Macromedia Authorware 6 Training from the Source (With CD-ROM)

Rating:
Summary: Step by step, but very confusing
Review: I am a corporate trainer whose classroom courses are extremely popular. It is time for me to move them into a Web environment.

This book does take you in bite size steps through the use of Authorware. But as a trainer, I find it enormously confusing in its organization, in the information it leaves out and in its inconsistencies.

A quick example: the end of the second chapter shows you how to create within the software the sections for your course, and the pages within each of those sections. It then shows you how to open one of those pages and tells you that you'll learn to put content onto that page in the following chapter.

But the following chapter shows you creating content in completely different windows located in a completely different part of the software than the windows you were looking at when the previous chapter left off.

Bottom line - - I sat with this book for three days, did all of the tutorials in the first seven chapters but still did not understand where to begin to create a course from scratch on my own.

Full of far too much 'tech talk' the book needs to teach people how to use Authorware to create courses, etc. from a blank slate NOT from pre-created sound, text files etc parked in specific places that you are easily guided to. I will still need a much better written text, or some classroom instruction, to get my project out the door.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Reference Manual
Review: If you're looking for a comprehensive Authorware manual this is NOT the book. If you want an introductory series of step-by-step guided tutorials it's OK, IMHO.

I have been using Orson Kellogg's Ver 5 book in the classroom and for on-line teaching. I like it because the students can work at their own pace and leaves me free to offer personalized guidance. My students typically finish the book exercises in 5-6 weeks (about 25-30 lab hours). It provides objectives at the start and end of each chapter and has a few multimedia development tips sprinkled through the book (though not nearly enough).

If it has a weakness as a learning tool, some students do the steps but do not retain what they have just done. I need to provide challenges throughout the semester to get them to think on their own. Once students have done the exercizes the book is useless because it has no reference tools. It lacks appendices for common variables and system functions, for example.

I agree with the previous writer that it fails to come even close to unleashing the power of Authorware. As a classroom tool I may continue to use it because every student at every level has been able to use it successfully.

Rating:
Summary: Even worse than the last book.
Review: The 5 book was bad. This one is even worse. Don't waste your time or money. This was no more than an update to the last, and it doens't even fully go into the new functions, missing many inportant aspects and abilities of one-touch-publishing, integrating Flash, etc.

Rating:
Summary: I Like the Book - Thorough Explanations
Review: The authors do what I feel a good instructor should do - they move systematically from chapter to chapter expanding on knowledge gained in previous chapters, giving lots of explanations as to why you need to do things a certain way. This builds confidence and competency with the software. I am new to Authorware and feel this book is giving me a firm foundation for thoroughly understanding the software.

I recommend the book to anyone starting with Authorware without reservation.

Rating:
Summary: Poor organised and very uneven in quality
Review: This is quite a poorly organised book. Certainly I found it sloppy and longwinded in equal measure. Is anyone editing these Training from the Source books, I asked myself. In any training manual. a good mental model should be easily extracted. This is far from the case here. The manual and tutorials that accompany Authorware are preferable to this volume's offerings. It is simply too erratic and patchy to meet the objective set in the title. I would not recommend it.