Naturally the project determines what tools are best. Authorware will get
you a lot farther without knowing any "programming" because the icons on the
flowline represent many of the common tasks. You can get farther than
Captivate in some areas but Captivate can be easier than Authorware in
others. Building software training is a lot easier in Captivate because
that's it primary function. But Authorware's power is unrivaled IMHO.
Considering the extensibility features that Authorware supports there is
literally nothing that it can't do. That comes at a premium though. The
farther you want to go the more chances you'll run into the need for
programming. One example is that Authorware doesn't have any kind of UI for
database connectivity because the time hasn't been spent on creating an xtra
to do it. Unfortunately there are many advancements throughout the industry
and Authorware has not kept up.
To many people the problems that Vista and IE7 have presented are not
challenges brought on by a change in environment, they're bugs in
Authorware, and the methods found to make things work are not solutions,
they're 'workarounds'. For me, after more than 20 years programming in over
a half dozen different languages and tools, these things are just par for
the course, growing pains, being on the bleeding edge, etc. I have never
held a position where things went right every time and there were no
challenges to overcome. Regardless of what happens with Authorware in the
future I have confidence that the product will continue to do what it does
now and it does work with Vista and IE7.

I'd suggest you get the trial and run through the tutorial. The
documentation is pretty lousy compared to what we used to get back with v
3.5 However there are several files called ShowMe that highlight specific
concepts. They'll give you an idea of how you can solve particular problems
with icons rather than lines of code.
Get yourself an "intro to computer programming" at your local community
college or whatever. The kind of course that teaches the 'conceptual' ideas
of programming. Why do you use 'for.. next', 'if.. then.. else..', and how
do you combine them to solve certain problems like searching or sorting.
These concepts are universal across different languages and will invaluable
regardless of the tool you choose.

Mike
====================
Mike Baker
Adobe Community Expert
mike-baker@cox.net


"dwknapp" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:f1sf9u$om2$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks to you for all of your comments. Looks like I stumbled onto a sore
> spot. Should we choose Authorware, what are the most nagging limitations
that
> somone spoke of?
>
> Also, how hard is it to learn? In poking around in some other threads,
some
> answers looked like the user would need to be familiar with "programmer
type"
> stuff like variables, branching, etc. Is this a product geared for a
training
> course specialist or is it suitable for the department head (a scientist)
to
> make some training materials without devoting his/her life to learning the
> Macromedia version of Visual Basic?
>