Have you ever wanted to make sure that when you write some code, your name and contact information stay with it? I am the only person currently doing Authorware where I work, but I think that probably my code will one day be maintained by someone else.

Sure, I could put a ReadMe calc in my files that tells people how to get in contact with me. But what happens when they copy and paste the code?

Instead, I like to put my information into the Description property of my icons, especially Calculation and Map icons. In Authorware 6, you can set up your own default icons to use when you drag icons out of the Icon palette.

To set up all Calculation icons, for instance, to include your contact information, you'd right click an empty calc on the flow line, which opens a popup menu. Then you would select "Description." This opens a dialogue where you can type your contact information. After you are finished, close the dialogue and drag your improved calculation back to the Icon palette.

If you add a description to icons before you save it as a model, it will show up in the Description field in the Knowledge Objects Window. In addition to your contact information, you can include detailed information on how to use and modify the model.. This information is easily available, but is not "in the way."

I like to use icons with my contact information in them in my example files. I figure one day, one of them will come back to me in someone else's code. Kind of like tagging wildlife.

Speaking of the Knowledge Objects Window, have you ever wanted to keep your models in a folder outside the Knowledge Objects folder, but still have it show up in the Knowledge Objects window? For instance, you might want to save all your models to a network drive so that they will be available for use by the rest of the team.

This is actually pretty easy to do. In Windows Explorer, right click on the folder you want to have show up as a Knowledge Objects Category. Select "Create Shortcut" from the popup menu. This should create a shortcut in the folder that contains your Models folder. Rename the shortcut to the name you want to see in the Knowledge Objects Window.

Now, all you have to do is move the shortcut you just made into the Knowledge Objects folder and click the "Refresh" button.

I thought you might be curious about what's going on at authorware-amy.com. The site was announced on April 1, 2002. In that time, there have been over 3,500 hits to the main page. On average, there are around 36 hits a day.

Around 50 people subscribe to Tip of the Week. There have been 8 scheduled chats. This is the tenth newsletter.

Yes, it's trivia, but hopefully if you are on this list you like the site and are interested ;-). 

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If you are wondering why the newsletter is a bit late this week, it is because I was in beautiful Dallas Texas fighting my way through some of the most insane traffic I have ever seen to get to Texas Authorware Workshop. There were lots of great tips and tricks shared, but it was also a great time with some of the most fun people around.

I'll share more from the workshop in later newsletters.

The MediaShoppe and DazzleTech announced their upcoming Authorware ELearning Cruise at TAW. The conference will be unique in being a cruise, but it certainly won't be light on content for being heavy on the fun.

The conference will feature mentoring, not as something you do when the regular sessions are over, but as an integral part of the sessions. Many if not most of the sessions will be hands-on.