MadCap Mimic. What's New Guide. Version 7

Transcription

1 MadCap Mimic What's New Guide Version 7

2 Copyright 2013 MadCap Software. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of those agreements. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use without the written permission of MadCap Software. MadCap Software 7777 Fay Avenue La Jolla, California THIS USER GUIDE WAS CREATED USING MADCAP FLARE. Scan to open online Help

3 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Major New Features 1 HTML5 Output 2 Interface New Look and Features 9 CHAPTER 2 Additional New Features 21 Deactivate Product 22 Dragging Objects Within The Palette Window Pane 23 Output Drop-Down for Browsers/Media Players 23 Output Type Drop-Downs 24 Right-Click to Edit Object Text 26 Switch To Hand Mode With The Spacebar 27 APPENDIX PDF Guides 29 i

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5 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features Following are the major new features being introduced in this version of Mimic. For more information about each feature, open the online Help and refer to the "What's New in this Version" topic. Links are provided in each new feature description, taking you to topics that contain additional information and steps. This chapter discusses the following. HTML5 Output 2 Interface New Look and Features 9 1

6 MADCAP MIMIC HTML5 Output Mimic has a new output type HTML5. This format uses the <video> element instead of <object> and can be viewed on any browser that supports HTML5 content. Most newer browsers support the <video> element, including Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari. Older browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 do not. HTML5 can also be used to generate a standalone video file to play your movies on an iphone or upload them to YouTube. THE HTML5 OPTION IN THE USER INTERFACE When you open the Collection Editor or Movie Properties dialog, you will see the new HTML5 option listed with the other output types. This output type can also be seen from the new Build, View, and Publish drop-downs available on the Movie and Collection Ribbons. These drop-downs are discussed later in the Additional New Features section.. 2

7 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features VIDEO FORMATS WEBM AND MP4/H.264 At this time only a few video formats can be used with the <video> element. Two of the more prominent formats WebM and MP4/H.264 are supported in Mimic. WebM is supported in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera browsers. MP4/H.264 is supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari browsers. What if some of your users have browsers that support WebM, while other users have browsers that support MP4/H.264? You can select both options, generating output in both formats. Depending on the browser being used, the appropriate format is displayed.. Note: If you select the MP4/H.264 format, you need to download an encoder for it. Some encoders require a small fee.you can obtain a free encoder at Select one of the "Static" download links. This provides you with a file that has a.z7 file extension, which is a zip file format. Open and extract the.z7 file using a program such as WinZip. Then in Mimic's HTML5 Options dialog, you can navigate to the extracted \bin\ffmpeg.exe file. 3

8 MADCAP MIMIC OUTPUT BROWSER FILES AND SINGLE FILES FOR IPHONE/YOUTUBE When you generate output for HTML5, many browser-related output folders and files are produced. The main entry file has an.htm extension. There are also various support folders and files that you will need in order for your movies to play in browsers correctly. There is an optional check box to generate single video files. If you select this option, Mimic creates single.mp4 and.webm files and stores them in the "videos" output subfolder. These files can be distributed by themselves, without any support folders or files. The regular browser-related files are necessary to view your movies in the correct browser. On the other hand, the single video files.webm or.mp4 can be used to play movies in a standalone player, such as Windows Media Player or QuickTime. Single MP4 files can be used to view movies on theiphone.you can play single MP4 or WebM files on YouTube. 4

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11 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features For non-interactive movies (e.g., movies that do not contain buttons or input typing boxes designed to make users take action), one additional benefit of the single-file option is that future rebuilds are extremely fast because only changed frames are regenerated. E X A M P L E Let's say you have a non-interactive movie that is 75 frames long and generate output with the singlefile option enabled. Sometime after this, you make changes to two of the frames in that movie. When you click the button to build the output again, only those two frames are recompiled, which means the generation is much faster. Note: Some players do not support interactive movies (e.g., YouTube only supports non-interactive videos). Note: Selecting the option to create single video files will increase the generation time for movies. Note: In order to generate single video files, you must have Internet Explorer (IE) 9 installed. Therefore, you must be working on an operating system that supports IE 9.. 7

12 MADCAP MIMIC AUDIO Like the other output formats, you can incorporate audio into your HTML5 output in many ways. However, the way audio works in HTML5 is different than in the other formats. In HTML5 output, audio is "stitched" to different points in time, just as you would find in YouTube videos. In the other output formats, this is not the case. As a result, if you skip forward or backward to begin playing the HTML5 video at a specific point, the audio will be precisely synchronized with that point in the frame or movie. In HTML5 output, if you have audio that is longer than the movie itself, the audio stops playing when the last frame is finished. Similarly, if you select the option to pause the timing on a frame, audio applied to the movie or frame stops playing when that frame pauses. For the other formats, the audio continues playing whether the movie ends or a particular frame pauses. In HTML5 output, the loop audio option will work only if the audio is shorter than the length of the frame or movie (depending on whether you set the loop on the frame or movie). In HTML5 output, audio is not supported in cases where the user initiates the sound (e.g., by clicking a button). MORE INFORMATION For more information about the HTML5 video format, see video.asp. 8

13 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features Interface New Look And Features The most obvious change in this version of Mimic is that the interface has undergone a significant makeover, involving several areas. RIBBONS As an alternative to the classic menus and global toolbars available in previous versions, you can use a more modern ribbon layout that follows the example of newer Microsoft Office products. The ribbon layout consists of a File drop-down with common tasks such as creating new movies, as well as opening and saving files. This is followed by the Edit ribbon, which is the default, and several others related to various features in Mimic. E X A M P L E Here is the user interface with the ribbon layout displayed.. 9

14 MADCAP MIMIC Here is the Frame ribbon. And here is the Movie ribbon. Notice that it has different options.. 10

15 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features Following are some characteristics of the new ribbons. Switch views By default ribbons are used when you install and launch Mimic for the first time. However, you can use the Options dialog to switch back to the classic menu and global toolbar layout (i.e., tool strip).. 11

16 MADCAP MIMIC Minimize You can minimize the ribbons so that you only see the top portion of the ribbons until you select an option. To do this, right-click anywhere in a ribbon and select Minimize the Ribbon from the context menu. Icons/text Ribbons consist of icons and text, which let you perform various tasks. Larger icons are shown for the most common tasks.. 12

17 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features Sections Ribbons are split into sections to make it easier to locate the options on them. For example, the Frame ribbon contains the following sections: Navigate, Edit, Insert, Reuse, and Properties. Reducing application window size When you reduce the size of the entire application window, the ribbons are also reduced in a way that lets you continue to access hidden options by clicking on the section name. E X A M P L E Let's say you have the application window maximized, and this is what you see when opening the Frame ribbon. If you reduce the size of the application window, the ribbon may shrink along with it. You can still access all of the options. Some icons are simply smaller, and others are accessible from section drop-downs. 13

18 MADCAP MIMIC COLOR THEME You can use the Interface tab on the Options dialog to choose a color scheme for the interface.. 14

19 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR You can create a Quick Access toolbar at the top of the workspace to display options that you use most often. When options are added to the Quick Access toolbar, they are easily accessible, regardless of the ribbon that is open. By default the Save, Save All, Undo, and Redo buttons are already added to the toolbar. However, you can add others as well. To add an option, right-click on it in the ribbon and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar from the context menu.. 15

20 MADCAP MIMIC To remove an option, right-click on it in the Quick Access toolbar and select Remove from Quick Access Toolbar from the context menu. Note: You cannot remove the default Save, Save All, Undo, and Redo options from the Quick Access toolbar.. 16

21 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features You can also use the context menu to move the Quick Access toolbar below or above the ribbon. Note: The Quick Access toolbar is available only if you are using the ribbon layout, as opposed to the classic tool strip layout.. 17

22 MADCAP MIMIC WINDOW PANE LAYOUT/TAB OPTIONS You will probably notice immediately that the overall look of the window panes has changed. In addition, you can now choose how to view window panes in the workspace. Accordion tabs Standard tabs on top Standard tabs on bottom 18

23 CHAPTER 1 Major New Features To switch between tabs, click in the title bar of the window pane or editor and select a view. 19

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25 CHAPTER 2 Additional New Features In addition to the major features, the following additional features are now available in Mimic. For more information about each feature, open the online Help and refer to the "What's New in this Version" topic. Links are provided in each new feature description, taking you to topics that contain additional information and steps. This chapter discusses the following. Deactivate Product 22 Dragging Objects Within The Palette Window Pane 23 Output Drop-Down for Browsers/Media Players 23 Output Type Drop-Downs 24 Right-Click to Edit Object Text 26 Switch To Hand Mode With The Spacebar 27 21

26 MADCAP MIMIC Deactivate Product An option has been added to the Help ribbon and menu that will deactivate the currently used license for the machine running Mimic. 22

27 CHAPTER 2 Additional New Features Dragging Objects Within The Palette Window Pane You can now drag palette objects up and down within the Palette window pane in order to reorganize them. To do this, click a palette object in the Palette window pane and drag it up or down until it is in the desired position. Output Drop-Down For Browsers/Media Players When you finish building a movie or collection, the Build Progress dialog displays. If you have generated any of the output types that can be viewed in browsers HTML5, Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR you will see a new drop-down on the View Output button. This drop-down lets you see the output in any browser installed on your computer. In addition, if you have used the single-file option for HTML5 output, you will also see media players listed. 23

28 MADCAP MIMIC Output Type Drop-Downs The Build, View, and Publish options for movies and collections now include drop-down options for each output type. These options can be found on the Movie ribbon and the Collection ribbon.. 24

29 CHAPTER 2 Additional New Features The addition of these drop-downs also means that it is no longer mandatory to select an output type in the Movie Properties dialog or Collection Editor when you want to build output. Now there are two main reasons for selecting an output type in those locations. It allows you to edit the settings for a specific output type (e.g., you cannot specify the Flash options until you select the Flash output type). It sets the default output type, which will be used if you click the face of the Build, View, or Publish button, rather than selecting it from the drop-down. In other words, it's a way to create a shortcut. 25

30 MADCAP MIMIC Right-Click To Edit Object Text You can now right-click any object that support labels and select Edit Text to make changes. Previously, this option was not available from the right-click menu. 26

31 CHAPTER 2 Additional New Features Switch To Hand Mode With The Spacebar You can now switch to Hand mode by holding down the spacebar while the cursor is in the Frame Editor. In previous versions of Mimic, Hand mode was only accessible by clicking the hand icon in the Frame Editor's local toolbar. To switch back to Select mode, simply release the space bar, and the arrow cursor will return. Hand mode lets you drag areas of an image around. This is useful when you have zoomed in on an image so much that you cannot see all of it in the editor. 27

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33 APPENDIX PDF Guides You can download any of the following PDF guides from the online Help. Just open the topic called "PDF Guides" and click any of the download links. You can also scan any of the following QR codes to open the PDF on your mobile device. Getting Started What's New Key Features Movie Creation Movie Editing Movie Generation 29

34 MADCAP MIMIC Shortcuts Tour Workspace 30