No. Both free and commercial versions of CourseLab editor can operate only on Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and Windows 7 platforms, because it utilizes some specific Windows features.

CourseLab creates folders and files depending on the course structure specified by author and copies all necessary files (such as CourseLab templates, object descriptors, images, media) into created folders. Additionally, CourseLab creates files with design information on your course.

Usually, there is no reason to explore contents of course folder - CourseLab manages all these folders and files automatically. In fact, the only file you need to address is the one with .wcl extension - it contains basic course structure and can be used for quick launch of course editing (just double-click on it's icon).

To transfer course editing process to CourseLab installed on another computer, move the full course folder there. All the necessary files are located in this folder. Then double-click on .wcl file's icon to launch CourseLab, or open the course through CourseLab "File - Open" menu.

No. Desktop versions of CourseLab do not support simultaneous editing. If you do that, then Object ID conflicts could arise and errors may occur. Besides, the concurrent file saves could lead to course data loss. The only option for several authors is to edit the same course in a time-shared manner.

However, we have another product called CourseLab Teamwork that allows for collaborative web-based authoring of e-Learning courses using the same set of objects that is used in the desktop versions of CourseLab. To learn more about CourseLab Teamwork, contact us at courselab@courselab.com.

No. Published versions contains no design information, therefore they cannot be loaded back in CourseLab. Please use the source version to make changes and re-publish the entire course after that.

Yes. Any text object and most of other objects' text fields are editable in two modes: Rich Text or HTML. In most cases Rich Text mode is more convenient, but if you are familiar with HTML-coding and want more - just switch text editor window in HTML mode and it's all yours. All HTML tags and inline styles are acceptable.

Please note that there is no automatic error checking in HTML mode - to check your HTML code (i.e. closed tags, valid parameters etc.) becomes your responsibility.

Current CourseLab versions do not contain Equation Editor (Equation Editor is already in our future enhancements list). But if you are familiar with HTML coding you can create equations and formulae using symbolic fonts and inline styles in HTML mode. Some examples of this technique you can find in Ho-To's section.

Usually browsers reduce extra spaces to one space between words. If you want to have multiple spaces, you can insert non-breaking space entity ( ) - it cannot be reduced by browser. There are two ways to do that in CourseLab text editor window:

• In Rich Text mode - use Shift+Space combination to add as many non-breaking spaces as needed (entities will be inserted automatically);
• In HTML mode - insert as many non-breaking space entities ( ) as needed.

Yes. In fact, you can use in your e-learning modules any rich media object that will be displayed correctly by Internet browser on learner's computer. But please note that while there are ready-to-use CourseLab objects for most commonly used rich media (i.e. Flash®, Shockwave®, Java® and video), there are no such objects for any other kind of rich media stuff. It means that to insert rich media object that is "not in the list" you must insert corresponding HTML code for your rich media by yourself.

Please note also that CourseLab run-time contains built-in pre-start checks for browser components needed to display most commonly used rich media types only. If you use rich media object that requires special sowtware component or plug-in, it becomes your responsibility to warn user on it.

Yes. You can copy CourseLab objects between slides in one module, between modules in one course and even between different courses (but in last case some limitations may apply). Just select all objects that you want to copy and press usual Ctrl+C shortcut (or use menu). Then choose destination slide and press Ctrl-V (or use menu).

However, be aware that when you copy objects, CourseLab pastes them as is, except for Object ID - if such Object ID already exists in the module then Object ID of copied object will be automatically changed. As a result, some Object ID-dependent actions attached to objects may become incorrect. Therefore please make sure that all Object IDs used in actions are correct after objects being copied.

Technically, to explore CourseLab-created content you can use any PC operated with Microsoft Windows (95*, 98, Me, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 2008, 8) or Linux operating system and Internet browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, FireFox 1.0 or higher, Netscape 7.2 or higher, Chrome 1+, Safari (Win)) 3+, Opera 10+. Internet browser must be JavaScript-enabled and XML-capable. Both JavaScript and XML support are included in typical installation packages of listed browsers. However, it is recommended to install MSXML version 3.0 or higher for Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can always check out which version of MSXML is installed on your PC on CourseLab MSXML Check Page.

Additional software requirements may apply depending on content author's decision to use some specific rich-media objects (for example, mp3-audio, Flash-movie, QuickTime movie, Java-applet etc.). Corresponding software components (i.e. Windows Media Player, Adobe Flash Player, QuickTime Player, Java Virtual Machine etc.) are not the part of CourseLab run-time and can be downloaded from vendor's web site and installed on viewer's computer, if necessary.

* Please note that Windows 95 is not supported by Microsoft anymore. As a result, MSXML version 3.0 and higher cannot be installed on Windows 95 system - some course features may not work properly.

E-learning without active content is quite a nonsense. From the other side, Internet browsers' security settings becomes more and more strict with every new build - that's why you see this warning. There is the list of active components utilized by CourseLab run-time:

• XML Parser - the only component that is always utilized by CourseLab run-time. This component is usually bundled with Internet browser and provided by Microsoft (for Internet Explorer) or Mozilla (for FireFox).

All components listed below are free and may (or may not) be used depending on module content.

• Adobe Flash Player - provided by Adobe;
• Adobe Shockwave Player - provided by Adobe;
• Windows Media Player - provided by Microsoft;
• QuickTime Player - provided by Apple;
• Real Player - provided by RealNetworks Inc.;
• Java Virtual Machine - provided by Microsoft or Sun.

The simplest way to avoid such warnings in the future is to add address of the web site that provides you with e-learning modules in Trusted Sites zone of your browser's security settings.

The file autorun.html needs some additional files to run automatically when you insert CD. Windows cannot launch HTML files from CD automatically, only applications can be launched. However there are different walkarounds to launch HTML files. One of them is in this ZIP-file (it contains two files: autorun.inf and autorun.bat, both must be placed on the CD root level near autorun.html before burning CD).

And another thing that you cannot override easily: Internet Explorer (since IE6 SP2) has security setting "Allow active content run from CD", that is turned off by default. Since the course IS active content, there may be problems with this setting.

Most of the CourseLab objects have no compatibility problems (except for especially noted in Help), but there could be difference in behaviour in different browsers. The main differences are:

• effects and transitions work "natively" in IE only, we use software emulations for these effects in other browsers, but it may look and behave not as smooth as in IE. Therefore, if you can avoid using effects - it's better to avoid.
• autoshapes and other VML objects work "natively" in IE only, we use auto-generated images to emulate autoshapes in other browsers, but (again) it may look and behave not as smooth as in IE. Please set corresponding checkmark in CourseLab settings (menu Service - Settings - Publication) to allow autoshape-to-image conversion.
• since PowerPoint imports contain a lot of VML (and quite complex VML) it may look different in other browsers
• since there are different Media Player plugins for other browsers, mp3/wav audio content (narration etc.) may not work in some browsers and OS. It is better to use Flash audio (attached to objects) for narration - Flash plugin seems to be the best cross-platform solution for that. There are a lot of simple audio-to-Flash converters on the Net (some of them are free).
• when text is copied from Word or PowerPoint it may contain MS "garbage" code that can force the text to look differently in differnet browsers. Therefore it is better to copy "clean" text (without formatting) and format it in CourseLab.

The list of LMS that reported to be compatible with CourseLab-generated content already includes most of major LMS vendors and constantly grows. In fact, e-learning modules generated with CourseLab can be utilized in virtually any LMS that supports one of the listed standards: AICC, SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004. But you do not need to just take our word on it - you can download our LMS Quick Test package and try it with LMS that is installed in your company or organization. Testing packages ars made with free and commercial CourseLab versions, therefore if it works, then any e-learning content made with CourseLab will too.