In response to how easy is AW to learn:

We have a very small group that developes intranet web courses for training
our 3000 employees. We use AW and Captivate for most projects. Captivate is
used primarity as a demo tool for us. We capture a process, add notes & audio
and import it into AW as part of a course. Then we use AW to develop hands-on
exercises. We have found icon-based AW fairly easy & flexible to learn, and
none of us are trained programmers. (I have a graphic design degree.) The
show-me's included in the software show many different interactions that you
can easily duplicatae. We like to have interaction heavy courses, so our users
are clicking on hotspots, entering text, dragging & dropping answers, clicking
on F keys or entering keystrokes. When we first started, we used the knowledge
objects which are pretty easy to use for a non-programmer. We use them
infrequently now, preferring to build the interactions. We have been able to
provide pre-tests, post-tests and topical reviews within courses.

We are also hoping AW will come out with an update but keep our eyes out for
new players on the authoring block. So far, AW wins because of the
versatility of the interactions that can be designed and the interface with our
LMS.

I recommend taking a basic HTML course, though I wasn't able to take one until
after I had developed several courses. We also bought (Amazon.com) the
Macromedia Authorware 6 VTC Training CD and it was very good for beginners. It
does a good job of explaining the basics and is hands on.

This discussion group here is very supportive and there are some other
excellent Authorware/discussion websites out there.

Good luck!
Diane