Product Description

By focusing on what you will need to know in the "real" world and working through exercises in Authorware 6, you will learn to create highly interactive training and educational applications for delivery across the Web, LANs, and on CD-ROMs. Everything you need to know to become a skilled user is covered in this book! You'll begin with an orientation to the Authorware interface, icon palette and flowline to build simple presentations structures. From there, you'll jump right into building a variety of interactive learning strategies, structures to control navigation, user log-in and information tracking, reading/writing to external files, and more!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #719964 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1000 pages

About the Author
Scott Wilson, has been managing the development of multimedia and web development projects for over 17 years, totaling thousands of hours of applications for Fortune 500 corporate clients. He has been teaching Authorware classes within an Authorized Macromedia Training Center for more than 10 years. Scott is the Instructional Architect and co-author for the OnWord Press Inside Macromedia Series.

Jennie Thornton is one of the most recognized faces in the Authorware community today. Jennie served on the Authorware Advisory Council, which allowed her to contribute to the current release of Authorware 6. Jennie's extensive guru-knowledge-level of Authorware, her proven ability to produce award-winning interactive training projects, and her audience-pleasing teaching style have made her a much sought after Authorware expert.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reference and Resource
Last year my company took the quantum leap into CBT, and I was offered the opportunity to help design and create it, using Authorware. While Authorware is marketed as a "non-programmer development tool" you find early on that a lot of typical CBT behavior cannot be accomplished without scripting, using AW's internal functions and variables. To my disadvantage, I don't have any formal programming training, and have purchased just about every book recommended by the AW community, each specializing in one or two areas of AW development.

This is the first book I've found on the use of AW that covers it all. It begins with the basics and then goes beyond...into detail on writing scripts, using functions and variables, using lists, etc. all inside one cover.

The tutorial style of the book is very appealing to me, and the accompanying CD includes plenty of example files that are very helpful. There's no way you can learn what this book offers without doing the exercises, so it is highly interactive.

I still have a lot to learn - it's great to have such a handy reference and "teacher" sitting on my desk! Thank you, Jennie and Scott!

Authorware 6
As the Director of a Training Staff that uses Authorware I am always interested in new media available to teach non-programmers how to use Authorware. Of all the books currently on the market from Orsen Kellog's to the TAAM (The Alternative Authorware Manual) this book is by far the MOST comprehensive. Not only do the authors cover the basics of Authorware, but they provide even more intricate information such as using ActiveX controls and scripting.

I would recommend this book for the experienced Authorware user or as a guide for creating a course curriculum for teaching the general principles of Authorware programming. However, I would NOT recommend it for the novice simply for one reason: Throughout the book there are numerous editorial mistakes that can make the learning process for the novice confusing. For example, there are several references to incorrect file name titles, or references to using the white start flag (this was probably due to the authors using this function when creating the program but forgetting that the USER had not been instructed to use the white/black stop/start flags. There is actually a reference to a file on the help disk which must have had it's name changed before publication time (therefore, new users may not understand what to do or what file to use).

However, I fault the publisher OnwordPress/Thomson Learning for lack of proper proofreading for these mistakes. This is incredibly unfortunate, because without these mistakes, I would rate the book over all as a 5+!

Kudos to Scott Wilson and Jennie Thornton!

Floridaconsultant
First time your mistake; second time mine. I have now used the Wilson/Thornton tutorial for two training sessions, and will never use it again. The format and layout is good, but the errors that should have been caught & corrected have enough of an impact upon learners that it should not be used, particularly for anyone at the beginning level, even though the book is marketed as a tutorial for beginners. Macromedia should be informed of the negative impact this book has upon AW. In the last training session I had one trainee have the IT person from where she works help her ... and he couldn't believe the errors found in the middle and later chapters. The trainee gave the book back to me and said she would never use AW again!

Enough said.