Once the various media content has been acquired (i.e. text, images, audio, video, animations), it has to be assembled into a functioning programme according to the previously designed story board. The process of giving functionality to media content, in terms of interactivity, user interface, navigational structure etc., is commonly referred to as authoring, and this applies whether the resulting product is a static presentation, a highly interactive computer based training application, or a presentation on the World Wide Web.
The requirements on the authoring tool, however, will be dictated by the level of complexity, interactivity, flexibility (for example to allow users to modify the application themselves) of the finished product. Web pages however, do not typically offer a great deal of interactivity or complexity, thus the choice of authoring tool becomes less critical and a word processor or a standard ASCII editor will do fine (it should be said, however, that sophisticated authoring tools for the internet which will allow interactivity & 3D VR are arriving by the minute).
At CMC
We have for our conventinal (non-web) authoring chosen Asymetrix MultiMedia ToolBook, the most powerful and flexible authoring system for the Windows environment. Thus we are able to offer solutions to anything from simple presentations to projects where serious programming is required, including CD-ROM applications.
We undertake:
Developing multimedia projects for third parties
Contract work in ToolBook authoring
Training/Consulting in MultiMedia ToolBook
We are currently developing software primarily for town/village information centres, to which several villages, County Councils, Rural Development Council and the SCRIPT innitiative have shown great interest. The software will allow operators in the centres to input data and create user-friendly access to local information. The software is due for release in late spring 1996.
