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1085 - How can I use libraries to deliver a course in two languages?

by - Joe Ganci


Hi Mr. Ganci, Your email address was mentioned in the book I bought "The Ultimate Authorware Attain Tutorial". I have a question regarding graphics and libraries. I need to develop two e-learning pieces which are developed in authorware. One piece is in German the other one in English. I have screenshots in German and the same in English. As the differences of the Authorware pieces are just the screenshots, I wonder if there is an efficient way to develop only one piece (e.g. for the German version) and then swap the screenshots for the English version in the library? What do I need to do?

You're taking the right approach with the libraries. Here's a few tips:

Make sure you call the libraries the same name, followed by the language, such as

screenshots-English.a6l
screenshots-Deutsch.a6l

In each library, you will want to make sure that for each item in the library you have identical TITLE and LINK NAME fields for both libraries. So, if you have a screen shot in the English library whose title and link names are both DOG, make sure that the same is true in the German library: both should be called DOG. Now the truth is that the library links the icons by the LINK NAME, so you only need to make sure that the LINK NAME field is identical. In fact, you can have five icons in the library all with the same title but Authorware won't let you have two icons in the library with the same link name because link names have to be unique.

If you keep all the link names the same in both libraries, then you can swap the libraries easily. You can package (publish) the libraries externally but call each library by the SAME name when you publish, putting each version in a separate folder. When you want to deliver the German version, use the German external library. Similarly, when you want to deliver the English version, use the English external library. As long as the published libraries have the same name and the link names are the same in each library, you should have no problems.

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