Multimedia Authoring Tools are also known as Author ware.

It is a program that helps the

author [user/programmer] write hyper text (or) multimedia application. Authoring tools
usually enable a user to create a final application merely linking together. Objects such as
paragraph of text, illustration (or) song can be embedded in a web page with the help of
authoring tools. Multimedia authoring tools provide the frame work for organizing and
editing the elements of multimedia projects. Authoring software provides an integrated
element for combining the content and the functions of the project. It enables the developer to
combine text, graphics, audio, video and animation into an interactive presentation.
Authoring system includes editing tools to create, edit and convert multimedia elements such
as animation and video clips. The process for multimedia involves story boarding and flow
chart development. Visual flow chart (or) over viewing facility illustrates project structure at
a macro level. In macro media flash, flash is used for delivering rich multimedia content to
the web. It allows the creation simple; static HTML pages with the flash player Plug-in.
Features of Authoring Tools
 Basic features
 Editing and organizing features
 Programming features
 Interactivity features
 Performance timing and playback features
 Cross-platform and internet features
TYPES OF AUTHORING TOOLS
There are 3 types of authoring tools and they are as follows:
1. Card and page based tools
2. Icon based- event driven tools
3. Time based tools
Now let us discuss these three authoring tools in details along with their required software,
their corresponding advantages and disadvantages.
Card and page based tools:
This tool provides a simple and easily understandable metaphor for organizing multimedia
elements. It contains media objects such as buttons, text files and graphic objects. It provides
facilities for linking objects to pages (or) cards. The software required is Hyper card and
Linked card tool box.
In these authoring systems, elements are organized as pages of a book or a stack of cards.
These tools are best used when the bulk of your content consists of elements that can be
viewed individually, like the pages of a book or cards in a card file.
The authoring system lets you link these pages or cards into organized sequences.
You can jump, on command, to any page you wish in the structured navigation pattern.
It allows you to play sound elements and launch animations and digital video.
Advantages:
Easy to understand
Easy to use
Easy to link metaphor1=screen1=card1= page1
It consumes very less time for developing an application.
Disadvantages:
Few applications run only on one platform.
Card and page tools are not powerful as unique stand alone.
Icon based- event driven tools: or (OBJECT ORIENTED AUTHORING TOOLS):
Icons (or) object based tools are the simplest event driven authoring object. Its provision of
simple branching has the ability to go to another section of multimedia production.
Multimedia elements and interaction are organized in the flowchart. A flow chart can be
build by dragging appropriate icons from a library and then dropping them in the required
field finally adding multimedia elements to it. The software required is Icon Author and
Author ware.
Icon or event driven tool is the simplest and easiest authoring system.Simple branching is the
ability to go to another section of multimedia production.Multimedia elements and interaction
cues are organized as objects in a flow chart. Icon-base, event-driven tools simplify the
organization of your project and typically display flow diagrams of activities along branching
paths.In complicate structures, this charting is particularly useful during development.
Flowchart can be built by dragging appropriate icons from library and then adding the
contents.
Advantages:
It has a clear structure [appropriately designed flow charts].
Easy to edit and update the elements.
Disadvantages:
Learning process is very difficult.
Very expensive in nature.

Time based tools:

Time based tools are best suited for a message with a beginning and an end so that a message
can be passed within a stipulated time period. Few time based tools facilitate navigation and
interactive control. It has the branching technique so that different loops can be formed for
different multimedia applications and time period can be set for these individual applications.
In these authoring systems, elements and events are organized along a timeline, with
resolutions as high or higher than 1/30 second. Time based tools are best to use when you
have a message with a beginning and an end. Sequentially organized graphic frames are
played back at a speed that you can set. Other elements are triggered back at a given time or
location in the sequence of events. The more powerful time based tools let you program
jumps to any location in a sequence, thereby adding navigation and interactive control.
The software required is Adobe’s Directors.
Advantages:
These tools are good for creating animation.
Branching, user control interactivity.
Disadvantages:
Steep learning curve for advance features.
Music and sound files embedded in Flash movies increases the file size and increases the
download time.
Very expensive.
Multimedia data base contains still images, sound files, text, shapes, scripts, movies and other
director’s files. Course is the sequence for displaying and animating cast and crew members.
Lingo is the object oriented scripting language that enables interactivity and programmed
control.
Softwares
◦Macromedia Director
◦Flash
MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR
A multimedia database, ‘cast’, contains still images, sound files, text , shapes, script,
movies and other director files.Score is a sequencer for displaying, animating and playing
Cast members.Lingo is an object oriented scripting language that enables interactivety and
programmed control.
Advantages
 Good for creating animation.
 Branching, user control interactivity
Disadvantages
 Expensive
 Steep learning curve for advance features.
MACROMEDIA FLASH
Flash is used for delivering rich multimedia contents to the web.
It allows the creation of of simples static HTML with the flash player plug-in.
Advantages
◦Easy to put animated and interactive movies.
◦Interactive menus
Disadvantages
◦Increase in file size
◦Music and sound files embedded in flash movies increase file size and increase the file size.

AUTHORWARE PROFESSIONAL FOR WINDOWS(APW):

Authorware is used for creating interactive programs that can integrate a range of multimedia
content, particularly electronic educational technology (also called e-learning) applications.
The flowchart model differentiates Authorware from other authoring tools, such as Adobe
Flash and Adobe Director, which rely on a visual stage, time-line and script structure.
Authorware's distinctive style revolves around a central icon: the Interaction Icon. The
structure of the authoring environment encourages rich interaction; complex user feed-back is
not only possible but somewhat suggested by the software, rather than suggesting the usual
media diffusion. This Interaction Icon allows various forms of user feedback (move object to,
along a line, click an object or hot-spot; plus the usual text-entry, keypress, etc.)
The original strength in education of Authorware could be linked to its roots
in pedagogical models based on constructivist views.
Authorware programs start by creating a flowline, which is a flowchart showing the structure
of the developer's program. The developer can add and manage text, graphics, animation,
sound and video; develop interactivity and add navigational elements such as links, buttons,
and menus. Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Director movies can also be integrated into
an Authorware project. Xtras, or add-ins, can also be used to extend the functionality of
Authorware, which is similar to HyperCard's XCMDs. Authorware's power can be even
better utilized with the use of variables, functions and expressions. Authorware can interpret
both its built-in proprietary scripting language and JavaScript version 1.5.
Over time, Authorware has lost its specificity. More power was gained as more scripting
added graphical design, interaction and integration features, but Authorware's special
interaction-centred, clean, simple design was lost along the way. However, there are still
many Fortune 500 companies that use Authorware as their main platform
Authorware programs can be distributed as stand-alone executable files, or over the web
which requires a proprietary Authorware Web Player.
Authorware is particularly well suited to creating electronic educational technology (also
called e-learning) content, as it includes highly customizable templates for CBT and WBT,
including student assessment tools. Working with these templates, businesses and schools can
rapidly assemble multimedia training materials without needing to hire a full-fledged
programmer. Intuitively-named dialog boxes take care of input and output. The flow chart
model makes the re-use of lesson elements straightforward. Being both AICC- and SCORM-
compliant, Authorware can be used to deliver content via any AICC or SCORM Learning
Management System.
Moving beyond the templates, however, requires either the importing of interactive Flash or
Director movies, or scripting, which can be done in Authorware's native scripting language or
in JavaScript.

Multimedia Systems
A Multimedia System is a system capable of processing multimedia data and applications.

A Multimedia System is characterised by the processing, storage, generation, manipulation

and rendition of Multimedia information.

Characteristics of a Multimedia System

A Multimedia system has four basic characteristics:

 Multimedia systems must be computer controlled.

 Multimedia systems are integrated.
 The information they handle must be represented digitally.
 The interface to the final presentation of media is usually interactive.
 Components of a Multimedia System
 Now let us consider the Components (Hardware and Software) required for a
multimedia system:
 Capture devices
 -- Video Camera, Video Recorder, Audio Microphone, Keyboards, mice, graphics
tablets, 3D input devices, tactile sensors, VR devices. Digitising/Sampling Hardware
 Storage Devices
 -- Hard disks, CD-ROMs, Jaz/Zip drives, DVD, etc
 Communication Networks
 -- Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, ATM, Intranets, Internets.
 Computer Systems
 -- Multimedia Desktop machines, Workstations, MPEG/VIDEO/DSP Hardware
 Display Devices
 -- CD-quality speakers, HDTV,SVGA, Hi-Res monitors, Colour printers etc.
Applications
Examples of Multimedia Applications include:

 World Wide Web

 Hypermedia courseware
 Video conferencing
 Video-on-demand
 Interactive TV
 Groupware
 Home shopping
 Games
 Virtual reality
 Digital video editing and production systems
  Multimedia Database systems

Trends in Multimedia
Current big applications areas in Multimedia include:

World Wide Web

-- Hypermedia systems -- embrace nearly all multimedia technologies and application
areas. Ever increasing popularity.
MBone
-- Multicast Backbone: Equivalent of conventional TV and Radio on the Internet.
Enabling Technologies
-- developing at a rapid rate to support ever increasing need for Multimedia. Carrier,
Switching, Protocol, Application, Coding/Compression, Database, Processing, and
System Integration Technologies at the forefront of this.
Data Compressions
In signal processing, data compression, source coding,or bit-rate reduction involves
encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Compression can be
either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and
eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy
compression reduces bits by removing unnecessary or less important information.
The process of reducing the size of a data file is often referred to as data compression. In the
context of data transmission, it is called source coding; encoding done at the source of the
data before it is stored or transmitted. Source coding should not be confused with channel
coding, for error detection and correction or line coding, the means for mapping data onto a
signal.
Compression is useful because it reduces resources required to store and transmit
data. Computational resources are consumed in the compression process and, usually, in the
reversal of the process (decompression). Data compression is subject to a space–time
complexity trade-off. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require
expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being
decompressed, and the option to decompress the video in full before watching it may be
inconvenient or require additional storage. The design of data compression schemes involves
trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of
distortion introduced (when using lossy data compression), and the computational resources
required to compress and decompress the data.
Data compression is a reduction in the number of bits needed to represent data. Compressing
data can save storage capacity, speed up file transfer, and decrease costs for storage hardware
and network bandwidth.
How compression works
Compression is performed by a program that uses a formula or algorithm to determine how to
shrink the size of the data. For instance, an algorithm may represent a string of bits -- or 0s
and 1s -- with a smaller string of 0s and 1s by using a dictionary for the conversion between
them, or the formula may insert a reference or pointer to a string of 0s and 1s that the
program has already seen.Text compression can be as simple as removing all
unneeded characters, inserting a single repeat character to indicate a string of repeated
characters and substituting a smaller bit string for a frequently occurring bit string. Data
compression can reduce a text file to 50% or a significantly higher percentage of its original
size.For data transmission, compression can be performed on the data content or on the entire
transmission unit, including header data. When information is sent or received via the
internet, larger files, either singly or with others as part of an archive file, may be transmitted
in a ZIP, GZIP or other compressed format.

Why is data compression important?

Data compression can dramatically decrease the amount of storage a file takes up. For
example, in a 2:1 compression ratio, a 20 megabyte (MB) file takes up 10 MB of space. As a
result of compression, administrators spend less money and less time on storage.Compression
optimizes backup storage performance and has recently shown up in primary storage data
reduction. Compression will be an important method of data reduction as data continues to
grow exponentially.Virtually any type of file can be compressed, but it's important to follow
best practices when choosing which ones to compress. For example, some files may already
come compressed, so compressing those files would not have a significant impact.

Data compression methods: lossless and lossy compression

Compressing data can be a lossless or lossy process. Lossless compression enables
the restoration of a file to its original state, without the loss of a single bit of data, when the
file is uncompressed. Lossless compression is the typical approach with executables, as well
as text and spreadsheet files, where the loss of words or numbers would change the
information.Lossy compression permanently eliminates bits of data that are redundant,
unimportant or imperceptible. Lossy compression is useful with graphics, audio, video and
images, where the removal of some data bits has little or no discernible effect on the
representation of the content.Graphics image compression can be lossy or lossless. Graphic
image file formats are typically designed to compress information since the files tend to be
large. JPEG is an image file format that supports lossy image compression. Formats such as
GIF and PNG use lossless compression.
AUTHORING SYSTEM:
An authoring system is a program that has pre-programmed elements for the development of
interactive multimedia software titles. Authoring systems can be defined as software that
allows its user to create multimedia applications for manipulating multimedia objects.
In the development of educational software, an authoring system is a program that allows a
non-programmer, usually an instructional designer or technologist, to easily create software
with programming features. The programming features are built in but hidden behind buttons
and other tools, so the author does not need to know how to program. Generally authoring
systems provide lots of graphics, interaction, and other tools educational software needs. The
three main components of an authoring system are: content organization, control of content
delivery, and type(s) of assessment. Content Organization allows the user to structure and
sequence the instructional content and media. Control of content delivery refers to the ability
for the user to set the pace in which the content is delivered, and how learners engage with
the content. Assessment refers to the ability to test learning outcomes within the system,
usually in the form of tests, discussions, assignments, and other activities which can be
evaluated.
An authoring system usually includes an authoring language, a programming language built
(or extended) with functionality for representing the tutoring system. The functionality
offered by the authoring language may be programming functionality for use by programmers
or domain representation functionality for use by subject experts. There is overlap between
authoring languages with domain representation functionality and domain-specific languages.

An Authoring System is a program which has pre-programmed elements for the

development of interactive multimedia software titles. Authoring systems vary
widely in orientation, capabilities, and learning curve. There is no such thing (at
this time) as a completely point-and-click automated authoring system; some
knowledge of heuristic thinking and algorithm design is necessary. Whether you
realize it or not, authoring is actually just a speeded-up form of programming; you
don't need to know the intricacies of a programming language, or worse, an API,
but you do need to understand how programs work.

It generally takes about 1/8th the time to develop an interactive multimedia project,
such as a CBT (Computer Based Training) program, in an authoring system as
opposed to programming it in compiled code. This means 1/8 the cost of
programmer time and likely increased re-use of code (assuming that you pass this
project's code to the next CBT project, and they use a similar or identical authoring
system). However, the content creation (graphics, text, video, audio, animation,
etc.) is not generally affected by the choice of an authoring system; any production
time gains here result from accelerated prototyping, not from the choice of an
authoring system over a compiled language.