May 14, 1997
WELCOME TO AUTHORWARE 4!
For complete information about using Authorware see:
Using Authorware--for what's new, basic concepts, a tutorial, a guide to the step-by-step procedures in Authorware Help, the variables and functions reference, and the new keyboard shortcuts.
Authorware Help--for step-by-step procedures, Show Me multimedia examples, QuickStart templates, old and new menus, reference information (menus, icons, tools, variables, functions, and Shockwave), and links to the Authorware Developers Center.
Authorware Developers Center (www.macromedia.com/support/authorware)--for advice from the experts, Show Me multimedia examples, Shockwave examples, Troubleshooting, Product updates and Xtras, books and web sites, user groups and events, and a bi-monthly online magazine.
LATE BREAKING NEWS
FILES REQUIRED FOR DISTRIBUTING A PIECE
Visit the Authorware Developers Center for information to help you determine which files (Xtras, XMOs, etc.) you need to distribute with an Authorware piece.
INSTALLING THE ACTIVEX XTRA AND THE SHOCKWAVE FLASH ACTIVEX CONTROL
If you own the Authorware 4 Interactive Studio, the installer gives you the option of installing additional components. Choose the Macromedia Flash ActiveX Control option and the Microsoft ActiveX option.
If you own Authorware 4 only, you need to install the ActiveX Xtra and the Shockwave Flash ActiveX control separately.
To install the ActiveX Xtra, open the Goodies\ActiveX\Redist folder, and run Aprxdist.exe, Axdist.exe, and Wintdist.exe.
To install the Shockwave Flash ActiveX control, go to the Goodies\Flash folder and run Setup.exe.
SHOCKWAVE AND INTERNET EXPLORER FOR THE MACINTOSH
There's a bug in Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, version 3.0 and 3.0.1 that can cause it to crash when it's running a shocked Authorware piece that uses external content. The bug may also cause an error message that says the file is missing or of the wrong length.
The problem is most likely to occur when the Shockwave for Authorware plug-in is trying to download several external files when it starts running a shocked piece. The best workaround is to load external content on demand--but even that approach isn't guaranteed to work.
SHOCKWAVE FOR AUDIO AND THE MACINTOSH
On the Macintosh, you can use Shockwave for Audio (SWA) files only on Power Macintosh computers.
AIFF FORMATS
The following AIFF formats are available on Windows 3.1, Windows95, Windows NT, and the Macintosh:
IMA 4:1 compression (16-bit only)
Mace 3:1 compression (8-bit only; stereo in Windows, mono on the Macintosh)
Mace 6:1 compression (8-bit only; stereo in Windows, mono on the Macintosh)
PERFORMANCE WITH COMPRESSED MEDIA
Using compressed formats for sound, digital movies, or images saves space but generally decreases performance. That's because it takes time to decompress a compressed format before the content it contains can be used.
The compressed formats you can use are:
SOUND
Shockwave for Audio (SWA)
AIFF:
-- IMA 4:1 compression (16-bit only)
-- Mace 3:1 compression (8-bit only; stereo in Windows, mono on the Macintosh)
-- Mace 6:1 compression (8-bit only; stereo in Windows, mono on the Macintosh)
WAVE: MS ADPCM (4-bit, Windows only)
IMAGE
BMP: RLE4 and RLE8 compression
TIFF: LZW (color and grayscale), Packed (color and grayscale)
TGA: compressed Targa format
JPEG: all compression levels, progressive JPEGS
GIF; interlaced GIFs
PNG: Portable Network Graphic with Adam7 Interlacing
DIGITAL VIDEO
QuickTime, Video for Windows (AVI), MPEG
PERFORMANCE WITH EXTERNAL MEDIA
There are many factors that may affect performance when you use externally linked media. Among them are the speed of the operating system's file system, the processor's speed, the speed of the hard disk or the diskette that the media files are on, and the speed of the network the files are being read across.
LOW MEMORY ISSUES
On the Macintosh, if you experience errors when importing several graphic images into the same display icon, you may need to increase the size of your memory partition for Authorware.
On the Macintosh, if Authorware crashes during the conversion of a 3.0 or 3.5 file to Authorware 4, you may need to increase the size of your memory partition for Authorware.
DRAG AND DROP IN WINDOWS NT 3.5.1
You can't drag and drop files from the File Manager in Windows NT 3.5.1.
CONVERTING FILES CONTAINING LINGO FUNCTIONS
The Lingo-related functions LingoTell, LingoError, LingoResult, and LingoShowErrors are contained in the Director external movie driver. When you convert a piece that was created in a previous version of Authorware and that uses any of the Lingo-related functions, the newly converted piece will refer to the functions in the outdated driver. To refer to the new Authorware 4 driver, reload the functions.
Windows
Old Driver New Driver
A3DIR.UCD A4DIR.UCD
A3DIR.U32 A4DIR.U32
A3DIR.XMO A4DIR.XMO
A3DIR32.XMO A4DIR32.XMO
Macintosh
Old Driver New Driver
Director_5.0 Director
Director_4.0 Director
TEXT ENTRY FIELDS IN DIRECTOR MOVIES
If you place a Director movie with a text entry field in an Authorware piece that also has a text entry field, users should be able to use the Tab key to move from one field to the next in the order in which they appear on the flowline. However, the Tab key actually moves backwards through the text entry fields.
NEW SETPALETTE FUNCTION & THE SETPALETTE UCD AND XCMD
If you've used the SetPalette function in the SetPalette UCD or XCMD in a piece you've created with a previous version of Authorware, Authorware will notify you of a conflict with its new internal SetPalette function when you convert the piece to Authorware 4. The best solution to the conflict is to replace calls to the old, external SetPalette function with calls to Authorware's new internal function.
If you prefer to use the external function, replace calls to it with calls to the renamed version, SetPaletteUserFunction (which is in the new version of the SetPalette UCD and XCMD on the Authorware 4 CD) before you convert the piece to Authorware 4.
THE SCROLLEDIT UCD ON WINDOWS NT 4.0
There's a problem with the ScrollEdit UCD/U32 that causes it to crash Authorware in Windows NT 4.0. To avoid the problem, don't close the Presentation window while the scroll edit window is active. Always make sure you do a CloseWindow of the scroll edit window before clicking the close box of the Presentation window or before doing "Jump to icons."
ADDITIONAL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARDS
Text > Alignment > Left: Control-Left Arrow
Text > Alignment > Center: Control-Down Arrow
Text > Alignment > Right: Control-Right Arrow
Text > Alignment > Justify: Control-Up Arrow
Modify > Icon > Calculation: Control-0 (zero)
ENGLISH AUTHORWARE HELP ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE SYSTEMS
"Using Authorware" recommends using the Find tab in the Help Topics window to locate step-by-step procedures in Authorware Help. If you run the English version of Authorware Help on a foreign language system, there may be no equivalent to the Find tab. Use the equivalent of the Index tab instead.
(C) Copyright 1997 by Macromedia, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
