MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX-USING DIRECTOR MX, Use Manual

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Chapter 26 574
Managing Xtra extensions for distributed movies
You can manage Xtra extensions for your movie using the Modify menu.
To manage Xtra extensions for the current movie:
1
Select Modify > Movie > Xtras.
2
To add or remove Xtra extensions, do any of the following:
•
To add the Xtra extensions required to connect a projector to the Internet, click Add Network.
•
To restore the list of default Xtra extensions, click Add Defaults.
•
To manually add an Xtra extension to the list (which you would do, for example, if you’ve used
Lingo code that requires Xtra extensions), click Add and select from the list of Xtra extensions
installed in your system.
•
To delete an Xtra extension from the list, highlight the Xtra extension and click Remove.
3
To change settings for Xtra extensions in the list, select an Xtra extension and select either of
the following options:
Include in Projector
makes Director include the selected Xtra extension in any projector that
includes the current movie.
Download If Needed
makes the movie prompt the user to download a required Xtra extension
if it is not installed in the user’s system. The Xtra extension is downloaded from the location
specified in the Xtrainfo.txt file and permanently installed in the user’s system.
4
To get information about a selected Xtra extension, click Info.
The information comes from an Internet source. Not all Xtra extensions include information.
Third-party Xtra extensions often include some explanations and information about
the developers.
Note: Another way to include Xtra extensions with a movie is to create an Xtras folder containing all required Xtra
extensions in the same folder as a projector file. This allows you to see which Xtra extensions are included without
opening the movie. If you use this method, you cannot include Xtra extensions in the projector file because the
movie will fail to initialize.
About distribution formats
Before deciding how to distribute a movie, it helps to understand how Director plays movies.
Director movies play either with the Shockwave player or through a projector player. The
Shockwave player is a system component that plays movies in web browsers and also outside
browsers as stand-alone applications. A projector player can only play movies independently of a
web browser.
You can distribute movies as Shockwave movies (with the DCR extension), projectors, or
protected movies (DXR extension). You should not distribute source movies (DIR extension)
unless you want your users to be able to change the movie in the Director authoring environment.
•
A Shockwave movie is a compressed version of a movie’s data and does not include a player.
Shockwave movies are created primarily to distribute over the Internet for playback in a web
browser. Another reason to create a Shockwave movie is to compress it for distribution on a
disk when the movie is contained in a projector. In addition to compressing the data, saving a
movie in the Shockwave format removes all information necessary to edit the movie.