Authorware 4 Authorized

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Summary: Excellent book for teaching someone the basics of Authorware
Review: I teach three Authorware Development classes for employees of my company. I use Authorware 4 Authorized for the Indroduction and Intermediate courses. The exercises are easy to follow and have real-world applications. I am also drawn to this book because it provides students with a copy of Authorware (50 icon version) to practice with at home. It is a great way for students to get familiar with Authorware before spending the money for the full version. If you are a beginner in self-study or are teaching a course in Authorware, you really should consider this book.

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Summary: Good Start
Review: I've been using Authorware since early 98. This book started it all for me. Granted it is a book for beginners. You won't find anything in it for scripting, tracking users performance, etc. If you know nothing about Authorware, this is a great book to get your feet wet. If you have to start from somewhere and don't want to spend money for a course, this is the place to start.

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Summary: Difficulty with Using Authorware 4 Authorized CD-Rom
Review: The tutorial itself was pretty good, but I had great difficulty getting it to run. I contacted Macromedia Help (their number is at the back of the book). After talking with several Tech Help people - they said it was "our computer", though I work at a University with state of the art systems with 32 or 64 Megs of RAM. I finally talked with the product Director of Authorware, who directed me to someone who did, eventually, help me run it. All this amounted to about 45 min of long distance charges. I would make sure you have adequate memory, etc. and find out the return policy before purchasing this. Ron Farson

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Summary: Incredibly detailed instruction makes novices look like pros
Review: This book combines ease of use with high quality instruction which will make any new user a pro in no time flat.

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Summary: Authorware 4 Authorized Review
Review: This book is ok for the beginner, but (as somebody else mentioned) next to useless for scripting. I wonder .... how can a book with such superficial sections on scripting get away with claiming to be a "comprehensive" reference? Similarly, how do the authors justify repeated suggestions that you look in other books for more info?!

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Summary: Really enjoyed the book, and had no trouble with the CD-ROM
Review: This book is well laid out. Though I'm already well experienced in Authorware, I needed a text for the classes I teach. I found this one to be quite adequate. I had no trouble opening any of the CD-ROM files.

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Summary: Great Beginner Book
Review: This is a near perfect book on learning the fundamentals of Authorware. It builds knowledge from the ground up, and demystifyes this powerful authoring package. You learn why you are doing what you are doing, while you go through the tutorial. I was only disappointed in two things, but even these are trivial to the novice: 1) light treatment of functions and variables, it would be great to have a training book on writing authorware code. 2) Lack of fully built models and examples of real-life projects. The pieces included on the CD are small, and I found some of the graphics unprofessional. Overall, a must-buy for the newcommer to Authroware4. --Jason Merrill