General

Lectora Desktop version 21 Release Notes

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Drawing upon thousands of documented use cases from the ELB Learning Customer Success team and Lectora’s product team, a new authoring methodology, called rapid Modular Development (ModDev), evolved and it provides the foundation for Lectora 21.

These Modular Development tools, which dramatically reduce time, save money, and extend resources with repeatable, scalable processes include:

  • Ready-made instructional design frameworks
  • Mobile-ready themes & style packs
  • Interactive wireframe templates
  • New library of templatized interactions
  • With these new elements, instructional designers can customize and brand once, and blast their branded modular templates across a global organization for consistent, professional results.


Lectora Updates:

Lectora 21.5.3 February 1, 2024

Lectora 21.5.2 January 16, 2024

Lectora 21.5.1 December 8, 2023

Lectora 21.5 November 28, 2023

Lectora 21.4.4 July 24, 2023

Lectora 21.4.3 June 19, 2023

Lectora 21.4.1 February 21, 2023

Lectora 21.4 October 25, 2022

Lectora 21.3 July 28, 2022

Lectora 21.2 May 3, 2022

Lectora 21.1.1 April 11, 2022

Lectora 21.1 April 4, 2022

Lectora 21.0.3 October 6,2021

Lectora 21.0.2 July 1, 2021

Lectora 21.0.1

 

Lectora 21

Released on:  May 18, 2021

Version: Lectora 21 (12275)

Supported Browsers:   

Published content is cross-platform compatible with any recent version of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge. 

MailTo is back!
New action mailto allows courses to initiate user sent email messages

New Features:

New naming convention
Titles are now called Projects to highlight the versatility of Lectora.

Ready-made instructional design frameworks
Cut your course development time in half with ready-made instructional design frameworks.

Mobile-Ready Themes & Style Packs
Customize once. Blast it across your organization for scalable, effective eLearning.

Interactive Wireframe Templates
Dive into a new library of templatized interactions—ready to drop into your course!

Automated Button States
Excite Learners with Custom Button States
Apply an automated visited and selected state for buttons
Use button states in conditionals for actions
Set the button's initial state to any Custom State
Disable over and down states

New Interactivity
Trigger actions when an object is scrolled into or out of view
The modify variable action will update text blocks that contain VAR() references
New action SetQuestion to reset or set the correct answer on a question
New action GetTime to get and store the current time for a media object

Media Player
Disable the ability for students to seek ahead in an audio/video
An updated media player allows students to change the playback speed.

Responsive Course Design
Different views can now have different guides. Guides are saved by view.

Accessibility Updates:

Custom button states are announced by the screen reader
Improved screen reader announcement of buttons and shapes
Removed the frame title that was read as Lectora Player or Title Manager Frame
Page Preview works with accessible titles and generates ALT tag text
The alt tag is initially set Empty when adding images and shapes in an accessible project
Enable/disable audio Closed Caption background and change the background color
Text blocks no longer include an empty hyperlink
Authors can choose to use a lightbox per page in accessible projects
Fixed: Placement of HTML text headers (H1, H2, etc.) will not shift after publishing

Improvements for your published courses:

The former Tap/Click screen for media is now a Play button (use publish strings to set an aria-label)
xAPI Context Parent and Group Improvements for better reporting
Button text spacing on one or two lines is now retained after publish
The student is warned if they are leaving the course without clicking close. This prevents data loss by mobile swipes accidentally reloading or closing the browser window to ensure data is saved. 
Margins/indents are now preserved with the Change contents action for a Text Block 
Reset Question resets the maximum drops per zone for Drag Drop Questions
Hyperlinks are now enabled in the publish for offline exe
The “Fit content to width” publishing option no longer leaves white space on the right side of the content
Fixed: Error in reporting Rank/Sequence question when set to grade each choice

Usability Improvements:

Authors can now add a description for a user variable in Variable Manager
Colors can now be set with HEX codes
Custom colors can be exported and imported
Added ACE code editor for JavaScipt actions and External HTML objects
Create and use pronunciation definitions (Lexicons) for Text To Speech
Images now have a new feature, right-click "Convert to Button"
Preview inheritance changes before applying 
The recent projects list can be cleared on the file tab
Fixed: audio now stays in sync with video after making edits in the video editor
The Timeline can be set to a specific position before entering run mode
The Timeline pane can be hidden 
The Timeline runs during run mode and resets when going to edit mode
Transparent buttons display blue in edit mode
Scrollbars are no longer seen in run mode when off-page objects are present
Guides, Rulers, and Snap-to are enabled by default
A new Object Search Dialog was added to the Project Explorer
CSS files as HTML Extensions can be edited inside Lectora

Lectora 21.0.1 

Released on:  June 4, 2021

Version: Lectora 21.0.1 (12280)

This update includes the following:
Fixed: Standard Title will now preview or publish without RCD selected
Fixed: Apostrophe in a page name will not cause a blank page in Run/Preview mode
Several icons and UI updates to reflect brand refresh
and more

Lectora 21.0.2 

Released on:  July 1, 2021

Version: Lectora 21.0.2 (12286)

This update includes the following:

Fixed: Error recognizing project version
Fixed: YouTube edit and preview crash
Fixed: Icon updates in ribbon menu to indicate Inheritcance status

Lectora 21.0.3 

Released on:  October 6, 2021

Version: Lectora 21.0.3 (12306)

This update includes the following:

NEW
Enhanced closed caption controls for audio. Improved background color management for audio closed captions and a new setting, "Display Caption Box", to adjust controller height when CC is turned off. (LD-7148, LD-7826)

Improvements

Buttons
LD-7854 Button state improvements when using Library objects
LD-7867 Button state improvements when using Seamless Publish
LD-7873 Button text improvements for automatic line wrapping
LD-7878 Button tracking improvements

PowerPoint support
LD-7858 PowerPoint files with m4a audio files are now supported.

Text items
LD-7862 Bullet points from previous content are now displaying correctly
LD-7895 Initially hidden text blocks with Hide from Screen Reader will honor the setting when shown

Autoplay
LD-7866 Autoplay improvements for iPad or iPhone (mobile device)
LD-7850 Autoplay improvements for Chrome

Mobile device support
LD-7881, LD-7888 Mobile device improvements for scaling, positioning, and media player controls.
LD-7882 Mobile device improvements for autorotation display

xAPI
LD-7834 Improvements for xAPI specifications

Lectora 21.1 

Released on:  April 4, 2022

Version: Lectora 21.1 (12341)

Enhancements

Added tighter integration with The Training Academy (TTA) games. This allows the Lectora author to directly install TTA games as game objects in the course.  Some specific features implemented include:
  • Cleanly displays the name of the game in the TTA game object, not the long URL
  • Added OnDonePlaying to TTA games to allow you to perform functions when the user is done playing the fame 
  • Added four variables that the Lectora author can access to see the user’s progress
  • Changing the name of the game object, Lectora updates the variable names to match the new game object name.
Set Focus action
iOS and web window mobile device view improvements
Embedded Browser upgrade - improving security and performance

Improvements:

LD-7864 iPhone 12 PRO Safari published course shifts to the right and is not scaled properly to the width of the phone
LD-7907 - Preview Mode (F11) of a Mobile view shows the desktop view, not the mobile view like it does in Run mode
LD-7923 - In non-English installations of Lectora, VAR(CurrentPageName) displays the CurrentPageID not the page name

Lectora 21.1.1 

Released on:  April 11, 2022

Version: Lectora 21.1.1 (12345)

Maintenance release to restore SCORM publishing folder name to original name .\scorm

Lectora 21.2 

Released on:  May 3, 2022

Version: Lectora 21.2 (12364)

This update includes exciting news as eLearning Brothers is now ELB Learning!   This update is a rebranding to the new company name ELB Learning and an exciting new logo for ELB Learning.  There are no new features included in this release.   Below is the announcement from our CEO, Andrew Scivally.

I'm excited to share that eLearning Brothers is now ELB Learning!

For more than a decade, eLearning Brothers has helped learning professionals create better learning experiences. That mission—and the products and services you know and love—won’t change. 

However, as we’ve grown as a company and watched the learning industry grow and innovate, we knew it was time to step into the future with a new name.

Over the past two years, we’ve acquired six companies, becoming the most diversified learning technology and services provider in the industry. 

We now offer one destination for all of your learning needs, along with more ways to save time and money while experiencing a more seamless learning development process.

We appreciate everyone who’s been with us since we first started rocking the eLearning world as eLearning Brothers. That energy and passion will never go away, but ELB Learning better embodies the direction we see our company, and the learning industry, going in the future.

The new name will not change the support or products you’re currently enjoying from us. Your favorite account reps are still here for you, our product team remains ready to answer your questions and listen to feedback on new features, and you’ll still see familiar faces at conferences and on webinars. 

We’re excited to continue to grow as ELB Learning and offer more ways to help you create better learning experiences. If you have any questions about our new brand, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Andrew Scivally

CEO, ELB Learning

Lectora 21.3 

Released on:  July 28, 2022

Version: Lectora 21.3 (12393)

New integrations have arrived to make publishing your content even more efficient! Authors can now publish directly to any of the platforms listed below:

  • Rockstar Learning Platform
  • The Training Arcade
  • Docebo

Not only are you able to publish new content directly from Lectora to these platforms, but you can also publish updates to content directly from Lectora to these platforms as well.

Other key improvements include:

Improved XLIFF Support:

LD-8007 XLIFF translation files are not read correctly on some translation tools.

LD-7654 XLIFF translation file creates empty <target> element instead of showing the same text contained in <source> element

Other Product Issues Resolved:

LD-7634 Resized and/or cropped image objects lose modifications when the image resource is replaced
LD-7925 Some Audio object Closed caption box settings not being loaded from AWT file on Reopen of the course
LD-7958 M4a Audio does not always playback
LD-8086 Lightbox or Browser Close button issue | Lectora 21
LD-8090 A button with an image for its disabled state will lose the image if the course is rotated to Portrait orientation
LD-8102 A Button Group object's variable does not have a built-in description when viewed in the Variable Manager
LD-8124 Support non-ASCII characters in the project name

 

Lectora 21.4

Released on:  October 25, 2022

Version: Lectora 21.4 (12441)

What’s New?

Guide your learners to better experiences with the following updates:

  • Table Of Content (TOC) Navigation Modes
  • Set Default Paragraph Formatting/Spacing
  • Improved XLIFF Support

Other Updates Include:

  • LD-7553 - Button fonts have the option to persist across states
  • LD-8156 - Non-overridden Button Property Propagation - handle custom buttons
  • LD-8158 - Support for Third Party Single Sign On (SSO) with Account Portal and LD Login
  • LD-8005 - Inserting New Objects at the Page level are now displayed at top of layering
  • LD-8169 - Preview in Browser and Publish to HTML Preview recognizes Microsoft Edge

Bugs Resolved with this Release:

  • LD-8170 - XLIFF exported file problem when the source language is not English.  Some international characters were treated as text formatting.
  • LD-8173 - A security vulnerability found in some Lectora-published titles eliminated
  • LD-8182 - Update AICC publish to copy files in the CRS folder to the root folder when publishing
  • LD-8147 - Safari Mac page objects flicker or shake when audio plays
  • LD-8155 - Changes to the login window to allow users to request an Account Portal  password change and clarification on the other choice of Offline Activation
  • LD-8174 - Button groups do not hide on “Initially Hidden.”
  • LD-8176 - CC Text Issue becoming disjointed on Ipad and Chrome
  • LD-8099 - Remove Cancel/Help duplicate buttons for the TTA dialog box
  • LD-8166 - Adding a shadow to a button with a customized state should not give a message to add that change to all states
  • LD-8180 - Uploading quiz questions via CSV shows duplication of processing
  • LD-8195 - Button groups are not targets for Show/Hide/Toggle actions when they should be

 

Lectora 21.4.1

Released on:  February 21st, 2023

Version: Lectora 21.4.1 (12457)

Issues resolved:

  • LD-8189 Sunset SOM in Lectora
  • LD-8209 After Update to 21.4 - Lectora Crashes
  • LD-8210 Axe is raising issues with the audio player
  • LD-8228 trying to attach a VTT CC file to a video when ~Triv folder under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp is missing gives "directory name is invalid"

Lectora 21.4.3 

Released on:  June 19th, 2023

Version: Lectora 21.4.3 (12462)

note: v21.4.2 was an internal only release

Updates:

  • LD-8248 Fixed a regression issue where pasting was reversing the order of items
  • LD-7900 Custom radio buttons can be selected via the keyboard with the spacebar (accessibility update)
  • LD-8297 Progress is saved to the LMS more often to ensure reliable saving of bookmarking and variable data
  • LD-8267 LMS API calls are greatly reduced, back to v17 levels
  • Several changes to provide a better UX

 

Lectora 21.4.4 

Released on:  July 24th, 2023

Version: Lectora 21.4.4 (12467)

Improvements:

  • LD-8005  New objects inserted onto a selected page now automatically appear on top. Otherwise, they are inserted after the object selected in the project explorer. Copy/paste and drag/drop were updated so order is not reversed in some cases
  • LD-8297  Saving to an LMS is improved (bookmarking, variables). You no longer need to set AICC_LessonStatus equal to itself to ensure saving
  • LD-8300  The default button no longer has a shadow
  • LD-8308  Eliminated Screen Reader double reading issues. This release cleans up the double reading issues when a page loads
  • LD-8245  Updated accessibility checker to the current WCAG specification
  • LD-8301  Fly animation can now be used with WCAG mode enabled

Lectora 21.5

Released on:  November 28, 2023

Version: Lectora 21.5 (12485)

What’s New?

Guide your learners to better experiences with the following updates:

  • WebM Video support added. This allows for transparent background videos
  • When opening a New Browser Window with an action there is an option to maximize its size
  • New options to hide Fullscreen and Speed controls on the media controller
  • When moving/dragging objects we no longer leave behind a placeholder [which stayed where the object originally was]

Other Improvements Include:

  • LD-8416 Removed an issue that created annoying chime sounds when HTML Extensions are used and page or object names have special characters
  • LD-8419 The script dialog will open on the same monitor as Lectora
  • LD-8413 Video connections are terminated when a page unloads avoiding some scenarios that were causing courses to freeze from used up server connections
  • LD-8401 XLIFF fix for exporting/importing table cells
  • LD-8398 Video CC button no longer shows when the controller is hidden
  • LD-8391 Audio object now retains any CSS class name when published
  • LD-8385 SRT captions (file/extension) not detected - Swedish Install
  • LD-8376 Disable Seek does not allow Set Time Action to advance time
  • LD-8364 Initially hidden button group doesn’t show selected when shown
  • LD-8361 UX grow the width of the variable selection dialog for long names
  • LD-8386 UX when adding variable names “_” is automatically inserted for spaces
  • LD-8345 UX Copy and Paste action conditions no longer deletes existing
  • LD-8360 Resolved a transition related issue that stacked objects on return to a course
  • LD-8344 Safari issue with multiple media controllers on the same page
  • LD-8343 Fixed moved objects get original position after video fullscreen
  • LD-7846 UX Add pass/fail pages when creating a test
  • LD-7388 Text To Speech CC file retains punctuation characters

Lectora 21.5.1

Released on:  December 8, 2023

Version: Lectora 21.5.1 (12488)

Improvements Include:

  • LD-8442: Fix for setting or maintaining button states after trigger actions occur.
  • LD-8424: Change to how screen readers read Alt tags for graphics with treatments such as Shadows

Lectora 21.5.2

Released on:  January 16, 2024

Version: Lectora 21.5.2 (12497)

Improvements Include:

  • LD-8455: Update to Speed Control Property to be enabled for projects built in earlier versions.

Lectora 21.5.3

Released on:  February 1, 2024

Version: Lectora 21.5.3 (12504)

Improvements Include:

  • LD--8474: Feedback Window - Update to resolve an issue where an empty dialogue box may appear over the default question feedback message.