Product Description

Authorware 5 Attain Authorized includes step-by-step instructions for creating visual-rich media for the Web and online learning. Presented in manageable task-oriented sessions, users can work through the lessons at their own pace. The CD-ROM contains all the files you'll need to complete the lessons, plus a full-feature, time-limited version of Authorware 5 Attain.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429841 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From the Back Cover
Authorware 5 Attain Authorized includes step-by-step instructions for creating visual-rich media for the Web and online learning. Presented in manageable task-oriented sessions, users can work through the lessons at their own pace. The CD-ROM contains all the files you'll need to complete the lessons, plus a full-feature, time-limited version of Authorware 5 Attain.

About the Author
Orson Kellogg designs and develops instructional and marketing interactive media. His work -- on behalf of such companies as Autodesk, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, and Symantec - has won three awards from the Society for Technical Communication.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Using Map Icons to Organize the Flowline Before you build a hot spot interaction, you need to prepare the Design window for your new work. Your first task will be to create two map icons to hold two groups of related icons from the two previous lessons. A map icon's purpose is to contain other icons and thereby break the flowline into manageable segments. You'll start by selecting the first group of icons with the mouse. 1] Open 05_Begin.a5p in the Beginning Files folder and save it as 05_Game.a5p in the Game Project folder. Alternatively, you can use the file you worked on in the previous lesson and save it as 05_Game.a5p. 2] In the Design window, move the mouse so it is just above and to the left of the second display icon, Text 1.You need to draw a rectangle around the first group of icons you want to place in a map icon. 3] Click and hold down the mouse button to draw a rectangle around all the icons starting with Text 1 and including - All Text. When you release the mouse button, the selected icons are highlighted. This selection method is called marquee selection. These icons contain the opening animation. 4] Choose Modify Group (Ctrl+G).Now the map icon encompasses the selected icons. The main flowline is much shorter. 5] Double-click the map icon. As you can see, the selected icons are stored inside. Using a map icon to hold a group of related individual icons is the main technique you will use to organize and condense the flowline in Authorware. 6] Click the close box at the upper right to close the map window. Then name the map icon Opening. Now you'll create another map icon containing the keypress interaction from the previous lesson. 7] In the Design window, marquee select all the icons in the keypress interaction. When you release the mouse button, the icons are highlighted. 8] Choose Modify Group to group the selected icons. Note that the title of the interaction icon becomes the title of the map icon. You've just reduced the number of icons on the main flowline from 15 to 4 using two map icons. Keeping the flowline organized like this is essential to successful Authorware development. Storing Content Off the Flowline with a Decision Icon In this task you'll take one more step in preparing for the main work of this lesson. Your key tool will be the decision icon, which is generally used to branch, or select a path, based on some value or expression, such as a user's score on a pretest or the type of computer running the piece. In this case, you'll use a decision icon to temporarily store content off the flowline. To do this, you'll create a decision icon that doesn't branch at all-which might seem puzzling at first, but the logic is simple, as you will see. You attach icons to a decision icon just as you do to an interaction icon. 1] Drag a decision icon to the flowline just below the Keypress map icon and name it Temp. Storage. Next you'll set some of the properties of the decision icon. 2] Double-click the Temp. Storage decision icon to open the Decision Icon Properties dialog box. Decision icons determine which content is displayed to users, but unlike a display or interaction icon, they don't contain content themselves, so when you double-click a decision icon, you go directly to its dialog box. 3] Open the Branch menu. The power of the decision icon lies mainly in the branching options. Before you attach icons to a decision icon, you can choose branching options that determine which path the flowline will follow. The first icon attached to a decision icon is considered to be path 1, the second icon is path 2, and so on. The Branch menu contains four options. The option you choose is represented by a letter on the decision icon.

Sequentially (S on the decision icon): Selects the first path the first time Authorware encounters the decision icon, the second path the second time, and so on.

Randomly to Any Path (R): Selects any path at random.

Randomly to Any Unused Path (U): Selects any path the first time, but doesn't select the same path twice until all paths have been selected.

To Calculated Path (C): Selects a path specified by a value, variable, or expression you enter.

4] Select To Calculated Path. The box below the Branch box is no longer dimmed; it is now available for you to enter a value or expression. 5] Type 0 as the value for the calculated path. A path set to 0 is actually no path. When you attach icons to this decision icon, Authorware will ignore them as it moves down the flowline. 6] Click OK to close the dialog box. Next you'll attach the two map icons you created earlier to the decision icon, creating paths 1 and 2. 7] Drag the Opening map icon to the right of the Temp. Storage decision icon. You attach icons to the right of a decision icon, just as you do with interaction icons. When you attach an icon to a decision icon, the resulting flowline structure represents the path from the decision icon, through the attached icon, and back to the flowline below. The symbol above the Opening map icon is the decision path symbol. 8] Drag the Keypress map icon to the right of the Opening map icon. As long as the calculated path is set to 0, Authorware will bypass the content in both the map icons you've attached to the Temp. Storage decision icon. Having completed two sections of this piece, you have temporarily set them aside. Yet just by dragging the two map icons back to the main flowline, you can include all the content in the two map icons in the piece again. This is a simple way to manage the content in a piece as it gets larger, and it helps you stay focused on the part that you're working on.

Customer Reviews

What it does, it does well. However, it falls way short.
This book is good in how it presents the information it does. However, it falls way short of teaching enough. It is a basic book at best. If you are just starting out in CBT, then this book is for you. If you have done any CBT before, then don't bother. And if you are experienced with Authorware and want more on ODBC, CMI, or KO's....keep looking.

Authorware 5.1 Review
I bought this book as part of a graduate course in Multimedia. We were to learn how to develop a business application using Authorware Attain 5.1 as a final project for the class. The book goes throught the basics of using Authorware Attain 5.1 but often the explanations are not detailed enough. The author assumes too much knowledge of the software's capabilities in some of the exercises. It appears that the software has a lot of potential but you will not find out all the potential from this book. If you want to learn the basics of Authorware, the book will be helpful. If you want anything beyond the basics, it will not help you.

Good for starter
This book starts off with making projects and that's what you'll be doing most of the time. The chapters start off slowly with the absolute basics, and progresses in difficulty later on. Its definitely not a reference book, but more like a tutorial book.

Each chapter presents new features of the program, but not much detail is give regarding the concepts behind those features. However, if you're new to Authorware, then this is definitely a good book to start with, as there aren't many books out there in the market which cover this program anyway.

Some steps are illustrated, and you'll be given instructions in what to do and how to do them to progress further. Unfortunately, its not very comprehensive in its explaination, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure out why some things are done that way.

So, pick it up if you're a beginner and go through it like a tutorial with the program, and it'll commit to memory better. If you want something comprehensive and more in depth, then look elsewhere.