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SmartBuilder features
Everything you need to create powerful elearning, faster
Key features
Next-gen Action Block authoring
Creating logic with traditional tools is a hassle, with endless popup windows and menus. With SmartBuilder, it’s a breeze. Action Blocks reduce clicks, making authoring fast and intuitive. Here’s how it works:
- Select an object directly on the page – no more hunting through long dropdown lists.
- Grab an action block for your chosen object.
- Snap the block into place, and voilà – 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 looks 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
Rapid learning curve for beginners
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.
Programming power, simplified
This one is for the geeks out there. SmartBuilder is the only authoring tool that provides the power and efficiency 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.
Software simulation wizard
Record your screen, then automatically generate ‘learn’ or ‘test’ simulations. Supported actions include:
- click
- double-click
- right-click
- type
- drag-and-drop
Custom actions, including multiple events on a single step, are also possible.
Author on Windows or MacOS
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 flip. Apply animations when objects are shown and hidden or to call attention to an already visible object.
View example: transition effects
View example: call for attention effects
Layout & design
Responsive output
Create layouts for different screen sizes so your content looks great on any device.
Seamless scrolling
Create layouts with varying page heights. Incorporate floating elements, such as navigation bars, that remain fixed as users scroll, ensuring easy access to key page sections.
Custom window backgrounds
Create courses with no edges by matching the color of your course and window backgrounds, or create a modern look with a Match the color of your course and window backgrounds to create courses with no edges, or create a modern look with large background graphics.
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 quickly.
- 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 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 can be grouped into stacks to better organize content – a huge time saver for multi-step tasks.
Masters
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 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 as survey responses, scores, progress, etc.
Media
Interactive video
Incorporate video from:
- a local file (.mp4)
- a hosted .mp4 URL
- a screen recording
- YouTube
- Vimeo
Videos can be made interactive by adding actions to pause, play, jump to cues, or trigger actions at specific cue points.
Character library
SmartBuilder’s character library offers a wide range of photographic and cartoon-style characters. Each character object includes multiple states, allowing you to trigger different poses and expressions.
Icon library
Choose from over 1,800 icons that can be sized and colored to match your needs.
Text-to-speech
Transform text into speech with over 100 voices across 40 languages. Customize your speech output by adding pauses, emphasis, or whispers, and display synchronized captions by line, sentence, or paragraph.
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.
Quiz results templates
Use customizable templates to display quiz results, including pass/fail status, score, and number of correct answers. Automatically report quiz results to your LMS.
Step-by-step review
Allows learners to review each question after completing a quiz, including their response and the corresponding 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
Action Blocks the fastest, most intuitive, and powerful way to create meaningful and memorable interactivity.
Don’t take our word for it. Check out our examples – very few could be made with any other tool.
Objects
SmartBuilder objects are unlike any others. Each one comes with distinctive behaviors you can customize using Action Blocks. This means you can create an unparalleled level of interactivity, all while keeping your development time to a minimum.
Programming power, simplified
This one is for the geeks out there. SmartBuilder is the only authoring tool that provides the power and efficiency 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
Software simulation wizard
Record your screen, then automatically generate ‘learn’ or ‘test’ simulations. Supported actions include:
- click
- double-click
- right-click
- type
- drag-and-drop
Custom actions, including multiple events on a single step, are also possible.
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
Review & Publish
Responsive preview
See how your content will look on any screen size or device during preview.
Share for review
One-click publish to the cloud and get a link you can give to reviewers.
Export to Word
For convenient review and editing in Microsoft Word, export all course text into a Word table.
Translation and localization
SmartBuilder simplifies the translation and localization process by allowing you to export course text to Microsoft Word or XLIFF format. After translation, import the localized text to create multiple language versions of your content, with support for right-to-left and double-byte character languages. You can also package multiple languages into a single SCORM object for seamless LMS integration.
Play on any device
SmartBuilder HTML5 output plays on all modern browsers and platforms including Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS. No apps or players are needed.
Effortless LMS integration
SmartBuilder simplifies LMS integration for all users. Beginners can import files into your LMS using SCORM 1.2, 2004, or AICC standards, with built-in tracking for score, pass-fail, completion and bookmarking. Advanced users can easily send custom SCORM data using any trigger.
Effortless xAPI Statements
SmartBuilder question templates automatically generate xAPI statements, streamlining your data tracking. For advanced users, SmartBuilder is the only tool that allows you to send custom xAPI statements without any JavaScript knowledge. You can even test your statements in preview mode to ensure accurate data reporting.
Accessible output
SmartBuilder provides exceptional accessibility support, honed through years of development for our most exacting clients. We go beyond basic pre-designed templates. Need to make custom interactive content accessible? You’ll find these unique features invaluable:
- Set focus order based on learner actions
- Accessible drag-and-drop interactions
- Support for ARIA live regions
- Accessible semantic formatting
Host and track courses with SmartTracker™
Here’s SmartTracker – a simple, affordable way to host and share your SmartBuilder content if you’re not using your own LMS. Track learner progress and analyze data with various reports covering question results, activity, and custom fields. Plus, it comes free with your SmartBuilder license.
