System Variables

The system variables in Macromedia Authorware 7 contain information to help you determine user performance levels, construct performance reports, and control how your application operates.

Many system variables allow you to refer to a variable's value at a specific icon in the application by typing the variable's name followed by an "at" symbol (@) and the title of an icon:

VariableName@"IconTitle"

You can assign a value to some system variables; they're marked with an asterisk (*).

The system variables are listed alphabetically.

To get information about a specific variable, select Help > Variables. You can also print a PDF version of system variables. It is included in your Authorware directory.

Each variable listed below includes information about its type. The following list describes the three basic variable types in Authorware:

• Logical means that the variable will hold either the value true or false. This type is used with those variables that show a condition, such as AltDown, which tells you whether the Alt key on the keyboard is being held down at the moment.
• Numeric means the variable will hold a number, such as 3 or -14.22. The number can be positive or negative, integer or real. An example of a numeric variable is ChoiceNumber which indicates which choice the user has made to an Interaction icon by its order from left to right.
• Character variables hold strings of characters, such as "This is a test." The value held by a character variable is normally shown with quotation marks (") around it. The EntryText system variable always holds a character value, specifically the text the user typed in response to a text entry interaction. When a character variable is empty, its value is denoted by two double quotes with nothing in between: "".