Also known as
authorware, a
program that helps you write
hypertext or
multimedia applications. Authoring tools usually enable you to create a final application merely by linking together
objects, such as a paragraph of
text, an illustration, or a song. By defining the objects' relationships to each other, and by sequencing them in an appropriate order, authors (those who use authoring tools) can produce attractive and useful
graphics applications. Most authoring
systems also
support a scripting
language for more sophisticated applications.
The distinction between authoring tools and programming tools is not clear-cut. Typically, though, authoring tools require less technical knowledge to master and are used exclusively for applications that present a mixture of textual, graphical, and audio data.
