The Storyboard Builder The Storyboard Builder is used to create Storyboards for the lessons and is a tool written in ToolBook that allows the Writers to create storyboards where the data is exported to an ini file. That ini file is then used by the Lesson Builder to build the final tbk that is near ready to be exported to HTML for deployment. The Storyboard Builder provides the Writers with pre-approved scenarios to choose from as they write a Storyboard for a Topic (Lesson). A Menu Bar provides access to most of the functionality. Note: You will observe that we have developed a uniform naming system for all files in a project. Our code depends upon this in a number of places. Thus, a final tbk might be named RDS_100_300.tbk where RDS_100 is a Project Code and 300 is the reference to a specific book. Additionally, each project is given a Project ID which separates comments in the Database. Here you see a Project ID of 1 being assigned.

The Menu Bar

Each Storyboard file will have a Menu Bar that provides most all of the functionality of the tool. There are eight menu items as shown here.

Quick Navigation

Clicking Quick Navigation gives the drop-down menu as shown here.

The Show Screen List option gives a Popup Screen List as shown below. This list can be printed for reference when the Writer has to do the screen captures. It also can be used for navigation to any screen in the lesson.

Inserting Content Screens

The Insert Content Screens menu gives options for inserting the various types of content screens (pages) for any given lesson.

Inserting Quiz Screens

The Insert Quiz Screens menu allows you to insert the various screens (pages) to build a quiz.

Inserting Simulation Screens

The Insert Sim Screens menu allows you to insert the various screens (Page types) to build a Simulation lesson.

Maintenance

The Maintenance menu provides options for copying, pasting and deleting any screen. There also is a Compact File utility and Spelling Check. The Store Data option allows the Writer to export the data to an ini file which is used by the Developer to create the lesson book.

This is the Spelling Check dialog box which makes use of the Word Spelling functionality.

Format Text

The Format Text menu contains options for adding bold formatting to both text displayed by the Simulation as well as other text on any screen.

Find/Replace

The Find/Replace Menu allows you to search for and replace text.

Help

The Help menu provides options for viewing the various screen types. It also has an option to display the Screen List described earlier.

Starting a Lesson Storyboard

The Writer begins a lesson by entering the required information for the Title page of one of the files listed above. The Writer enters their name, the name of the lesson, and the introductory text. Input fields are provided.  The Topic number and Book Name (the same as the Topic number) fields are populated based upon the name of the file. The naming conventions will be addressed later on in this document. For all screens, the name (Title) will appear in the upper-left corner, the Screen Number in the middle, and the Topic number below the Title. A Save button at the bottom is used to save the data and a Navigation Bar is located in the bottom right. 

Storyboard Builder Navigation

The Navigation Bar (bottom-right) will most of the time contain four buttons as shown here.  This is the Writer's primary means of navigating through the pages (screens). The Popup Screen List can be used to quickly navigate to any page.

Inserting Screens

Screens (pages) are added by making choices from the drop-down menu optionS show earlier. As an example, to build a Simulation, existing scenarios include such actions as these: Learner clicks once on a screen to advance to the next screen. or Learner types input into an active field and clicks a button. The Writer chooses the scenario from the Insert Sim Screens drop-down menu as shown here.  In this case, Scenario A has been chosen as the screen to insert.

Adding Information to Storyboard

After inserting a screen, the Writer fills in the data on a form-like screen using sample text provided for any specific scenario. A Save button is clicked to save the file at any point during the process. A Page Metaphor is used with each page corresponding to a screen. Page Names are assigned as each scenario is added with the Writer deciding the order. In the example shown below, the Topic ID is 100_300 and the page is 105, so the Page Name is 100_300_105 and the screenshot is named automatically (100_300_105.gif). Note the generic text for some of the form fields along with the examples provided for this particular scenario, Scenario A: User clicks once to advance to the next screen.

The graphic below shows what this page (screen) would look like after all the information has been entered by a Writer.

Reordering Screens

The Writer can easily reorder (and rename) a screen as needed. This is accomplished by changing the number in the Screen Number field and clicking the Update button. If the order of the pages are changed, the Page Names (and therefore the Screenshot Names) can be changed by typing in the Page Name field. Also, as described earlier, the Maintenance Menu has options for copying, pasting, and deleting pages.

Exporting the Data

When the Writer has completed the Storyboard for a lesson, the data is stored (exported to an ini file) by click the Store Data option from the Maintenance menu. This file is then passed on to the Developer along with the graphics.

Click here to view a sample ini file. The next section will discuss how the Lesson Builder part of the RDS handles this file.