User's Guide - Introduction
Lots of powerful, flexible actions...there are more than 150 actions in all!
More events to assign actions to—including the new "On Initialize" page event that lets you make changes to a page before it's even displayed.
Incredible new object types, including the Flash Object, List Box Object and Web Browser Object.
MPEG video support! Media Player Objects let you display any file that Windows Media Player can, by seamlessly embedding the user's Windows Media Player control right into the page.
Cool new project templates help you get started quickly and give you fully-documented examples to learn from.
There are page templates, too. When you add a new page to your project, you can select from a variety of categorized, professionally designed page styles. Each page template comes with editable button images, text objects and other design elements. And it's a snap to add new templates to the system or create your own designs.
Image Objects are now fully resizable.
You can display a text caption on an Image Object, making it easier than ever to create cool-looking buttons. You no longer have to position a Text Object over an Image Object to achieve this often-used effect.
All objects that can display text now fully support anti-aliasing.
Web Browser Objects let you display local and Internet-hosted HTML pages right on your page—as well as any other file types supported by Internet Explorer.
Edit Field Objects let you design input fields right onto your page.
A complete project resource management system makes it easier to keep your project intact and transport it to other locations.
The Virtual CD-ROM is no more...now every project has a Distribution folder instead.
There's a fully-functioning Distribution Folder Bar to help you visualize/organize all the files in your Distribution folder.
Every project now has its own project folder.
Internal files are now copied into a Resources folder for safekeeping.
External references automatically get set to %SrcDir% instead of %SrcDrv%.
%SrcDrv% now expands to the actual drive letter that your application is running on when you preview the project. It isn't "faked out" like it was in 3.0.
Variables used in objects are no longer updated automatically. Now variables are only updated when you refresh the object they're being used in. This gives you greater control over object changes and results in improved performance at run time.
You can define your own design-time constants to make your projects easier to modify.
Take advantage of build configurations that let you change whole "sets" of design-time constants instantly when you build the project. Switch between a "release" and a "demo" version of your application with ease!
Global Lists let you build lists of information that you can add to and delete from at run time. Perfect for serial numbers, MP3 play lists, or any other lists that you need in your project.
Drag and drop support! Drag files onto the page to create objects automatically. You can even select text in a word processor like Microsoft Word, and drag it into AutoPlay Media Studio as a new Text Object.
Page inheritance—incredibly powerful, and yet so easy to use. Set up one master page with common objects and then base other pages off of that master. When you make a change to the master page, all of the pages that inherit from it will be updated to reflect those changes.
Each page now has 3 panes instead of 2: Normal, Mouse Over & Mouse Down.
Use a transparent mask image to create a custom window shape for your application. Don't limit your project to a standard rectangular window. Your AutoPlay applications can take on a shape of their own!
Support for huge projects (up to 1,000 pages in size!).
Improved drag-and-drop actions interface makes it easier to develop even more advanced "scripts" without having to be an experienced programmer.
The design environment now supports COM automation and even includes a built-in VBA macro editor.
Unlimited undo/redo. (Limited to 10 levels by default, but you can increase or decrease this limit in the preferences.)
New XML storage format...objects, actions, and even pages are copied into the clipboard as text, making it easy to share them with other users.
Integrated MP3 audio. The MP3 audio player has been vastly improved with the addition of triggered events, unlimited playlists, position seeking and ID3 tag queries. Combine these new features with progress reporting and play-state events to create your own incredibly cool custom MP3 players!
The design environment has been updated and enhanced. Even the button icons are prettier.
The old "hyperlink" object has been replaced by the new Hotspot Object.
Many other features!
Next: Getting Started