There are many different software development tools that you can use, but very few are suited to the task of multimedia authoring. You want a development environment that makes it easy to combine multiple types of media into a single application. For example, a specialized multimedia software development tool like AutoPlay Media Studio, will allow you to simply drag and drop images, music, video, Adobe Flash, HTML, text and interactive control objects right onto a blank page or “canvas”, and then arrange the layout using your mouse.

Traditional programming languages can be used to build multimedia applications, but you’ll have to invest a large amount of time into learning how to adapt them to the task at hand. You’ll find that you spend a lot of timing struggling to reinvent the wheel, such as dealing with low-level graphics, handling video playback formats and streaming multiple audio channels. Don’t waste your time figuring all of these things out from scratch. You’d be much better off picking an appropriate development system that can handle these things right out of the box.

There are also a variety of tools that are suitable for making multimedia animations and simple applets, but aren’t particularly well suited for developing full software applications. I put products like Adobe Flash into that category. Flash is a fantastic tool for making website content, short videos and mini applications, but it’s really not suited for building desktop multimedia applications. You should instead look for a tool that can incorporate “bits” of Flash into your application for effect, and then extend that into a full professional software application.

Creating the visual interface to your application is the first step in multimedia software development, but that’s just the beginning. You’re going to want to tie together all of those visual elements into an interactive software product. For example, if you have a button on your application screen that says “Install Software”, you need a way to hook in the logic and events that make that button do something! A good multimedia software development tool will make this extremely easy on you, the programmer.

Whether you’re making an autorun CD / DVD menu system, a database front-end or a software training application, the basic process is the same. There is an “object” like a “button” that has “events” like “Mouse Click” associated with it. When that event occurs, the program will execute a particular sequence of actions, or a “script”. What that script does should be totally in your control. For example, AutoPlay Media Studio has a library of over 750 functions that you can use, including running programs, sending email, copying files, parsing XML data and much more. The more actions you have at your disposal, the faster you can create your software applications without having to develop any custom code.

Once your application has been developed, you’re going to want to distribute your software to your customers. That’s sometimes the most complicated step in the process. If you use a product like Visual Basic, you may have dozens of ActiveX controls, OCX controls or other addons and libraries that need to be distributed as well. Keeping track of them all can be a real headache. On the other hand, products like AutoPlay Media Studio generate a single-file executable, without any external dependencies. Additionally, it can burn your application right to an AutoPlay CD-ROM or DVD-ROM that will autorun as soon as your customer inserts it into their computer. Alternatively, if you distribute your software from your website, you can just upload that single autorun.exe to your site and your customers can download it directly. No software installation or setup wizard required!

Getting started with multimedia software development can be difficult if you choose the wrong programming tools, but if you do your research and choose an appropriate agile software development tool, you’ll be able to rapidly create professional multimedia software applications in no time.

About the Author
Colin Adams is the President of Indigo Rose Software Design Corporation. Indigo Rose has been creating professional software development tools like AutoPlay Media Studio since 1991 and can be found on the web at http://www.indigorose.com.

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An easy-to-use Project Wizard helps programmers create ready-to-build software installation projects in minutes. They can simply drag and drop files and folders onto the project window and they’re ready to build. Setup Factory outputs a compact, single-file setup.exe that is ideal for distribution via Internet download, CD/DVD-ROM, USB memory keys and corporate networks.

“Indigo Rose is excited to launch this new version of Setup Factory,” said Colin Adams, President at Indigo Rose Software Design Corporation. “Making Setup Factory compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 ensures that our customers can deploy their software development projects on the widest variety of Windows operating systems possible. It’s just one more reason that over 20,000 companies worldwide rely on Indigo Rose’s software development tools to help deliver their digital products.”

While retaining Setup Factory’s popular visual development environment, Setup Factory 8.2 also includes a fully featured scripting engine. It has everything from “for, repeat and while” loops, to “if/else” conditions, functions, variables and associative arrays. With a library of over 360+ functions and a fill-in-the-blanks style Action Wizard, advanced installers can be created to handle even the most sophisticated installation tasks. High-level actions are provided to make registry changes, call DLL functions, execute programs, start and stop services, interact with web scripts, enumerate processes, parse XML data, download files and much more.

With Setup Factory 8.2’s Visual Dialog Editor and Skin/Theme System, software engineers can create installers that even the marketing department can approve of. Developers can either create custom install wizard dialogs from scratch, or select from 20+ ready-made dialogs such as license agreement acceptance and serial number verification. Once the dialog sequence has been created, installation developers can then choose from dozens of pre-made visual themes, letting them customize background images, fonts, logos, colors and other style settings with a single click.

Other features of Setup Factory 8.2 include high performance LZMA data compression with up to 300% better compression ratios and 20% faster installation speed, automatic Authenticode signing, support for files larger than 2GB, an extensive Windows Installer MSI action library, auto-detecting international language support, HTML-based project reports, full uninstaller, silent install mode, and support for automated builds.

Setup Factory 8.2 sells for $395 (US$) per developer or $995 for the Five Developer Team Pack. It can be purchased through all major software development tools resellers, or directly from Indigo Rose Software at http://www.indigorose.com. A free 30-day trial download is available from the company’s website.

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More Information:

1. Indigo Rose Ships Setup Factory 6.0 – Create Internet Enhanced Software Installers Indigo Rose announces the immediate availability of Setup Factory 6.0....
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AutoPlay Media Studio 7.5 is a rapid application development (RAD) platform with specialized multimedia capabilities. Simply drag and drop video, audio, images, Flash and HTML onto a blank page and arrange the layout with your mouse. With no programming knowledge required, you can instruct your project to perform actions automatically or in response to events such as mouse clicks. There are over 640 actions to choose from including executing programs, querying databases, copying files, displaying dialog boxes, sending emails, parsing XML data, interacting with web scripts and much more.

“It’s a very unique software development tool,” says Indigo Rose Software President Colin Adams. “More and more companies are using it as a rapid-development alternative to tools like Delphi, C++ and Visual Basic. While well known as being the industry standard tool for creating autoplay CD / DVD menus, it’s also being used to develop thousands of other creative applications like web tools, network utilities and much more.”

AutoPlay Media Studio’s scripting engine is based upon the fast and efficient open-source Lua programming language. This scripting language offers advanced functionality, with everything from functions and control structures to arithmetic operators and associative arrays. It also features full syntax highlighting, code completion and other advanced programming facilities.

Other features of AutoPlay Media Studio 7.5 include 17+ interactive objects (Rich Text, Slideshow, Grid, Flash, Web, Checkbox, Radio Button, Input, Video, Tree, Progress Bar and more), resource stamping, custom window shapes, enhanced cryptography actions and security features, and much more.

AutoPlay Media Studio 7.5 sells for $295 (USD) per developer (or $995 for the 5 developer Team Pack) and can be purchased from most software development tools vendors or online at http://www.indigorose.com. AutoPlay Media Studio 7.5 is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and earlier versions. A free 30-day trial download is available from the company’s website at http://www.indigorose.com/products/autoplay-media-studio.

About Indigo Rose Software Design Corporation
Privately held, Indigo Rose Software has been developing innovative software products and multimedia authoring tools since 1991 that are used by thousands of corporate, government and ISV customers around the world. Indigo Rose is headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada, and can be found on the Internet at http://www.indigorose.com.

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More Information:

1. Drag-and-Drop Multimedia Authoring with AutoPlay Media Studio 5.0 Indigo Rose Software announces the immediate availability of AutoPlay Media...
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Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 presents users with a streamlined interface that is intuitive to work with. It’s like using traditional paper and scissors. Users can start with a pre-made (but fully customizable) template page, or build their pages from scratch using photos, embellishments, paper scraps and a variety of artistic text options. A new archival quality graphics engine gives Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 superior speed and accuracy, allowing scrapbookers to move, resize, rotate and crop elements in real-time, while maintaining sub-pixel precision -features exclusive to Scrapbook MAX! 2.0.

Sophisticated design tools allow users to bend, stretch and shape text; fill text characters with images and patterns; colorize and tint graphics to exact specifications; and even control the angle, distance and color of shadows. Support for all popular graphics formats and digital scrapbooking kits is also included.

“Scrapbookers want a program that offers lots of creative options, but they’ve been frustrated by the complicated, cluttered interfaces found in other digital scrapbooking software products,” says Scrapbook MAX! Public Relations Director Karin Adams. “We’ve spent years listening to digital scrapbookers, in order to build a next-generation product that would really meet their needs. Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 helps bridge the gap between traditional paper scrapbooking and the benefits of digital scrapbooking.”

Digital scrapbooking is all about preserving your memories and having fun while you do it. “Our goals for Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 were to not only build on the success of version 1.0, but to really push the boundaries of what scrapbookers can do,” says Adams. “We wanted to inspire them with creative possibilities, but at the same time keep the software easy to use. I believe Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 makes digital scrapbooking more creative and more accessible than ever.”

Turning digital creations into physical pages is a matter of a few mouse clicks with Scrapbook MAX! 2.0. Users can output their pages as high-resolution prints using their own color printer, or turn them into digital slideshows and movies. Additionally, support for generating JPG, TIF and PNG images makes sharing through email, blogs, social networking sites and the free online Scrapbook MAX! web gallery possible. Ordering professional prints and photobooks are other options.

Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 sells for $59.95 (US$) and can be purchased at select retailers or online at http://www.scrapbookmax.com. Scrapbook MAX! 2.0 is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. A free 30-day trial download is available from the company’s website at http://www.scrapbookmax.com.

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Simply combine images, music, video, flash etc – and drag n’ drop your way to fully interactive software applications. To help you get started quickly we provide extra resources including video training, professional content add-ons, an online user forum, and much more!

Create Your Own Custom Software Applications!
Even if you have no programming experience you can create your own custom software – with comparable features and performance to software products built by professional programmers using C++/Java. AutoPlay Media Studio is a full blown rapid application development platform with a wide selection of options and support for most popular technologies. Owning AutoPlay Media Studio is like having your own professional software programmer on call 24/7.

Even Non-Programmers Can Create Applications Quickly
AutoPlay Media Studio is built from the ground up to be easy to use. Even if you have absolutely no programming experience you’ll be able to get started creating your own custom applications in just minutes. No need to memorize a bunch of code, with AutoPlay Media Studio you let the application do the work for you. The built in wizards simplify common tasks like scripting and publishing so that anyone can point and click their way to fantastic projects quickly and easily.

Customizable Dialogs
Application development has been raised to a new level in AutoPlay Media Studio 7.5 with the addition of customizable dialogs. Dialogs support the same background settings, objects and events as pages do…but the options don’t stop there. Dialogs have features above and beyond pages including custom sizes, multiple windows styles, and even a custom icon. Complemented by both its own “DialogEx” action category containing 21 new actions, as well as 6 additional “Application” actions, you’ll surely find this powerful new feature a welcome addition to your design arsenal.

What’s New in 7.5?
Version 7.5 of AutoPlay Media Studio is a revolutionary upgrade with dozens of powerful new features being added. At the core is the same amazing Lua-based scripting engine found in all Indigo Rose development tools. With an enhanced selection of integrated objects and actions it’s never been easier to create advanced interactive applications using AutoPlay Media Studio. And it’s easy to extend your projects with the powerful action plugin architecture, with plugins currently available for such technologies as XML, SQLite, encryption, and more. These are just a few of the exciting additions which make it the most powerful tool in its class.

Download the Free Trial and Get Started Now!
The best way to experience the value of AutoPlay Media Studio is to try it. You can download the free trial version of AutoPlay Media Studio by clicking here. The free trial version will continue to work for a period of 30 days, so you have plenty of time to build projects and see for yourself what a great tool it is. There is no other software in its class which is easier to use, or faster to work with! If you have any questions, we’re here to help with free technical support and cost-effective consulting and integration services.

More Information:

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Unlike other tools that borrow functionality from third-party installers or are built upon command line tools, Visual Patch features a completely integrated visual development environment. Visual Patch automatically takes care of the complicated details of patch development, such as inspecting versions to decide which files have changed, and performing sophisticated byte level differencing on each file in order to extract the differences between versions.

• High Performance Binary Differencing. State-of-the-art delta compression algorithms developed specifically for their impressive speed characteristics, especially for gigabyte-sized files. Create smaller patches for larger files faster.

• Full-History Patching. Gives developers full control over which versions can be patched with a single executable. Full-history patching means you can update any version of your software to the latest release with one patch file.

• Sophisticated Version Management. Makes it easy to manage software releases. You can quickly and easily add, remove and organize product versions, and see all of the important details about your files.

• Customizable User Interface. A library of over twenty different screens makes it easy to control the user interface of your patches. There are pre-built layouts to handle just about any task you can imagine, and it’s easy to adjust them to fit your needs exactly.

• 100% Data Integrity. Patches are only applied to the exact files they’re intended for. Using a combination of 128-bit MD5 hashing, CRC-32 checksums and industry standard data encryption protocols, applications and data are kept safe from unauthorized use, transmission errors and other threats.

With its sophisticated yet straightforward user interface, Visual Patch 3.5 simplifies software version management, turning the otherwise complicated task of managing point releases into a fast and automated process. There is no better way to make professional-quality, full-history binary patches for software and other electronic content.

Visual Patch 3.5 is the result of over 15 years of experience creating software deployment tools. You can rely on Indigo Rose to provide reliable tools, top quality documentation and superior technical support .

Click here to dowload a free trial version of Visual Patch 3.5

Benefits of Software Patching

The role of patches in the software deployment cycle is to get already-installed software up to date after it becomes outdated. Patching technology offers numerous benefits over simply redistributing new versions of the original software in whole form.

The first and most fundamental benefit is a dramatic reduction in file size, which leads to reduced bandwidth and storage costs. Because they only contain the data that has changed from one version to another, patches can be much smaller than a full installer or compressed archive. Especially in situations where large data files are involved, the savings are often dramatic, with typical bandwidth reductions between 90% and 99%.

Having less data to transmit means that updates can be sent and received faster, which means less time is spent waiting for updates, improving the user’s update experience and making automatic “background” updates feasible.

Binary differencing also makes the update process more secure. Transmitting only tiny portions of a file in a format that can’t be used without the original greatly reduces the risk of unauthorized use.

Competitive Position

Some tools claim to support large-file patching, but they process large files so slowly that it really isn’t feasible to use them for that purpose. Visual Patch uses a unique binary differencing algorithm that was developed to process very large files as quickly as possible. It does this while also achieving the best compression performance possible on all file sizes, large and small.

For example, in benchmark testing Visual Patch was able to create a patch for a 1.2 GB data file in under 3 minutes, whereas the nearest competitor we tested required more than 70 minutes to process the data on the same system. Some of the competing tools we tested were not even able to process such a large file, and either failed completely or were still processing after more than 24 hours.

Remarkably, Visual Patch achieves its speed without sacrificing performance, creating patches that compare favorably in size to patches created by other tools. In fact, Visual Patch’s speed permits additional size optimizations that are not feasible with other tools. For example, it can automatically perform multiple passes with different settings in order to find the optimal parameters for each particular file-and still manage to do so in less time than competing tools require for a single pass!

Visual Patch combines its advanced binary differencing engine with an intelligent full-history patching system. Full-history patches can update any older version to the latest release, allowing multiple versions to be patched with the same file. Only having one file to download simplifies the patching process. End users don’t have to worry about finding multiple patches and applying them in the correct order, as they would with other, less sophisticated patching tools.

More Information:

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The TrueUpdate runtime client can be integrated quickly and easily into new and existing software products and networks, regardless of the installation, patching, or deployment solutions being used. The easy-to-use project wizard walks you through the whole process, helping you identify your file versions, configure patch download locations, build your customized TrueUpdate client and upload the information to your server.

• Add a powerful and extremely flexible “check for update” feature to your software products. As a compact and standalone executable, the TrueUpdate Client application is extremely easy to integrate into your software applications. Most developers can have it done in a few hours.

• Easy to integrate into your software and offers almost unlimited flexibility and customization options. The project wizard assists you with the whole process, helping you identify your file versions, configure patch download locations, build your customized TrueUpdate client and upload the information to your server.

• The TrueUpdate client executable is compatible with all Windows operating systems from 95 to Windows 7. The TrueUpdate client is compact, optimized, and completely self contained. Does not rely on .NET or other external dependencies.

• Uses open and trusted protocols like HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. Organizations of any size can deploy TrueUpdate 3.5 enabled software using only a standard web server. While other services lock you into using their servers, with TrueUpdate you decide where your update files are hosted. There is no need to rely on the uncertain future of an “update service,” pay exorbitant annual fees or wait helplessly during downtimes you are powerless to resolve.

Every aspect of TrueUpdate 3.5 is customizable, from the appearance and flow of the user interface to the details of the update process itself. It is equally adept at managing firewalls, proxy servers, corporate networks and consumer software installations. You won’t find a more powerful or flexible solution than TrueUpdate 3.5.

TrueUpdate is the result of over 15 years of experience creating software deployment tools. You can rely on Indigo Rose to provide reliable tools, top quality documentation and superior technical support.

Click here to download a free trial version of TrueUpdate 3.5

Benefits of Automatic Software Updating

The Internet has created a highly competitive market where users expect immediate results; the prize often goes to the company that reacts the most quickly to changes in user needs and perceptions. In order to streamline software deployment, it is becoming increasingly desirable for software authors to incorporate automated updating abilities into their software.

Software developers, network administrators and end-users alike share in the benefits of update-enabled software. Developers appreciate it for the control it gives them over software that has already been deployed. Network administrators benefit from improved security and better control of network nodes. End-users see update-enabled software as an assurance of quality-a symbol that the developer is there to stand behind their product.

Independent software vendors, consulting companies, IT departments, or any organization that distributes timely software and data can benefit from automating the electronic update process using TrueUpdate.

Competitive Position

Unlike hosted services where the update technology is beyond your control, TrueUpdate is uniquely designed to provide full control over every part of the update process. Every last detail, from the update method to the actual servers where everything is hosted, is entirely within the developer’s control. There’s no need to rely on the uncertain future of a proprietary web-based update service, pay exorbitant annual fees or wait helplessly during downtimes you are powerless to resolve.

Unlike other solutions that are limited to simply downloading and running a file, TrueUpdate’s client can perform a full range of system changes. In addition, because the updates are client-originated using a unique client-pull architecture, with no identifying information needing to be transmitted at all, TrueUpdate completely avoids the legal privacy issues that can limit the application of other services.

TrueUpdate can be configured to work in any situation, the way the developer and their company want to work, rather than being shoe-horned into a generic update system as with other services.

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• Rapid Installer Development. With Setup Factory 8, you simply drag and drop your files onto the project window, and click on the publish button. That’s it. It’s really that simple. You’ll be up and running in minutes. The Project Wizard can even walk you through it. Whether you want to create shortcut icons on the desktop and start menu, or configure an uninstaller in the control panel’s Add/Remove Programs panel, it’s all just a few clicks away. The same thing goes for adding in third-party runtime modules, with support for Visual Basic, .NET and more.

• Powerful Enough For Any Installation Task. When you want the ultimate in power and flexibility, you can turn to the all-new scripting engine found in Setup Factory 8. This easy to understand language features everything from loops and conditions to functions, variables and arrays. It’s packed with hundreds of functions to handle everything from text file editing to system registry changes. You can execute programs, call DLL functions, manipulate strings, enumerate processes, interact with web scripts and much more. And thanks to the fill-in-the-blanks style Action Wizard, anybody can create powerful installers that handle complex installation tasks with ease.

• Fully Customizable. While other installer builders make you settle for the same old look, Setup Factory 8 includes an innovative visual theme system and full featured dialog editor. Choose from dozens of pre-made themes or even make your own. It’s as easy as viewing a live dialog preview and picking your favorite style. You can configure everything from fonts and banners to graphics, colors and much more. Whether you want your installers to look corporate, modern or artistic, you can do it with ease.

• Trusted and Reliable. We’ve been making software installation tools since the days of Windows 3.0. We’ve learned a lot over the years. That’s why you can count on Setup Factory to make sure your software installation process is as smooth and trouble-free as possible. In fact, there are hundreds of millions of our setup.exe files out there. That’s a lot of trust. And each one is proudly serving as a banner for its company’s reputation. It’s something we take very seriously. You can leverage our years of experience making rock-solid software installers by choosing Setup Factory 8.

Download the Free Trial and Get Started Now!

The best way to experience the value of Setup Factory is to try it. You can download the free trial version of Setup Factory by clicking here. The free trial version will continue to work for a period of 30 days, so you have plenty of time to build projects and see for yourself what a great tool it is. There is no other software in its class which is easier to use, or faster to work with!

Competitive Position

Many software installation tools have reached a point where they’ve become overly complicated. To some extent this is a reflection of the task at hand; it takes some very advanced features to get software installed safely on a modern system. Unfortunately, for many other tools “advanced” has come to mean “complicated.”

At Indigo Rose, we want to empower developers, not confuse them. Setup Factory has been designed and perfected over 15 years to make installation and deployment intuitive and straightforward. Like competing tools, it has a feature list full of advanced install abilities and technology. But what’s unique to Setup Factory is the way it presents all of these features. Unlike other tools, there are no hurdles in the way of just getting things done.

Everything from checking system requirements to creating multilingual translations is handled in a way that makes sense. All of the advanced features are there, from the innovative visual skinning system, to the high-performance scripting engine. But with Setup Factory, the basics are still easy, and building a normal installer is still a quick five minute, drag-and-drop affair. Even Setup Factory’s intelligent screen layout system keeps things simple. To make room for text, you don’t have to worry about positioning controls or moving things around; you just type it in, and it works.

The end-user experience is just as straightforward. Setup Factory is completely self-contained and does not require any preinstalled services. In fact, its setup executables are compatible all the way back to Windows 95 without any external dependencies – including MSI. It doesn’t take forever to extract, it doesn’t need to be bootstrapped with anything, it doesn’t depend on services which might be turned off, and it doesn’t leave behind any messy uninstallation problems.

For years we’ve been winning customers from other installation tools because of our strong user community and our refreshingly personal product support. Like Setup Factory, this is driven by a single, simple question: if we were our customers, how would we want it to work?

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