Projects going on: It’s about sharing…
| Sharing skills has been quite popular this year. I conducted
formal Authorware 4 training sessions for Tektronix, Xenex,
and Morse Brothers (all of whom had existing skills with Authorware).
A Portland State University class (the first using version 4 of
Authorware). I also did some quick-start consulting for Portland
Software in Director 6 and The Belgard Group in Authorware
4. We all have so much to give.
While the big job for the Multnomah County Health Department (started earlier this year) was in a holding pattern, we cranked out a no-nonsense no-frills tutorial to get employees up and running on a new system. Amazing what one weekend can do. Speaking of quick turn-arounds… Wieden & Kennedy had me convert a print piece to a speaker support presentation literally overnight! It was used at lunch the next day and never again. I lose track of all the projects ADP is cranking out… but one was quite interesting. A product we created taking full advantage of new Authorware features gives car dealers the ability to customize a simple kiosk-like presentation. A network administrator can make modifications to the master presentation and its links to media, then all the client machines will download the necessary components as needed to keep everything current. |
Young & Roehr Advertising has a little sister company that
does multimedia, Level Seven Communications. I came in toward
the end of a large project and it seemed to help—but the fact is, a big
project is big no matter what. This project wins the palette management
award. Ninety-six unique palettes makes it a world record (for me anyway).
Also, they tracked down the most significant bug in Authorware 4.
Macromedia had its annual users conference in October. Then, for the first time, the Macromedia User Conference Asia took place in Melbourne Australia. I’m proud to say, I participated in both conferences and got to experience some of the differences between cultures. Check out my comments about "Worldwide Lingo" online and below. The Intel Create & Share Camera Pack is just hitting the stores in time for the holidays. Good thing the tutorial is ready too! All the extra time and investment up front made the conversion to several other languages a snap. The localizers simply created bitmaps of screen captures, audio or narration, and text members… and we had other language versions. One good thing about working for software companies is that when you do a great promotion of a product, they come back when their software is updated. Ask New Interactive who’s successful "Windows NT 4.0" demo got to be updated with this year’s "Enterprise Edition" release from Microsoft. We didn’t replace the old version, just supplemented it. |
Worldwide Lingo: Lessons in Localization
After giving my paper on localization in California, I was invited to give an extended version in Australia (it was tough…1 hour of work followed by a couple weeks of vacation). Since the topic was "localization" I thought it would be best to make a "localized" version of the presentation. I made many changes, for instance I changed the image of the world to position Australia in the center (instead of North America). I was also prepared for the fact that cotton-candy flavoured jelly beans are called something else—but I thought they were called "Candy Floss", they’re actually called "Fairy Floss". I learnt many other subtle differences too. Some related to computers—like how the "user" is called the "witness", and you plug your computer into the "socket" in the wall (not the plug or outlet). The lesson for me was that you can’t "over localize". So if you’re traveling to the land down-under remember: whilst you disembark from the Airplane, after you walk down the corridor, if you organised a car-hire then you might be up a gumtree when you see blokes driving on the left.
I spent a lot of time and had a lot of help producing my localization presentation—I’m interested in getting as much mileage (or kilometers) out of the effort. Contact me if you know a group interested in seeing my presentation.
Feel free to download my paper on localization which, though it is general to multimedia, does include many Director tips. http://www.teleport.com/~phillip/worldwide.html
Software News & Reviews: Software,
Futureware, and Xtraware…
| Macromedia "Sneak Peeks"
You can’t say that Macromedia doesn’t keep coming out with awesome new tools… here are a few from the User Conference in October. Director Power Point Import Xtra (big whoop); JavaScript Exporter Xtra. Authorware Tsunami (new Authorware Shockwave) will preemptively download segments (during idle) that previous users downloaded; Pathware (formerly Pathways) now allows authors to change the router interface; and a "Quiz Builder" in a standard interface (argh—more templates). Flash One word: Transparency! Dreamweaver It’s not really out yet, but you can get hooked by
downloading the evaluation copy:
Flash Asset Xtra Just released for Authorware and Director, this is truly revolutionary. Take Flash movies or stills and insert them into Authorware displays or Director casts—with full lingo control. www.macromedia.com/software/xtras/essentials/flash/ |
Intel’s Indeo 4.3 Xtra for Director/Authorware… I’ve only seen
it demonstrated, keep visiting this site: developer.intel.com/pc-supp/multimed/indeo/xtra.htm
MediaLab (makers of PhotoCaster and AlphaMania) have a new Xtra
called EffectorSet which includes runtime video-like effects with full
lingo control. Things like "ripple", magnification, and rotation
(though with the Flash Xtra this will become less necessary).
Buddy API 3.1 Xtra
|
| Tech Tips: Tricks
which could save you precious seconds…
In Authorware, when you refer to an icon with the "@" symbol, that icon’s name must remain unique. When it’s duplicated, the name is appended incrementally. Fine, unless you like to refer to numbers in an icon’s iconTitle. For instance, with an icon called "Tile:1" you embed a calculation which says tileNum=getNumber(1,iconTitle). Incrementing the icon’s title would leave you with "Tile:2", "Tile:3", etc. But if you want two "Tile:1" icons, you can’t. You can still refer to the first number in the icon, if you put a "dummy" number at the end. I use the convention "Tile:1 SET:1" and I’m careful to always ignore the number after "SET". The idea is that this is tile 1 of the first set… if it’s duplicated, it’s in the second set—just remember the last number is meaningless. Director 6 is really great, but I still have a hard time adjusting to some of the changes. I did just learn that under "Preferences:Sprite…" you can change the default "Span Duration" so every member dragged to the score doesn’t take up a seemingly arbitrary number of frames. (Okay, this tip may be obvious, but I sure wish I learned it earlier.) |
Coming up:
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Editorial: Okay, so the whole newsletter
is an editorial…
The last issue of this newsletter (the premier edition) received varied
feedback. Interestingly, some thought there were too many exclamation
points (can’t I be excited!!!?), others thought it was just an ad, and
only one person requested the "soft" version. For the record, I publish
for three reasons: for personal reflection, to share what everyone is up
to, and to let everyone know what I’m up to.
Subscribe:
Subscriptions are available for the asking. Also, if you’d prefer
an email version tell me.
Last update: 25 September 1998