ToolBook

ToolBook 11.5 is here! Order now from Platte Canyon. Full versions come with a $100 credit and upgrades come with a $50 credit on any Platte Canyon product.

When it is time to create cutting-edge training that involves thorough instruction, great use of media, interactive content, and innovative navigation, ToolBook is often the clear choice.

New features of version 11.5:

• Publish To Web: The Publish to Web Specialist has been redesigned. With the redesign it is now a simple interface that allows you to publish your lesson to web format with virtually a single mouse click. All of the various publishing options are still available if you need to change them, and are accessible using the new Options button.
• Resource Manager: The size of the Resource Manager has been significantly enlarged, allowing better viewing of the resource list and resource names. In addition a preview feature has been added which will display the selected bitmap resource at a larger size.
• Clipart Catalog Category: The Clipart catalog category has been enhanced to include not only various Bullets and Seals as well as the Arrows you are already accustomed to.
• Delete Pages: Deleting a range of pages is now possible using the Delete Pages option in the Tools menu. This will allow you to delete a range of pages in a matter of a few seconds instead of manually deleting them one by one.
• Character Map: Having difficulty figuring out how to add non-standard keyboard characters into your ToolBook fields, such as the Copyright symbol? The Character Map will allow you to easily access and add special characters to your fields.
• Drag & Drop: The Drag & Drop tab of the Property Editor has been revised to be clearer about which settings to use. The various Help Topics involving Drag & Drop have been updated as well, to clearly differentiate between the two types of Drag & Drop that ToolBook offers.
• Scoring and Tracking: There are three LMS compatible Exit buttons in the Scoring and Tracking category of the catalog. Each of these have been enhanced to prompt the user with "Are you sure you want to exit?"
• Display Book Information: The Display Book Information utility will provide you with Book Information details about an entire folder full of ToolBook files. It will allow you to quickly see important information about each file in a folder, such as which version of ToolBook last saved each file. This is a very useful utility in determining which ToolBook files are in need of being Version Updated.
• Voice Recording: Several enhancements to the Voice Recording feature have been made. A View Summary button will allow you to see a report of all voice recordings in the current book. Also added is the ability to enable or disable all of the voice recordings with a single click.
• Resource Lookup: Using the new Resource Lookup utility within ToolBook will allow you to quickly find all uses of a particular Resource within your project.
• Mixed Content Warning: A new checkbox has been added to the Publish to Web dialog, labeled as Suppress Mixed Content Browser Warning. If you are using a Secure Server (HTTPS), enabling this setting will block the Mixed Content warning that the browser normally would show to the user.
• Reassign a Range of Pages: If a text field contains a Bitmap Resource in addition to text, and you attempt to copy/ paste the field contents into another product such as Microsoft Word, the Bitmap Resources will now be included along with the pasted text.
• Right Click Menus Changes: The following enhancements have been added to the Right-Click menus: The option to change the Caption of a button; The option to set the graphic of an Image object; The ability to Restore the Aspect Ratio of an Image object
• Enhanced Publish To Web Error Logging: The Publish to Web error logging feature will now generate a more detailed explanation of each error encountered. In addition, the enhancements are able to detect (and log) a wider variety of error conditions.

Great features of version 11.0:

• Improved Startup Dialog:  The Startup Dialog has been redesigned to have a more modern look, which also provides for a better process flow for a user trying to start a new book. The Help Resources section has been filled with over a dozen helpful resources to assist you in using ToolBook. We particularly like the ability to start a blank book with SmartStyles so that you don't have an "empty" page that you have to delete later.
• Question Wizard:  A new catalog object labeled "Question Wizard" has been added to the catalog within the Questions category. When added to your page, this new object will step you through options available for configuring one of the following four question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Fill in the Blank and Match Item. These four represent the most commonly used question types.
• Additional SmartStyles:  SmartStyles is a feature that makes it easy to apply a consistent look and style to pages and objects in a book. ToolBook 11 introduces 39 additional SmartStyles including 16 which are specifically designed for mobile device delivery.
• Arrows (Clipart) Catalog Category:  A new catalog category has been added to ToolBook 11 which provides access to 192 different graphical arrows. These are PNG images with full alpha channel support, which means they will perfectly overlay any other page elements used and are resizable as well.
• Google Chrome and BlackBerry Support:  The Publish to Web feature of ToolBook has been enhanced to now offer support for Chrome 5+ browsers and BlackBerry 6+ mobile devices.
• Randomization Enhancements:  The ability to randomize the order of questions displayed to a user has existed in ToolBook for some time as a feature that you can turn on using the Behavior tab of the Properties for Lesson dialog. ToolBook 11 introduces two new features to this dialog, an option to Validate if the book is properly set up for randomization, and a Configure option to allow you exclude certain pages from the randomization.
• Delete Unused Resources Tool:  This new feature will delete from your book, resources that are no longer actively being used by any objects within your book.
• Export All Text Tool:  This utility will create a text file containing all of the text found within the book. This is useful when a third party will need to proofread or grammar check the contents of your lesson.
• Move/Reassign a Range of Pages Tools:  There are new tools to move a range of pages or assign them to a different background.

Great features of version 10.5:

• Apple® iPad® and Microsoft® Windows Mobile® Devices are now supported:  A greater variety of devices can now be targeted by ToolBook content. You can now deploy content to a learner community with even more devices, providing more flexibility and greater learner access.
• Geolocation support:  This feature allows you to provide mobile content which is truly mobile, responding to your learners’ locations with tailored content.
• Simpler, more functional Quick Start tab on the startup dialog  The Quick Start tab has been updated to include a set of templates sized for optimal viewing on various devices. Users of prior versions of ToolBook will also notice that the "Show Preview" button has been removed. The preview is now shown all the time.
• iPhone support for drag and drop:  With the new ability to drag objects around the iPhone screen with a fingertip, users of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch can more easily apply the question types match item, drag object, and slider in a style that's consistent with the overall user experience on these devices.
• Smoother resizing of graphics:  Resizing graphic images within ToolBook will now result in smoother, better-looking images.
• Paste unformatted text menu item:  Now, this selection beneath the Edit menu allows for fast pasting of text into fields while simultaneously stripping out all formatting. The keyboard shortcut is ctrl-shift-v.
• Checkbox added to Publish to Web Wizard to enable diagnostics:  This option activates the diagnostic or "debug" mode for the published HTML. This will prompt a separate window to open when the course is opened in a browser, which displays diagnostic information.
• Prompt to resize page when changing styles:  When the pages of a book are sized differently from the default size for a style, and a new style is then applied to the book, ToolBook will now prompt the author to decide whether to resize the book to match the default for the style, or keep the current size.

Great features from version 10.0

• Quiz Summary:  Use the innovative Quiz Summary feature to display a configurable summary of questions, student answers, score, and more. Users can then click a link to try the question again or review it. Users can use the special Print Summary to print the complete summary list, even if it displays with scrollbars within ToolBook.
• Improved PowerPoint Import:  Take your existing PowerPoint 2007 slides and import speaker notes, audio, as well as your content and graphics into ToolBook. You can even save the intermediate XML version of the content. 
• Google Android/Apple iPhone/iPod Touch/Safari Browser Support>  Your web-based ToolBook content can now support the Macintosh as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch. They are all just extra choices in your web export. There also specialized SmartStyles™ for the iPod layout.
• JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, and EMF Graphic Support:  ToolBook now supports all the major graphic formats internally, giving great quality for both native and web-deployed content. This greatly simplifies graphic management for both native and DHTML applications.
• New Image object:  Related to the new graphic formats is a new object exclusively for displaying graphics. No longer do you need to use transparent buttons to display your graphic resources. The image object simplifies graphics considerably.
• Control Voice Recordings:  After you record your narrations within ToolBook, you can now control them either with catalog objects or the Actions Editor.

ToolBook 11.5 Links:

• ToolBook 11.5 User Guide
• Getting Started with ToolBook

At Platte Canyon, our developers say they like ToolBook for the following features:

• Powerful:  ToolBook has the capabilities to do everything we have dreamed up so far. Whether it be with the Actions Editor, the Simulations Editor, or the OpenScript language, it is extremely rare not to be able to implement your vision.
• Easy-to-Use:  SmartStyles™, SmartPages™, Actions Editor, Drag and Drop, Question objects, Question Summary, Text Panes, and much more make the product very easy to use. SCORM and AICC support is built in.
• Dynamic:  ToolBook's interface and capabilities may be enhanced through add-ons such as the Plug-In Pro.
• Expandable:  ToolBook's support of ActiveX controls allows your courses to incorporate content and materials from other packages.  For instance, developers may easily use Flash movies in their ToolBook courses.
• Fast:  ToolBook allows us to be more efficient than with any other Authoring Tool we have seen.
• Flexible: applications created with ToolBook may be deployed via "traditional methods" such as CD-ROM.  They may also be exported to a web-ready set of DHTML files. This ability to deliver in multiple ways offers the developer wonderful choices when deciding on the delivery platform for a training application.
• Easy to Learn:  if you purchase our training CD series entitled Learning & Mastering ToolBook, you'll be developing killer training applications in no time.

Platte Canyon is the Number 1 SumTotal Systems authorized Gold Value Added Reseller for ToolBook. We sell so many copies of ToolBook because we strongly believe in the product and because we know it very well. People also choose to buy from Platte Canyon to receive the Platte Canyon deal. Customers who buy ToolBook from Platte Canyon receive a $100 credit on the purchase of any Platte Canyon product ($50 credit on upgrade purchases).

Platte Canyon sells ToolBook for $2,795.  All ToolBook purchases MUST be accompanied by a support agreement. Upgrade and full pricing info is available at the Platte Canyon store.

We offer special pricing if you are looking for multiple copies or multiple products. Email us for a written quote.

For more information on ToolBook, please feel free to contact us or visit the ToolBook web site.

Platte Canyon Customer Service Comments

• Jeff you are a star........................whatever they are paying you, you deserve more. Send me a customer satisfaction survey if you have one.

• Jeff. Over the years of reading the listserv, I have always been amazed on how many people you have responded to with all kinds of issues. I am glad you have remained such an integral part of keeping ToolBook alive. Thanks again for the edification and all of your time you spent with me this week. A person can always replace money with more money. However, you cannot replace time with more time. So thanks again for everything!

• Thanks very much for the prompt and attentive help you've given both us and our client.

• First let me thank you for your outstanding help!

• You are simply the best people I deal with.

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