Multimedia Authoring Tools

Lecture 13

By
Razia Nisar Noorani
Multimedia Authoring Tools
• Multimedia authoring tools provide the
important framework you need for
organizing and editing the elements of
multimedia like graphics, sounds,
animations and video clips.
• Authoring tools are used for designing
interactivity and the user interface, for
presentation your project on screen and
assembling multimedia elements into a
single cohesive project.
Multimedia Authoring Tools
• Authoring software provides an
integrated environment for binding
together the content and functions of
your project.
• Authoring systems typically include the
ability to create, edit and import specific
types of data; assemble raw data into a
playback sequence or cue sheet and
provide structured method or language
for responding to user input.
Types of Authoring Tools
 Card or page based tools
 Icon based, event driven tools
 Time based tools
Card or page based tools
• In these authoring systems, elements are
organized as pages of a book or a stack of cards.
• These tools are best used when the bulk of your
content consists of elements that can be viewed
individually, like the pages of a book or cards in a
card file.
• The authoring system lets you link these pages or
cards into organized sequences.
• You can jump, on command, to any page you wish
in the structured navigation pattern.
• It allows you to play sound elements and launch
animations and digital video.
Card or page based tools
• Advantages
– Easy to understand metaphore
– 1 screen= 1 card= 1 page
– Ease of use
• Provide templates
• Short development time
• Disadvantages
– Some run only on one platform
– Tools not as powerful as equiv stand alones
• Software
– Hypercard
Card or page based tools
Icon based, event driven tools

• Icon or event driven tool is the simplest and

easiest authoring system.
• Simple branching is the ability to go to another
section of multimedia production.
• Multimedia elements and interaction cues are
organized as objects in a flow chart.
• Icon- base, event-driven tools simplify the
organization of your project and typically display
flow diagrams of activities along branching paths.
• In complicate structures, this charting is
particularly useful during development.
• Flowchart can be built by dragging appropriate
icons from library and then adding the contents.
Icon based, event driven tools

 Advantages
◦ Clear structure
◦ Easy editing and updating
 Disadvantages
◦ Difficult to learn
◦ Expensive
 Softwares
◦ Authorware
◦ IconAuthor
Icon based, event driven tools
Time based tools
• In these authoring systems, elements and events
are organized along a timeline, with resolutions as
high or higher than 1/30 second.
• Time based tools are best to use when you have
a message with a beginning and an end.
• Sequentially organized graphic frames are played
back at a speed that you can set.
• Other elements are triggered back at a given time
or location in the sequence of events. The more
powerful time based tools let you program jumps
to any location in a sequence, thereby adding
navigation and interactive control.
Time based tools
 Softwares
◦ Macromedia Director
◦ Flash
Macromedia Director
 A multimedia database, ‘cast’, contains still
images, sound files, text , shapes, script,
movies and other director files.
 Score is a sequencer for displaying,
animating and playing Cast members.
 Lingo is an object oriented scripting
language that enables interactivety and
programmed control.
Macromedia Director
 Advantages
◦ Good for creating animation.
◦ Branching, user control interactivity
 Disadvantages
◦ Expensive
◦ Steep learning curve for advance features.
Macromedia Flash
 Flash is used for delivering rich
multimedia contents to the web.
 It allows the creation of of simples static
HTML with the flash player plug-in.
Macromedia Flash
 Advantages
◦ Easy to put animated and interactive movies.
◦ Interactive menus
 Disadvantages
◦ Increase in file size
◦ Music and sound files embedded in flash
movies increase file size and increase the file
size.
Top seven Authoring Tools
 Adobe Captivate
 Articulate Presenter
 Articulate Engage
 Adobe Connect
 TechSmith Camtasia
 Adobe Presenter
 Harbinger Raptivity
Categories
 Best Use: Can you use the product to create
applications of a certain type; e.g. software simulations?
 Interface: Do you use the product online or in
PowerPoint? Does it use wizards or a stage?
 Can Insert: What media formats can you put in your
eLearning by using the tool?
 Platforms: Does the application run in Windows, on a
Mac, or online?
 Publish to: To which formats can you publish your
eLearning?
 Cost: What are the initial and update costs of the
product?
End of Lecture 13