ToolBook II Instructor

Asymetrix calls ToolBook the "software construction kit for Microsoft Windows." ToolBook is an authoring system that provides an object-oriented environment for developing Windows applications. The software provides a variety of drawing tools that can be used to create many different objects. Openscript, the programming language used, provides a way of controlling object behavior. Because ToolBook runs in the Windows environment, the graphical user interface provides access to windows, menus, dialog boxes, and graphic controls.

A ToolBook program or application is called a book and each screen is called a page. Each page appears in a window called a viewer. The author (developer) builds a book by creating a series of pages and writing scripts that allow the reader (user) to navigate the book. Each page may contain different objects including text fields, buttons, and graphic objects. Buttons created by the author and scripts, the programming language used, allow the user to move from page to page in the same way that you would read a book. The advantage over the typical linear presentation using a slide projector or other device is that scripts can be written to allow for branching from one part of a book to another and back thus providing the greatest degree of interactivity.

ToolBook is an object-oriented environment. ToolBook objects include:

• buttons
• text fields
• hotwords
• viewers
• graphics

Additionally, multimedia clips represent other types of ToolBook objects. You can use ToolBook's Clip Editor to create clips to play audio sound, audio CD, animation, digital video, or laser disc video (povided that you have a video overlay card.) You can also create a clip that can display a variety of different graphic file formats.

These objects are the building blocks for your applications and are created and displayed directly on the pages using different colors for emphasis. Each of these objects can be given a name and scripts attached to each that perform a variety of actions. ToolBook can import a number of different graphical file formats including GIF, TIFF, BMP, and PCX. There are several Windows graphic programs that allow the author to trim and resize graphics and then use the Windows Clipboard to copy and paste them into the book.

ToolBook contains commands that allow you to control multimedia devices using the Windows Media Control Interface (MCI). A set of graphical objects called widgets allow you to copy and paste buttons or scripts into your application that make controlling multimedia devices easier for the end- user. These widgets also make it easier for developers to create applications that contain multimedia components such as audio sound, animation, and digital video.

There are two modes of operation in Multimedia ToolBook. When you open a blank book with your ToolBook program you are at what is referred to as Author level. This means that you are in control of what happens in that book or program and you have the ability to set the book up as you please. Once a book has been created you can reenter the book at Author level to make additions or changes as needed. Your book can be created in such a way that when it is opened it automatically starts up at reader level. Reader level allows the user access to the information in the application in a manner that is decided upon by the author. You can password protect your book to prevent your users from being able to make changes to the organization of the book. Distribution of your application with the runtime files provided to you as an owner of ToolBook prevents any possibility that your user might be able to make any changes. This is your protection and assurance that once created and tested, your book will continue to work in the manner in which it was designed to work. Many ToolBook functions have shortcut keystrokes. A book can be set up at Reader level to operate in such a way that these keystroke commands will not be available. The book can also be designed so that the application is full screen without a window. This would then provide a more "user friendly" application by preventing the reader from being able to move, resize, or minimize the window.

As stated earlier, the programming language used in ToolBook is OpenScript. This language enables you to add program control to your application. OpenScript includes all the usual programming components and scripts can be written that allow you to create an application that provides many different types of interactions with the application. Scripts attached to buttons can be used to turn pages or go to a certain page while scripts that are attached to hypertext (hotwords) can be used to display different types of information. Scripts can be attached to pages that perform different tasks as the user turns a page. As an example, a script can be written that will play a wave audio file as the page is entered, make a picture of a fish move across the screen as an example of a simple animation, and then automatically go to the next page. A script can be used to ask a question when a button is pressed, then check for a correct response from the user, and finally provide appropriate feedback based upon the users response to the question. Other tasks are performed by using commands like "show" and "hide" to display objects and "send next" or "send previous" to turn the pages. Hidden text fields or graphic objects can be shown by attaching a script to a button that will allow an object that is hidden to be displayed when the button is pressed. Book scripts can be written to set up your application to operate in a particular manner.

The latest version of ToolBook, ToolBook II Instructor, offers the developer the opportunity to distribute a native ToolBook application using Neuron, a plug-in for Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer.The ToolBook applications can also be converted to Webbooks in the form of HTML and JAVA.