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SmartBuilder features
Everything you need to create powerful elearning, faster
Key benefits
Unique action block authoring
Traditional authoring tools use popup windows and menus to create logic. SmartBuilder’s action blocks require no popups and fewer clicks. Here’s how it works:
- Select an object directly on the page
- Grab an action block for the selected object
- Snap the block into your action statement
- You’re done!
Fewer clicks for faster authoring
Combine multiple triggers, conditions and responses into a single action. You can go from creating dozens of actions in other tools to just a handful in SmartBuilder – a huge time saver.
Responsive output
Create layouts for different screen sizes so your content will look great on any device.
Create unique course interfaces
Make your elearning stand out with course interfaces that meet your unique needs and branding. With SmartBuilder masters, you can:
- Freely layout navigation elements and resources
- Place page content above, below or in-between masters
- Associate multiple masters with any page
- Create triggers on pages that invoke responses on masters and vice versa
Customize your workspace
- Undock panels and arrange them however you like
- Work efficiently on two monitors
- Open multiple lessons at the same time for easy copy-and-paste
Beginners can build too
An intuitive, drag-and-drop interface, form-field templates, and live training and support make it easy for beginners to get up to speed quickly.
Power that advanced users crave
This one is for the geeks out there. SmartBuilder is the only authoring tool that provides the power and time savings of programming logic, without requiring external scripting. SmartBuilder supports:
- Variables
- Arrays
- Tags
- Text manipulation (split, join, replace, etc.)
- Looping (“for each item”,“while”, etc.)
- Stored procedures
Professional-looking content
Choose from a palette of professionally designed pre-built styles, or configure shapes and buttons with your own shadows, gradients, images and icons.
Author on PC or Mac OSX
SmartBuilder can be installed on Windows or Apple computers. The published content runs in any modern browser on any device, including computers, tablets, and phones.
Animations & motion
Timeline
- Create timed presentations using a visual timeline
- Control the timeline with a customizable player bar
- Create multiple show-hide ranges for the same object
Motion
Use action blocks to move objects:
- on a custom-drawn motion path
- in a specific direction
- to a specific XY coordinate
- to snap to another object
Animations
Choose from dozens of animations such as fade, slide and shake. Apply animations when objects are shown and hidden or to call attention to an already visible object.
Layout & design
Change designs quickly using styles and themes
- Create custom styles and themes for different projects.
- Change the look of all objects in a single step to rebrand a course.
- Use format copy-paste to change the look of individually selected objects.
Alignment and spacing tools
Align objects to other objects or a grid. Quickly space objects evenly.
Custom window backgrounds
Match the color of your course and window backgrounds to create courses with no edges, or create a modern look with large background graphics.
Custom pre-loader
Import any GIF as your pre-loader, such as an animated company logo.
Layers
Use layers to show and hide multiple objects at once. Layers themselves can also be grouped for quick and easy displaying. This is a huge time saver for multi-step tasks.
Masters
Make your elearning stand out from the crowd with course interfaces that meet your unique needs and branding. With SmartBuilder masters, you can:
- Freely layout navigation elements and resources
- Place page content above, below or in-between masters
- Associate multiple masters with any page
- Create triggers on pages which invoke responses on masters, and vice versa
Templates
SmartBuilder is the only tool that allows authors to create wizard-based templates using the tool itself. So, the library of wizard-based templates is always growing.
Have a request for a new template? Give us a shout – in many cases, we can build it for you at no charge. If your organization has technically advanced users, you can also create your own wizard-based templates.
PowerPoint import and conversion
- Convert each slide to a SmartBuilder page
- Convert text to SmartBuilder text
- Convert most PowerPoint shapes to SmartBuilder shapes including matching fill and line styles.
- Import PowerPoint images
Powerful charts
Set up charts to use static data, or dynamic data such survey responses, scores, progress, etc.
WYSIWYG text (What-you-see-is-what-you-get)
Text is positioned and wraps the same on all browsers and devices, so you can rest assured that text appears exactly as you authored it.
Testing & tracking
Question templates
Use out-of-the-box templates for common question types such as multiple choice, multiple response, fill in the blank and drag-and-drop. After templates are applied, they are fully customizable and extensible so you can, for example, add images or audio for feedback.
Custom questions
Score and track any custom interaction; you don’t need to use a standard question format.
Drag and drop
Use templates to quickly set up typical drag-and-drop interactions. Or, get under the hood and configure a custom drag-and-drop with almost any behavior you can imagine.
Randomization & pooling
Randomize radio buttons, check boxes and dropdown with a single click. Randomize and pool questions using special question randomization templates.
Interactivity
Action blocks
Traditional authoring tools use popup windows and menus to create logic. SmartBuilder’s unique action blocks require no popups and clicks. You can also combine multiple triggers, conditions and responses into a single action – a huge time saver.
Objects
Objects such as buttons, videos and checkboxes are the building blocks that you’ll use to create cool learning experiences. Each object can communicate with other objects, so the variety of what you can create is almost unlimited.
Programming logic
This one is for the geeks out there. SmartBuilder is the only authoring tool that provides the power and time savings of programming logic, without requiring external scripting. SmartBuilder supports:
- Variables
- Arrays
- Tags
- Text manipulation (split, join, replace, etc.)
- Looping (“for each item”,”while”, etc.)
- Stored procedures
Branching
- Visually lay out different learner paths
- Group related pages into subflows to organize and quickly reorder pages of your course
- Create actions to jump to any page based on any trigger or condition
Software simulation templates
Quickly set up logic for simulations with different interaction models including:
- Show me
- Let me try
- Step by step challenge
- Whole task challenge
Publishing
HTML5
SmartBuilder HTML5 output plays on all modern browsers and platforms including Windows, OSX, Android and iOS. No apps or players are needed.
SCORM, AICC
SmartBuilder automatically generates the files required by an LMS to import content and track results using SCORM 1.2, 2004 or AICC standards.
xAPI (AKA Tin Can)
SmartBuilder question templates will automatically generate xAPI statements.
SmartBuilder also allows you to send and retrieve custom xAPI data, all without messing around with JavaScript.
You can even test your xAPI data calls with SmartTracker while authoring, saving lots of time!
Section 508 compliant accessible output
SmartBuilder allows interactive objects to be visible to screen reading software and saves you time with automatic tab ordering based on position – top to bottom, left to right. Alt tags for images and closed captions for video are also supported.
Deliver and track courses with SmartTracker™
If you don’t have your own LMS, SmartTracker provides a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to host and deliver SmartBuilder content.
Run a variety of reports to analyze question results, learner activity, or custom data.
A free SmartTracker plan is included with your SmartBuilder license.
