The Macintosh Demo: Applications/Apple-MacintoshDemoApplicationsCD-1.0-1992.iso/More Information/Authorware Professional for Mac/First Try Tutorial

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First Try Tutorial

Using the First Try Tutorial, you'll assemble your own
multimedia presentation, complete with graphics, sound
and animation. This tutorial assumes that you are familiar
with basic Macintosh operations such as clicking, dragging
and choosing menu commands.  If you’re new to the Macintosh,
we suggest you first work with the materials supplied with
your computer before working through this tutorial.

System requirements for this tutorial

The First Try Tutorial, however, is designed for a Macintosh II
family machine (including the LC with 256 colors and 640x480
screen resolution) with a color monitor and 4 megabytes of RAM.
You’ll also need the Helvetica font family installed on your system.

Before you begin

For this tutorial, imagine that you are a product manager at a company
called Pasquali Designs.  Your mission is to produce a sophisticated
multimedia presentation showing the benefits of your company’s newest
product, the Pasquali Gold Coffee Filter.  The interactive presentation must
entertain, inform and persuade the viewer.

If you’d like to see the final result of this tutorial first, a completed version
is provided in the “Authorware First Try” folder.  Just start Authorware by
double-clicking the “Authorware Working Model” icon.  Open the
“Complete” file and choose “Run” from the Try it menu.  To exit, choose
“Close” from the File menu.

This tutorial is designed for the novice, but provides the professional
multimedia developer with a taste of Authorware’s powerful authoring
environment.  You’ll see how quickly you can create interactive applications
and how easily you can make major structural changes to them, at any
stage of development.

Step 1:  Start Authorware and create a new file.

•    From the “Authorware First Try” folder, double-click the “Authorware
Working Model” icon.
•    From the standard file dialog box that appears, click “New”.
•    Save the new file as “Coffee” and click “Create.”  Your screen
should look similar to the one at left.

Once you give your new application a name, Authorware automatically
displays the Design window and icon palette.

Authorware applications are created from a palette of eleven icons.
Each icon represents a set of instructions to be performed in the
presentation of your file.

The Design window provides an iconic view of your application.  You
design applications by dragging icons from the palette and arranging
them on a “flowline”.   The flowline determines the order in which the
icons in the window will be executed when you present the file.

Step 2:  Change the size of the Presentation window to “full screen”.

•    Choose the “Setup…” command from the File menu.
•    From the dialog box that appears, select “full screen” as your
Presentation window size.
•    Click “OK”.

The Presentation window is where you’ll view your application, just
as it will appear to the user.  You’ll do this by “running” your file in a
moment.

You’ve set it up so that the Presentation window will fill the screen.
Keep in mind that Authorware’s Presentation window can be any size
you want.

Step 3:  Load the “Intro” model.

•    Choose “Load…” from the Models menu.
•    From the standard file dialog box that appears, select the file
called “Intro” and click “Open”.  (If a message appears informing
you that there is already a model named “Intro”, click “Cancel”.)

Models are created from one or more icons, together with their flowlines,
and are saved in a special format.  Once a model is loaded, as you just
loaded the “Intro” model, it can be pasted into any Authorware file and
edited if desired.  Models allow you to reuse pieces of icon logic (such
as a particular type of interaction or presentation sequence that you
use frequently) in your files.  They’re also handy for using sequences
of icons that were prepared beforehand, as in this case.

When you load a model in Authorware Professional for Macintosh, it
becomes loaded into the authoring software and is accessible across
multiple files.  If a message appeared that there was already a model
named “Intro,” that means that the model was already previously loaded.

Step 4:  Paste the “Intro” model into your file.

•    From the Models menu, choose “Intro” below the “Paste model:”
heading.

“Paste model:” is actually a heading rather than a command, and all
currently loaded models appear below it.

Once pasted, the “Intro” model appears as a sequence of selected
(highlighted) icons on the flowline in your application.  Notice the
small hand that appears below the icons you just pasted in.  This is
the paste hand, and its location determines where icons are pasted.
Icons are always pasted below the paste hand.  To move the paste hand,
simply click on or near the flowline—but not on an icon or you’ll select
it—and the hand will appear where you clicked.

Step 5:  Insert a Display icon below all the icons and title it “Coffee Cup”.

•    Position the pointer on top of the Display icon (the first icon) in the
palette.  When you click on it, you’ll see the pointer change into a Display
icon.  Drag the Display icon to the bottom of the flowline and release.
•    By default, the icon is called “Untitled”.  Since it’s selected (highlighted),
you can give it a name right away.  Type “Coffee Cup”.

If you didn’t insert the icon in the right place, just drag it to where you want
it to go.  As you insert icons, existing icons are moved as needed.

Step 6:  Run the file.

•    From the Try it menu, choose the “Run” command.

Choosing “Run” brings the Presentation window into view and starts
running your file from the beginning, executing each icon.  Before
reaching your “Coffee Cup” Display icon at the bottom of the flowline,
you saw objects appear and disappear (from the Display and Erase icons),
saw a line move (Animation icon), and heard a sound (Sound icon).

Why did file flow pause when it reached your “Coffee Cup” Display icon?
If an empty icon is encountered while running the file, presentation is
automatically interrupted to allow you to “fill in” the empty icon.  If the
empty icon is a Display or Interaction icon (you’ll learn more about
interactions later), the graphics toolbox appears.  The graphics toolbox
contains tools for creating or editing display objects.  Notice that the
graphics toolbox’s title bar identifies your Display icon.

Step 7:  Import the “Coffee Cup” graphic into the Display icon.

•    Choose “Import graphics...” from the File menu.
•    From the standard file dialog box that appears, select the “Coffee Cup”
graphics file and click “Open”.
•    From the selection window, click the “Paste” button.
•    Drag the graphic to the left and center in the Presentation window.

When you move the cursor into the selection window, it changes to a
cross-hair cursor.  This allows you to draw a rectangle around the portion
of the graphic that you want to paste.  (The entire graphic is automatically
selected.)

Notice that, once pasted, the coffee cup appears with selection handles
so that you can immediately reposition it by dragging it.  If you want to
move it only a small distance, use the arrow keys to move it one pixel
per keystroke.

Step 8:  Change the graphic’s drawing mode to “Transparent”.

•    With the coffee cup graphic still selected, select “Modes…” from the
Edit menu.
•    From the “Drawing Modes” dialog box, choose “Transparent” and click “OK”.

If the graphic becomes deselected, click once on it to select it and you’ll
see handles appear.  Changing the coffee cup’s drawing mode to transparent
provides a more pleasing effect.

Step 9:  Group selected icons.

•    From the Try it menu, choose the “Jump to icons” command.
•    Select all of the icons in the Design window by choosing “Select all”
from the Edit menu.
•    Choose “Group” from the Edit menu.  A single Map icon now represents
all the previously selected icons.
•    Title the new Map icon “Introduction”.
•    Double-click the “Introduction” Map icon to view its contents.
•    Close the “Introduction” Map by clicking once in its close box in
the upper left corner.

As you add icons to the flowline, you will most likely run out of room.
You can increase the size of the design window by clicking on the size
box in its lower right corner and dragging.  Beyond that, you can group
icons within Map icons as you did above.

The “Jump to icons”/“Jump to display” command allows you to switch
back and forth between the Presentation window and the design window(s).
Pull down the Try it menu now, and you’ll see that the command has changed
to “Jump to display”.

Step 10:  Add an interaction by pasting in the “Choose” model.

•    Choose “Load…” from the Models menu.
•    Select the “Choose” model file and click “Open”.
•    Click on the flowline below the “Introduction” Map icon to position
the paste hand.
•    Select “Choose” below the “Paste model:” heading in the Models menu.

The model you just loaded consists of an Interaction icon with three
attached “feedback” Map icons.  The Interaction icon presents a display
and, based on the user’s response, branches to an attached feedback icon.
Each feedback icon has a specific response type, indicated by its response
type symbol.

In this case, the interaction prompts the user to select a subtopic.  The
three feedback icons are Click/touch area responses. This response type inserts
a “hotspot” in the interaction display that when clicked, matches the response.
If the user clicks in the area associated with the “Beans” feedback icon, for
instance, file flow will enter the “Beans” Map.

Step 11:  Edit text in the “Beans” response.

•    Choose “Run” from the Try it menu.
•    Try out your application so far.  Click each of the three topics.
•    Click on the “Beans” topic.  The objects you see on the screen are
contained in several Display icons within the “Beans” Map, and you’re
going to edit the text of one of them.
•    Choose “Pause” from the Try it menu.
•    Double-click the block of text on the right of the screen to select it.
In a moment, the graphics toolbox will appear and selection handles will
surround the text.
•    Click the text tool (which is the letter “A”).
•    Click on the text beside the number “70”.
•    Change the number “70” to “80”.
•    Click the close box in the upper left corner of the graphics toolbox to
view your change.

One of Authorware’s most important features is the ability to edit your
file during presentation.  Whenever you notice something you’d like to change,
simply pause presentation and make the change.  When you proceed, presentation
continues with the changes you made incorporated.

Step 12:  Add a movie to your presentation.

•    Choose “Jump to icons” from the Try it menu.
•    Double-click the “Brewing” Map icon to open it.
•    Insert a Movie icon, (it's the one that looks like a piece of film)
between the “Coffee Maker” and Wait icons, and title it “Coffee Brewing”.
•    Drag the Start flag to the top of the “Brewing” window’s flowline.
•    Choose “Run from flag” from the Try it menu.
•    File flow pauses at the empty Movie icon.  From the standard file dialog box
that appears, choose “Movie of Coffee Brewing” and click “Open”.
•    From the dialog box that appears, choose “Balanced”.  You’ll see the movie
load, then appear on screen.
•    From the “Movie Options” dialog box, set the movie to play 1 time at 1
frame per second, and click “OK”.
•    Drag the coffee pot movie into position on top of the coffee maker graphic.
•    This is a good place to save your work.  Choose “Save” from the File menu.

Step 13:  Add a sound to your presentation.

•    Choose “Jump to icons” from the Try it menu.
•    Insert a Sound icon between the “Coffee Brewing” movie
and Wait icons, and title it “Sound of Coffee Brewing”.
•    Double-click the Sound icon to open it.
•    From the standard file dialog box, select the “Sound of Coffee Brewing”
sound file and click “Open”.
•    From the “Sound Options” dialog box, choose “Concurrent” play from the
pop-up menu.  You can preview the sound if you want using the “Play” and
“Stop” buttons.  Click “OK”.
•    Choose “Run from flag” from the Try it menu to see the sound and movie
play together. (Since the movie and sound are both set to “Concurrent”,
they’ll start playing at the same time.)

Step 14:  Add a digital clock to the coffee maker using a system variable

•  Choose “Pause” from the Try it menu.
•  Double-click the coffee base graphic to edit it.
•  Select the text tool and click along the coffee maker base.
•  Select “Paste variables...” from the Variables menu.
•  From the pop-up, select “Time”.  A list of Time system vaiables appears.
Scroll until you see “FullTime”, highlight it and click “Paste”.  A
variable is a container for data; “FullTime”, for instance, contains the
current time.  Like all system variables, “FullTime” is automatically updated
during presentation.
•  Select “Modes...” from the Edit menu, choose “Transparent” and Click “OK”.
Click elsewhere on the screen and you’ll see the variable’s data—its current
value—appear.
•  Choose “Effects...” from the Edit menu. Click the “Update embedded
display variables perpetually” option and click “OK”.  This causes Authorware
to update the display each time the variable’s value changes when running the file.
•  Click-select the text, drag its margin handles to expand it and change its
current font, size, style, and color.  You might also want to add a black rectangle
behind it.  To bring the text to front, select it and choose “Bring to front” from
the Edit menu.
•  Choose “Run from flag”.  You’ll see the clock appear and its value change on
screen.

Step 15:  Paste the “Show the Benefits” model into your file.

•    Choose “Jump to icons” from the Try it menu.
•    Close the “Brewing” Map window.
•    Attach a Map icon to the “Choose a Subtopic” interaction to the right
of the “Brewing” Map.  Title the new Map “Show the Benefits”.
•    Double-click the “Show the Benefits” icon to open it.
•    Load and paste in the “Benefits” model the same way you did the “Intro”
and “Choose” models.
•    Close the “Show the Benefits” Map.

You’ve loaded the last piece of your application.  It contains elements that
describe the benefits of using the Pasquali Gold Coffee Filter.  The user will
select it from the interaction by clicking a pushbutton.

Step 16:  Change the “Show the Benefits” Map’s response type to “Pushbutton”.

•    Command-double-click the Click/touch area response symbol above
the “Show the Benefits” Map icon.
•    From the dialog box that appears, choose “Pushbutton” and click “OK”.
You’ll see the Click/touch area response symbol replaced by a Pushbutton
response symbol.
•    Choose “Run” from the Try it menu.
•    When your application reaches the “Choose a Topic” display, choose
“Pause” from the Try it menu.
•    Drag the “Show the Benefits” button to the lower part of the screen.

The Interaction icon is one of Authorware’s most versatile and powerful
icons.  You’ve used Click/touch area and Pushbutton responses in this
tutorial; other response types include Text, Pulldown menu, Keypress,
Conditional, Time limit and Tries limit.

Step 17:  View your completed application.

•    Select “Run” from the Try it menu to view the entire application.
•    When you reach the “Choose a Topic” display, click the “Show the
Benefits” button to view its contents.  To return to the Design window,
choose “Jump to icons” from the Try it menu.

Congratulations on completing your first application in Authorware!
You’ve seen how quickly applications can be created, and how Authorware
can be used throughout an application’s development, from early design
stages to the final polished result.  You’ve also seen how simple it is to
make changes at any point in the design.

This tutorial barely taps into Authorware’s capabilities.  We hope you’ll
experiment on your own, and contact us to learn more about Authorware
Professional.

For more information, please contact your local Macromedia distributor:

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