Building a piece

You build a piece by placing icons on the flowline and setting them up as you want.

For all icons except navigate and wait icons, Authorware initially assigns the icon the name Untitled when you drag it onto the flowline. Navigate icons receive the name Unlinked. Wait icons don't automatically receive a name. Instead, the text insertion point appears next to the wait icon.

You can add and rearrange icons by dragging them from the Icon palette, cutting and pasting them, or dragging them to different locations.

When you drag icons, they are inserted at the spot in the flowline nearest where you release the mouse button.
When you paste icons, they are inserted where the Paste Hand is pointing.

Because framework, decision, and interaction icons have other icons attached to them, you can't cut a decision icon or interaction icon without also cutting all the icons attached to it.

To build a basic piece:

Drag an icon from the Icon palette to the flowline.
For more information, see Icon basics.
Title the icon.
Type the title in the text field to the right of the icon while the icon is selected.
Set up the icon.
See Setting up icons.
Place additional icons on the flowline.
See Inserting an icon

Here are some tips on naming icons:

Icon names should describe the icon.
Icon names must be unique if a function or variable refers to the icon.
To name a sequence of icons, type the first name and then press Return. Authorware automatically selects the next icon on the flowline.
In an interaction, the name of an icon used for a conditional response is the condition.
In an interaction, the name of an icon used for a text-entry response is the text you expect users to enter. However, if you use an expression in the expression field, Authorware will evaluate the expression, and the name of the icon will not matter.

Building a piece

To build a basic piece:

See also