MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX, Use Manual

Page: 130 / 624

Chapter 4 130
Creating cast members
You can create several types of cast members in Director. Director includes editors to create and
edit common media such as text, shapes, and bitmaps. You can also define external editors to
launch from within Director when you double-click a cast member, and edit almost any type of
supported media. See “Launching external editors” on page 151.
You can also import cast members. See “Importing cast members” on page 146.
To create a new cast member from the Insert menu:
1
Open the Cast window for the cast member you are creating.
To place a cast member in a specific position in the Cast window, select the position in
Thumbnail view. See “Using Cast Thumbnail view” on page 137. Otherwise, Director
places the new cast member in the first empty position or after the current selection in the
Cast window.
2
Select Insert > Media Element, and then select the type of cast member to create.
For more information on each choice, see the following sections:
•
“Using the Paint window” on page 206
•
“Using the Color Palettes window” on page 261
•
“Streaming linked Shockwave Audio and MP3 audio files” on page 326
•
“Creating text cast members” on page 275
•
“Embedding fonts in movies” on page 274
•
“Creating an animated color cursor cast member” on page 382
•
“Using animated GIFs” on page 205
•
“Drawing vector shapes” on page 245
•
“Using Flash Movies” on page 293
•
“Importing digital video” on page 332
3
To create a control or button, do one of the following:
•
Select Insert > Control > Field to create a field cast member. Creating a field cast member also
creates a sprite on the Stage. See “Working with fields” on page 282.
•
Select Insert > Control > Push Button, Radio Button, or Check Box to create a button cast
member and a sprite on the Stage. See “Using shapes” on page 253.
•
(Windows only) Select Insert > Control >ActiveX to create an ActiveX cast member. See
“Using ActiveX controls” on page 316.