Multimedia piece is a broad term that refers to many types of communication. For example, an
intranet-based training course, an interactive kiosk, an online magazine, and a computer
simulation of industrial equipment are all multimedia pieces. Their common multimedia trait is
the ability to orchestrate media objects—such as graphics, sound, digital movies, or a set of
instructions, in response to changing conditions such as the user’s choices and the amount of
time that passes.
The assembling of multimedia into a functioning piece is known as authoring.
Icon-based authoringThe best introduction to icon-based authoring is the Macromedia Authorware tutorial. See the online tutorial at www.macromedia.com/support/authorware, or select Help > Support Center.
In Authorware, you construct, or author, a multimedia piece by assembling icons on a flowline.
The flowline organizes the icons and determines the sequence in which Authorware runs them.
Icons contain the contents of a piece. Different types of icons contain different types of objects,
such as graphics, text, sound, digital movies, or a set of instructions. The arrangement of icons
forms the logic of a piece, its structure or architecture. The logic of a piece gives the piece shape
and makes it work a certain way.
In Authorware, you drag icons from the Icon palette. The Icon palette is like a bottomless well.
You can drag up to 32,761 icons from the Icon palette into a single file, but it is best to create
smaller modular pieces, which are much easier to work with.
The flowline appears in the Design window. That’s where you arrange the icons and construct the logic of the piece. The icons’ order on the flowline determines the order in which events take
place when the piece runs.
When you run a piece, it appears in the Presentation window. As you build a piece, you use the
Presentation window to lay out text, graphics, buttons, and all the other visual elements that
make up the piece.
Running the piece
As the author, you can run the piece to see how images appear and whether interactivity works the
way you want. Use the Control menu and the Authorware Control Panel to run or step through
your piece. Use the start and stop flags to test a specific segment of the piece.
The stages of authoring
Authoring a multimedia piece generally follows the traditional development process of analysis,
design, development, evaluation, and distribution.
Analysis
Before you start using Authorware, conduct an analysis to determine what the piece you’re
creating needs to do. The analysis you make will differ depending on the type of solution that
you are providing. Who is the intended audience? What objectives must be met? How timely
must the information be? What environment will users be in when they use the piece? If you’re
developing a kiosk that will be situated in a noisy shopping mall, you may decide against using
sounds in your piece.
Next, think about how you’ll distribute the piece and the kinds of computers that the target
audience has. For more things to consider before you begin designing your piece.
Design
Before you develop the navigational structure of your piece, make a prototype of the screen design and identify all of the content elements for your piece.
Create storyboards and prototypes Create storyboards for the project and design a few
sample screens to work out in detail exactly what you want to achieve. Authorware is ideal for
creating prototypes. You can draw basic shapes to represent elements on the screen and later
import finished graphics into the piece. A prototype should convey the idea of how a piece will
work. Be careful not to spend too much time on visual details for the prototype: If the design
needs to change later, you will have created graphics that won’t be used.
Identify and gather content When professional developers identify and gather their content,
they create what’s known as an asset list—a list of every sound, graphic, movie, and object used in a piece. You should do the same. Authorware excels at integrating text, graphics, sound, and
digital movies. Although you can create some text and graphics with Authorware tools, you’ll get
the best results with applications designed specifically for creating the type of media you want to
include. For example, use Macromedia Flash for digital movies and animations.
Use the Authorware media libraries and external content features as much as possible. They let
you store content externally and reuse and reference the icons, saving disk space and making it
easier to update applications.
Be sure that your computer and all end users’ computers have the equipment needed to play
sound and movies.
intranet-based training course, an interactive kiosk, an online magazine, and a computer
simulation of industrial equipment are all multimedia pieces. Their common multimedia trait is
the ability to orchestrate media objects—such as graphics, sound, digital movies, or a set of
instructions, in response to changing conditions such as the user’s choices and the amount of
time that passes.
The assembling of multimedia into a functioning piece is known as authoring.
Icon-based authoringThe best introduction to icon-based authoring is the Macromedia Authorware tutorial. See the online tutorial at www.macromedia.com/support/authorware, or select Help > Support Center.
In Authorware, you construct, or author, a multimedia piece by assembling icons on a flowline.
The flowline organizes the icons and determines the sequence in which Authorware runs them.
Icons contain the contents of a piece. Different types of icons contain different types of objects,
such as graphics, text, sound, digital movies, or a set of instructions. The arrangement of icons
forms the logic of a piece, its structure or architecture. The logic of a piece gives the piece shape
and makes it work a certain way.
In Authorware, you drag icons from the Icon palette. The Icon palette is like a bottomless well.
You can drag up to 32,761 icons from the Icon palette into a single file, but it is best to create
smaller modular pieces, which are much easier to work with.
The flowline appears in the Design window. That’s where you arrange the icons and construct the logic of the piece. The icons’ order on the flowline determines the order in which events take
place when the piece runs.
When you run a piece, it appears in the Presentation window. As you build a piece, you use the
Presentation window to lay out text, graphics, buttons, and all the other visual elements that
make up the piece.
Running the piece
As the author, you can run the piece to see how images appear and whether interactivity works the
way you want. Use the Control menu and the Authorware Control Panel to run or step through
your piece. Use the start and stop flags to test a specific segment of the piece.
The stages of authoring
Authoring a multimedia piece generally follows the traditional development process of analysis,
design, development, evaluation, and distribution.
Analysis
Before you start using Authorware, conduct an analysis to determine what the piece you’re
creating needs to do. The analysis you make will differ depending on the type of solution that
you are providing. Who is the intended audience? What objectives must be met? How timely
must the information be? What environment will users be in when they use the piece? If you’re
developing a kiosk that will be situated in a noisy shopping mall, you may decide against using
sounds in your piece.
Next, think about how you’ll distribute the piece and the kinds of computers that the target
audience has. For more things to consider before you begin designing your piece.
Design
Before you develop the navigational structure of your piece, make a prototype of the screen design and identify all of the content elements for your piece.
Create storyboards and prototypes Create storyboards for the project and design a few
sample screens to work out in detail exactly what you want to achieve. Authorware is ideal for
creating prototypes. You can draw basic shapes to represent elements on the screen and later
import finished graphics into the piece. A prototype should convey the idea of how a piece will
work. Be careful not to spend too much time on visual details for the prototype: If the design
needs to change later, you will have created graphics that won’t be used.
Identify and gather content When professional developers identify and gather their content,
they create what’s known as an asset list—a list of every sound, graphic, movie, and object used in a piece. You should do the same. Authorware excels at integrating text, graphics, sound, and
digital movies. Although you can create some text and graphics with Authorware tools, you’ll get
the best results with applications designed specifically for creating the type of media you want to
include. For example, use Macromedia Flash for digital movies and animations.
Use the Authorware media libraries and external content features as much as possible. They let
you store content externally and reuse and reference the icons, saving disk space and making it
easier to update applications.
Be sure that your computer and all end users’ computers have the equipment needed to play
sound and movies.
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