I am evaluating a purchase of Authorware for use in my company. Is this an
active product with regular updates? The latest info I see comes from several
years ago. I don't want to get into an end-of-life product. Thanks for any
info.

Welcome to Club Unknown.
Adobe has been silent on it's plans for Adobe. Version 7 has not been
updated in years, as you note. It's still a very viable product to
develop a range of applications, but there are worries about keeping it
current with new OS releases, and especially integration with the newer
Flash versions (Authorware 7 only handles Flash 6 via the Xtra).

You can search the forum for past discussions. Unfortunately, no one
knows Authorware's future, at least not that they're saying. Know anyone
at Adobe? We'd love to know too!
Erik

dwknapp wrote:
> I am evaluating a purchase of Authorware for use in my company. Is this an
> active product with regular updates? The latest info I see comes from several
> years ago. I don't want to get into an end-of-life product. Thanks for any
> info.
>

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.awaretips.net - samples, tips, products, faqs, and links!
*Search the A'ware newsgroup archives*
http://groups.google.com/group/macromedia.authorware

Thanks very much for the info. What product would you say is its nearest
competitor in terms of long term future and utility? I hope this question does
not put you in a awkward position, but I am new to the training software world
and would like to know what else is out there.

I, too, would love to hear anyone's recommendations for alternatives to
Authorware if there be such a thing. Click2learn (formerly Asymetrix)'s
Toolbook used to fill that space as did something from a company called Quest
as far as I can recall. Authorware always garnered the best reviews, though,
and I hope that Adobe will continue with its development but the fact that
there hasn't been an upgrade in 4 years is hardly reassuring. Might anyone have
any better-informed thoughts on this question? TIA.

> Might anyone have
> any better-informed thoughts on this question? TIA.
>

Better informed how? No one has heard of any update to Authorware since
Adobe took over Macromedia.

Steve


--
EuroTAAC eLearning 2007
http://www.eurotaac.com

Adobe Community Expert: Authorware, Flash Mobile and Devices
My blog - http://stevehoward.blogspot.com/

On May 8, 11:36 pm, "dwknapp" <webforumsu...@macromedia.com> wrote:
> I am evaluating a purchase ofAuthorwarefor use in my company. Is this an
> active product with regular updates? The latest info I see comes from several
> years ago. I don't want to get into an end-of-life product. Thanks for any
> info.t

There has been an annoucement that there will be a version 8. No
details given.

Valid point! I wonder how deficient Captivate is as a substitute for AW? Does it compare at all?

> Valid point! I wonder how deficient Captivate is as a substitute for AW?
> Does it compare at all?

1, Authorware does not do screen captures.
2, Captivate has a *very* limited feature set, but you can at least do
scenario-based content (branching) and simple quizzes.
3, You can learn Captivate in a weekend :-)

I you have simple needs (nothing more complex than PowerPoint, and lots of
screen captures) Captivate might work for you, but you'll fast run into
limitations if you are used to making use of any but the simplest Authorware
features.

Steve


--
EuroTAAC eLearning 2007
http://www.eurotaac.com

Adobe Community Expert: Authorware, Flash Mobile and Devices
My blog - http://stevehoward.blogspot.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?

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