Authorware has four tools that help you manage content:
External content If you link a file to Authorware, the only data Authorware stores is the file's name and its location. The content remains in the file, stored outside Authorware. The great advantage of external content is that it's easy to update both during development and after a project has been distributed. For example, you can turn over a packaged project to a client, and the client--without using Authorware--can update the content just by replacing an external content file with a newer version. Or you can distribute a piece that links to essential but ephemeral content--say, satellite photos of weather systems--over the Internet. As long as the name of the file and its location don't change, you don't need anything to the Authorware piece that the file is linked to.
Keep in mind, though, that filenames and locations can't change once you distribute a project. You need to make sure that all the external content files get distributed with the project and installed in the right place or that they get set up correctly on the right web server. Managing external content wisely means knowing when you need its flexibility and when it may well be more trouble than it's worth.
The External Media Browser During the development phase of a project, the External Media Browser makes managing external files easy. It has two major strengths: It lets you edit the pathnames to external files, either individually or in groups, and it lets you define the location of external content with variables and expressions.
At the start of a project you might plan to keep all the external media in a single folder. Later you might decide to place sound, movie, and graphics files in separate folders. You can select all the files in any of the groups in the External Media Browser and, in a single step, change the path to every file in the group.
You can use variables and expressions as paths to change the content of a piece on the fly. Suppose you're creating an information kiosk for a public place such as an airport. The use of external sound files makes the information easy to update, and variables make it possible for users to get the information in the language they choose.
Libraries A library is a special Authorware file that contains a collection of individual icons and their content. Library files are different from Authorware flowline files. Libraries have no flowline and no icon structures--just individual icons.
With libraries you can use the same content repeatedly without duplicating it.
Libraries are very much like external content in one way: When you use content that's in a library, the Authorware file stores only a link to the content, not the content itself. What distinguishes a library is that it can contain many different pieces of content, not just one. Because libraries contain icons and not just raw media, they can also contain icon properties; external content files can't contain external properties. For example, to set the start and end frames of a digital movie with a variable, set up the variable in the library. If you were using an external content file you'd have to do it each time you use the movie. Unlike external content files, libraries can be packaged--which means that they're much easier to distribute.
Libraries and external content aren't mutually exclusive. You can link an icon in a library to an external media file as easily as you can link an icon on the flowline to one. The result is the best of both worlds: the content is easy to update, and you have the convenience of setting up the icon properties you want to use just once.
Another advantage of libraries is that they're a convenient development tool for a project team. Once you set up a library, you can place it on a server so that the entire team has access to its contents.
Models A model is a flowline segment--a sequence of icons you've copied from the flowline and saved. You can't open a model directly, but you can reproduce a copy of the icon structure it contains by dragging the model from the Knowledge Objects window to the flowline.
Use models to save and reuse structures you've constructed. For example, instead of re-creating a complex interaction, you can just save it as a model. Then you can paste it into any piece you want, and add the text, graphics, and other media that will tailor it to its new context.
Models are unlike both libraries and external content: they're not a way of saving space. Each time you paste a model on the flowline, you add the complete set of icons that the model contains. But because models are just segments of the flowline, there's no reason you can't link icons in a model to external content files or to library icons--as long as the external files and libraries are available to the files you paste the model into.
If you include a Knowledge Object icon in a model, you can turn the model into a Knowledge Object--a packet of logic with its own wizard interface. See Creating Knowledge Objects.