I live to document. The following are some technical tips that can help make technical writing and instructional design easier using Storyline, NeoSpeech, PowerPoint, or Word.

​Combine and Fragment

​PowerPoint may be known as a presentation tool, but it has some serious chops when it comes to simple graphics. One group of functions found on the Format ribbon is Merge Shapes, which includes:
  • Union
  • Combine
  • Fragment
  • Intersect
  • Subtract
While these only work on shapes (not pictures), they can be applied sequentially to get the desired result. For example, a broken arrow shape. To create this, insert an arrow shape and a lightning bolt shape, then: 
  1. Position as desired
  2. Combine > Fragment
  3. Delete undesired fragments
  4. Select desired fragments > Combine

​Note that depending on how objects are positioned, some unintended lines may appear (most often when using Union or Fragment).

Older versions of Word so not have Fragment, and these functions are not available on menus by default.

Shapes as Pictures

​Shapes can be converted into Pictures in both PowerPoint and Storyline (and other authoring software). How they do is slightly different.
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In PowerPoint, all the shapes should be grouped. Nested grouping will also work. Select the top level group, right click > Save as Picture.

In Storyline, the shapes cannot have any grouping to work. Select the shapes separately, right click > Save as Picture.
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When choosing the file type, choose .PNG. The .PNG format is lossless, and will retain accurate and consistent colors, and keep any text crisp. Do not choose .JPG, as it’s both lossy, and the colors will blur (whites will have a variety of shapes, and text will blur).

Another advantage is transparency; .JPG does not allow transparency.
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Note that grouped objects gain additional dimension; that extra space around grouped objects is retained whether it’s still in PowerPoint or Storyline, or as the saved picture. That can be cropped out (or can be Trimmed using SnagIt).

Conditional States

​Storyline allows objects to have States, with additional objects in the individual States. Triggers can be used to change the States. In this example, the object is RME-Thanks.PNG, and the goal is to change the yellow line to red when Selected, and to make the entire image grey when it’s Visited. To achieve this:
  1. Select RME-Thanks.PNG
  2. Select the States tab > Edit States
    • Select Add button > Select Visited from dropdown >
    • Select Format menu > Adjust > Recolor > greyscale
    • Select Add button > Select Visited from dropdown >
    • Select Format menu > Picture > Picture Border > Red
  3. Click Create New Trigger:
    1. Action: Change state of
    2. On Object: RME-Thanks.PNG
    3. To State: Selected
    4. When: User clicks
    5. Object: RME-Thanks.PNG
  4. Create a second trigger:
    1. Action: Change state of
    2. On Object: RME-Thanks.PNG
    3. When: User clicks
    4. Object: RME-Thanks.PNG

The ZIP Trick

The "ZIP" trick allows you to pull images quickly from XML based files, and newer versions of Microsoft Office products are XML based. Essentially this will work for any file type that has an “X” at the end, such as .DOCX. In this example, the document is Trick.DOCX:
  1. Create a copy of the file (CTRL+C, CTRL+V)
  2. OK past the warning message
  3. Double click on the new .ZIP folder
  4. Navigate to the word > media folder
All graphic file types embedded in the original file will now be listed, in order of their appearance, with the generic naming convention of “image#” followed by the original image file type. Multiple file types may appear. For PowerPoint and Excel, the folder will have a different name.
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Make sure to use the .ZIP trick on a copy of the desired file; it’s always a best practice to have an unaltered version of any file you plan on changing.

TTS Pronunciation

Text-to-Speech (TTS) applications can have problems pronouncing or enunciating as intended. Try the following, in the order listed:
  • Add the word into the User Dictionary
  • Use a homophone and creative typos (“Wreckerd” for “Record’)
  • Insert a Break before or after (0 or 1 value)
  • Insert a Pause before or after (10 or 20 value)
  • Add or remove hyphen or quotation marks with phrases
  • Add to user dictionary using pronunciation symbols

Phrases can be added to the user dictionary. Remember, each voice engine has a different user dictionary, and may pronounce words differently. 
Note that only letters and spaces can be used as Target in the user dictionary.

More on NeoSpeech here.

Navigation Pane 

An overlooked tool in Microsoft Word is the Navigation Pane. To turn on, click View menu > Show > check Navigation Pane.

The headers will appear in the Navigation; Header 1 will be top level; Header 2 will be demoted. Headers can be promoted or demoted with a right-click. Clicking on a header in the in the Navigation Pane will bring up the appropriate section. Sections under a header can be moved at the header level by dragging and dropping. They can also be moved.

The Navigation Pane also contains a search function. The Pages tab will show the pages, the Results will show sentences it’s in.

Bullets and Formatting

A common frustration in Storyline and PowerPoint and other software is phantom formatting. It usually shows in bullets, with the bullets looking odd.

At the end of every hard return there is a paragraph mark (¶), which is not visible unless the software has a way to show formatting markup. It’s easier to see this in Word, as it has a Show/Hide Paragraph Marks feature. Go to Home menu > Paragraph > select Show/Hide Paragraph Marks feature (or CTRL+Shift+*).

This formatting applied to the paragraph mark will apply to the following bullet.

The solution is easy; simply add a space at the end of the line, and make sure that is not formatted.

Page of Pages Field Codes

Having page numbers in footers is useful, but they’re more useful when it’s clear how many pages are in the document. We've left that last page on the printer, right?

The standard footers in Word no longer include the number of pages as a standard element in preformatted footers. This can be easily resolved by inserting the actual field codes.

​In this example, we want “Page # of #” in the footer of a Word document.
The field code for a page number is fairly straightforward; it’s “Page.” The one for the total number of pages is “NumPages.”
  • Insert > Text > Field > Page
  • Insert > Text > Field > NumPage

Screen Record Preparation

Before screen capturing, preparation is critical. This may seem tedious, but it accomplishes other goals; it will streamline the capture, reduce distractions, and clean up the script/storyboard.
  • Outline all the steps that must be recorded
  • List every action as a distinct step (every click and motion path)
  • Identify every field value that is changed
  • Have any text that must be entered prepared in advance
  • Practice a few times to ensure no unintended hover text appears
  • Pay particular attention to scrolling and screen sizes