Lectora Publisher.

Lectora Publisher, CD-ROM, 2006, Trivantis, $2790.

Support: QuickStart Guide, User's Guide.

Lectora 2006 is an extremely full-featured instructional authoring tool that allows users to develop and publish instructional (and other) content to multiple formats, including HTML, CD, and single file executable. Content can be authored to conform to learning standards such as SCORM or AICC. I didn't test standards capabilities in this review.

The best way to review an authoring tool is to create real content with it. Clients and others have asked me to deliver our instructional design workshops online, and I seized this opportunity to get that underway. I built a short self-paced module that I will add to later by designing better multiple-choice questions using Lectora. It can be viewed here.

Tough love for authoring tools

Let me explain from the get-go that I'm a pretty harsh reviewer of authoring tools, especially instructional authoring tools. I strongly believe that instructional designers must first determine what learners should be able to DO as a result of the instruction and only then build instruction that allows people to practice doing those things. That means the instructional need comes first, and tools are chosen because they help you fulfill that need. Picking a tool first too often means that you need to develop what the tool allows you to develop, not the other way around. That's a recipe for inadequate instruction.

Rather than make you wait, here's the punch line: Lectora 2006 is a really good tool with a lot of functionality. I plan to keep using it and improving what I can do with it. Almost any developer who needs to develop online content would find this tool incredibly useful--and that's strong praise from me.

That's not to say I wasn't frustrated at times because I was. Some things didn't work as expected, and it occasionally took me a while to figure out what to do.

Contrary to any hype to the contrary, Lectora (and any other authoring tool that I know of) will not automatically transform someone into a great instructional developer. That's marketing hype, and like most hype, it's overly simplified. To build great instruction, you need to either have solid instructional design skills (regardless of your job or title) or a good instructional designer on your team. And the tool certainly has a learning curve. But considering how feature-filled it is, the learning curve is comparatively small.

It took me four days of playing around, using the PDF documentation, reviewing the online Knowledge Base information, and asking question on the Community Forums before I felt like I knew how to make Lectora do most of what I wanted. Some of its mechanisms seemed counter-intuitive to me (because I am used to mucking around in the actual code). I certainly have more to learn to become more expert, but unlike some other authoring tools I've reviewed, I fully intend to do that. This tool is worth the effort to learn because it's useful and likely to have a high return on investment.

Lectora development concepts

There are some concepts that Lectora users need to understand to use the tool to its full advantage. Lectora's development metaphor is a book, with the top level course or module under development called the "title" and divisions of the course or module called "chapters," "sections," and "pages." It's an easy metaphor to understand, and, while it might seem to lend itself to linear design, branching is easily accomplished through use of actions and variables. Using actions and variables is more of an advanced skill so the ability to design more complex instruction may take some time for new developers.

Lectora's left development pane (see screen capture below) shows the elements placed inside the project, organized in a familiar tree view. Once you place items (chapters, pages, actions, etc.) here, you can drag, drop, cut, copy, paste, and rearrange them. So, for example, if you develop a chapter 1 introduction page that has specific elements and actions that you wish to appear in all chapter introductions, you can copy the page and paste it where you want the introduction pages to appear and then change the text as needed. Very useful.

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The layout pane in the center is where the user adds elements such as text and graphics to individual pages. Lectora includes numerous useful tools to help you, including a button wizard, which allows you to quickly create buttons to place on the page. Once added, you can change properties such as what happens when you click on the button. This might include new text appearing, submitting form data, and so on.

"Inheritance," a central and critical concept for developing in Lectora, means that whatever objects and actions you place at the title level appear on all chapters and pages below it. Whatever graphics, text, or actions you place on a top level (title, chapter, or section), all the pages within this level will also have these graphics, text, or actions.

Here are some examples of how powerful and helpful this is. If you build a navigation menu and place it on the title level, it appears on all chapters, sections, and pages. Ditto for the forward and back buttons, copyright text, logo, etc. This reduces development time. If you don't want certain items to appear in certain places, you can change inheritance properties and select which items you don't want that page to inherit. So, for example, you will likely want to disinherit the back button on the home page and disinherit the forward button on the last page.

Installation and initial use

Rating 3.5

I'm a jump-in-and-get-started kind of person, but it's advisable to take time to flowchart or storyboard what you intend to build first, especially if you're a novice instructional designer or developer. Not doing this is like starting to paint your walls without taping around the baseboards and window moldings. You certainly can do it this way, but you're likely to have far more cleanup than if you do the prep work first.

I didn't follow this advice (do what I say, not what I do ...) and then spent a fair amount of time fixing my pages. The good news is that Lectora is very forgiving if you tend to work this way ... but I still don't recommend it. Next time I'm going to use a mind mapping tool like Inspiration, MindManager, or gliffy.com (is this cool or what?) to map the entire project. It will save me time and aggravation.

Installation was easy and getting started was simple. I skimmed the short QuickStart Guide and started building. I recommend that you also skim the PDF User Guide, especially Chapter 1 and 2. Then keep it open to refer to as you play.

Documentation

Rating: 2.5

I am so looking forward to the day when I can give an authoring tool a high rating for documentation. Although the documentation is decent compared to some other tools, I am removing points here because it's not as good as it could he (and in my view, should be). The problem is that the information you need is often available, just not all in one place. So folks new to authoring and new to figuring out how to get help are bound to be frustrated. And folks who know little about instructional design won't even know what they should do with the tool. (These comments pertain to most authoring tools, not only this one.)

I have used plenty of authoring tools that have poor documentation, but I can usually purchase books that help me gain expertise. I searched Amazon.com for Lectora books and didn't find any. Someone needs to write some (hmmmm....). Plus, I think an authoring tool that is meant for designing instruction should provide some advice on how to build decent instruction with it (hmmm again).

The QuickStart Guide helps experienced developers like me get going right away. The User's Guide and embedded help are also helpful when you have a question, but they often don't go far enough. I was more than occasionally frustrated because some things didn't work as I expected based on my prior web authoring experience. Some of the most powerful functionalities, actions and variables aren't well explained anywhere.

The documentation often explains that whats and the basics of the how-tos, but doesn't explain the how-tos and what to expect in enough depth. For example, the powerful Add HTML feature drove me crazy for a few days until a kind person in the Community Forum told me that I wouldn't be able to see the result of my actions until I previewed in a browser. I still don't have that working right.

Here's where you need to go to get help with things that aren't well explained in the User's Guide--the Knowledge Base and the Community Forums. I recommend that you search the Knowledge Base first for any questions you have. Many of the problems I dealt with early on had answers there.

Then if your question isn't addressed, post your question in the Community Forums. One last recommendation: start by building something small so you understand how the program works, then skim the Knowledge Base articles to see the most common issues and how to handle them.

Trivantis recommends that new-to-the-tool developers attend their classroom-based training and after using the product for a short while, I think I agree. If you're going to buy a product this full featured, you might as well know how to make the most of it. They also have online self-paced training, which provides training on some of the fundamentals but is not meant to be a substitute for the classroom instruction.

Help/Support

Rating: 3

I had lots of question as I worked. The help files were easier to use than most because context sensitive help was easily available. When you right click on an object on the screen (for example, text or a graphic), help is one of the right-click menu items. When you select help, information about how to manipulate that type of object is shown. That's a great feature. Basic answers, like what text properties can be manipulated, are easy to find this way.

If you needed to figure out why something didn't work as expected, help was less, uh, helpful. That's when you need to turn to the User's Guide and if that doesn't work, the Knowledge Base or Community Forum. When I reviewed the available online tutorials ($495 for six months of use), I found some answers to questions I had about certain actions and interactions. For example, I learned how to use transparent buttons to make hotspots and how to display text that changes as a result of a variable such as today's date.

Technical support costs $195 a year for Lectora Publisher and $295 a year for Lectora Professional Publishing Suite. That's probably money well spent. Classroom training is offered at Trivantis's Cincinnati and Boca Raton locations and can be held onsite as well. Because Lectora is so full featured, it probably makes sense to attend the training or at least purchase the online modules.

Interface

Rating: 3.5

The screenshot above shows the Lectora interface in Edit Mode with my project open. At the top are the menus and toolbars. On the left is the development pane, where chapters, sections, pages, actions, images, and more are added. In Edit Mode, you can add, delete, and change text, attributes, and properties. A project can be viewed in Edit Mode (what you see above); Run Mode, which allows you to quickly test navigation and interactions; and Preview Mode, which simulates how the page will work in a browser window.

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The ability to switch easily between developing and testing is extremely helpful (and satisfying). Some things that work as expected in Run Mode do not run as expected when previewed in a browser or when published. Be prepared to make tweaks after you publish a project.

The screen captures below show how the multiple-choice question text in the blue box in the previous sample page looks different in Lectora Edit Mode (left) and in an IE preview (right).

I tried using Lectora's Add HTML feature to code the text to look exactly how I wanted (this is the exact reason I tell new developers that they need to learn to do some coding) but didn't get that to work quite right. Someone in the Community Forum suggested that I use the render text as a graphic functionality, and I ended doing that but was unhappy about needing to do that.

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Ease of Use

Rating: 3.5

This tool certainly has a learning curve and you'd expect that, given how many features it has. But all the tools Lectora provides shorten the learning curve. For example, when you begin a new title (this is what Lectora calls each project) rather than start with a blank page, you can use the Title Wizard or the Design Gallery CD that contains many interface designs. I selected one of the interface designs on the CD for my project and then tweaked it a bit. (One appeal to Trivantis: Please make it possible to enlarge the thumbnails on the Gallery CD to make it easier to select just the right one!) This functionality means that you can concentrate on content and activities, which are the heart of good instruction. I love the Design Gallery!

An average instructional developer can be reasonably proficient in three to four days so it's not a difficult tool to learn. The Pro version (which is the edition I tested) has image editing tools, and I found them to be quite useful. There are also video and audio editing tools in the Pro version, but I didn't try them (but plan to). I added a little bit of audio in my project but I wanted the audio to be MP3 (Lectora's audio tool doesn't compress as MP3) so I used a podcasting tool, ePodcastCreator, that converts audio files to MP3 and then easily brought the file into Lectora. That's another plus. Bringing in outside files such as Flash, PDFs, and audio is very easy. When I imported the audio file, the import dialog box prompted me to select that I wanted the application to create the audio controls (play, stop, etc.) for it. Wow, nice!

This program would be far easier, I think, for a novice to learn than a more general-purpose web authoring tool because it has a lot of built-in functionalities (interface design gallery, testing, actions, button wizard, etc.), and it's not a particularly difficult program to use, with the exception of some of the advanced functionalities.

The downside, if it can be called that, is that new developers using this tool will not learn what's happening behind the scenes, and knowing how the code works makes for a better developer, in my view of the world. Because of the incredible flexibility of the tool, more experienced developers would benefit because they could quickly build the framework for the content they wish to develop and then concentrate on using variables and actions, bringing in desired outside files, and adding their own coding (HTML, PHP, ASP, etc.).

Best uses/Functionalities

Rating: 4

This category isn't included in the ratings box at the end of the review, but it's important one for authoring tools. Lectora can be used to build almost any kind of asynchronous web content you can imagine. It is extremely flexible and contains valuable and relatively easy-to-use tools that facilitate building content interactions, tests, and importing all manner of other files such as PDF, audio, and Flash.

The last time I reviewed this tool, I complained about some functionalities that weren't available, including an eyedropper tool to match color, table formatting options (such as table padding), and drag and drop. Almost everything I whined about is in Lectora 2006, and it makes an already good tool even better. It also means Trivantis listens to developers, a good sign indeed.

For instructional use, this program lends itself to building self-paced modules and lessons that include quizzes/tests, media, and content interactivity. The biggest limitation, in my mind, is not being able to manipulate the code inside the program--less overwhelming for beginners but less flexible for more experienced developers. The ability to add code created outside of Lectora is a big help but isn't as easy or as powerful as being able to muck around with the underlying code. A more experienced developer could publish the course to HTML pages and then work with code there, of course.

These are some of the features I especially like:

* Inheritance

* Button wizard

* Spell check

* Right-click context sensitive menus and help

* Design Gallery CD

* Actions

* Properties

* Table of contents tool and Add menu tool

* Page numbering tool

* Preview and test in Run Mode and in a browser

* Ease of making changes and moving pages around in the title

Here are some features I read about in the User Guide and want to try:

* Screen captures

* SCORM compliance

* Complex branching using variables

* Retaining variables between user sessions 

* Printing screens as outlines and storyboards

Here are some features I played with but couldn't get to work the way I wanted (some of which could be my fault, or as my husband calls it, OE):

* Add HTML (I think I worked out how to get what I want, but it involves using another HTML development tool, and that seemed like too much effort.)

* FTP (I used an external FTP client to upload my files because the Lectora FTP functionality connected but didn't upload my files.)

Here are some features I wanted but aren't available:

* External CSS style sheet support or another reliable way to format text on the screen

* See and work with underlying code

* More control over test question feedback

Compatibility

Rating: 4

This category isn't part of the standard TMR ratings either, but Lectora has exceptionally strong compatibility with other web objects and programming code. The list below shows the breadth of file types supported by Lectora.

The ability to use and import a wide variety of file types means that a developer is not going to find herself only able to develop what the tool itself allows (which is quite a lct). Lectora doesn't box you into a build-this-and-nothing-else mindset and plays nicely with other tools and programming.

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Value for the money

Rating: 3.5

Value isn't strictly about money It's about what you get for what you pay. So. for example, expensive bookshelves that are built so well that you can hand them down to your grandchildren are more valuable than the stuff that falls apart the fist time you try to move them. (I know this because I made this mistake too many times.) Cheaper is sometimes more expensive in the long run.

One of the questions I get asked all the time is "What tool should I buy?" In the past, I have answered that this is the wrong question. First of all, most tools don't do enough for one tool to be THE ANSWER. So the initial question should be "What kinds of instruction do you need to build?" And then those needs are matched with various tools that hopefully play nicely together.

I think I can now say that if you want to build self-paced interactive content and you want to purchase one tool that does much of what you will need it to do, Lectora is a great choice. The embedded tools and the enclosed graphical templates will provide a new or average developer with a very strong toolset for creating instructional content.

Lectora Professional Publishing suite, the version I reviewed (there is a less expensive version), sells for $2,790 per license. So it's rather expensive tool. But time is money and Lectora reduces the time it takes to develop so the value proposition, as the marketing guys are so fond of saying, is compelling.

If you want to be able to develop instructional content and need a product with lots of functionality (especially if you are willing to learn how to maximize use of actions and variables), you won't be disappointed with Lectora. If you are a novice developer and want to grow as a web developer, you will likely need to use standard web authoring tools at some point so I'm conflicted.

But they're not mutually exclusive. You can use them both. Or some folks in the organization could use Lectora and others could use standard web authoring tools. And they'd play nicely together. I like the tool a lot and am likely to continue using it as part of my instructional development toolbox and recommend it to clients and workshop participants.

Overall rating: 3.5

A 4 here would mean there's no room for improvement. I can't imagine that ever being the case! So I'm giving Lectora and a 3.5/4, which is equal to 90%. Add better documentation and the ability to muck around in the code, and it'd be as close to perfect as I could imagine. Still, 90% is an amazing score. The fact that the product was good last time I reviewed it and is far better now means Trivantis is doing what's needed to continue to provide a feature-rich, versatile instructional authoring tool.

If you want to develop self-paced instructional content and are going to expend the time and effort needed to use its more advanced functionalities, I'd heartily recommend buying the tool. If you are only going to put up simple content and graphics and not use its more advanced functionalities, Lectora will save you time, but the cost may be prohibitive. A PowerPoint-to-Flash authoring tool like Articulate Presenter would do the job for minimal investment.

Recommendation

I liked Lectora a lot the last time I reviewed it, but I didn't change my normal way of building this kind of content after reviewing it. The changes that have been made since I last reviewed it have me thinking I'll use Lectora as a starting point for much of the self-paced content I build. Lectora gets a thumbs up from me.

Review by Patti Shank 

Product Ratings

Lectora Publisher

Interface             *** 1/2
Ease of use           *** 1/2
Ease of installation  *** 1/2
Documentation         ** 1/2
Value for the money   *** 1/2
Overall rating        *** 1/2