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Introduction
These notes are intended to accompany a training course to cover the fundamentals of
producing multimedia-training packages using Macromedia Authorware
The course assumes no prior knowledge of Authorware, but does expect the student to
be reasonably familiar with PC Computers in general, Windows 9x, NT or later, and
to have an understanding of conventional methods of producing training courses.
Authoring
This course refers to Macromedia Authorware version 6.0 and how this program can
be used to produce multimedia-training programs. The full manual for the program
runs to over 500 pages, and a number of books are available on the subject. The
course and these notes are not intended to replace these reference sources and the
reader is recommended to consult the official manual or the on-line help that comes
with the program in any cases of doubt.
The classroom work will consist of a series of exercises, increasing in complexity,
until a small but complete training course is produced which will incorporate all of the
items covered throughout the week. These notes can be consulted for information and
guidance on the specific topics covered within the course but it must be emphasised
that they are only notes and are intended to be neither complete nor definitive.
Introduction
Authorware is an authoring program that is intended to allow trainers with the
minimum of computing skills to produce useful and effective training packages.
While doing this it also includes a highly complex and flexible programming
language that allows the more computer proficient user to produce advanced and
highly complex packages.
This section of the notes will be split into the various options that have been covered
in the training room.
Authorware Environment
The main Authorware screen is basically similar to other Windows screens, there is a
menu bar across the top and a button or tool bar below it, the main working area is
inside a window and there is a further tool bar down the left side of the screen. If the
mouse is pointed at any of the buttons on screen and held still for a couple of seconds
a small tool tip appears identifying the button.
The button at the extreme right edge of the main tool bar is a help button, click on this
and then point and click at other items on the screen and Help will be started with an
explanation of whatever you have clicked on.
In common with most Windows based programs, pressing the ‘F1’ key will start the
help system. Help is usually context sensitive – it should start in that area of the help
files that most closely matches whatever you are doing on screen at the time.
As the items on the menu and toolbars are used in the course they will be explained
briefly in this document. For a fuller explanation you are recommended to refer to the
main Authorware manual. In particular where there is a discrepancy between these
notes and Macromedia documentation you should accept the Macromedia
documentation.
There is no need to enter a Title, as this will be created when we save the file later.
Click on the small white box next to ‘Background’ and you will be shown a palette of
colours from which to choose the basic background colour of the application you are
making, then click on ‘Okay’.
Don’t bother with ‘Chroma’ as this only really applies to video overlay colours.
Next you can choose the size of the application screen you are creating, this will
usually be ‘640x480 VGA’ or ‘800x600SVGA’. You can choose any of the sizes
from the drop down depending on the type of application you want to make. You can
also choose ‘Use full screen’ or ‘Variable’ but you should be careful with these, as
you then have no control over the actual appearance of the application when it is run
and some applications will have a problem with this.
Always make sure that ‘Center on Screen’ is clicked, this will make sure that your
application will automatically centre itself on the screen when it is run.
Authorware 6.0 Course Notes Version 2.0
© 1998-2003 Castle Computer Services
5
Generally you should remove the remainder of the ‘tick’ marks unless there is a
specific reason for using those features.
Click on ‘Okay’ when this is done and you will be returned to the main screen.
You can change any of the above settings at any time after starting the development
but be careful about changing the screen size as this will not automatically move
objects which are displayed and they will either be in the wrong place or even hidden
off the screen altogether.
Flow line
When you start a new Authorware application you will b presented with an empty
window with the word ‘Untitled’ displayed in the title bar. This is the working
window:
Notice the vertical line down the left of the window, this is called the flow line, it will
contain all of the icons that you will need to produce your application.
While you are here, notice also the label ‘Level 1’ in the top right of this window.
These working windows can contain other windows, each ‘nested’ inside another.
You will invariably have several of these windows and often very many. When one
window is nested inside another its level will be increased, it is not unusual to have
seven or eight levels of nesting and this label is a useful way of reminding yourself
where you are in your application.
All applications in Authorware follow this ‘flow line’ metaphor. A vertical flow line
is displayed in the editing window and the program effectively follows the line from
top to bottom as the application is processed. It’s possible to create branches from
this flow line to make the application take a less than truly linear path through the
inserted icons, but in effect each separate piece of the application is actually made up
of sections of these linear flow lines.
To insert any icon on the flow line simply drag the icon from the Icon Bar and drop it
in the correct place on the flow line. You can insert an icon at any point on the line
that you wish. You do not need to always place an icon at the bottom of the existing
flow line.
If you simply click on a flow line a hand symbol will be placed there. This indicates
the point at which a paste function will insert an icon that you have copied or cut from
elsewhere, or where an imported media item will appear.
Icons
You are now in a position to start producing your application. Click and dragging
icons from the toolbar on the left of the screen to the flow line will let you do this
almost entirely. Remember the flow line is the thin vertical line that is visible on the
working window.
You can ‘open’ an icon by double clicking on it or by running the application. When
an application is running it will usually stop when it reaches an icon that has no
content, a display icon that has nothing to display for example.
New to version 6 of Authorware is the ability to pre-define the properties of icons.
You can if you wish, put content or change the properties of an icon on the flow-line
and if you then drag and drop that icon back on the toolbar every time that you use the
icon it will ‘remember’ how you left it and start like that – this can apply to names,
colours and even content.
Click on File – Preferences – Reset Icon Palette to return everything back to normal.
Icon Names
It is very important that unique names are given to the icons as they are used; this
helps not only you when you are creating the application, but also helps others when
they come to maintain it later. Several of the functions that you will use in later
development will actually refer to icons by name and will refuse to work if the icons
are not named or if two or more icons have the same name.
The icons will be explained briefly here. The explanations are given in the order in
which the icons appear on the tool bar, from top to bottom.
Display
The display icon is the fundamental icon in Authorware and is used to show both
images and text. Click and drag a display icon onto flow line then release it. Give it a
name by typing the name alongside the icon and pressing the ‘Return’ key.
When you first place any icon on the flow line it will naturally be ‘empty’ because
you have not given it any content. An empty icon will be displayed in a pale grey
colour so that you can see which icons do not yet have content.
You can drop as many icons as you wish onto the flow line one after another,
although it is always a good idea to name them as you do this.
When you run your Authorware application in editing mode (we usually call this
‘Authoring’ mode) it will stop when it reaches an empty icon so that you can edit it.
(This includes display icons).