TechNote (Archived)

Differences Between Authorware and Director (Which Is Right for Me?)

What are the differences between AW and Director and which is right for me?

Both programs can do many of the same things but employ different metaphors (and GUIs) to accomplish these tasks.

While Director is the more efficient program for controlling animation and sound, Authorware is better for setting up interactions that track what a user does, such as checking how someone assembles objects on the screen or recording a number of times someone performs a task.

Directors strong points include:

Animation--Director is noted for its ability to create animation efficiently and precisely.

Sound--Director can play 8 simultaneous sounds on both Windows and Macintosh computers. When you play sound from Director, you have more control over sound volume and over sound start and stop points.

Synchronized sound and graphics--Directors precise control of sound and graphics lets you synchronize the two more exactly.

Control through Lingo--With the Lingo scripting language you can control such objects as sprites, sound, and other movie components. For example, Lingo can change sprite size and location in response to a user action or create a series of additional objects through the use of parent scripts.

Authorwares strong points include:

Navigation--Authorware provides powerful tools to move a Director animation around the screen.

Setup of interactions--Authorwares flowline structure and interactions are suited to setting up a variety of interactions quickly.

Ordering objects and events--Authorwares flowline lets you quickly determine when objects appear-- The flowline also give you a visual representation of how the icons relate to each other.

Tracking user actions--Authorware provides many variables that record what the user does.

When a Director movie plays within an Authorware piece, the user can interact with both of them. The Authorware piece and the Director movie can also interact with one another by sending and receiving messages.

To learn more about Director, click here.

To learn more about Authorware, click here.

To see a technote about interactivity between the two programs, click here.