Action!, by Anthony J. Frisby, Ph.D.

In this edition of Medibytes, the focus has been on multimedia and before closing I would like to remind our Jefferson readers of the development tools the OAC has available for them to use, or evaluate for purchase. Among these tools, Action!, by MacroMedia is our newest acquisition.

Action! is a much simpler version of MacroMedia's Director program. In very little time I was able to put together a short presentation, including QuickTime movies, sound, and some simple animation. Action! is ideal for creating presentations for audiences that are expecting some extra pizzazz in your work. It includes several pre-designed presentations that you can easily edit to your needs.

I found using their pre-designed presentation to be a great way to learn how to develop my own, admittedly copying several aspects from different presentations. Action! is a large program, if all options are installed it will take up to 8 megabytes of hard disc space. MacroMedia recommends running it on a Macintosh IIci or faster machine, with over 4 MB of RAM, color monitor, and Apple System 7.

The OAC also has the following programs for developing multimedia materials: Director, and Authorware Professional (both by MacroMedia), PLUS (Spinnaker Software, Inc.), HyperCard 2.1 (Claris), SuperCard (Silicon Beach), Guide (Owl), More (Symantec), and Persuasion (Aldus).

For more information about any of these programs contact the OAC. For purchasing information, contact Computer Prescriptions.