Authoring tools enable a designer to create multimedia programs, by linking together assets (digital sound, video, graphic, text, and photo files) into a structured and sequenced whole. Typically, they allow the user to select between iconic and menu options, dragging and dropping elemental objects to define the position of screen hot-spots and assets and the relationships between them in interactive or animated sequences. The big advantage of authoring tools is that it is possible to learn how to use them and achieve desirable results relatively quickly, and without any knowledge of computer languages like Pascal or C.
Since the advent of Hypercard on the Mac, the first, widely-available authoring tool, a range of authoring packages have been developed for almost every computer platform. Here is a list of the best known.
| Macintosh | Windows | Unix | Archimedes | CD-I |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypercard | Linkway | Maestro | Genesis | MediaMogul |
| Supercard | Toolbox | MetaCard | ||
| Authorware | Authorware | |||
| Macromedia Director | Macromedia Director | |||
| IconAuthor | IconAuthor | |||
| IBM StoryBoard Live | ||||
| Apple Media Tool | Apple Media Tool | |||
| Guide | Guide | |||
| Plus | Plus |
For a more comprehensive listing, look at the following Web site: http://wwwetb.nlm.nih.gov/authorb/index.html