World-Class Visual Authoring Software

Welcome to the world of interactive courseware development. You have begun an exciting journey as you learn how you can create your own self-paced tutorials, interactive multimedia presentations, training packages, electronic teaching and testing programs, questionnaires, guided tours… 

This Course Builder evaluation program will allow you to create and save a small stand-alone application.  It contains all of the same powerful development features of the commercial version, and is limited only in the size program you can create.

The example application you will develop through this evaluation has been carefully designed to give you a feel for many of Course Builder's built-in features. After working through this step-by-step example, we encourage you to explore Course Builder's capabilities by creating your own application with your own content and style. Our technical support staff is available 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m Eastern time to answer any questions that may arise.

Be Inspired! Let Course Builder's visual interface release your imagination from the barriers of traditional programming.  Programming has never been so quick - applications have never been so much fun to produce.  Best of all, you own the full rights to distribute and sell everything you create in Course Builder - no royalties or licensing!

Contact Discovery Systems International, Inc. for additional information.
Phone: 615/690-8829
FAX: 615/690-8838
AppleLink: COURSE.BLDR
Compuserve: 73014,761

Before you Begin
System Requirements
Authoring (developing your application)
You can run the Course Builder authoring environment on any model of Macintosh computer running System 6.0.7 or above. A hard disk is required and a minimum of 2 MB of installed memory for black & white courseware and 4 MB for color courseware (NOTE: System 7 or above requires a minimum of 4 MB for developing courseware)

Runtime  (running your application)
You can run stand-alone applications created with Course Builder on any model of Macintosh computer running System 6.0.7 and a minimum of 1 MB of installed memory for black & white courseware and 2 MB for color courseware (NOTE: machines running System 7 or above require a minimum of 4 MB for running courseware).  Courseware can be run from a floppy disk or over a network so a hard disk is not required.

Terminology
To use Course Builder most effectively, you should be familiar with your Macintosh.  You should know how to:
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Use the mouse for pointing, clicking, and dragging; 
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Choose items from a menu dialog box; and
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Work with files and folders on the Macintosh desktop.

A glossary of Course Builder terminology is included at the back of this booklet.

Installing Course Builder V4.2 Evaluation
The CB Eval.SEA file is a self-expanding compressed file which contains all the components you will need for development.  You will need approximately 2.5 MB of free space on your hard drive to decompress the evaluation files.

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Double click the 'CB Eval.SEA' icon.

You will be presented with a dialog which lets you select a destination for the files in this archive.

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Select the button labeled 'Desktop' and then click on the name of your hard drive in the list presented.
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Select the button labeled 'Open'.
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Choose a location on your hard drive where you want these files installed and then select the button labeled 'Extract' (Command E).
This will automatically extract all the items in the archive and place them in a folder titled 'Course Builder Evaluation' in the location you selected.
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Open this new folder to see its contents.

This folder contains six items:

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Course Builder V4.2 Evaluation - This evaluation edition contains all the same built-in tools and features of the commercial version of Course Builder but is limited in the size of the application you can create.
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Completed Example - You may run this file to see a sample of the application you will develop by following the steps in this guide.  Note that this example will detect whether your machine is running in 256-colors and if so, present a full color presentation.  If you monitor is set to other than 256-color depth, you will see the black & white example.
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CBS Sounds - this file contains digitized sounds to play within your course (NOTE: you can add your own sounds to this file with any program which allows you to save a sound as a resource.  Contact DSI for additional information about adding your own custom sounds.)
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B&W Components - This folder contains pictures that you will use in the development of your example application if you are running on a machine not able to display 256-colors.
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256-Color Components - This folder contains pictures that you will use in the development of your example application if your monitor is set to display 256-colors.
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Report Reader - If you have set up a to save a report, you can use this program to open the report for viewing. Word processor and text-editing application will also open reports.

Using this Tutorial
This step-by-step guide takes you through development of an example stand-alone application.  We have designed this tutorial to provide an overview of Course Builder's built-in features and give a few tips and techniques of courseware development.  Feel free to contact DSI should you have any questions about additional capabilities or features not described in this booklet.

Command key equivalents will be given in parenthesis wherever appropriate.  To use command keys, hold down the command key on the keyboard while you press the key corresponding to the letter to the right of the command symbol.

Since this tutorial is optimized to let you experiment with Course Builder's tools, all of the graphics you will use are already created and saved as PICT images in the 'Eval Components' folders.  Feel free to improvise and include your own style if you like. If you are using a Macintosh which cannot display 256 colors use the graphics in the B&W Component folder.

Once you have worked through the step-by-step example described in this booklet we encourage you to create courses with your own content.  Try creating simple output presentations, add some questions and feedback, experiment with animation and transitions and before long, you will have developed your own custom interactive application.

By ordering the full version of Course Builder, you can open any work you create with this demonstration version to continue your development.