It’s usually it is the little things that will drive one to brink of madness. By their very nature, though, little things are…little. That makes them a bit less threatening than a giant SNAFU…but infinitely harder to find. For example, I recently had a little problem with an Articulate interaction I created to add some zazz to the course I was animating.
The interaction seemed to come together pretty well. The settings, color scheme, fonts, tabs, controls, and whatnot were all aligned with my organization’s specifications. A little slice of heaven.
Much to my chagrin, when I previewed the interaction, I discovered that the audio file would begin to play when it should…and then start over for a second time at about 5 seconds in. Basically, it sounded like a slightly delayed echo from the bottom of a garbage can.
Naturally, I was a little irritated because I’d have to redo the audio. So, I opened the interaction file once more and re-installed the audio file. I saved and republished the interaction—same problem.
Hmmmm…OK, now it was ratcheting up my frustration level. I mean, I’ve created HOW many of these in the past? What was the problem? One more time…
After repeating the process again, and finding the same echoing double-audio, I tried the program’s “Help” option. The information in “Help” rarely holds any answers for me, and this time was no different. So, I started looking for answers online. I tried a few message boards, including the Articulate site’s posting areas. I found nothing.
I’m guessing that, at this point, you as the reader are getting as frustrated with me as I was with Articulate…so I’ll cut the chase!
I finally found an obscure post on a site that had little to do with Articulate or e-learning. I had wasted time, effort, and my last iota of self control—but I had finally found an answer I hadn’t read before. It said that the problem of double-audio in an interaction could be the result of having punctuation symbols in the file's save-name. What? This solution seemed SO disconnected from the actual problem, and everything else I’d read or experienced, that I assumed it was a sham.
Since it was such a simple little fix I thought I’d give it a try. I found the Articulate interaction file in the course material, and I removed the em-dash from the save-name…and I’ll be darned if it didn’t work like a charm! That was it! All that messing around, swearing, stomping to-and-fro like a toddler in a poo poo diaper…just one TINY edit to the file name and my problem was solved.
I know…bizarre.
At any rate, the point of this wandering little reverie is that sometimes, when things aren’t working out, it’s just a little tweak that makes a big difference. Next time I have a little issue with a job, I plan to take a little break, do a little research, and maybe save the last little sliver of my mind…
nice man... totally wouldn't have thought that either!
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