OverviewWhat Is ConvertedWhat Is Not Converted (Gotcha's)
In general all of your media files and common options will be converted from AutoPlay Media Studio 4 to AutoPlay Media Studio 8. This includes all media files, objects, and pages that were referenced in AutoPlay 4. Even media files that have no translatable existence in AutoPlay Media Studio 8 (for example the Mouse Over pane image) will be copied into the new AutoPlay 8 project’s resource folders.
This section will detail all of the information that gets converted from AutoPlay Media Studio 4 to AutoPlay Media Studio 8. For a list of options that will not be converted please see the next section.
Note: The idea of an “external reference” as it was presented in AutoPlay Media Studio 4 does not exist in AutoPlay Media Studio 8. As a result all external references from AutoPlay 4 will be added to the new AutoPlay 8 project’s resource folders. If the file could not be found (i.e. The location specified is a “run-time” location) the original path will be converted and a warning will occur during the conversion process.
The following project settings will be converted from AutoPlay Media Studio 4 to AutoPlay Media Studio 8:
The Page Size settings will convert exactly to AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
If a transparent image file is used in your AutoPlay 4 project it will be copied into the resource folder of your new AutoPlay Media Studio 8 project.
The splash and credits screen images (if specified) will be copied into the resource folders of the new AutoPlay 8 project. The rest of the settings will not be converted.
The Window options (Title bar, Border, and Full screen) will be converted to their corresponding AutoPlay Media Studio 8 Project Settings Styles. Note: Since the Full screen window style is not available in AutoPlay 8 this style will convert to the Kiosk style if the Title bar and Border options are disabled, otherwise it will be ignored.
The create Autorun.inf option will be converted to control the “Enable AutoPlay” options for the “Hard Drive Folder”, “CD-R/CD-RW”, and “ISO Image” project publishing options.
No settings from the Configuration tab will be converted, this option does not exist in AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
No settings from the Languages tab will be converted. Languages are handled as an internal table in AutoPlay Media Studio 4 as opposed to external XML files.
No settings from the Requirements tab will be converted, however requirement settings can be specified directly in AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
The following AutoPlay Media Studio 4 page settings will be converted into AutoPlay Media Studio 8:
The Background Type options, including the Type and Parent page options will convert directly into AutoPlay Media Studio 8. They can be found in AutoPlay Media Studio 8 in the Page properties as the following options: Background, Image, and Inherit. Note: The Show the parent page at design time option will not convert and will always be enabled in AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
All three background images will be copied into the new project’s resource folders, however only the Normal pane image file will be referenced in the actual project. The Normal pane image file will become the image file used as the page background in AutoPlay 8.
The Foreground and Background colors will be converted into the Gradient color and Back color options in AutoPlay 8 respectively.
The following properties are common to more then one object in AutoPlay Media Studio 4, and will therefore be converted in the same manner for all objects they are common to.
The object name, position, and bounding rectangle size are common to all objects and will be converted exactly from AutoPlay Media Studio 4 to AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
The design-time option Lock position will be converted into the “lock” option in AutoPlay Media Studio 8. Note: Locking and unlocking objects is accomplished through the right-click context menu, as opposed to being visible as part of the object’s properties.
All objects in AutoPlay Media Studio 4, except for the Web Browser Object, support tooltips. This option will be converted from AutoPlay 4 to 8 for all objects that supported tooltips, except for the video object, which not longer supports this option.
All objects in AutoPlay Media Studio 4 that support custom font settings (text, image, list box, text box, and edit field) will have their fonts settings converted into AutoPlay 8.
Objects that supported the alternate representations of their ActiveX control was not installed (Flash, Media Player, and Web Browser objects) in AutoPlay 4, will not have their alternate representation settings converted into AutoPlay 8. However if an alternate image is specified it will be added to the new projects resource folders. Note: In AutoPlay Media Studio 8 the default missing controls representation is always used.
The text, image, and hotspot objects support Mouse Over and Mouse Click sounds in AutoPlay Media Studio 4, these sounds will be converted properly into AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
In general AutoPlay Media Studio 8 object properties that do not exist in the corresponding AutoPlay Media Studio 4 object will be set to their default value. If any other value is used during the conversion process it will be noted in this document.
Text Objects are converted into AutoPlay Media Studio 8 as Paragraph Objects. They are not converted as label objects because the font size of label objects resizes to fit the object’s bounding rectangle.
The following options will be converted from the AutoPlay Media Studio 4 text object to the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 paragraph object:
The message text, horizontal alignment, and color options will all be converted into their respective AutoPlay 8 paragraph options.
The Mouse Over and Mouse Click sounds will be converted into the AutoPlay 8 paragraph Highlight and Click sounds.
All paragraph objects that represent converted text object will have the following settings: a transparent background, no horizontal or vertical scrollbars, and no border.
AutoPlay Media Studio 4 Image Object can be converted into two different objects in AutoPlay Media Studio 8, either the image or button object. This is because the image object in AutoPlay 8 does not support multiple images or a caption, whereas the button does.
The converter makes the following decision when determining what type of AutoPlay 8 object to convert your AutoPlay 4 image to:
If the AutoPlay 4 image object has only the normal image specified and no caption, it will be converted into an AutoPlay 8 image object.
If the AutoPlay 4 image object has the normal image and one or more of the Mouse Over or Mouse Down images specified it will be converted into an AutoPlay 8 button object.
If the AutoPlay 4 image object has a caption specified, it will be converted into an AutoPlay 8 button object.
If the AutoPlay 4 image object is converted into an AutoPlay 8 image object, the following options will be converted:
The normal image file.
The transparent color. Note: Image objects in AutoPlay Media Studio 8 have a transparent color tolerance level. Due to the nature of the transparent color in AutoPlay Media Studio 4 all converted AutoPlay 8 images objects will have this level set to 100.
If the AutoPlay Media Studio 4 image object is converted into an AutoPlay Media Studio 8 button object the following conversion process will occur:
The normal image and whichever of the Mouse Over and Mouse Down images exist will be converted into an AutoPlay button file. The images used to make up the AutoPlay button file will also be added to the new projects resources.
If a transparent color is specified for any of the three AutoPlay 4 image object images, it will be applied to the corresponding state in the AutoPlay button file.
The caption specified in the AutoPlay 4 image object will then be converted over into identical AutoPlay 8 button object text settings.
All properties relevant to the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 hotspot object will be converted.
Note: This does not include the Show mouse over pane and Show mouse down pane.
All AutoPlay Media Studio 4 edit field options will import properly into the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 Input Object.
All AutoPlay Media Studio 4 list box object properties and data will convert properly into an AutoPlay Media Studio 8 listbox object.
AutoPlay Media Studio 4 text box objects will be converted into AutoPlay Media Studio 8 input object. This is done to preserve the settings that were used in AutoPlay 4. Due to the new skinnable Paragraph objects in AutoPlay 8 converting AutoPlay 4 text box objects into Paragraph objects would result in a different look and feel for the new object. Using the AutoPlay 8 input objects guarantees the exact same look and feel that was available in AutoPlay Media Studio 4. Using the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 input object also allows the end user to copy the text during runtime, in the same manner that they were able to using the text box object in AutoPlay Media Studio 4.
If the load file at runtime option is specified the converter will look for the file at conversion time. If the file is found it will be added to the new projects resources, and then file’s contents will be read in and used as the text for the input object. If the file cannot be found the input objects text will be set to the following warning message: “The file could not be found: FILENAME”.
The following options will be converted from the AutoPlay Media Studio 4 text box object to the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 paragraph object:
If the load file at runtime option is specified the converter will look for the file at conversion time. If the file is found it will be added to the new projects resources, and then file’s contents will be read in and used as the text for the input object. If the file cannot be found the input objects text will be set to the following warning message: “The file could not be found: FILENAME”.
If the Specify Now option is selected the text will be converted to the AutoPlay 8 input objects text.
The rest of the Appearance, Options, and Alignment settings from the imported properly. Note: The custom font specified for the AutoPlay 4 text box object will always be used as the font for the AutoPlay 8 input object.
The Read Only option will be set for the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 input object so that it does not allow user input and behaves identically to the AutoPlay Media Studio 4 text box object.
The AutoPlay Media Studio 4 AVI video object will be converted into the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 video object. The following properties will be converted:
The video filename specified will be copied into the new project’s resource folders and then used as the AutoPlay 8 video object’s video file.
The Start automatically, Show border, and Show Playbar Option settings will convert directly into the AutoPlay 8 video object Auto Start, Loop, and Control Panel Style options, respectively.
The AutoPlay Media Studio 4 the AVI video object had the ability to specify what frame of the video to display during the design environment; this option is not available in AutoPlay Media Studio 8.
All properties of the AutoPlay Media Studio 4 Flash object will convert properly into the same options for the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 Flash object.
In AutoPlay Media Studio 8 a move has been made away from the Media Player object to the video object. In accordance with the change the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 video object no longer relies on the Media Player ActiveX control. This has resulted in an increased stability and consistency of appearance for the video objects across different version of Windows, and different versions of the Media Player ActiveX control.
This shift also means that many of the appearance-centered options that were available to the AutoPlay 4 Media Player object are no longer supported in the AutoPlay 8 video object.
The following options will be converted from the AutoPlay 4 Media Player object to the AutoPlay 8 video object:
The Media File Filename/URL will be copied into the new projects resource folders and then used as the AutoPlay 8 video object’s video file. If the file cannot be found at conversion time the originally specified Filename/URL will be used.
The Automatically start playing media option will be converted to the Auto Start option.
If the Customize display colors option is enabled the Foreground and Background will be converted into the Panel and Text color options in the video object. If the Customize option is not enabled the foreground and background colors will be ignored and the default colors will be used in the AutoPlay 8 video object.
The Show Controls option will control whether or not the Control Panel is enabled in the video object.
If the Show Controls option is enabled the Show tracker controls will control the slider option in the video object
The Show status bar option in the Media Player object will control the Time settings in the video object. If the Show status bar option is enabled the Time style will be set to “Both”, if not the Time style will be set to “None”.
All applicable options from AutoPlay Media Studio 4’s web browser object will be converted properly into the AutoPlay Media Studio 8 web object.