Authoring

Authoring is the editing of materials---text&sbquo pictures on screens&sbquo images&sbquo sound&sbquo moving images&sbquo etc.---to produce the target data. This data is called content&sbquo software&sbquo and title. In general&sbquo the process of editing&sbquo integrating and arranging multimedia elements to form titled content is called authoring. Accordingly&sbquo it's not correct to use the word to describe programming and the editing of moving images. The reason this difference in naming arose is as follows. The designation multimedia had become too widespread and one couldn't predict what basic data would be turned into multimedia. The technology had in fact progressed so fast that the definitions of media integration and hypermedia could not be established. Today&sbquo due to advent of CD-ROMs&sbquo the Web&sbquo and DVDs&sbquo etc&sbquo multimedia has come to be classified into CD-ROM authoring and Web authoring&sbquo and there is already a strengthening trend that uses the word authoring to describe the production of DVD titles. The means to accomplish this authoring are called authoring tools or authoring software. They consist of text display functions&sbquo images display functions&sbquo sound playback functions&sbquo as well as story and plot line functions. The System Query Language (SQL) is typically used in these functions and is generally described in scripting language. Design methods are indispensable in order to master the authoring tools. This is because the deciding factor in authoring is not software application technique but the professional refinement of the content design. This requires a design called Human Computer Interaction (HCI) based on information engineering&sbquo art and psychology. We may say that an educational methodology will be necessary to nurture the career of authoring designer.

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