a document contains several transitions. For example, it can happen that objects using a transition effect overlap in the course of time, meaning that the transition of an object begins before the transition of the previous object is finished.

It appears that Internet Explorer has not been designed to support several transitions in one single document.

This problem only happens occasionally and depends on the power of your computer. We therefore recommend that you use sparingly actions like “Transition”.

 

Q Are the courses created with Tactic! compliant with AICC and SCORM standards?
A Yes, courses designed with Tactic! 6.0 are entirely compliant to AICC, SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 1.3 standards. Courses produced with Tactic! have already been successfully integrated in the multitude of LMS or LCMS on the market. In certain cases, Tactic! event works as a converter of existing contents in AICC or SCORM format.

 

Q What are the exchanged information between a AICC or SCORM capsule and a LMS?
A The contents produced with Tactic! communicates the following information to the LMS:

Status
Result
Length of the learning session
Book marking
All the consulted documents (which allows posting the green checkmarks in the TOC when the learner returns to his/her capsule)

Tactic! also returns the learner’s every interaction with exercises in the capsule. However, it is really hard that the LMS support interactions and keeps them in their database.

 

Q What is the necessary disk space to install Tactic?
A The software installation requires about 142 Mo of disk space.

 

Q What is the necessary disk space to edit a course?
A You need to calculate the same disk space which was necessary to design the course. On top of that, you need to add about 35 Mo for the Viewer.

 

Q We want to use Tactic! to create a course with many designers at the same time. What do we need to know?
A The Tactic! editor has to be installed on every user’s station. The course has to be made available through a network reader. There are no other actions to take. Tactic! manages the multiuse in a transparent way. The many designers only have to open the course. If somebody is first to access Document “A”, he/she holds the exclusive writing rights. If somebody else access Document “A” while the first person is still there, this second person obtains a read-only access.

 

Q What is the maximum size of documents designed in a Tactic! course?
A In the CD-ROM format, the maximum document dimension is 1280 pixels wide by 1024 pixels high.
In the HTML format, the maximum dimension for a document is 1280 pixels wide by 2048 pixels high.

 

Q What is the minimal size of documents designed in a Tactic! course?
A In the CD-ROM format, the minimal dimension of a document is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high.
In the HTML format, the minimal dimension of a document is 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels high.

 

Q What’s the use of the “empty outline”?
A The choice of the « empty outline » allows us to empty a document that we already wrote. This outline can be used to empty a document from its contained objects without having to erase them one by one.

 

Q Is Tactic! 6.0 Windows 95 compatible?
A Tactic! 6.0 no longer supports Windows 95. Tactic! 6.0 supports every younger Microsoft exploitation system (from Win 98 on).

 

Q Windows offers the possibility to change the size in point per inch (PPI) of the elements on the computer’s screen (right click on the desktop > display property > settings > advanced) or else to change the size of the station’s font. If I modify the default value of the size of these elements, can I still consult a course that has been published with Tactic!?
A Courses published with Tactic! are made to be viewed with Windows’ default font size and point per inch. If you change this Windows advanced settings to have a larger size, the texts generated by Tactic! will be larger and cross over. Instead, we suggest modifying the screen resolution of the station in question.

 

Q I have Flash animations. Can I reuse them with Tactic!?
A Yes. By using the Extension object, Tactic! allows importing Flash files (or any other plug-in, java applet or ActiveX) in your HTML format document. A few examples are already posted on an Annexe in the Tactic! User Guide.

 

Q I have PowerPoint presentations. Can I reuse them with Tactic!?
A Yes. PowerPoint presentations can be imported in courses through the Web page / Office Suite object. The PowerPoint file will be inserted as it is without any change. Actions and transitions will be maintained.

 

Q I have inserted QuickTime videos in Tactic !, Why are they not visible?
A Quick Time files must be compressed in CINEPAK format. This the only QuickTime file format Tactic! supports. On the other hand, if QuickTime files were created on a Mac, you must ensure that the multi-platform option was check marked on certain versions.

 

Q If I modify an audio item to make it longer once I completed a document’s synchronization, do I need to remake my synchronization all over?
A Tactic! maintains the objects’ synchronization when it’s possible. The timeline will remain the same for each object. If the audio is longer, then the last object will be lengthened. The same will apply if the new audio is shorter than the original audio, the last objects will be shortened.

 

Q Can Tactic! allow me to do screen simulations?
A Tactic! offers a few functionalities allowing screen simulations. First you find the « CamStudio » video simulation tool integrated in Tactic! allowing recording interface software interactions on video. A narration can be recorded at the same time and embedded in the video file. The video can after be integrated as any other video file and be synchronized with other media content. Tactic! actions also allow other possibilities. Finally, a few tools available on the market allow the capture of software interface interactions and edit them in a Flash format. The Flash format can simple be imported afterwards in Tactic! like any other Flash file.

 

Q Can we do a learner’s follow-up for a course in a CD-ROM format?
A Yes, you only need to select the corresponding option in the course editing procedure. Then, it’s with the help of the Tactic! Tracker that you will be able to consult the unprocessed data from the learner’s follow-up. The Tactic! Tracker also allows this data to be exported in a format that can be read by database managers or Microsoft Excel to analyse it in depth.

 

Q How much space is occupied by the navigation bar in a CD-ROM format course?
A The navigation bar stretches 34 pixels high.

 

Q When we work with the Tactic! Viewer, the navigation bar disappears when we press on the keyboard’s space bar. Is it possible to mask that bar for the course?
A In the Tactic! course edited file, open the Course.tic file with a text editor and adjust the "ControlBar" parameters as such:

ControlBar=1 (default value) – When the value equals 1, it will post the navigation bar that allows to access a learning unit’s different documents. It also allows posting the learning unit’s objectives, test results, access to the course menu and leaving the Viewer. In order to hide this navigation bar, simple put the value to 0.

 

Q Is it possible to arrange for the viewer menu not being posted in a course edited in CD-ROM mode?
A Yes, you only need to open the "course.tic" file of the course edited in CD-ROM format and add the following lines manually:

[Viewer]
MustSkipMenuOnStartup=1

 

Q I have completed and edited a Tactic! course and I now want to make it available to many users on our local network. Do I need to copy the course edited on the network in order to execute the setup file (setup.exe) afterward? Will the users have access to the media files? Will many users be able to access the training at the same time?
A When you edit a course in CD-ROM version and you desire that this course might be installed and centralized on your network, you must follow this procedure:

Copy the edited course (the whole thing) on your network. For each work station, execute the « setup.exe » file (make sure that each station can access the course through a network reader, e.g. T:\ training\course\...). During installation, select the “Save space” option (copy the minimum amount of files); This will install the viewer on the learner’s station (if it hasn’t already been installed) and it’s also the way that the media and other files will be shared between all learners. Many users will be able to access the course at the same time.

 

Q A CD-ROM format course has been created with a specific font but once the course edited and installed on another station, these fonts are no longer available. Why ?
A Just like other Windows software, Tactic! uses the fonts available on the user’s station. If a course was created with a certain font that is not available on the learner’s station, this font will not be automatically transferred to his station. You need to make sure that the fonts used will be on the learner’s work station. If the fonts used in the course design are not available on the learner’s station, the exploitation system will use the next available font in alphabetical order.

 

Q If I design a course on a 800 by 600 resolution, what will be the dimension of my main menu in CD-ROM format?
A Whatever the course dimensions, the main menu will always be 640 x 480.

 

Q I have received the Tactic! CD-ROM. I have installed it and during its execution, an error message tells me that some dll files are missing.
A You’re trying to execute a Tactic! edited course. To view it, you need to install the Tactic ! Viewer and the course. This can be easily done by double-clicking on the « setup.exe » file located at the root of the course directory. The installation program will automatically detect if the Tactic! Viewer is installed. If it’s not the case, it will install it. Once the course is installed, you can execute it by selecting it from the programs in the “Start\Programs" menu.

 

Q If I design a course in HTML format, can I later edit it in CD-ROM format?
A Yes. The choice of HTML or CD-ROM format only serves to shade unavailable menus and options in a mode or another. There are almost no functionality difference between a course in CD-ROM or HTML format for IE 5.5 +. The installation guide includes a table which indicates the functionality differences. Furthermore, Tactic! validation function allows identifying the incompatible functionalities from a format to the other.

 

Q In the edited HTML version of my course, the images with the .gif and .jpg file extensions are not visible while the .bmp extensions are. Why?
A The problems you’re encountering seem to indicate that the GIF and JPG images have been converted to the PCX format during its importation to Tactic!.

The « Convert to PCX type » option might have been checked when you weren’t in HTML mode. The problem being that internet browsers do not support PCX formats.

What you must then do is to proceed to a new GIF and JPG image importation, making sure that you are in HTML mode in Tactic! If you are in CD-ROM/LAN mode, make sure that the « Convert to PCX type » or « Convert to BMP type » options are unchecked and that the original format is maintained.

By maintaining the original image format, your images will be viewable in the HTML edited course.

 

Q Sometimes the text wasn’t fully visible in my HTML edited courses, especially at the end of the document (I can be missing certain parts of a word, etc.) What could be the cause of this problem?
A Modify the text object’s display options. Here’s the procedure:

1) Access to the text object’s “Properties” dialog box
2) Modify the “adjust the object’s dimension to the text’s length” to “Adjust text to the object’s dimension”.
3) Verify the text display in the HTML preview or by reediting the course.

 

Q What is the recommended navigator for Tactic! 6.0?
A For HTML distributed courses, we suggest Internet Explorer 5.5 or a more recent version. Many functions such as the actions, HTML synchronization, effects, shading, etc. are only possible in these versions.

Also, Tactic! 6.0 always support Internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape 4.5 and more recent browsers. You simply need to select these options at the time of the course’s creation.

Note: These choices can be changed at any time after that through the Options menu.

 

Q Does Tactic! comply with the XML standard?
A Tactic! supports the SCORM standard, which uses XML for the exportation of courses to a LMS.
For the other internal data, Tactic! uses a proprietary format.

 

Q I have added the dynamic information "Lesson Title" in the Web graphic theme of my Tactic! course. I have published my course with the granularity level with an indication to take the whole course as one "AU" (or one "SCO" for SCORM). Why does the "Lessons Title" section of my course only give the course title and not the lesson titles corresponding to posted lessons?
A It is normal. With the AICC and SCORM publication, the “Lesson Title” dynamic information is valuable only when the course is published with the “Publish the first level of elements as "AU" (or "SCO" with SCORM)" level of granularity. The “Lessons Title” information will then enable the display of title of each of the lessons in the web graphic theme.