AUTHORWARE 6 RELEASE NOTES
(C) Copyright 2001 by Macromedia,Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
**Maximize this window and turn off word wrap for easiest viewing.**
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
I,What's New in Authorware 6
II,Bugs Fixed in Authorware 6
III,Known problems and limitations in Authorware 6
IV,For More Information
I,WHATS NEW IN AUTHORWARE 6
============================
See the Authorware help files for more information on the following features.
*One Button Publishing*
Set up publishing options for a file just once,then publish as many times as
needed with just one click.
*Batch Publishing*
Add any number of files to your project list and publish all of them with just
two clicks.
*New Commands Menu*
The Commands menu allows developers to extend the power of Authorware,Many
new functions and open properties were added to make the creation of new
Commands and Knowledge Objects possible.
*RTF Objects Editor and Knowledge Objects*
Now you can create rich,reusable content with new authoring capabilities,
using a new rich text format (RTF) editor,It displays external RTF
documents dynamically and it even supports database connections.
*Interface Improvements*
A large number of interface improvements were made based on user input,
Some of them include:
- You can now create a customized icon and store it on the icon palette
as a customized default icon.
- Empty icons are gray in color,which makes it easy to determine at a
glance whether an item on the flowline is empty,
- Ten new icon colors were added to help you identify your icons on the
flowline and in the library.
- You can now sort library icons by color.
- Several menu choices were added to help you keep your Design window
organized,Open Parent Maps,Close Parent Maps,Cascade Map,
Cascade All Maps,Close All Maps,and Close Window.
- Resizing the Functions dialog box and Variables dialog box has been
improved.
- Keyboard shortcuts were added for moving the paste hand,selecting an
icon,inserting an icon on the flowline,opening a response,saving a
model.
- Paste and window clean up features were added to the right-click menu.
- The number of recent files displayed has been increased to 10.
*Media Synchronization*
Movie and Sound icons now can act as branching icons,similar to a decision
icon,The branching allows for synchronizing other icons with the playback of
the sound or movie,accurate to 1/100 of a second.
*MP3 Support*
The sound icon now plays MP3 format files.
*Enhanced Calculation Editor Improvements*
- New popup menu item,Insert Symbol.
- New preference,show tool tips for local toolbar.
- Statusbar shows the ASCII value of the character currently at the
insertion point.
- New popup menu item,Insert Divider Line (inserts 42 dashes).
- New popup menu items,Convert to..,Uppercase,Lowercase,Invert case and
Correct case (these items change the case of the selected text).
- New preference,auto correct system functions and variables case,If
checked,this preference modifies the case of system functions and
variables on the fly,
- Insert Message Box
- Find/Replace
- New keyboard shortcuts,Comment(Ctrl+Alt+C),Uncomment(Ctrl+Alt+X),
Block Indent(Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I),Block Unindent(Ctrl+Shift+Alt+U)
*Improved ActiveX Support*
The ActiveX Xtra now supports a much wider range of ActiveX controls and
allows you to access properties never before visible in many controls,The
event response has also been improved and now passes more events with
tremendously improved performance.
*XML Support*
An XMLParser Xtra was added that allows Authorware pieces to parse the
contents of XML documents.
*Authorware SCO Metadata Editor*
This new item in the Commands menu helps you manage SCO Metadata files,The
Department of Defense Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative has
developed common guidelines for the development,delivery,and management
of learning,The Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a
reference model for a set of interrelated guidelines for reusability,
accessibility,durability,and interoperability,This is accomplished by
the use of very structured packaging guidelines,or metadata,The SCO
Metadata Editor provides the metadata with your package that conforms to
ADL-SCORM specifications.
*Compact,Complete,and Full Web Player*
You can now choose from three types of Authorware Web Player installations,
- Compact includes just the Authorware 6 runtime version,with no Xtras,
This provides the fastest player installation,You control the download of
any needed Xtras or support files.
- Complete includes the Authorware 6 runtime plus all the support files and
Xtras.
- Full includes the Complete Authorware 6 player plus the complete players
for Authorware versions 3.5,4,and 5,
*New System Functions*
- GetExternalMedia
- GetFunctionList
- GetLibraryInfo
- GetPasteHand
- GetSelectedIcons
- GetVariableList
- GroupIcons
- InsertIcon
- IsCourseChanged
- IsLibraryChanged
- OpenFile
- OpenLibrary
- PackageFile
- PackageLibrary
- SaveLibrary
- SetHotObject
- SetMotionObject
- SetTargetObject
- UngroupIcons
*New System Variables*
- LastObjectClickedID
- ObjectClickedID
- ObjectMovedID
*More Exposed Properties*
There are now almost 100 properties exposed to GetIconProperty and
SetIconProperty,More properties have been added and exposed for
GetFileProperty and SetFileProperty.
*Improved Windows Controls*
- Improved system resource usage,especially when more than one Windows
Control is created at the same time.
- Improved WinCtrls.u32 return values.
- Twenty-five new properties,including,Handle,IconID,3D,PasswordChar,
TabStop,MaxLength,RGB,ButtonBitmap,HotKey,DispatchKeys,Mask,
MaskChar,IncludeLiterals,RadioGroup,Capacity,TabColorSelected,
TabColorUnselected,Indent,ImageIndex,SelStart,SelLength,SelText,
HideSelection,ShowLines,FocusEvents.
- Five new functions,wcEraseControl,wcGetPropertiesByControl,
wcPreventAutomaticErase,wcGetControlsByProperty,getFocusedControl.
- Six new control types,Button,CheckBox,RadioButton,TreeView,MaskEdit,
TabSet.
- Improved Knowledge Objects for creating and manipulating the controls.
*Improved Tracking*
Several changes have been made to the PWInt.x32 Xtra,The PWInt.x32 Xtra now
has CMISetAICCVersion and CMIGetAICCVersion functions,In addition,the CMI
support in Authorware no longer requires a version sent from the CMI system,
ExitAU is now sent with CMIFinish.
*QTI Support*
The True/False,Single Choice,Multiple Choice,Hot Object,and Hot Spot
Assessment Knowledge Objects have been updated to allow for the import and
export of question content stored in XML files that conform to the IMS
Question Test Interoperability (QTI) version 1.1 standard.
II,BUGS FIXED IN AUTHORWARE 6
==============================
*General*
- When you close a file,Authorware now asks if the file should be saved
when changes are made to an icon description.
- The Package For Windows,.,dialog option was changed to,
For Windows 9x and NT variants.
- You can now apply batch changes to display transitions for the interaction
icon.
- You can now batch change the Active If field to a NULL string results
without a crash.
- When importing an image the default value for Display is now "As Is"
instead of "Scaled".
- When a model is pasted to the flowline,the icon title is now selected
for editing.
- You can now permanently disable the New Project dialog box.
- When switching monitor resolutions,the Apply Styles window moves back on
screen.
- The right-click Preview option now works for Erase and Motion Icons.
- Double-clicking the floating tool palette now properly displays/hides
inspector windows.
- The Enter key on the numeric keypad now closes the Calculation window
regardless if the Control panel is open.
- The entry and exit pane arrangement of the Framework window no longer
changes when the Framework window is minimized.
- Vertical scrollbars in a map now work if a Knowledge Object is the last
icon on the flowline.
- PWInt now does not stop if the version reported by an LMS is null.
- The functions window now includes description information on which
functions are only available at authoring time or through CallTarget.
*Enhanced Calculation Editor*
- Fixed editor selection problem for unknown functions/variables,syntax
errors and Authorware's find dialog.
- Fixed enable/disable repaint problem for block unindent toolbar button,
- Fixed the window hook procedure so it passes the hook information to the
next hook in the chain,Other applications that install hooks on the
Authorware presentation window during authoring now receive hook
notifications,
- The down token is now included with the system functions and variables
highlighting category.
- Modified vertical scrollbar behavior,The former behavior enabled the
scrollbar as soon as two calculation lines would be available,and
scrolling would continue until the last calculation line is at the top of
the Calculation window,The new behavior disables the scrollbar until the
number of calculation lines extend the Calculation window size,and
calculation lines scroll up until the last calculation line is at the
bottom of the Calculation window,This is more in line with the vertical
scrollbar behavior in the old-style Calculation editor,
- Fixed the problem that occurred when you selected a few lines of code plus
the return character at the end of the last line (in other words,if the
insertion point was at the start of the next line below the selection),
and then commented the selection,the return character would be removed
from the last line and the next line would wind up at the end of the last
line that is commented.
- When you press Enter at the end of a long line of code or text that
(a) spans the width of the window and (b) includes indenting,the
insertion point now moves to the beginning of the next line,(Previously
it moved up to the first non-blank character).
- The Calculation window now remains active when the auto completion popup
is displayed.
- The Horizontal insertion point now returns to the previous position when
vertically scrolling through lines of varying lengths,even when moved
through short or empty lines.
- Tab width is now correct when automatic indent is enabled.
- Line length limit is now enforced,You can now enter only 1024 characters
on a line,(Previously,you could enter more than 1024 characters on a
line,but scrolling or selecting more than 1024 characters on a line did
not work.)
- Calculation completion (Ctrl+H) no longer deletes all other text on the
current line unless there is a space or parentheses preceding.
- Backspace now deletes one character (or space) at a time,It no longer
deletes all spaces up until the first non-whitespace character.
- You can now insert a line break on an indented line and the next line will
be indented as well,Previously the newly inserted line would not inherit
the indenting,Instead it was reset to the beginning of the next line.
- You can now copy a word that ends with a termination character such as
"(" or "[") by double clicking on the word to the clipboard,(Previously
that word,plus the termination character,which was not selected,was
copied to the clipboard.)
- Trailing spaces at the end of a line are no longer truncated.
- You can now apply Block Unindent on a selection when the first or last
line does not contain any indenting,Previously,the selection would get
unindented,even if the line where the selection began (or ended) did not
contain any indenting.
- You can now save and close the Calculation window without deleting the
last empty line if there are extra lines at the end of the calculation text.
- The Calculation window no longer flickers when you resize it.
*Knowledge Objects*
- Clarified the error message that appears when the user tries to open a
calculation icon found inside a locked Knowledge Object,
- A calculation icon's contents can no longer be seen in a locked Knowledge
Object icon when using the Find dialog.
- A calculation icon inside a locked Knowledge Object can no longer be
opened by double-clicking visible objects from the calculation in the
Presentation window.
- Fixed the alignment of the highlight text for the login model in the
Quiz and application Knowledge Objects
*Authorware Web Player*
- ActiveX Web Player will now load the AAM (map) file even if it is at the
root of a web server.
- Fixed the problem with Shockwave map files containing GET lines with
backslashes (local URLs starting with file::),This happened in all
browsers,but was a problem with Internet Explorer 3.02.
- The GET line in AAM (map) file with two-level deep nested relative path
now works in the Internet Explorer browser.
*Windows Controls*
- The parameters for WinCtrls.u32 are no longer case sensitive.
*Help*
- Fixed the TechNote link in the Authorware help pages.
- Fixed the description of the Target function description,which made it
sound like EvalStatus will be set to 0 if CallTarget fails.
- Clarified the description of the ClearIcons function.
- The default when using the Search feature is not case sensitive,
(Previously the default was to select Case Sensitive.)
III,KNOWN PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS IN AUTHORWARE 6
===================================================
- MP3 Audio files that change bit depth or go from stereo to mono can cause
the MP3 Xtra to mis-read the length of the MP3 file.
- Because the Sound and Movie icons are now branching icons themselves,they
can no longer be direct children of an Interaction,Decision,or Framework
icon,This supports the new media synchronization feature,When you
convert Authorware 5 files to Authorware 6,any Sound or Movie icons that
are direct children are grouped into a map icon.
- Authorware will not open a new file on an NT-based system if the amount of
physical memory available,plus the MINIMUM setting for the paging file
(virtual memory) exceeds 2GB.
IV,FOR MORE INFORMATION
========================
Documentation updates,and printable versions of System Functions,System
Variables,and Keyboard shortcuts,are located in the \Help\Addendum folder
in the Authorware program directory.
The latest information about using Authorware 6 is always available on the web,
Check out http://www.macromedia.com/support/authorware for the most up-to-date
information and TechNotes.
EOF
(C) Copyright 2001 by Macromedia,Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
**Maximize this window and turn off word wrap for easiest viewing.**
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
I,What's New in Authorware 6
II,Bugs Fixed in Authorware 6
III,Known problems and limitations in Authorware 6
IV,For More Information
I,WHATS NEW IN AUTHORWARE 6
============================
See the Authorware help files for more information on the following features.
*One Button Publishing*
Set up publishing options for a file just once,then publish as many times as
needed with just one click.
*Batch Publishing*
Add any number of files to your project list and publish all of them with just
two clicks.
*New Commands Menu*
The Commands menu allows developers to extend the power of Authorware,Many
new functions and open properties were added to make the creation of new
Commands and Knowledge Objects possible.
*RTF Objects Editor and Knowledge Objects*
Now you can create rich,reusable content with new authoring capabilities,
using a new rich text format (RTF) editor,It displays external RTF
documents dynamically and it even supports database connections.
*Interface Improvements*
A large number of interface improvements were made based on user input,
Some of them include:
- You can now create a customized icon and store it on the icon palette
as a customized default icon.
- Empty icons are gray in color,which makes it easy to determine at a
glance whether an item on the flowline is empty,
- Ten new icon colors were added to help you identify your icons on the
flowline and in the library.
- You can now sort library icons by color.
- Several menu choices were added to help you keep your Design window
organized,Open Parent Maps,Close Parent Maps,Cascade Map,
Cascade All Maps,Close All Maps,and Close Window.
- Resizing the Functions dialog box and Variables dialog box has been
improved.
- Keyboard shortcuts were added for moving the paste hand,selecting an
icon,inserting an icon on the flowline,opening a response,saving a
model.
- Paste and window clean up features were added to the right-click menu.
- The number of recent files displayed has been increased to 10.
*Media Synchronization*
Movie and Sound icons now can act as branching icons,similar to a decision
icon,The branching allows for synchronizing other icons with the playback of
the sound or movie,accurate to 1/100 of a second.
*MP3 Support*
The sound icon now plays MP3 format files.
*Enhanced Calculation Editor Improvements*
- New popup menu item,Insert Symbol.
- New preference,show tool tips for local toolbar.
- Statusbar shows the ASCII value of the character currently at the
insertion point.
- New popup menu item,Insert Divider Line (inserts 42 dashes).
- New popup menu items,Convert to..,Uppercase,Lowercase,Invert case and
Correct case (these items change the case of the selected text).
- New preference,auto correct system functions and variables case,If
checked,this preference modifies the case of system functions and
variables on the fly,
- Insert Message Box
- Find/Replace
- New keyboard shortcuts,Comment(Ctrl+Alt+C),Uncomment(Ctrl+Alt+X),
Block Indent(Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I),Block Unindent(Ctrl+Shift+Alt+U)
*Improved ActiveX Support*
The ActiveX Xtra now supports a much wider range of ActiveX controls and
allows you to access properties never before visible in many controls,The
event response has also been improved and now passes more events with
tremendously improved performance.
*XML Support*
An XMLParser Xtra was added that allows Authorware pieces to parse the
contents of XML documents.
*Authorware SCO Metadata Editor*
This new item in the Commands menu helps you manage SCO Metadata files,The
Department of Defense Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative has
developed common guidelines for the development,delivery,and management
of learning,The Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a
reference model for a set of interrelated guidelines for reusability,
accessibility,durability,and interoperability,This is accomplished by
the use of very structured packaging guidelines,or metadata,The SCO
Metadata Editor provides the metadata with your package that conforms to
ADL-SCORM specifications.
*Compact,Complete,and Full Web Player*
You can now choose from three types of Authorware Web Player installations,
- Compact includes just the Authorware 6 runtime version,with no Xtras,
This provides the fastest player installation,You control the download of
any needed Xtras or support files.
- Complete includes the Authorware 6 runtime plus all the support files and
Xtras.
- Full includes the Complete Authorware 6 player plus the complete players
for Authorware versions 3.5,4,and 5,
*New System Functions*
- GetExternalMedia
- GetFunctionList
- GetLibraryInfo
- GetPasteHand
- GetSelectedIcons
- GetVariableList
- GroupIcons
- InsertIcon
- IsCourseChanged
- IsLibraryChanged
- OpenFile
- OpenLibrary
- PackageFile
- PackageLibrary
- SaveLibrary
- SetHotObject
- SetMotionObject
- SetTargetObject
- UngroupIcons
*New System Variables*
- LastObjectClickedID
- ObjectClickedID
- ObjectMovedID
*More Exposed Properties*
There are now almost 100 properties exposed to GetIconProperty and
SetIconProperty,More properties have been added and exposed for
GetFileProperty and SetFileProperty.
*Improved Windows Controls*
- Improved system resource usage,especially when more than one Windows
Control is created at the same time.
- Improved WinCtrls.u32 return values.
- Twenty-five new properties,including,Handle,IconID,3D,PasswordChar,
TabStop,MaxLength,RGB,ButtonBitmap,HotKey,DispatchKeys,Mask,
MaskChar,IncludeLiterals,RadioGroup,Capacity,TabColorSelected,
TabColorUnselected,Indent,ImageIndex,SelStart,SelLength,SelText,
HideSelection,ShowLines,FocusEvents.
- Five new functions,wcEraseControl,wcGetPropertiesByControl,
wcPreventAutomaticErase,wcGetControlsByProperty,getFocusedControl.
- Six new control types,Button,CheckBox,RadioButton,TreeView,MaskEdit,
TabSet.
- Improved Knowledge Objects for creating and manipulating the controls.
*Improved Tracking*
Several changes have been made to the PWInt.x32 Xtra,The PWInt.x32 Xtra now
has CMISetAICCVersion and CMIGetAICCVersion functions,In addition,the CMI
support in Authorware no longer requires a version sent from the CMI system,
ExitAU is now sent with CMIFinish.
*QTI Support*
The True/False,Single Choice,Multiple Choice,Hot Object,and Hot Spot
Assessment Knowledge Objects have been updated to allow for the import and
export of question content stored in XML files that conform to the IMS
Question Test Interoperability (QTI) version 1.1 standard.
II,BUGS FIXED IN AUTHORWARE 6
==============================
*General*
- When you close a file,Authorware now asks if the file should be saved
when changes are made to an icon description.
- The Package For Windows,.,dialog option was changed to,
For Windows 9x and NT variants.
- You can now apply batch changes to display transitions for the interaction
icon.
- You can now batch change the Active If field to a NULL string results
without a crash.
- When importing an image the default value for Display is now "As Is"
instead of "Scaled".
- When a model is pasted to the flowline,the icon title is now selected
for editing.
- You can now permanently disable the New Project dialog box.
- When switching monitor resolutions,the Apply Styles window moves back on
screen.
- The right-click Preview option now works for Erase and Motion Icons.
- Double-clicking the floating tool palette now properly displays/hides
inspector windows.
- The Enter key on the numeric keypad now closes the Calculation window
regardless if the Control panel is open.
- The entry and exit pane arrangement of the Framework window no longer
changes when the Framework window is minimized.
- Vertical scrollbars in a map now work if a Knowledge Object is the last
icon on the flowline.
- PWInt now does not stop if the version reported by an LMS is null.
- The functions window now includes description information on which
functions are only available at authoring time or through CallTarget.
*Enhanced Calculation Editor*
- Fixed editor selection problem for unknown functions/variables,syntax
errors and Authorware's find dialog.
- Fixed enable/disable repaint problem for block unindent toolbar button,
- Fixed the window hook procedure so it passes the hook information to the
next hook in the chain,Other applications that install hooks on the
Authorware presentation window during authoring now receive hook
notifications,
- The down token is now included with the system functions and variables
highlighting category.
- Modified vertical scrollbar behavior,The former behavior enabled the
scrollbar as soon as two calculation lines would be available,and
scrolling would continue until the last calculation line is at the top of
the Calculation window,The new behavior disables the scrollbar until the
number of calculation lines extend the Calculation window size,and
calculation lines scroll up until the last calculation line is at the
bottom of the Calculation window,This is more in line with the vertical
scrollbar behavior in the old-style Calculation editor,
- Fixed the problem that occurred when you selected a few lines of code plus
the return character at the end of the last line (in other words,if the
insertion point was at the start of the next line below the selection),
and then commented the selection,the return character would be removed
from the last line and the next line would wind up at the end of the last
line that is commented.
- When you press Enter at the end of a long line of code or text that
(a) spans the width of the window and (b) includes indenting,the
insertion point now moves to the beginning of the next line,(Previously
it moved up to the first non-blank character).
- The Calculation window now remains active when the auto completion popup
is displayed.
- The Horizontal insertion point now returns to the previous position when
vertically scrolling through lines of varying lengths,even when moved
through short or empty lines.
- Tab width is now correct when automatic indent is enabled.
- Line length limit is now enforced,You can now enter only 1024 characters
on a line,(Previously,you could enter more than 1024 characters on a
line,but scrolling or selecting more than 1024 characters on a line did
not work.)
- Calculation completion (Ctrl+H) no longer deletes all other text on the
current line unless there is a space or parentheses preceding.
- Backspace now deletes one character (or space) at a time,It no longer
deletes all spaces up until the first non-whitespace character.
- You can now insert a line break on an indented line and the next line will
be indented as well,Previously the newly inserted line would not inherit
the indenting,Instead it was reset to the beginning of the next line.
- You can now copy a word that ends with a termination character such as
"(" or "[") by double clicking on the word to the clipboard,(Previously
that word,plus the termination character,which was not selected,was
copied to the clipboard.)
- Trailing spaces at the end of a line are no longer truncated.
- You can now apply Block Unindent on a selection when the first or last
line does not contain any indenting,Previously,the selection would get
unindented,even if the line where the selection began (or ended) did not
contain any indenting.
- You can now save and close the Calculation window without deleting the
last empty line if there are extra lines at the end of the calculation text.
- The Calculation window no longer flickers when you resize it.
*Knowledge Objects*
- Clarified the error message that appears when the user tries to open a
calculation icon found inside a locked Knowledge Object,
- A calculation icon's contents can no longer be seen in a locked Knowledge
Object icon when using the Find dialog.
- A calculation icon inside a locked Knowledge Object can no longer be
opened by double-clicking visible objects from the calculation in the
Presentation window.
- Fixed the alignment of the highlight text for the login model in the
Quiz and application Knowledge Objects
*Authorware Web Player*
- ActiveX Web Player will now load the AAM (map) file even if it is at the
root of a web server.
- Fixed the problem with Shockwave map files containing GET lines with
backslashes (local URLs starting with file::),This happened in all
browsers,but was a problem with Internet Explorer 3.02.
- The GET line in AAM (map) file with two-level deep nested relative path
now works in the Internet Explorer browser.
*Windows Controls*
- The parameters for WinCtrls.u32 are no longer case sensitive.
*Help*
- Fixed the TechNote link in the Authorware help pages.
- Fixed the description of the Target function description,which made it
sound like EvalStatus will be set to 0 if CallTarget fails.
- Clarified the description of the ClearIcons function.
- The default when using the Search feature is not case sensitive,
(Previously the default was to select Case Sensitive.)
III,KNOWN PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS IN AUTHORWARE 6
===================================================
- MP3 Audio files that change bit depth or go from stereo to mono can cause
the MP3 Xtra to mis-read the length of the MP3 file.
- Because the Sound and Movie icons are now branching icons themselves,they
can no longer be direct children of an Interaction,Decision,or Framework
icon,This supports the new media synchronization feature,When you
convert Authorware 5 files to Authorware 6,any Sound or Movie icons that
are direct children are grouped into a map icon.
- Authorware will not open a new file on an NT-based system if the amount of
physical memory available,plus the MINIMUM setting for the paging file
(virtual memory) exceeds 2GB.
IV,FOR MORE INFORMATION
========================
Documentation updates,and printable versions of System Functions,System
Variables,and Keyboard shortcuts,are located in the \Help\Addendum folder
in the Authorware program directory.
The latest information about using Authorware 6 is always available on the web,
Check out http://www.macromedia.com/support/authorware for the most up-to-date
information and TechNotes.
EOF
