HyperStudio 4
© 2000 Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
Note: in June 2007, HyperStudio was purchased by Software MacKiev. This is a powerful creativity tool that makes it possible for children and adults to create their own multimedia presentations. It is especially useful for combining a variety of sounds, pictures, web sites or animations for the creation of computer-delivered reports, papers, projects and so on. The program is easy to install and starts with a blank white screen. Using pull down menus, you can freely draw pictures, enter text, or program buttons that cause actions. Pictures and other visual objects can be easily programmed with behaviors. For example, you can make items move, morph into other things, or jump to a web site. Weaknesses are few, but should be noted. Some of the menus and navigation are clunky, and there is just one level of "undo." We would have liked more shortcut keys and better display options for larger monitors. New to this version is the ability to export files for viewing with Navigator or Explorer, provided you download and install a special plugin available from www.hyperstudio.com/resource/hsplugin/plugin.html. The support materials are excellent and include large libraries of graphics, 170 backgrounds, 290 sound clips, 195 animations and 30 movies.
$199.95, Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: creativity, programming, HTML editing