SmartBuilder features

Everything you need to create powerful elearning, faster

Key benefits

Unique action block authoring

Traditional authoring tools use popup windows and menus to create logic. SmartBuilder’s action blocks require no popups and fewer clicks. Here’s how it works:

  • Select an object directly on the page
  • Grab an action block for the selected object
  • Snap the block into your action statement
  • You’re done!
Action Blocks Moving Together GIF
Blocks combined into an action

Fewer clicks for faster authoring

Combine multiple triggers, conditions and responses into a single action. Go from creating dozens of actions in other tools, to just a handful in SmartBuilder – a huge time saver.

Responsive output

Create layouts for different screen sizes so your content will look great on any device.
Template Wizard Panel
Course Interface

Create unique course interfaces

Make your elearning stand out from the crowd with course interfaces that meet your unique needs and branding. With SmartBuilder masters, you can:

  • Freely layout navigation elements and resources
  • Place page content above, below or in-between masters
  • Associate multiple masters with any page
  • Create triggers on pages which invoke responses on masters, and vice versa

Arrange your workspace however you like

  • SmartBuilder’s new interface lets you undock panels and arrange them however you prefer
  • Work efficiently on two monitors
  • Open multiple lessons at the same time for easy copy and paste
SmartBuilder's Flexible Authoring Environment
Template Wizard Panel

Beginners can build too

SmartBuilder is the only tool that allows authors to create wizard-based templates using the tool itself. So, the library of wizard-based templates is always growing. Have a request for a new template? Give us a shout – in many cases we can build it for you at no charge, and if your organization has technically advanced users, you can also create your own wizard-based templates.

Power that advanced users crave

This one is for the geeks out there. SmartBuilder is the only authoring tool that provides the power and time savings of programming logic, without requiring external scripting. SmartBuilder supports:

  • Variables
  • Arrays
  • Tags
  • Text manipulation (split, join, replace, etc.)
  • Looping (“for each item”,“while”, etc.)
  • Stored procedures
Advanced Action Featuring Many Action Blocks
Buttons and Shapes with various styles

Professional-looking content

Choose from a palette of professionally designed pre-built styles, or configure shapes and buttons with your own shadows, gradients, images and icons.

Author on PC or Mac OSX

PC Windows and Apple Logos

Animations & motion

Timeline

  • Create timed presentations using a visual timeline
  • Control the timeline with a customizable player bar
  • Create multiple show-hide ranges for the same object

Motion

Use action blocks to move objects:

  • on a custom drawn motion path
  • in a specific direction
  • to a specific XY coordinate
  • to snap to another object

Animations

Choose animations such as fade, slide and shake. Apply animations when objects are shown and hidden, or to call attention to an already visible object.

Layout & design

Change designs quickly using styles and themes

  • Create custom styles and themes for different projects.
  • Change the look of all objects in a single step to rebrand a course.
  • Use format copy-paste to change the look of individually selected objects.
    Object Alignment Panel
    Object Alignment Panel

    Alignment and spacing tools

    Align objects to other objects or to a grid. Quickly space objects evenly.

    Custom window backgrounds

    Create courses with a modern look by using background graphics that fill the browser, or with no edges by matching the color of your course background and window background.
    Custom Window Background for a lesson
    Pre Loader

    Custom pre-loader

    Import any GIF as your pre-loader, such as an animated company logo.

    Layers

    Use layers to show and hide multiple objects at once. Layers themselves can also be grouped for quick and easy displaying. This is a huge time saver for multi-step tasks.
    Stacks and layers in the cast panel
    Lesson Interface

    Masters

    Make your elearning stand out from the crowd with course interfaces that meet your unique needs and branding. With SmartBuilder masters, you can:

    • Freely layout navigation elements and resources
    • Place page content above, below or in-between masters
    • Associate multiple masters with any page
    • Create triggers on pages which invoke responses on masters, and vice versa

    Templates

    SmartBuilder is the only tool that allows authors to create wizard-based templates using the tool itself. So, the library of wizard-based templates is always growing. Have a request for a new template? Give us a shout – in many cases we can build it for you, and if your organization has technically advanced users, you can also create your own wizard-based templates.
    Template Wizard Panel
    Template Wizard Panel

    PowerPoint import and conversion

    • Convert each slide to a SmartBuilder page
    • Convert text to SmartBuilder text
    • Convert most PowerPoint shapes to SmartBuilder shapes including matching fill and line styles.
    • Import PowerPoint images

      Powerful charts

      Set up charts to use static data, or dynamic data such survey responses, scores, progress, etc.
      Template Wizard Panel
      Lesson Content looks the same on desktop computer and on tablet

      WYSIWYG text (What-you-see-is-what-you-get)

      Text is positioned and wraps the same on all browsers and devices, so you can rest assured that text appears exactly as you authored it.

      Testing & tracking

      Question templates

      Use out-of-the-box templates for common question types such as multiple choice, multiple response, fill in the blank and drag-and-drop. After templates are applied, they are fully customizable and extensible so you can, for example, add images or audio for feedback.
      Question Template Thumbnails
      Lesson with custom question featuring hotspots and timed response

      Custom questions

      Score and track any custom interaction; you don’t need to use a standard question format.

      Drag and drop

      Use templates to quickly set up typical drag-and-drop interactions. Or, get under the hood and configure a custom drag-and-drop with almost any behavior you can imagine.
      Drag and Drop in a lesson
      Randomization icon

      Randomization & pooling

      Randomize radio buttons, check boxes and dropdown with a single click. Randomize and pool questions using special question randomization templates.

      Interactivity

      Action blocks

      Traditional authoring tools use popup windows and menus to create logic. SmartBuilder’s unique action blocks require no popups and clicks. You can also combine multiple triggers, conditions and responses into a single action – a huge time saver.
      Action Blocks moving together in a GIF
      SmartBuilder Objects Panel

      Objects

      Objects such as buttons, videos and checkboxes are the building blocks that you’ll use to create cool learning experiences. Each object can communicate with other objects, so the variety of what you can create is almost unlimited.

      Programming logic

      This one is for the geeks out there. SmartBuilder is the only authoring tool that provides the power and time savings of programming logic, without requiring external scripting. SmartBuilder supports:

      • Variables
      • Arrays
      • Tags
      • Text manipulation (split, join, replace, etc.)
      • Looping (“for each item”,”while”, etc.)
      • Stored procedures
      Complicated Action with many action blocks
      SmartBuilder flow chart showing branching

      Branching

      • Visually lay out different learner paths
      • Group related pages into to subflows to visually organize and quickly reorder pages of your course
      • Create actions to jump to any page based on any trigger or condition

      Software simulation templates

      Quickly set up logic for simulations with different interaction models including:

      • Show me
      • Let me try
      • Step by step challenge
      • Whole task challenge
      SmartBuilder flow chart showing branching

      Publishing

      HTML5 Logo on a tablet screen

      HTML5

      SmartBuilder HTML5 output plays on all modern browsers and platforms including Windows, OSX, Android and iOS. No apps or players are needed.

      SCORM, AICC

      SmartBuilder automatically generates the files required by an LMS to import content and track results using SCORM 1.2, 2004 or AICC standards.
      SCORM Logo
      xAPI Logo

      xAPI (AKA Tin Can)

      SmartBuilder question templates will automatically generate xAPI statements.

      SmartBuilder also allows you to send and retrieve custom xAPI data, all without messing around with JavaScript.

      You can even test your xAPI data calls with SmartTracker while authoring, saving lots of time!

      Section 508 compliant accessible output

      SmartBuilder allows interactive objects to be visible to screen reading software and saves you time with automatic tab ordering based on position – top to bottom, left to right. Alt tags for images and closed captions for video are also supported.
      xAPI Logo
      Sharing Feature with links to uploaded lessons

      Deliver and track courses with SmartTracker™

      If you don’t have your own LMS, SmartTracker provides a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to host and deliver SmartBuilder content.

      Run a variety of reports to analyze question results, learner activity, or custom data.

      A free SmartTracker plan is included with your SmartBuilder license.

      Ready to become a serious elearning superhero?