The Office Train Movies

Pedogogically, this Microsoft office cameraman assignment is a little like making lego-bricks. Any one clip is just one basic element of an overall instructional period or lesson plan. An instructor is likely to need a sequence of many of these clips. However, you are planning and designing at more elemental level than a lesson plan. Yet, given the complexity of the task of working with computers and audio and video, even this has its challenges. With enough of these clips, you can use web pages to re-assemble this digital video into a wide variety of larger scale designs as needed.

Assignment: develop a set of training video clips on very specific features of Microsoft Office. Major production values for this week: have them done on time and around 1.3 meg. or less in size. That is, they will fit on a HD diskette. However, this file size is required also because of the network transmission time of files larger than a HD disk.

Our goal is to develop the skills to create a collection of useable training clips that will be used by students and faculty at their workstations on campus. They will call up the clips on an as-needed basis. Others doing workshops can assemble various sequences of these clips for their own needs. See the assignments page for details related to next weeks work. Also study the work of your classmates to make sure that you do not repeat work already done.

Table of Contents

The Office Train Movies
Review Each Other's Work and Be Ready in class to Add Your Critique to mine below
Class, this is exciting work. Keep up the good work. But keep a thick skin when it comes to feedback and keep improving. It is good procedure for everyone to have someone else listen to your videoclip and tell you if your words are clear and understandable. We may not be the best judge of our own audio, any more than the writer is the best person to spot his or her own typo's.

Special Notes: Background sounds overall are one of our more common problems. See me about a sound proof location for doing your audio. I have one available now on campus in Hunter Library. Most mornings and many afternoon hours are available. You will have to call for appointments. Those during this work off-campus, please do what you can to control your sound environment.

Watch for Re-do after one of your clips, indicating that you need to do this work again taking care of the concerns noted in my comments.

    Word

    Word (Steve):

  1. Cut and Paste Text (1446K).
    Comments:

  2. Make a New Document (1273K).
    Comments:

  3. Change Text Color. (1273K).
    Comments:

  4. Un-do Bold Text (1273K).
    Comments:

    Word (Dora):
    I only found three clips. Let me know when they others are in so that they can be inserted here.

  5. Saving a File that has already been saved to the correct location once. (457K) old version.
    Comments:Directions are clear and easy to follow.

  6. Saving a File that has already been saved to the correct location once. (1273K).
    Comments: This new clip does not play.

  7. Close a Window, old version (347).
    • Comments: This shows a good use of a large bold font to create the title of your clip while you are talking about it.
    • Your voice level is a bit soft.

  8. Close a Window (xxx).
    • Comments: Does not play. Resave as movie file.

  9. Finder, new (1454K).
    • Comments: Does not play. Resave as movie file.

  10. Quit (460K).
      Comments: Old version Clear and easy to follow steps but background sounds are too distracting. Also, there are a couple of seconds of "air" on the end that could be clipped off better as you gain experience with the stop key timing.

  11. Quit (xxxK).
      Comments: New version but does not play.

  12. Show or Hide Invisible Characters (868K).
      Comments: Clear and easy to follow steps but it is not playing. Suspect that it needs to be saved as a movie file.

    Word (Sheri):

  13. Copy and Paste (10K).
    Comments: Re-do. I suspect that the file did not save properly. Double-check your files to make sure they are working. Put the working version of this file in your course folder and let me know when it arrives so that I can update this link.

  14. Change text to Bold (399K).
    Comments: Clear and easy to follow. Add a little more enthusiasm to your intonation.

  15. Change text to Italics (416K).
    Comments:

    Clear and easy to follow.

  16. Use Print Preview to determine how the entire page will look (416K).
    Comments: Clear and easy to follow.

  17. Place an Underline beneath your text (333K).
    Comments: Clear and easy to understand.

    PowerPoint

    Powerpoint (Scott):

  18. Inserting a Movie Clip into a Slide (1190K).
    Comments: Small screen format appears to be embedded in a large screen format.

    Powerpoint (Susan):

  19. Annotating a Slide Part 1 (1318K).
    Comments: Well done. Pace is better. Relax as you talk and be conversational. Speak as if the person was right there with you and you were talking to them. They will appreciate both enthusiasm and directness.

  20. Annotating a Slide Review and the Effects of Slide Movement (1520K).
    Comments: Well done.

    Powerpoint (Dora):

  21. Add Clipart to a slide and to the Clip Art Gallery (4487K).
    Comments: Does not play over the web. This appears to be identical to the second version.

  22. Add Clipart to a slide and to the Clip Art Gallery 2 (xxxK).
    Comments: Does not play over the web. It appears to me that you are taking clipart from the clipart gallery and then adding it back again to the Gallery? Yes?

    Powerpoint (Jim):
    See if you can soften the edge of your voice a bit as that may have just as much impact as lowering your volume level.

  23. Choose a New Color Scheme (background and foreground colors) (2585K).
    Comments: Re-do. This file size is too large. Break it into two smaller clips. Picking up the pace just a bit might also create a smaller file.

  24. Change a Slide Layout (1217K).
    Comments: Clear and easy to follow.

  25. Create a new slide (1497K).
    Comments: Clear and easy to follow. Any text that accompanies this clip should explain the term placeholder that you use. It is a good term, it just needs some unpacking and text is more appropriate for such detail than the audio track.

  26. Change the text of the title frame in a slide or all slides (2347K).
    Comments: Re-do.
    • Your opening words are clipped and lost. Watch the timing of your voice with the start button.
    • This file size is too large. Break it into two or more smaller clips.

  27. Closing a File and Choosing to update work by save or not saving (1804K).
    Comments: Re-do.
    • You have a sentence that says in part "choose Yes or Save...." There is no Yes to choose, only Don't Save. There are other errors here. Let's toss this one away. Watch your script and edit it as you go to be efficient in your work time.
    • This file size is too large. Break it into two smaller clips or find a way to shave 3-4 kilobytes off this one.

    Powerpoint (Gudrun):
    I found only four clips. Let me know when you have finished the fifth so that I can insert it here.

  28. Type Text on a Slide (716K).
    Comments: It should not be necessary to use audio space to tell the user which application they will be learning about. The links and text on the web page should be adequate for this.

  29. Copy and Paste under pointer control (491K).
    Comments: Voice level is fine and words are clear enough.

  30. Insert Word Art (1342K), old version.
    Comments: Re-do. To help with voice clarity, put the title of your clip in the Powerpoint page, "Creating and Inserting Word Art." Watch your articulation.

  31. Insert Word Art (1293K), new version.
    Comments: Well done.

  32. Making and Inserting a Graph (1586K), new.
    Comments: Well done.

  33. Add Clip Art to a Slide (662K)
    Comments: You have nearly a six second pause with no audio or event happening on the screen. You may need to press pause before some action which takes a long time to create on the screen, since cameraman slows down the computer's operation. Use your audio to put the screen pointer on the command, telling us an action is about to happen, but do not click. Tap your pause button. Then click the mouse to force the creation of the next screen. When it is done, turn off pause and continue your narrative.

    Excel

    Excel (Susan):

  34. Delete a Row in the Spreadsheet (870K).
    Comments: Too long an opening audio space before starting. Action should begin almost as soon as the screen displays.

  35. Enter Numbers into Cells (1001K).
    Comments: Directions are easy to follow. Pace is a bit slow. Rehearse the events before you use the microphone to keep your confidence up.

  36. Use the Formula Bar to Edit Cell Data (1136K).
    Comments: Steps are easy to follow.

  37. Insert Rows into the Spreadsheet (1084K).
    Comments: Steps are easy to follow.

  38. Enter Text Into Cells (1044K).
    Comments: Steps are easy to follow.

    Excel (Scott):
    Overall, work on your volume and pitch.

  39. Changing the style of text (494K).
    Comments: Re-do. I really like this pace of this. This is not too fast It keeps my attention moving along. Opening words are chopped. Double-check your work as you go.

  40. Use the help button on the standard toolbar to explain various menu commands (766K).
    Comments:
    • Important feature to explain.
    • Voice is a bit rough. Raise your pitch just a note or two and your volume just a little.
    • "This tutorial covers how to..." As the user will have a link from a web page, in the interest of file size and transmission time, keep introduction in the audio track to a minimum. Details go on the web page. Try starting with "To use the help button on the standard tool bar, ......"
    • You have a few too many seconds of blank air time on the end. Watch your timing with the stop button.

  41. Sort a range of cells alphabetically (533K).
    Comments: Don't let your pace go too fast. You need a little more volume.

  42. Move (relocate) a range of data (482K).
    Comments: Clear and understandable sequence.

  43. Change the format of a set of numbers, in this case to add dollar signs and modify decimals (536K).
    Comments: Clear and understandable sequence.

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