A paging structure is any navigation structure that uses a book or index card metaphor. A paging structure usually consists of pages of text and has navigation controls that let users go to the next or the previous page, look up and jump to a page they've already read, and sometimes search for a word or a topic and jump to the page where it's located. (For more information, see Paging structures--step-by-step proceduress for specific procedures.)
Paging structures are the easiest type of navigation structure to create in Authorware. Once you've saved the content in a rich text format (RTF) file, all you need to do is drag a framework icon to the flowline, and then drag the RTF file to the framework icon. Authorware creates a display icon for each page in the RTF file, attaches the display icons to the framework icon, and provides a ready-to-use set of navigation controls. The results aren't elegant, but they're quick and serviceable--and it's a great way to get started or to prototype a project.
The navigation controls built into the framework icon give users these options:
Although any icon attached to a framework icon is called a page, a page doesn't have to be a screen full of text. It can be a graphic, an animation, a digital movie, a sound--or even a map icon containing a complex sequence of icons. For example, you could use a paging structure to create an annotated version of Chopin's waltzes. Each page might contain a recording of one of the waltzes accompanied by a commentary on the music. You could use a paging structure to show how editing changes a film. For example, you could use the first page to show an unedited scene, the second to show the scene after it's been cut, the third to show with special effects, the fourth with sound effects, the fifth with music, and so on.
By the way, if you drag a group of movie files or a group of sound files--or even a group of movie, sound, graphic, and text files--to a framework icon, Authorware places each of them in its appropriate icon and arranges them as pages attached to the framework icon.
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