Learning DEScribe Session 3 - Getting to Know It
Now comes the fun of poking around a new program.
Connecting again from the coffee shop, I found DEScribe listed in the Program menu. After opening and loading, I created a project entitled, “How to Blog on the MAF-LT Website.” But that seemed too long. “How to Blog” sounded better.
I couldn’t find any easy way to rename the project, so closed the project, opened Windows Explorer and navigated to a folder entitled, “My DEScribe Projects.” Under that folder, I found my project and renamed it, “How to Blog.” That folder contains two items: a sub-folder called, “My Package” (holds the project assets), and the master project file named, “How to Blog.ltproj." When I reopened DEScribe, clicked on the File menu and then “Open Project”, my project “How to Blog” sat there ready to use (At this point, notice came that version 1.2.4.0 was available for download. My comments reflect that upgrade.)
Five panes divide the screen’s typical “Windows” look.
On the left is a tree-like list called “Project Explorer.” Beneath lies the “Properties” pane that contains details of what ever you select in the Project Explorer. The main, central pane is the “Content Editor” where you do your actual writing. Beneath that is a tabbed pane offering three selections: Task, Error List, and Output.
Along the right side is a “Toolbox” that, as the titles suggest, offers advanced exam construction for courses that will be exported to DEViewer. While it’s not apparent on first look, those tools do not create working exams for courses exported to pdf or html documents. In those cases, tests must be presented in a more traditional manner.
Concentrating on three main work areas:
Project Explorer makes organizing the course really simple. Two major divisions encompass the entire course - Metadata and Sections. The Metadata folder contains all the background project info of who wrote what, when. It also offers access to an easily customizable css style sheet that can be safely ignored or highly personalized as the writer’s ability allows. I wasn’t sure about Transformation Sheets but a quick review of the help pdf file revealed that they contain xml tags - useful for advanced users, but non-geeky writers can disregard them if they like. Section, topic and sub-topic pages made sense to me. Any of them can be renamed to fit the document’s size and purpose. Also, authors may insert Label pages into the tree to keep track of logical divisions without adding extra pages to the finished course.
Content Editor first look says really basic word processor. It offers neither font face nor font size choices (other than 2 preset titles). Only bold, italic and underline text decoration options and three justification settings of left, center and right appear. But, choices of numbered or bulleted lists and quote insertion and removal buttons place it above a really basic text editor like NotePad. Just to the right, DEScribe offers unexpectedly sophisticated options like horizontal line, table and image insertion along with file attachment, image insertion and internal or hyper links.
Task List provides a handy to-do list for the project. After I entered a page in the Linked Page field, clicking the arrow to the right opened that page as a new tab in the Content Editor. Seems like this would be most useful keeping track of the ideas that pop into mind about one part of the project while actually working on another part. Certainly would reduce the paper note clutter that grows when I work on a multi part project.
So, what do I think?
The overall organization seems “normal.” Windows or Mac users will feel at home right away. First time computer users and emerging 3rd World scholars will face a steeper learning curve. But, if they’ve mastered literacy to the point of writing courses for others, this style of information management will make sense pretty quickly.
The Content Editor’s formatting limitations surprised me and, frankly, gave a negative first impression. On the other hand, this problem becomes an important feature for the computer newbies still in the first blush of meeting technology. The Content Editor’s simplicity allows the writer to concentrate on producing quality content and not get waylaid in the fancy formatting jungle. Then, as he or she gains experience, the program’s css and xml editing capability offer plenty of opportunity for creative expression. The bottom line: anyone who can type can create a nice looking, useable course with DEScribe.
