WCB Advanced Features

Learn how to make your courses Zing by taking advantage of features found in ReadyGo Web Course Builder

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Prerequisites: PC with ReadyGo WCB installed, access to the Internet

To view a printable version of this course, click here

Site Map

1. Getting Started

1.1 Course layout
1.2 Templates

2. ReadyGo WCB Advanced Features

2.1 Converting PowerPoint Presentations
2.2 Services bar elements (FAQ's, Help, Glossary)
2.3 Merging two or more courses
2.4 Printing Your Course Text
2.5 Printing your Course with Graphics
2.6 Importing web pages
2.7 Creating headers and footers
2.8 Creating links to sites or files from graphics
2.9 Editing the Graphic Archive
2.10 Putting your course on a CD-ROM
2.11 IE6 Cookies

3. More Advanced Features

3.1 Adding a Progress Bar
3.2 Adding graphics to your test questions
3.3 Modifying the default instruction page
3.4 Advanced page numbering
3.5 Creating a text box

1.Getting Started

The basics of working with ReadyGo WCB

1.1 Course layout
1.2 Templates

1.1 Course layout

A ReadyGo course is made up of three separate areas.

The service bar
The sidebar (also called chapter)
The course content

1.2 Templates

ReadyGo provides templates to make it easy to implement a course look.

Templates are similar to PowerPoint masters.

You can create a unique look and feel for a course using the five appearance features. Then save that look as a template.

Templates save time and assure that all courses adhere to the same look and feel.

It's True! ReadyGo separates out the look and feel from entering course content. This makes it easier to change the look of a course and assures the course works on all devices.

2.ReadyGo WCB Advanced Features

Here we demonstrate several popular, non-apparent ReadyGo Web Course Builder features

2.1 Converting PowerPoint Presentations
2.2 Services bar elements (FAQ's, Help, Glossary)
2.3 Merging two or more courses
2.4 Printing Your Course Text
2.5 Printing your Course with Graphics
2.6 Importing web pages
2.7 Creating headers and footers
2.8 Creating links to sites or files from graphics
2.9 Editing the Graphic Archive
2.10 Putting your course on a CD-ROM
2.11 IE6 Cookies

2.1 Converting PowerPoint Presentations

Web Course Builder comes with a filter that converts a Microsoft Power Point presentation into ReadyGo Web Course Builder course.

This filter will transfer selected PowerPoint page titles and bullet points into Web Course Builder as page titles and as bullets.
Note, PowerPoint text boxes, notes, and certain other elements will not be transferred as they are not placed on the "Clipboard" by Powerpoint.
Graphics need to be saved as individual files, and then brought into ReadyGo manually.

Net Links

Learn how to power your PowerPoint presentations

2.1.1 2.1a Convert PowerPoint to WCB

During the PowerPoint to WCB conversion, Web Course Builder will capture Page titles and bullets. These will be inserted into ReadyGo as page titles and bullets, respectively.

Every 20 pages, a new chapter break will be inserted during the copy process. If a page has more than 10 bullet points, the bullets will be split into several pages.

Step	Instruction	What it looks like
1	Open your PowerPoint document. From the outline view select the items you want to transfer to WCB.
2	>From the Edit menu, choose Copy.
3	In Web Course Builder, select the page where you want to insert the content. Choose "Edit", "Paste" from the menu bar, or right-click to get the pop-up menu from which you can select "Paste". The pages from PowerPoint will be inserted after the selected page.
4	Your PowerPoint bullet pages are copied into the ReadyGo Web Course Builder.

This process works best for PowerPoint presentations that are composed of pages with bullets. Graphics and text boxes are not copied into Web Course Builder automatically.

2.2 Services bar elements (FAQ's, Help, Glossary)

Services bar elements can be created by selecting an appropriate button from the "Course Properties" page (initial page of the course), or by selecting the menu Edit followed by the page that you are interested in.

2.2.1 2.2a Copying/Pasting Service Bar Elements

You can Copy and paste Glossary or Contacts elements from one course to another course by following the steps below.

Open the "Glossary" or "Contacts" element in WCB and select "Copy Glossary" or "Copy Contact Information"

Copy a glossary, and paste it into another course

Open the destination course where you wish to move this element, and select "Edit"| "Paste". Regenerate the course to see your new glossary.

2.3 Merging two or more courses

Web Course Builder allows you to merge the content of two or more courses. You can copy elements such as chapters and pages from one course and paste them into another course.

You can also copy chapters, pages, or the entire course, and paste it into your Word Processor. This operation will copy the text that makes up the course, and paste it so that you can print out the selected text easily.

Right click the blue book icon to copy course

To merge two courses, first right click on the "closed book" of the course you need to move, select "Copy" from the pop-up menu.
Then open your destination course and paste the content
You can copy the whole course, the last few chapters, individual pages, or the course setup by right clicking the element you want to copy. You can even copy just a drill-down element, such as a "Tell-me-more". Drill-down elements need to be pasted after bullet pages.

If you right click on the "closed book" (course properties) element, you will be given a choice of copying the entire course, the course setup (colors, fonts, labels, etc.) or just the course text.

It's True! Merging content could be a useful when 2 or more course creators are working on the same course, or when one course has content or configuration information that is useful in another course. You may, for example, want to create a course that just contains a "look and feel" that you like. Then, just copy the course setup from the template course to another course in order to apply the settings.

2.3.1 2.3a Copy course, chapter, or a page

Copy the course element you need and just paste it into the destination course

Step	Instruction	What it looks like
1	When you select "Copy" by right clicking after selecting the "blue book", a chapter, or a page, one of the following screens will appear.
2	Open the destination course and select "Edit" "Paste", or just right click where you want the element to be placed, and select "Paste"

2.4 Printing Your Course Text

You can print the text of your entire course.

To view and print the entire course, click Preview Text from the tool bar.

Your course text will open in your default word processor such as Microsoft Word or Notepad.

You can choose to include the course setup information, the glossary, the FAQ, and the Help/Contact Information with the course text.

You can also copy a part of a course, paste it into a word processor, and then print it. In the tree hierarchy, select the entire course (the top icon in the tree), a chapter, or a bullet page and press Ctrl+c. In your word processor, press Ctrl+v to paste the text.

To copy the glossary, FAQ, Contact Information, or the course labels, open the appropriate dialog box from the Edit menu and click the copy button.

It's True! You can select an element in the tree hierarchy, click your right mouse button, and choose Copy from the menu. Your course is saved on a clipboard. You can then paste your course into a word processor of your choice.

2.4.1 2.4a Printing your Course

2.5 Printing your Course with Graphics

You can create a version of your course including graphics that can be printed. This feature will create your course as a single web page that you can print from your browser.

To view and print your course including graphics, click Create Printable Version from the tool bar.

You select what sections of the course you want to print.

The printable version of the course will include graphics but will not include the sidebar and services bar.

The Course Map/Table of Contents if you choose to include it is placed at the beginning the printable version.

You can create a printable version of a subset of your course by selecting specific chapters/pages.

It's True! After printing your course, in the URL, just change index.htm to print.htm to view the printable version.

Tip If you have graphics that are too wide to be printed on your printer, enter a Maximum Graphic Display Width (pixels) that is appropriate for your printer to reduce the size of all your graphics.

2.6 Importing web pages

You can incorporate a web page built with another tool like Dreamweaver into your course.

Select the location in the tree window, right-click and choose Import HTML File.
You can specify the type of page you want your content imported as: bullet page, Try This exercise, Tell Me More article, Step-by-Step procedure, Test, Quiz, or a custom sub-page.
You can also go to any web page and copy the page, in ReadyGo WCB choose paste (special), the entire page along with any graphics or dynamic content will be brought into the ReadyGo WCB page.

2.6.1 2.6a Importing HTML files into your course

Step	Instruction	What it looks like
1	Right-click in the tree window where you want to import an HTML file and choose Import HTML File.
2	Click Select to find the HTML file on your computer.
3	To see your HTML page in a browser before you import it into your course, click View in Browser.
4	Select how you want the HTML file imported.
5	Select any special HTML you want ignored for the import.
6	Select Edit new page if you want to immediately open the dialog box for the imported content for editing.
7	Click Import.

2.7 Creating headers and footers

Optional HTML fields gives you the flexibility of adding headers and footers to every page of your course.

You might need to use a header or footer to date-stamp, place a copyright, or put any other information at the beginning or at the end of every page.

Here is a sample of an Optional HTML as a header.

2.8 Creating links to sites or files from graphics

You may use graphics within your course to link to external resources.

Click on the image to jump to ReadyGo site

Click the "Graphic/Applet" button, under the "Graphic Element Type "select "Local Image + link to URL"
Select the image you would like to use as a link
Type in the URL for the link in the "URL for Link" field. Click "Done", then regenerate the course.
To control the display size of any graphic, fill in the Height and/or Width fields. If you leave either of them as "-1", the browser will scale the image based on the other.

2.8.1 2.8a Finding the "Local Image + link to URL" screen

Use the "Graphic element type" pull down to select "Local image + Link to URL".

2.9 Editing the Graphic Archive

All graphics and sound files you add to your course are stored in the source file .wcg. This is also referred to as the graphic archive.

You can add new graphics and sound files directly to the course's graphic archive. You can also remove files from the graphic archive that are no longer being used in the course.

Add graphics and sound files directly to your archive to use in your course where there is no Graphic/Audio button.

To link to the graphic from your course after you have added it to the graphic archive, use the following HTML code: <img src="graphics/yourgraphic.png">

This allows you to easily place links to your graphics/multimedia from any location in your course content.

It's True! You can add any type of web readable graphic to the course archive including .png, .gif, .jpg. You can also include sound files, and PDF files.

2.9.1 2.9a Editing the graphic archive

Step	Instruction	What it looks like
1	Choose Edit > Graphic Archive from the menu bar. To add a file to the graphic archive, find the file on your computer in the dialog box, and click Add.
2	To remove a file from the graphic archive, select the file and click Remove.

2.10 Putting your course on a CD-ROM

It is quite easy to put a ReadyGo course onto a CD-ROM. The only tricky part is making sure that the course start page is in the correct location on the CD-ROM.

ReadyGo provides you with a program called browse.exe that will pop up the course in the student's browser when they insert the CD into their computer on an MS-Windows PC.

The steps to put your course on a CD-ROM are shown in the step-by-step below. Basically they are:

The files browse.exe and autorun.inf control the automatic startup of the course from the CD-ROM. These files are automatically placed into the top directory of your course when it is generated. The information in autorun.inf controls the options the user has if they right-click on the icon for the CD-ROM.
Load the course into your CD-writer software.
Set the root directory of the course to be the root directory of the CD

Burn the CD.

2.10.1 2.10a Procedure to put your course on a CD-ROM

Step	Instruction	What it looks like
1	Load the course directory into your CD-writer software. The main objective is to have the files index.htm, autorun.inf, browse.exe, etc., be in the top/root directory of your destination CD.
2	On some CD-writer software, you need to reparent the files. If your software has this feature, drag the parent directory ("your_course", in this case) into the CD-writer software, and then reparent the entire directory to be the top directory "\". On some systems, you can just drag all the files and directories that make up the course (e.g, index.htm, glossary, quiz, browse.exe) in as the top-level directory of your CD.
3	You may want to rename the CD (an option in some CD-writer software). Then, go ahead and write the CD. Once your CD is written, it should look like the figure. Test the CD to make sure that the course launches when you put the CD in your computer's CD drive.

Step

Instruction

What it looks like

1

Load the course directory into your CD-writer software. The main objective is to have the files index.htm, autorun.inf, browse.exe, etc., be in the top/root directory of your destination CD.

2

On some CD-writer software, you need to reparent the files. If your software has this feature, drag the parent directory ("your_course", in this case) into the CD-writer software, and then reparent the entire directory to be the top directory "\".

On some systems, you can just drag all the files and directories that make up the course (e.g, index.htm, glossary, quiz, browse.exe) in as the top-level directory of your CD.

3

You may want to rename the CD (an option in some CD-writer software). Then, go ahead and write the CD. Once your CD is written, it should look like the figure.

Test the CD to make sure that the course launches when you put the CD in your computer's CD drive.

Don't be discouraged if you waste a few blank CDs learning how to do this. Each CD-writer software behaves a little differently.

2.11 IE6 Cookies

This only affects the operation of Server Side Testing, which requires cookies to keep track of the student.

For Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft has changed the default settings for cookies. Improper setting of cookies, makes SST ask the student to re-register.

If cookies are not enabled correctly, the student may receive the pop-up shown in the graphic.

The student will definitely see the red circle with white bar ("no entry") mark in the lower right area of their status bar.

2.11.1 2.11a Setting Cookies on IE6

This procedure describes an easy way to enable cookies for Microsoft IE6 so that Server Side Testing will function correctly.

Step	Instruction	What it looks like
1	The student will either see this pop-up, or they will see the red circle/white bar as indicated in the graphic.
2	The student can find out the name of the server from which the cookie was blocked by clicking on the "cookie-blockage" status information (red circle/white area). In this case, the domain of interest is http://158.184.4.155/ The additional information may be left off. The domain may also, for example, be of the form http://www.readygo.com/
3	To modify the settings, the student can either navigate through the menus: Tools \| Internet Options... and then select the Privacy tab, or they can click on Settings from the privacy warning window (step 1). In this window, the user should click on the Edit... button in the lower right, under "Web Sites". This gives permission to add/block cookies from individual servers.
4	The student should input or select the domain for the SST server (it should appear in the drop-down menu), and select Allow
5	At this point, the student should apply the settings, and re-register for the course.

3.More Advanced Features

These features take a little HTML coding - but are not too hard to do.

3.1 Adding a Progress Bar
3.2 Adding graphics to your test questions
3.3 Modifying the default instruction page
3.4 Advanced page numbering
3.5 Creating a text box

3.1 Adding a Progress Bar

To add a progress bar to your course add the following to either the Footer or the Header entry under Appearance | Labels and Text...

To change the color of the box:

Go to the line that reads: str+= 'text-align:left;width:300pt;border:2pt solid black;"><span ';

Change the word "black" to the color of choice, or use the HTML hex tag to define the color of choice.

To change the color of the bar:

Go to the line that reads: 'style="text-align:left;color:blue;background-color:#002e5d;font-size:10pt;">';<br />

Change the word "blue" to the color of choice, or use the HTML hex tag to define the color of choice.

About HTML Hex tags

On the web all colors start with # and then have six numbers. If you want a specific color you can go to this page to : find out the color's hex tag

3.2 Adding graphics to your test questions

You can add graphics to non graphic based test questions.

There are two steps required so you can add a graphic to a text box based test question.

Add a graphic you'd like to use to the archive of your course

Insert the HTML (shown below) into the body of your test question

Here is a sample of simple HTML that will allow you to insert a graphic in your test question:

<BR><IMG SRC="graphics/your_graphic_file.jpg">

Insert this HTML in the body of the question as shown on the image. Make sure to replace the name of the graphic file with the one you added to the archive

Enter shown HTML to your test question to add a graphic

To add a graphic to your course, select the menu Edit | Graphics Archive. Navigate to the graphic, and click the Add button.

In Version 5.0 of ReadyGo, simply copy the graphic and paste it into the question, answer, or feedback area.

The test, found below, provides a sample of a graphic used within a test question.

It's True! You can also use this procedure to add graphics to test answers and to Quiz pages.

3.2.1 3.2a Using graphics in test questions

ReadyGo supports 15 different types of test questions including test questions build with other tools. The test on the last page of chapter two includes all types of ReadyGo test questions. If you pass the last test in the course you will receive a certificate.

3.3 Modifying the default instruction page

An instruction page is generated in your course by default. This page helps students understand how to use the course. You can modify the page for all your courses or you can disable it entirely.

ReadyGo has provided a template file that contains all the instructions. This file is called \program files\readygo\instruct.ht1. The file is written in HTML, so you can edit it. However, do not edit this file using Microsoft Front Page or Word. These applications insert unnecessary format statements that will damage the template with respect to Web Course Builder. We recommend using a basic text editor such as "Notepad."

When editing this file, please leave comment fields unchanged, and please leave any text that appears in capital letters, such as HOME unchanged. During course generation, these are replaced by the software with the custom labels you have chosen. Also, do not change the names of the graphic files such as images/nextbtn0.png. Web Course Builder automatically updates the images to any customized graphics you have set up for your course.

Modify side bar width by changing pixel value

To disable the instruction page, select Do not generate Instruction page... from the Customize | Labels and Text... dialog shown above.

If you are using the All Layout Controlled by Style Sheets option, the instruction template file is called \program files\readygo\instr1.ht1.

It's True! If you customize the instruction page, all future courses will use the new template.

3.4 Advanced page numbering

Sometimes you want to add page numbering that has page "3 of 17".

If you want the page numbering to appear on each page you will need to put it in the header or footer.

Here is the code you need to drop in:

3.5 Creating a text box

Sometimes you might want to create a text box. To do that

<br><br>
<div style="height:150px;width:425px;overflow:scroll;">
enter your text here
</div>

This is what a text box looks like. You can use it if you want scrolling text. Put your own text where it says "enter your text here"

You can make the box longer or wider by changing the height or width. The sample box is currently 100px high and 100px wide.

Animated Gif

A series of gif files that are run in a sequence so that they appear to be moving.

Animation Programs

Software that let's users create a sequence of moving graphics

Architecture

The fundamental foundation of how a computer program is designed and organized.

Asynchronous Learning

When people are learning on their own.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have a question? We may have already answered it. Check below to see if you can find the answer to your question.

Questions

Answers

Contact/Help Information

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