by Hank Stanley

* Lectora Publisher for PalmOS, software (2 CDs), 2002, Trivantis (877-929-0188, www.trivantis.com), $395. Other material: user guide. Runs on Windows XP/2000/9x/NT.

Try not to groan, but Publisher for Palm OS (PPOS) is Lectora's Mini Me -- identical but diminutive. The functionality of the user interface is identical to Lectora Publisher; the image in the work area is diminutive--Palm-sized, as you might expect.

At a monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 with a fully maximized screen, the largest page display (of two available) is the equivalent of a business card turned on end, just over 2" wide by 3.5" tall. If you reduce the resolution to 800 x 600, the slightly larger page display may enable you to put away the clockmaker's spectacles. There is no zoom feature available for the page, most likely because the guts of the software is the same as for the normal-sized tool, and there is no need to zoom there. The feature should be high on the Trivantis to-do list in a future version.

But, what you see is what you get

In all fairness, I should point out that my myopic perspective of the pages in PPOS might not be as pronounced to the average user. This was one of the last tools I tested, and up to that point, I had been working on large screenfuls of pages for placing and manipulating content.

Other than the "micro" pages, the product is as useful as the full-sized version. The software loads on a Windows machine and will produce courseware in PRC format for PDAs using the Palm 3.5, or newer, operating system (including Sony, Samsung, Handspring, Kyocera, and others). The Inheritance feature is there to apply repetitious content to selected pages or chapters.

The tri-level modes (Build, Run, Preview) are available, and the course titles are laid out in the familiar Chapter-Page tree view in the left pane of the interface. Project preplanning is again addressed in the Help narrative since the Title Wizard, at the outset, requires developers to declare the number of chapters, if used, and the number of pages their courses will contain. The wizard also requires that the page layout be chosen at the beginning, either the square Palm-sized page (ultimately 2.24" x 2.24") or a longer scrollable page.

Limited output

The only distribution option available in PPOS is for file outputs to Palm-compatible devices. It will create a single compressed Windows installation file that will load all course data files onto the PDA from a desktop unit during a synchronization process. If a course requires that the results from a student test or survey be submitted for recording, the LectoraConduit.dll is used. This is a data transfer function (preselectable as one of the test page properties) that allows the submission of student results directly from the course by email or through a CGI program.

There don't seem to be any limitations on the amount of animations or graphics that can be used, but the more bells, whistles, and eye-ticklers there are, the more toll is taken on the finite eight or 16 MB of RAM on board most PDAs. Although Trivantis is working on a system upgrade that will allow courseware to take advantage of the expandable memory cards (up to 32 MB for Palm), as of now, this feature is not available.

Recommendation

I am not sure about the widespread need to create mini courses that must be taken by students who can't stop by the nearest desktop PC. Training while traveling might be one instance--if there were no games available on the PDA. But, the folks at Trivantis have likely peered into the future and spied an approaching market for such training, resulting in Lectora Publisher for Palm OS. And that may be why the price tag is so low, for now. Other than the current PDA memory limitation, everything else is just as efficacious as the full Lectora tool.

Hank Stanley (cstanley2@home.com) is a technical training and writing consultant with Document Production Solutions in San Diego, CA.

Lectora Publisher for Palm OS product rating

Ease of installation  ****
Presentation          ****
Production quality    ****
Ease of use           ****
Value of purpose      ***
Value for the money   ***
Documentation         ****
Overall rating        *** 1/2