The pace at which Trivantis strives to improve their Lectora product is like the Avengers on coffee drips. Just a few months after the 12.0.1 and 12.0.2 updates comes a significant 12.1 release. While some features are more an effort to catch-up to competitors (i.e. character libraries), others are setting new bars. With the Lectora Inspire 12.1 release, there are several notable updates…

One significant highlight is their partnership with eLearning Brothers for integrated access to their templates and stock images. Captivate and Articulate also provide such assets, but Trivantis working with eLearning Brothers is a better move. Few ‘eLearning asset’ companies are as active as eLearning Brothers and they have a solid, growing library of assets for a variety of eLearning tools and projects.

This direct integration into Lectora (select ‘Inspire Tools’ within the UI) provides access to eLearning Brothers:

• Lectora Template Library
• Cutout People Library
• Interaction Builder (many HTML5 ready)

Note that Lectora Inspire also includes Techsmith’s SnagIt and Camtasia tools! (Check out Techsmith’s article on Camtasia’s most excellent greenscreen capabilities)

Still unsure? Looking for more details on what Lectora 12.1 provides?

Rick Zanotti pens this comprehensive review of Lectora 12.1. It’s a good read (don’t be dissuaded that’s it’s hosted in the Trivantis website) and an encouraging conclusion,

“Lectora Inspire 12.1 is a strong step forward for Lectora users both old and new. It’s the right tool at the right time in an industry that demands easy tools that don’t sacrifice power and are solidly tested for performance and lack of bugs.”

If you already have Lectora 12, Trivantis provides a 12.1 upgrade patch.

Trivantis also recently wrapped up their 2015 Lectora User Conference (LUC) and the Conference Recap  and ‘Social Wall’ is available on their site. One significant item of note, Trivantis is revamping their user community (“coming soon!”). In this age of social-everything, and with Lectora’s less-than-stellar support reputation, this is a move long time coming. Good call…let’s hope it revitalizes the Lectora community.

Additionally, Trivantis has updated Lectora’s Responsive Design capabilities, allowing authors to “programmatically scale the size and position of objects for each alternate device view”, encompassed in a single published project. I’ll be interested to examine this, suspecting they take an approach similar to Captivate.

Last, but not least (!), up through May 31^st (2015) apply the code ROCKON15 at checkout for a 15% discount on Lectora Inspire.

UPDATE: the above discount code has been extended through June 30, 2015

This is funny, silly, and a bit more informative about halfway through