MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX, Use Manual

Page: 154 / 624

Chapter 4 154
Creating libraries
A library is a special type of unlinked external cast that appears in the Library palette. When you
drag a cast member from an external cast library to the Stage or Score, Director automatically
copies the cast member to one of the movie’s internal casts. Libraries are useful for storing any
type of commonly used cast members, especially behaviors. A library cannot be linked to a movie.
See “Attaching behaviors” on page 357.
When you create a library, as explained in the following procedure, it appears in the Library List
pop-up menu in the Library palette.
To create a library:
1
Create an external cast file, following the procedure under “Creating new casts” on page 128.
Do not select Use in Current Movie.
2
With the Cast window for the external cast active, select File > Save, and place the external cast
in the Libs folder in the Director application folder.
Setting cast member properties using Lingo
Lingo lets you control and edit cast members by setting their properties. Some properties are
available for every type of cast member, and other properties are available only for specific cast
member types. See entries for individual properties in the Lingo Dictionary.
To specify the cast member’s content:
•
Set the
media
cast member property.
To specify the cast member’s name:
•
Set the
name
cast member property. .
To set the contents of the cast member’s comments field:
•
Set the
comments
cast member property. You can store any text information in this field that
you find useful, and access it at runtime by getting the
comments
property.
To specify the cast member’s purge priority:
•
Set the
purgePriority
cast member property.
To specify the content of the script that is attached to the cast member:
•
Set the
scriptText
cast member property.
To specify the file that is assigned to a linked cast member:
•
Set the
fileName
cast member property.
For additional cast member properties that Lingo can test and set, see the Lingo Dictionary
sections that discuss the specific cast member type.