Digital Workshop

I was a long time user of Iluminatus up to Opus 2001b at which time that version of Opus was not very stable among other issues that I had.

I am now diving into a new project creating a CD ROM of puzzles and games with mostly drag and drop and conditions for scoring and such.
I want the CD to be multiplatform, will the flex pubs handle such and have others had experience publishing flex for MACS?

I am looking at Magenta and Mediator 8 Pro and Opus Pro, would XE be much advantage for my needs?

I tried the trial version but was hindered by it's image file limitations right off the bat and never able to try it out in the time limitation..

Should I buy Opus again?

Thanks for any honest input and not marketing hype :~)

Hi pawolf,

Opus is a great tool with some difficulties and limitations belonging to SCORM- and Flex-output. I think you have to try out if it fits to your needs. You can do a lot of things with opus that you cannot do - or not in this easy way - with other tools. When using opus you feel that the developers have a lot of experience in developing CBTs and interactive software. You will find a lot of features of which you might think "Hey I was always looking for this and here it is." If you are a skilled programmer you might find other tools useful. If you like to avoid too much programming opus is the right tool for you.

T.

Opus 5.5 is infinitely more powerful, more fully resourced, and more stable that 2001b ever was.

Compared to 2001b, 5.5 does a ot more, and does it easier. I suggest that you download an evaluation copy and try it.

Note: there are more Opus products available, and you need to check licensing if you are wanting to distribute your publications.

I have never used SCORM, or DVD publishing -- I can get into enough trouble without those

I have used Flex, but no longer do so, because it doesn't appear to suit my needs.

I'm sure there will be others who will come on board and add their tips to help you.

HTH

Hi Pawolf

I too was an Illuminatus user in the latre 1990's, which is how I came to Opus. For the purposes I currently use it for (essentially as an intelligent launcher for other software, with very heavy use of scripting) it has some annoying limitations. But overall it's proved extremely robust, with very knowledgeable support from DW and the community.

We wanted to move to a truly multiplatform alternative. The closest I came was Norpath, which up to a point was scarily powerful. However my own experience was that the scripting provision was very limited, the outputs for Windows and Linux were completely different from each other (that is, not a common .jar file) and - the final straw - the support (even during the evaluation period) was strictly RTFM. Really made me appreciate what DW do!

Thanks for all your input.

to Linnet-
Do you use Flex for multiplatform publishing? If so what are your experiences and limitations.

Thanks,

Sorry, I've not used Flex at all.

So what are you doing for multi-platform publishing?

We'll be adapting a custom front end already written in-house in java for another, Linux-based project. (Just to be clear - ours is a rather arcane use for a CBT/presentation-type development tool such as Opus or Norpath, with no audio or video.)

HTH, Linnet

I use Opus 05 on a regular basis and normally have lots of things running in the background and I must say : Opus is extremly stable and very rarely crashes

I also tried Mediator 7 Pro and , comparing it with Opus , it simply cannot achieve what Opus does - and, the version I used was all but stable:

Especially if you use it for educational purposes Opus can really do a lot and once you've worked with it you will realize that a lot of things can be automated and therefore done quickly.

I just upgraded to Opus Pro 05 and I am really satisfied . you get a lot for your money and the presentations run smoothly and look great


Hope that helps !