Upgrading to Lectora 12

Ok, I can do that. Now where do I go to download it? All my feeble mind can find is where you buy it. Is there a link in an email I got that I missed?

Ben - After you send in your info, someone from the Support team will send you a unique link to download the build.

It's not recommended that you install both versions on the same computer. However, if you have Lectora Inspire of one version, and Lectora Publisher of another, you can install these to separate folders. Within your Preferences, you'll see that your Media Library is in your C:ProgramDataTrivantisLectora PublisherMediaLib folder (or Lectora InspireMediaLib). If you install Lectora 12 over Lectora 11, you can still use the same resources and library objects stored there.

When you open a title in Lectora 12 that was originally developed in an earlier version (Lectora 11 or Lectora X), Lectora will automatically create a backup copy of the original AWT file. The file is placed in the same folder with an extension of .awt12. If for some reason you need to go back to an older version of Lectora, you can rename the extension to .awt to open the unmodified original copy.

If you are experiencing any issues, please do submit a ticket to support (support@trivantis.com) so we can follow up on this immediately. They can also work with you to make sure you can continue development on Lectora 11 while we find a solution.

@jgraunke 62895 wrote:

How do I get v11 back?

Are you experiencing issues with Lectora 12? If so, we definitely want to hear about them right away! If you can send a description to Support (support@trivantis.com), we will be sure to get back to you with more information and work with you to resolve any problems you may be having.

How do I get v11 back?

@Paul Minni 62858 wrote:

<<>>

OK.

Can you tell me if the V12 install leaves the current Users Preferences settings in the Windows registry or does it rewrite them to a new install default? Specifically, the Editors, Express, ReviewLink preferences. And is there still a Media Library Folder user preference in V12. Thanks.

As Lectora 12 is a new version and new install, you will need to re-enter the items located in your Preferences. Your Media Library is still in the same location - you can always change where you keep your Media Library - the path to the folder is located in your Preferences.

I'm also experiencing some issues with Lectora 12. I'm updating a series of rather long test and running into a SCORM 4k issue which generates a "Some of the persistent data was not able to be stored" message. With this issue at the forefront of my work after the holiday, I upgraded to V12 and now I can't see the questions in my test. I can see them in Firefox and Chrome but not in our company default IE8 browser. When I preview (in Saba), titles generated from Lectora 11, I can see the test questions. Funny thing is I can see the quiz questions from SCORM Cloud using the same browser. The only difference between seeing quiz content in Saba and not is the version of Lectora used to create the quizzes. Any thoughts?

I am not that familiar with SABA. I'm Currently on Corner Stone on Demand and was previously on Docent 6.5 (Old school right there).

I noticed the stranged thing when switching to Lectora 12 on CSoD. When you publish a course on CSoD it gives an option for Compatibilty view. You can actually set right on the course publish options that it should be set to IE7, 8, 9 or 10 compatability.

Lectora 11 didn't matter, I could leave it at 7 which was the default and everything was fine. When I upgraded to Lectora 12, my courses stopped working in IE. Worked OK in Chrome and FireFox but not in any version of IE.

After some investigating I found that setting the compatibilty view on the LMS side for the course itself to IE9 or IE10 fixed the issue. The course still worked fine in IE8 after I set this, but without this the screen would just be blank.

I can investigate the .js files when i have more time but for now, if your LMS has some Compatibilty option like this, see if that helps.

@samc36 63188 wrote:

I'm currently finding an issue where I cannot delete table rows or cells.

I just wish Lectora was more of a polished program, resembling a tried and tested program in usability, like Photoshop.

Yes, I do have to say that every time they have a major upgrade, things seem to be rather untested. I would understand obscure things slipping by but things like text looking off in a version of IE... again (The same issue existed when Lectora 11 launced) shouldn't happen.

However, something to remember is that Adobe has A LOT more money to put into product testing and creating an image is not the same as creating an interactive web based project. For all the amazing things you can create in photoshop that end result is nothing more than one simple object that would go into an entire Lectora project. Something that publishes out for the web has a LOT more coding to working about and user hardware to account for.

I try to cut them some slack but maybe the better program needs to incluse a lot more customers?

@sirwise23 63194 wrote:

Adobe has A LOT more money to put into product testing and creating an image is not the same as creating an interactive web based project. For all the amazing things you can create in photoshop that end result is nothing more than one simple object that would go into an entire Lectora project. Something that publishes out for the web has a LOT more coding to working about and user hardware to account for.

Speaking of Adobe, its e-learning product (Adobe Captivate) has been the buggiest software ever since I first tried it years ago as Captivate 3. And now they are on version 8 and still the first release is always quite buggy, and some things go untreated for years, and some other things remain stupidly inconvenient from version to version, and the backwards compatibility between versions is either officially not supported or buggy as hell.

Why would a four-billion-dollar company do that, when they CAN launch excellent products such as Photoshop or AfterEffects? My guess is because the market size and budgets for elearning authoring tools are so small that they cannot put enough resources on that.

Having said that, I do agree that Trivantis should probably do a public all-hands-on-deck beta for the next version of Lectora (12.1?) in addition to internal and closed-beta testing. It's basically the same "download a trial" only re-labelled as "it's a beta so do expect some bugs". It's all about expectations management, right? :)

My biggest issue was the one listed on the top of the Known Issues list on the Lectora site. Is there a way we can be notified when something is released that fixes these issues?

Thanks!

I have to say I kind of agree with you guys. I am not that familiar with Adobe but seems like a LOT was missed in this version. I am advising my clients NOT to upgrade until there is a more stable release. And like Kelly, I am helping two organizations select there new authoring tool. While it is obvious I am in the Lectora camp, I am advising them to look seriously at other products because of 1) buggieness, 2) learning curve, and 3) no timeline. That being said, I still think Lectora is a great tool and hope that they get the probs fixed soon.

@ssneg 63200 wrote:

Speaking of Adobe, its e-learning product (Adobe Captivate) has been the buggiest software ever since I first tried it years ago as Captivate 3. And now they are on version 8 and still the first release is always quite buggy, and some things go untreated for years, and some other things remain stupidly inconvenient from version to version, and the backwards compatibility between versions is either officially not supported or buggy as hell.

Why would a four-billion-dollar company do that, when they CAN launch excellent products such as Photoshop or AfterEffects? My guess is because the market size and budgets for elearning authoring tools are so small that they cannot put enough resources on that.

Having said that, I do agree that Trivantis should probably do a public all-hands-on-deck beta for the next version of Lectora (12.1?) in addition to internal and closed-beta testing. It's basically the same "download a trial" only re-labelled as "it's a beta so do expect some bugs". It's all about expectations management, right? :)

Well said, Sergey and do agree. The courses that I work on are compliance and reaches out to our entire workforce of 170,000+ learners every year. I've also been on the Trivantis beta list and was never chosen for testing, perhaps I don't know enough... This will be an interesting year as I'm in the process of choosing the authoring tool for next years courses.

@benpitman 63218 wrote:

because of 1) buggieness, 2) learning curve, and 3) no timeline.

2) I'm not sure about that.

When it comes to just placing stuff on the slide, all major tools are pretty much equally easy. If you know PowerPoint, you can work with Lectora, Captivate or Storyline easily.

And if you want to add interactivity from simple "click to show" to complex variable-based stuff, Lectora is pretty straightforward, too. Captivate is much worse, and Storyline is at par I would say.

3) It is a design choice and I entirely support it. I think using timelines in e-learning is a BAD PRACTICE. Timelines are the equivalent of a professor talking over a slide, so the learner is like a student who sits back and watches the screen. This is NOT the way people should consume information online. Have you see a timeline elsewhere on web, beyond elearning courses? Imagine opening a Wikipedia article and watching it unfold paragraph by paragraph to a voice over. If you look closely at the direction Storyline took, you'll notice that the timeline is taking a back seat to interactivity. Learners don't need to "watch and listen", they need to read, skip, go back and forth, interact (explore, answer, think, make decisions, see consequences).

But of course many organisations just want to have the equivalent of powerpoint slides synced to narration, which is a shame.

2) In The other tools you mentioned above when you import the PowerPoint is pretty much what you see is what you get. This is not true with Lectora. While Lectora does import PowerPoint slides you always have a lot of work to do to get things in the right places even if you tuned the PowerPoint so that things were almost in exactly the right place. And then while many transitions do come in there are still transitions that do not come in.

3) As to a timeline, I pretty much agree with you for most slides. However, when you have an audio that's explaining a diagram or a graphic of some kind is really VERY nice to have things like arrows pointing to specific places or highlighting parts of the diagram appear as you talk about them. This is much easier to do with a timeline that is to do with the actions the way Lectora has.

I appreciate all of the feedback and conversation on this thread. Please know that your suggestions are being heard -timelines, 12.1 beta, PPT import, more user involvement with releases. We're dedicated to improving both our products and our process, and you are all a valuable part of this effort.

To answer a couple of questions...

dtate - The Auto-Update in Lectora will notify you when a patch is available, and allow you to download and install. Otherwise, it will be available on the Support > Downloads and Release Notes section of lectora.com (http://lectora.com/service-pack-downloads/). We'll also post something on the forum.

kellykungfu - We accept almost everyone who applies to be a beta tester. Wen we're running a beta program, we'll post a link to apply on our site and email all Lectora users. There are no requirements to be a tester - just a willingness to participate. You can always email us at info@lectora.com if for some reason you apply but don't hear back.

Now back to the great timeline debate...

@lauram 63231 wrote:

kellykungfu - We accept almost everyone who applies to be a beta tester. Wen we're running a beta program, we'll post a link to apply on our site and email all Lectora users. There are no requirements to be a tester - just a willingness to participate. You can always email us at info@lectora.com if for some reason you apply but don't hear back.

As most companies are these days, more projects with less resources as much as I would like there is not enough time as it is. Thanks for the reply.

-kelly

How do I get V11 back? I am having serious issues with V12 that is preventing me from doing my job. I accidentally put a V12 version of a title live and now nobody can complete our tests. I sent an email to support but I need to just switch back as this is not working for me at all.

<<>>

So, can V12 be installed in (a path) parallel to an existing V11.x? What about the media libraries, can V12 use ones created under V11.x or should I start new ones? Thanks.

<<>>

OK.

Can you tell me if the V12 install leaves the current Users Preferences settings in the Windows registry or does it rewrite them to a new install default? Specifically, the Editors, Express, ReviewLink preferences. And is there still a Media Library Folder user preference in V12. Thanks.

I am still having issues. I installed Lectora 11, then Lectora 12 to a different directory and it still overwrote Lectora 11. I cannot get ahold of support on the phone and can't wait 24 hours for an email response. I can't get any work done as Lectora 12 is producing the same errors and I can't reinstall Lectora 11 as it won't take my serial number again. Can somebody please get back to me? This is urgent as I have to make updates to our training material.

I'm currently finding an issue where I cannot delete table rows or cells.

I just wish Lectora was more of a polished program, resembling a tried and tested program in usability, like Photoshop.

Hi - I liked your comments. Do you have any experience in exporting test results (Lectora v11)? I've been looking up documentation all morning with mixed results. Some threads indicate Google Drive (export) doesn't work in v11, but Lectora's own website indicates, it was fixed. (Yes, I know about V12, but we aren't upgrading yet).

@ssneg 63200 wrote:

Why would a four-billion-dollar company do that, when they CAN launch excellent products such as Photoshop or AfterEffects? My guess is because the market size and budgets for elearning authoring tools are so small that they cannot put enough resources on that.

Having said that, I do agree that Trivantis should probably do a public all-hands-on-deck beta for the next version of Lectora (12.1?) in addition to internal and closed-beta testing. It's basically the same "download a trial" only re-labelled as "it's a beta so do expect some bugs". It's all about expectations management, right? :)

I agree completely with this.

@sirwise23 63194 wrote:

Yes, I do have to say that every time they have a major upgrade, things seem to be rather untested. I would understand obscure things slipping by but things like text looking off in a version of IE... again (The same issue existed when Lectora 11 launced) shouldn't happen.

However, something to remember is that Adobe has A LOT more money to put into product testing and creating an image is not the same as creating an interactive web based project. For all the amazing things you can create in photoshop that end result is nothing more than one simple object that would go into an entire Lectora project. Something that publishes out for the web has a LOT more coding to working about and user hardware to account for.

I try to cut them some slack but maybe the better program needs to incluse a lot more customers?

I get what you're saying, but I wasn't comparing photo editing to e-Learning, I was comparing the finished quality of software between what is pretty much flawless at times in my opinion (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator) (I'm an Adobe suite guy), to eLearning software's huge flaws. As ssneg said, what were Adobe up to with Captivate??

I'm frustrated because Lectora is pretty much the go to software for e-Learning projects. I'm tech-savvy, and have lots of training in software, and was even recommended to use Lectora in college when studying eLearning as it's THE major industry competitor. Someone trained in Learning/Competency etc... may not be able to cope with the mass amount of bugs, errors, inconsistencies, flaws etc..

I don't care how well Trivantis is funded, I care about the fact that eLearning software always seems to be excused. Yes, browsers and technology changes, but it's no excuse for releasing buggy software on an annual basis, for large enough sums of money, which never quite meets expectations. I'm not just pointing the finger at Trivantis, I've had my worst software experiences with other eLearning softwares and it seems like it's been this way for many years.

I appreciate some of the features Trivantis are trying to implement. The ribbon menu works quite well, and being able to crop pictures, and have some form of canvas/artboard where I can lay objects outside the main area really helps. Am I wrong in saying there was no rotation at one stage? or was that something else. I think most of that should have been there from the start or at least a few additions ago.

Apologies for the large opinionated rant but I would much appreciate a team of dedicated devs working on a version of Lectora every two years, one that's polished/tested and works properly.

@benpitman 63229 wrote:

2) In The other tools you mentioned above when you import the PowerPoint is pretty much what you see is what you get. This is not true with Lectora.

I don't see the option to publish to an .exe file in the upgraded version...

@morgana 63360 wrote:

I don't see the option to publish to an .EXE file in the upgraded version...

Here's the full discussion around that topic - if it also affects you please leave a comment there as well.

http://lectora.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24076

Best regards,

Martin

@morgana 63360 wrote:

I don't see the option to publish to an .exe file in the upgraded version...

It's called "Offline" now. Right next to Web/HTML output.

@ssneg 63341 wrote:

This is sadly not true with other tools either. The result is still rather far off from the original and requires fiddling with fonts, text position, colors, breaks, lists or animations on pretty much (wink) every slide. At least the last time I tried. So nobody is perfect (except companies like SlideShare who do a great job of converting PPT to HTML and that is one of the reasons why they were bought out for 9 figures).

I had to go into every text box and adjust their size to be larger than the content. It really sucked having to do this and my impression was that Lectora was not an honest product because of this.

I found 2 reasons for this issue:

1. Any text box containing special characters that were unrecognized would cause this.

2. PowerPoint padding of text boxes when set to less than 5px would cause this.

I've since installed inspire and see the text boxes are treated differently and now display the + button when the text is overflowing the box. That just means you can see the issue in the IDE rather than during publish.

I have not tried to import a PPT with inspire but would be interested to know if anyone else sees the same results of the 2 issues mentioned above.

Best Regards,

Dennis Hall

I have full administrative rights on my Windows 7 (latest updates installed) computer.

I did a parallel install of Inspire in December and had not used it until recently.

Now I have uninstalled publisher and my AWT files lost their association with Lectora.exe.

I then tried to select Lectora.exe from Program Files (x86) as the default program and the OK button remained disabled in the Choose a default program window.

I then tried notepad as the default program and the OK button was selectable and the AWT files now open with notepad.exe, so there is no issue with my rights, or the OK button function.

I can repeat the association with any program I wish EXCEPT Lectora.exe. It is the ONLY program that I cannot associate the AWT files with.

What's up with this?

How can I correct this issue?

Best Regards,

Dennis Hall