| | E-Learning Solutions (Content & Assessment Authoring) ) RapidGuide™ v1.0 Features and Benefits (At a Glance ...) | Highlights of RapidGuide™ v1.0 include: | Page 1 of 3 | - Next-Generation Application Guidance – RapidGuide offers a significant enhancement to the current industry-standard help files provided within software applications. These help files typically offer only static, topic-based information. RapidGuide enhances this help by offering real-time instructional guidance (which is like a teacher or a coach guiding you step-by-step in performing a task) and “Show Me” capability (which is like playing a pre-recorded “movie” that can have interactive or non-interactive elements).
- Easily Accessible Topics and Subtopics – The content created with RapidGuide is organized as a list of topics and subtopics that users can easily browse and access. Each topic and subtopic represents a particular desktop/software task for which guidance or help is required. The developer will populate each topic and subtopic with a unique series of steps showing how to perform a particular task.
- Desktop Capturing – To populate a topic or subtopic with information, the developer records a task from the live Windows desktop. The recorded task may consist of any series of live interactions (mouse clicks and/or keystrokes) with any desktop or web application. This capturing capability enables the developer to easily create instructional guidance for any software application.
Prior to recording, RapidGuide enables developers to specify various capture settings, which control how much of the desktop area will be captured (i.e., the entire desktop, a selected screen area, or only active windows). Developers may also configure various other settings to customize the content and functionality of the simulation file that is recorded.
- Guidance Session and Simulation Files Generated Automatically – When the developer records a task for a topic or subtopic within RapidGuide, the system creates two files simultaneously. The first file is the Guidance Session ( .SES ) file, which is used to provide real-time instructional guidance (i.e., text or audio-based instructions and supporting screen snapshots that guide the user step by step in performing a live task on the desktop); this guidance session file can be edited/enhanced using the elements provided within RapidGuide. The second file is the Simulation ( .RBX ) file, which is a simulation or “movie” of desktop activity d emonstrating the same steps that the end user must perform on the live screen as part of the guidance session; this simulation file can be edited/enhanced using the elements provided within XStream's RapidBuilder technology.
- Two (2) Playback Modes for Instructions – Upon searching for and locating the desired topic or subtopic during playback, the user is provided with step-by-step instructions (as text or audio or both) required to perform a particular application task. The user can work with these step-by-step instructions in two (2) modes:
- “Guide Me” Mode – The user receives instructional guidance as he/she works with one or more desktop or web applications in the live Windows environment. On the live desktop, a sequential list of text/audio instructions is presented to the user. Displayed with each instruction is a supporting screen snapshot (which serves a visual aid and provides a context for performing the step). By browsing through the instructions and performing each live step as directed, the user is guided step by step in accomplishing a live task.
The “Guide Me” mode utilizes the guidance session (.SES) file recorded and edited in RapidGuide.
- “Show Me” Mode – The user views a recorded desktop simulation demonstrating how the step-by-step task is supposed to be performed. While the “Guide Me” mode guides the user in performing steps on the live desktop, the “Show Me” mode plays a pre-recorded “movie” of desktop activity that shows the user how each step is performed and the result of each step.
The “Show Me” mode utilizes the simulation (.RBX) file recorded in RapidGuide and edited in RapidBuilder..
- Interactive & Non-Interactive Simulation Files – Depending on the capture settings specified by the developer prior to capturing, the simulation (.RBX) files generated by RapidGuide can be interactive (where the end user directly interacts with the simulation by clicking the mouse and pressing keys) or non-interactive (where the simulation plays back as a “movie” that the end user simply watches without participating). Recorded simulations are ready for playback immediately; no further editing is required.
- Edit/Enhance Simulation Files with RapidBuilder – The simulation (.RBX) files generated by RapidGuide may be edited and enhanced using XStream's RapidBuilder simulation-authoring technology. RapidGuide and RapidBuilder are independent software technologies that can also work together. When a recorded simulation file is accessed from within RapidGuide, the system automatically launches RapidBuilder (assuming RapidBuilder is installed on the system) and displays the simulation file so that it can be edited using the large variety of objects, properties, events, and feature sets provided within RapidBuilder.
RapidGuide can be used with or without RapidBuilder. The simulation files recorded by RapidGuide are ready made and do not require any editing in order to be played. However, a developer using RapidGuide has the option of acquiring RapidBuilder at any point in time if he/she wishes to customize and enhance the recorded simulations with content frames, text, graphics, audio, video, animations, and many other features and options available in RapidBuilder.
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