Using Activex Controls - MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR Use Manual

To determine how the linked movie plays back, set the following options
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Play Sound enables the sound portion of the linked movie. Turn this option off to
mute sounds.
Loop replays the linked movie continuously from the beginning to the end and back to
the beginning.
Enable Scripts
movie plays by itself.
If you import a Director movie internally, it is imported as a film loop. In this case, the Linked
Movie tab in the Property inspector is replaced by the Film Loop tab, and the Enable Scripts
option is not available.

Using ActiveX controls

In Director, movies that you intend to publish only as projectors for Windows, you can embed
ActiveX (formerly known as OLE/OCX controls) controls that let you take advantage of the
technology and adapt ActiveX controls to make them function as sprites in Director. You can use
ActiveX controls to manage application resources for the hosted ActiveX control—for instance, to
manage properties, events, and windows and filing properties. You can also manage resources
used by the ActiveX control within the Director movie. ActiveX controls are not allowed in
Shockwave.
The range of uses for ActiveX in Director is as limitless as the variety of ActiveX controls available.
Using the Microsoft Web Browser control (installed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or
later), you can browse the Internet from within a multimedia production; using the FarPoint
Spreadsheet control, you can create and access spreadsheets; using the InterVista VRML control,
you can explore virtual worlds; using the MicroHelp extensive library of Windows widget
controls, you can build and simulate complete Windows applications.
Note: Not all ActiveX controls expose their methods and properties in all hosts. Test the controls you
want to use to see how they work in Director. Because ActiveX controls are non-Macromedia
software, Macromedia Technical Support does not support them.
Inserting an ActiveX control
You can place ActiveX controls in a Director movie and have them function as sprites. Note that
this procedure is designed only for Director for Windows.
To insert an ActiveX control on the Stage:
Make sure that the ActiveX control you want to use in Director is installed on your system.
1
Most controls have their own installation utilities provided by the manufacturer of the control.
Select Insert > Control > ActiveX.
2
In the dialog box that appears, select the desired ActiveX control and then click OK. The
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ActiveX Control Properties dialog box appears.
(If the desired ActiveX control does not appear in the list, it may not have been installed
properly by the system. You can attempt to verify this by viewing the list of ActiveX controls in
another application such as Visual Basic.)
The ActiveX Control Properties dialog box lets you edit each ActiveX control and
view information regarding each method the control supports and each event the control
can generate.
204 Chapter 9: Using Flash, Flash Components, and Other Interactive Media Types
makes all the scripts in the linked movie work the same way they do when the