MORE SOPHISTICATED THAN Pierian-Spring's Digital Chisel but not as complicated as the procedural-programming-oriented Macromedia Director, Authorware strikes a perfect balance for educators and trainers who need to create computer-based interactive multimedia materials. Now owned by Macromedia, Authorware 3 can interact with Director movies and applications and has a slew of new improvements in its multimedia capabilities.
Drag-and-Drop Scripting
To create an interactive program with Authorware -- whether it's a lesson with a follow-up quiz or a presentation on ergonomics -- you begin by dragging icons from the tool palette and dropping them onto Authorware's flowline, a simplified flowchart. The program provides 13 icons in all, each representing a command that triggers a generic action, such as playing a movie, running an animation, or performing a calculation. When you drop the icon onto the flowline, a dialog box pops up and you can customize the action: For instance, you can have a specific QuickTime movie play when the user clicks on an icon. Once you learn what each icon can do and get used to the way Authorware's flowlines work, the process is no more difficult than doing page layout or video editing, even though you are literally programming. The flowline model is as elegant an approach to visual programming as you'll find anywhere, and it effectively forces good modular design on you. For instance, the window containing the flowline doesn't scroll, so it's impossible to string together so many icons that you can't see at a glance what's going on. This doesn't limit the size of your application; instead it forces you to create a branching, rather than a linear, application. You can branch out from any icon to add additional flowlines.
You can label each icon, and version 3 lets you colorize icons, which helps you visually organize your designs. To simplify things, Authorware gives you only six colors -- a better approach would be to let the user rather than the program set the number of available colors. A major new feature in Authorware 3 is its hypermedia functionality, which lets users navigate to areas that aren't on the flowline. For instance, Authorware 3 now supports the use of hot text, which you could use to link to a glossary you created separately from the flowline. To create links, drag the new Framework icon onto your flowline. Doing so will pop up an environment similar to HyperCard's. This includes a Navigate palette, with which you can create links that, for example, let your users search on text or jump to the first, last, next, previous, or recent "card."
Authorware 3 has a slew of other tweaks and enhancements, especially in the variety of media formats it supports. It can now handle 16-bit, 44-MHz sound -- straight from a CD-ROM player -- as well as AIFF, WAV, and PCM sound files from Windows and Mac programs. You can include PICS, Director, Movie Editor, and QuickTime movies. Authorware does not support QuickTime VR, and any graphics you use must be in PICT format.
Authorware has been a cross-platform Windows/Mac program for a long time. The previous version let you convert the programs you created for Windows-based PCs to Macintosh format -- version 3 also enables you to convert Mac programs to Windows format.
You can now import or paste RTF text into the programs you create with Authorware. Text retains all its style information, such as font, size, and color. When you import the text, its style is automatically added to a list of styles so you can keep the same style throughout your program. You can also create new styles by modifying existing ones.
Authorware can use XCMDs and XFCNs written for HyperCard and Director. You can also do limited conventional programming in Authorware. Drop the calculation icon onto the flowline, and you can write small chunks of Authorware procedural code that get executed when the program reaches the calculation icon in the flowline. The calculation icon now handles if-then and repeat structures and some new variables and functions. As the program runs, you can watch the values of these variables in the Trace window, which you open by clicking on the bug icon in the tool bar.
Authorware does not support AppleScript, but it does support Director's Lingo programming language indirectly through the TellLingo icon. For instance, you can use the TellLingo icon to send any Lingo expression to a Director movie and get the results back in your Authorware program.
Authorware now includes nearly 1,000 pieces of clip art on a CD-ROM, including background patterns, bullets, sliders, and buttons you can use in your presentations.
To create Authorware programs, you need a 25-MHz 68030 or more powerful Mac, System 7, 8 MB of RAM, and 40 MB of free disk space. Authorware programs will require a lot of disk space and memory, so plan on your users having at least a 68020 Mac LC or a more powerful Mac with System 6, 4 MB of RAM, and at least 10 MB of hard-disk space plus any appropriate hardware. For example, Authorware supports playing clips from any of dozens of models of videodisc players.
Authorware 3 programs are dramatically faster than the ones created with earlier versions of Authorware, notably in displaying graphs and executing decision loops, even though Authorware 3 and its programs are not PowerPC-native.
The largely rewritten documentation is excellent, with good advice on instructional design. The program comes with helpful online tutorials and an extensive, albeit Windows-like, help system. There are also quite a few small sample applications that were useful -- we would have liked to see a few examples of larger Authorware programs as well.
The Bottom Line
If you can master a few programming basics, you'll be pleased with the power and usefulness of Authorware 3. With the new navigational functions and greater support for digital movies, you'll be able to create programs that are even more dynamic and interactive than what you could create in the past.
Authorware 3
Rating: (4 out of 5 mice) Very Good
Price: $4,995 (list).
Pros: Superb, controlled visual-programming environment. Great support for animation and interaction. End-user applications are faster than those created with earlier versions.
Cons: Some programming knowledge required for best results. Authorware applications require generous disk space and memory. Not PowerPC-native.
Company: Macromedia, San Francisco, CA; 800-288-4797 or 415-252-2000.
Reader Service: Circle #402.
New navigational features in Authorware 3 let application builders create links in flowlines (left) that take users to supplementary information such as the hypertext page shown here (right).
