There is a new breed of professionals, and their work - at least in the education sector - is in high demand.Tailoring electronic learning packages to learning objectives is the key to conquering the lucrative higher-education adoption market for all major educational publishers, and from a corporate perspective, an efficient e-learning package can reduce private training courseware costs dramatically. So with that in mind, Macromedia's e-Learning brick (don't try to carry it home on the bus) is a timely release in a crowded IT arketplace.

Designed so that programmers and designers can create slick and effective interactive training packages that include tutorials and quizzes, the new Authorware 6 software is coupled here with the Web page creation standard Dreamweaver 4, as well as the flexible Flash 5 package.

It also comes with five fairly substantial softcover books, one for each program included, as well as an Actionscript reference and a handy little volume called Getting Started With e- Learning, that includes some good advice to ensure end users won't be bogged down in delays and faulty pages.

Authorware 6
Designed for people without programming skills,Authorware uses a simple flowchart model to create linked content, user interactivity, and more. New features included in Authorware 6 by the forward thinking folk at Macromedia include one button publishing which allows a designer to package and publish a piece in several formats at the same time. For example, through the batch feature, in just one step you can publish multiple Authorware tutorial packages (without runtime) for the Authorware Web Player, and as a Web page.This feature automatically identifies and collects many of the support files you will need to publish a piece - a handy flight check if you like. Interface improvements include the availability of icon customisation, size adjustments in the Functions dialogue box and Variables box, and the addition of new keyboard shortcuts.

The new version 6 Commands menu enables users to create custom commands in the extensible commands menu, and the latest RTF Objects Editor and Knowledge Editor gives the option of not only displaying external RTF documents inside the Authorware Presentation window, but also to dynamically link external rich text documents.

In addition to the new RTF features, two new media features allow users to direct events over time by synchronizing the display of media and other events with time-based media. Media Synchronisation lets Authorware Sound and Movie icons trigger any event based on media position in an audio or video file. It is
also possible to add MP3 sound to your piece.All these features are coupled with the new Authorware Web Player that has been compacted to 40% smaller than its earlier cousins.

The XMLParser Extra allows Authorware pieces to read, parse and make use of the contents of XML documents, creating dynamic data-driven applications by importing external data stored in Web standard XML files.

For those users not familiar with previous versions of Authorware, this package includes a straightforward tutorial encouraging users to think through the flowline and logic of a piece before beginning. First draft storylines and creation of an asset list will save a great deal of time down the line.To save disk space, the Authorware media libraries should be utilized as they allow external data storage, and reuse or updating of previously referenced icons.

Dreamweaver 4
Macromedia's professional HTML editor allows users to work in a visual editing environment, as well as play around with the coding for an exact result.This is more than just a coding environment, and will give users from a design rather than coding background the opportunity to create visually pleasing Web pages that work well at a code level.

For those not familiar with Dreamweaver, try the Guided Tour to give you an idea of the basic functions and tools of the program.

Dreamweaver 4 comes with a set of interactive lessons in the help menu, although these seem to assume some knowledge of Macromedia product and skimp on the shortcuts that save so much time.There are also tutorials including lessons such as how to create sample pages and assets at the Macromedia Website.

Features in Dreamweaver 4 that are of note include the enhanced code editing views which allow users to view both code and design simultaneously.Through the code-view, users can edit not only HTML documents, but also Javascript and XML files. Coupled with the coding reference panels, this editor makes for quick and effective Web-coding, and provides an effective way for WYSIWIG users to understand more about the coding behind the pages they design. Dreamweaver 4 includes coding references for HTML, CSS and JavaScript as well as a JavaScript Debugger. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are written into Dreamweaver 4 encouraging designers to define a new style as soon as it is created.

Version 3 let users set up styles internally, however, in version 4 it is also possible to attach existing style sheets from other projects directly to the CSS panel to save time formatting and updating text. As for visual design, the Websafe colour palette ensures that any colour chosen remains the same throughout Web viewers, so your orange will never turn red or your purple turn cerise.

The Site View palette gives designers a map of the site for efficient site navigation and reorganization. Site view includes file view, graphical view, and remote file-view (for interacting with your Web-server, for example). Dreamweaver 4 features a wide set of extensions, most notably a '508 Accessibility' extension to ensure pages created in Dreamweaver meet Web Accessibility Guidelines.

Unfortunately,Dreamweaver 4's file transfer feature still uses an insecure version of the Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP) so that usernames and passwords will be sent unprotected (fully visible to hackers) if you try to transfer files over the network using Dreamweaver's Site View options.

The enhanced Site Reporting feature encourages users to undertake several redefined reports to test common HTML problems, such as untitled documents or missing 'alt' tags, and open problem files within the Report results window.
Throughout the program automated snapping and dragging behaviours have been standardised to give Dreamweaver 4 a professional and user-friendly face.

Flash 5
There is no doubt that the Flash 5 software takes some time to master, but it's worth it as the potential of this program is huge. It touts itself as 'the professional standard for producing high-impact Web experiences', but the most impressive feature is the final file size of Flash's creations. Flash files are dynamic, colourful and fast-moving, and yet their associated file sizes remain incredibly small, meaning lightning fast download times and happy grassroots viewers.

Coding behind Flash is Actionscript, and it is recommended that users have a sound understanding of Actionscript in order to fully utilise the capabilities of Flash.The e- Learning package includes an Actionscript reference, and there are some great Actionscript books hitting the market for users looking to increase their understanding of this language.

Updates from previous versions of Flash (and I believe Flash 6 is not far away) include new panels for working with colour,frames and type. Shared libraries enable linking to library items as well as external assets.There are customisable commands and functions for shortcut keys, similar to those found in upgrades of other Macromedia products, and Flash now supports the importing of compressed MP3 sound files.

Other changes from Flash 4 include new timeline features - which might upset users