ToolBook

The following items appear at least since 2012 and earlier out of date to be : Article is obsolete since about 2010, statements now wrong: ToolBook itself has not been updated since 2012, and nowadays does not matter more (Tempus, content update)
Please help with , research and insert the missing information .

ToolBook is an authoring tool for creating multimedia programs. It is widely used in the development of tutorials.

history

Paul Allen , the co-founder of Microsoft , alongside Bill Gates , left Microsoft in 1985 and started Asymetrix. Initially, a spreadsheet program was worked on, which was later discontinued.

The first version of Toolbook (1.0) was very slow on the computer systems of the time. With the release of version 1.5 a year later, this situation changed and after some bug fixes, version 1.53 appeared. This was the first productive version of Toolbook. Some time later Asymetrix released the Multimedia ToolBook version - the standard version with some extensions for multimedia development.

Toolbook was first published by Asymetrix with the appearance of Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 1990. There was even a joint press release on the appearance of both programs. The Toolbook authoring tool was not supplied with Windows, but the required runtime files and a small sample program called DayBook .

Asymetrix's original idea was to establish Toolbook as a visual authoring tool. However, Microsoft released the product Visual Basic Classic - which Paul Allen did not like very much - the success of which was due to the already well-known BASIC programming language , in contrast to Toolbook's programming language OpenScript, and Microsoft's market position. At the time, Toolbook was much better equipped for developing multimedia content than Visual Basic.

Asymetrix was renamed click2Learn because Asymetrix owned the e-learning portal click2Learn.com . In order to strengthen the position of the portal, the company renamed itself under the same name. In 2004 the two companies click2Learn and Lecturer merged and created SumTotal Systems, which is still in existence today .

Over the years, many developers have taken a liking to Toolbook, which was and is primarily used for kiosk systems, CD-ROM software and computer-based training .

TBCon

Since 1999 , the TBCon , the Toolbook User Conference, has been held every year on three days in June or July in Colorado Springs , USA . Toolbook developers and users meet there to share experiences and talk about current developments.

An award for the most innovative use of Toolbook by the participants will also be presented during the congress.

Web links

• ToolBooks official website (English)