Publish Chapters, Sections, or Pages

Part 1/5 of Sneaky Lectora Tricks proposes just that, a DevMode button: http://trivantis.com/blog/downright-sneaky-lectora-tricks-part-1-build-backdoor-course/

Hi Vicki,

When I do things like this, before I publish I put a big button on the page that has an action to jump to the chapter that I need tested.

Another option is during the testing phase, throw a menu in so that the tester can jump around anywhere they want.

Sirwise,

I like the idea of a button. That would be something easy to undo/remove once it has been reviewed. Thanks!

Vicki

I'm looking for the opposite, can I exclude a chapter from publishing. When developing a course, I often have a test chapter for interactions that I'm working on or that have been removed by the SME. I like to keep these so I can easily add them back in when the SME changes their mind again. I'd like to be able to publish without this test chapter to save space and upload time, but keep it in the source file.

Hi,

you can't exclude a certain chapter from publishing. But you can do the same you'd do to prevent a learner from accessing a chapter. Move it to the end of the title and disable the Next button on the last page your SME is supposed to see. The chapter will of course be published along with the rest of the course but the user won't be able to reach it.

Instead of a big red button I usually insert a normal table of contents (dropdown) and exclude the chapters / pages a reviewer should not reach directly. So there's one object with a list of (not necessarily red) buttons, that can be made invisible or moved out of view when the course is ready for the learners.

I think this would be a useful tool - even just in general, not just to review link but also offline use.

I understand there may be issues if the part published inherits anything from a higher level, there would have to be some sort of rules for what gets published along with the selected portion. Established rules could help solve this like you could only publish full chapters, or full sections, and all non-page content from the AU level will be published, all non-page content from a higher level will be published, or these last two could just be any inherited content of the published selection will also be published.

I mean, yeah adding special buttons that end up needing to be removed and adding in custom backdoors and developer pages is well and good and works and all, but why create extra work if there is a simpler alternative??

Regardless, everyone has to publish their course. It would just be super handy to have a publish setting that says publish all content or publish selected content, and if selected content is chosen a checkbox list activates that lets you choose the chapter(s) or section(s) you would like published and then just have to hit go and it does it.

I love this idea! And it definitely fits in with the thought process of our products. I've brought it up to your Product Manager and we hope to see this in a future release :)