1. Authoring tools There are three main authoring tools:
Card or page based tools
Icon-based or event driven tools
Time-based and presentation tools

2. Authoring tools :Card or Page
Good if the project consists of elements that can be viewed individually
Media elements grouped onto screens like pages in a book
Pages contain buttons, text fields, graphic objects, backgrounds
Buttons may contain scripts to perform specific functions or go to a specific page. If a user selects the wrong answer to a question, a script will direct him to a prior page for review.
HyperCard, ToolBook

3. Icon-based
Programming done visually, without scripting
AuthorWare

4. Time-based Best used when message has a beginning, middle & end
Uses “movie” metaphor
Macromedia Director (See example)

5. Other tools
Each MM project will have its own structure and purpose thus requires different features and functions such as:
Editing tools
Organizing tools
Programming tools

6. Editing tools Editing features
MM elements are created, edited, and converted to standard format using special editors
sound editor,
text editor,
image editor, ….

7. Organizing tools …
Designing the interactive & navigation flow of the MM project requires a lot of programming thus
needs flowcharting & storyboarding illustrating the structure of the MM project at the macro level

8. Programming tools …
MM authoring systems offer one or more of the following:
Visual programming with icons & objects. This is the simplest & easiest
Programming with a scripting language for navigation and interacting with the end user
Programming with traditional languages for direct access to the computer’s Operating system (in windows using DLLs)
Document development tool for providing online help using indexing, hyperlink and searching mechanisms

9. Other tools …. Interactivity feature
Authoring systems should provide one or more levels of interactivity:
Simple branching offers the ability to other sections via activities such as: mouse over, mouse click, mouse leave
Conditional branching if-then else
Complex branching using structured programming features such as subroutines, event tracking, and message passing

10. Other tools … Performance tuning feature. For example
In many cases one needs to synchronize events such as animation with sound.
This is difficult because performance varies from platform to another.
Authoring system must allow precise timing events and controlling presentation speed

11. Other tools … Playback feature
Playback of the presentation or parts of it during development for testing purposes
Delivery features
Most of the times you need to distribute the product as a run time version that does not require the authoring system.
This will prevent the user from altering the project content.

12. Cross platform
Macintosh machine is the most widely used authoring system, however
most people use Window operating systems. It is important to develop on one machine and run on another
If Cross-Platform Is used it must support color and font….
Internet playability
The Web is an important delivery medium, thus it is important to be able to output to the Web using Plug-ins or embedding scripts