General Info

The z-order controls how overlapping objects are displayed on a page or dialog. It's called the "z-order" because it deals with how objects are arranged along a page's or dialog's Z axis.

In AutoPlay Media Studio, changing the z-order involves moving individual objects along the Z axis—either "forward" (further from the page/dialog) or "back" (closer to the page/dialog). You can do this easily by selecting an object and using the z-order tools in the menu under Edit > Arrange.

Objects that are further from the page or dialog ("in front") are displayed on top of objects that are closer to the page or dialog. Objects that are closer to the page or dialog ("further back") are displayed behind objects that are further from the page or dialog. Depending on the objects in question, an object in the foreground can completely or partially hide any objects that are "behind" it. (Transparent parts of an image, for example, will let other objects "show through.")

Using the Object Browser

You can also change the z-order by dragging objects up or down in the list on the object browser.

Note: If the object browser isn't visible, you can display it by choosing View > Panes > Object Browser from the menu.

Objects are listed on the object browser according to the z-order. Dragging an object up in this list moves it "higher" in the z-order, i.e. it brings it "closer" to you and further from the page.

"Windowed" Objects

Some objects (the listbox, input, combobox, checkbox, radiobutton, richtext, tree, video, web, flash, pdf, quicktime and xbutton objects) will always appear on top of other kinds of objects, even if they are lower than those other objects in the z-order. The nature of these objects requires them to be drawn onto a separate "window" surface, above the normal, well-behaved objects like images, labels and buttons. For technical reasons, these stubborn lone-wolf objects are commonly referred to as "windowed" objects.

Unfortunately, there isn't anything you can do to force a label object to appear in front of a video object or flash object. Even if the label object is in front of the video object in the z-order, the video object will just keep rendering itself in front of the label object.

To ensure that all of your objects display correctly, you should generally avoid overlapping any of these "windowed" objects on the page or dialog:

Finally, keep in mind that things can happen a bit differently at run time than they do in the design environment. There are times when the z-order might make things look like a big mess at design time, but still show up fine at run time; and there are situations where everything will look fine at design time, but the objects will start fighting it out at run time. Naturally, how things look at run time is more important, so make sure you test things out vigorously. Also don't be afraid to experiment—getting the end result you want may take some trial and error.