Taking a look at CS4

Well, the new Adobe CS4 is looking pretty awesome - especially all the new integration options between products like the InDesign export feature to Flash in order to animate PDF's. In E-learning we are still using "traditional" print methods to create simple job aids and giving the learner access to the documents as PDF's. Making the reading experience more interactive and visually relevant - like a simple animation of how to put together a desk or chair (thin of those impossible to read Ikea instructions).

Flash paper magazines (http://issuu.com/)and ads are going to continue to grow in popularity and I predict will eventually go a long way towards replacing printed magazines. The new conditional text feature is also very cool - we are now expected to produce training for a global audience and this gives us the opportunity to produce materials for instructor lead training and e-learning in several different languages with the same layout and consistent look.

The ability to create animations, interactive buttons, and page transitions with out having to know or use Flash is also a great feature for instructional designers who do not trained instructional technologists - or who simply don't have the time or budget for custom Flash development.

I'm off to explore the new Flash features now and will post on what I learn and how it can be best applied to improving e-learning and training in my next post.