Objects

MMB is visual object oriented authoring tool. It means that you visually place a multimedia object (Button, Image, HotSpot, Video etc.. on the screen. You can resize it and if you doubleclick on it you will see its properties. You can find all the objects in the Object menu and most of them are on the left vertical toolbar.

Introduction to Objects 

Written by Rodd.

Objects are the parts that you can insert into your projects pages of Multimedia Builder to really make it perform.
By using Objects your project can:-

• Display information, graphics, special effects, or other
• Gather information, and calculate or make decisions based on the information.
Objects can be added to a page by either selecting the top menu 'Objects' and then selecting the particular object; or by simply clicking on the object icon on the 'Object bar' at the left side of the screen. The objects' properties settings will have a section called 'Actions'.
• Many objects may have a 'Tooltip' option. Any text entered into the 'tooltip' section of the object properties will pop-up as a prompt when the cursor is placed over the object when your program is run.

An 'Active' object is able to perform actions including: running external command and page actions; interact with other objects and video; play sound actions; or run scripts.

Cursors
Any interactive (clickable) object can have different cursor - you can choose from predefined cursors or load your own (also animated).
The cursor dialog in page, text button, bitmap button and hotspot has assigned 5 Custom cursor locations. If you select unassigned custom cursor it will prompt you to load either *cur or *ani file. These cursors will be auto-loaded into Embedded files. So, if you don't want the cursor anymore, you can delete it from there.

Text:
Use 'text' objects to display headlines, body text or any other words that will be displayed on the screen. A text object can be active.

 Edit TextBox:
This object allows you to get data from the user to use in your program. It puts the data into a variable for use within scripting.

 Paragraph Text:
The Paragraph Text object has automatic word-wrapping (scrollable) for long text.
Drag the text rectangle on the screen and the text will fill the rectangle.
If there is more text than can fit inside the visible rectangle, the Scroll Bar will appear.

 Text Button:
This allows you to create standard Window button. It behaves like a standard windows button.

 Bitmap Button:
This allows you to make a button from three images (for the normal view, mouse over view, and clicked view); or
you can choose 'Auto-Button' to make a button with the look of a Windows button using a single bitmap for the normal view.

 Alpha Button: new in MMB4.8.2
Alpha Button is a special type of button object created in another Mediachance program called Real-DRAW Pro.

 Bitmap:
Bitmap object can be active or inactive. Bitmap object can be built from two parts: Image and Transparency Map (Alpha transparency). Primitive objects can be active. A Bitmap object can actually be any of the following graphic file types: BMP; JPG; GIF; PCX; PNG; TIF.

 Animated GIF:
Allows you to insert an animated GIF graphics file into your project. This AniGIF can also be controlled in script by using 'AGifPlay', 'AGifStop', or 'AGifReset'. In the Animated GIF properties window you can also select Transparency, Auto play, Loop, Speed, and 'After last frame' actions (hide AniGIF, or run Script).

 Metafile:
Allows you to insert a Windows metafile graphic into your project. Metafile graphics cannot be active and do not have a properties window!

 VR Panorama:
Allows you to playback the 360 Cylindrical Panorama images.

 ListBox: new in MMB4.9
This object is primarily designed for showing the audio playlists (winamp *.pls, *.m3u and MMB *.m3l formats), however it can be used as an usual list box control with multi-selection.

 Rectangle:
Allows you to draw a rectangle and select the fill colour and border. The rectangle can be active.

 Circle:
Allows you to simply draw a circle and select the fill colour and border. The circle object can be active.

 Line:
Allows you to draw a straight line on the page in your project. Lines cannot be active.

 Polygon:
Allows you to draw a polygon on the page. You can select the fill colour and a border. The polygon object can be active.

 Hotspot:
HotSpot is an invisible area you can define on the screen where your viewer (user) can click or move mouse to make an action happen. The area could be around a word, on parts of an image, etc. Hot spot is invisible to the viewer. However, in the designer you see hot spots as an area with a dashed border. A HotSpot is an active object.

 Polygonal Hotspot: new in MMB4.9.5
It's drawing functionality is virtually identical to Polygon object and only the parts inside the region will become active.

 Video:
Allows you to insert a video in your project using the following formats: AVI, Mpeg, MOV, VideoCD.

 MCI Object:
Another way how to play Video (or Audio as well) is to use MCI interface. This could be done by using MCIcommand from the script. However, because the working with MCIcommand is a bit complicated the easy MCI object was introduced.

 Dynamic FX:
Dynamic FX are animated images like Plasma, Fire, Smoke. Dynamic FX don't take much space, because they are generated on runtime, but they take more CPU.

 Audio Visualization: new in MMB4.9
This object allows you to visualize the playback of MP3, OGG, WAV, XM and S3M formats.

 Script Object:
Script Object is non-active object with only script inside. It is not visible on runtime.
The Script Object can have assigned keyboard shortcut so whenever user press the keyboard shortcut the script will run. This will allow to create applications without mouse, or with hidden keyboard commands (exit, special page etc..).

 Image Matrix:
Image Matrix is an advanced Script object.
Imagine you would like to create a Game board with 5 x 5 stones, On each position of the board you can have one of the 3 images or nothing. This could be a lot of work with putting simple bitmap object and then all the show - hide commands for all objects!
Image Matrix helps you do this and a lot of other projects.
TThe number of Columns and Rows determines the size of the Image Matrix object. You must have at least the image #1 defined. The Columns and Rows are multiplied by the image #1 width and height producing the total Matrix size.
All the 3 images should be the same size.

 HTML Object:
HTML Object is a full Browser object integrated in MMB. It uses the Microsoft's IE core control. - example html_browser.mbd. This dependency on IE is a disadvantage, however, the other advantages of using IE core library outweigh this small disadvantage;)

 Flash: new in MMB4.9
It will allow you not only to load and play the Macromedia Flash movies, but with this object, you can control all the MMB scripting actions directly from the Macromedia Flash Action Script!

Binding Object:
Binding Object is a way how to easily put exe file into MMB - it will become a part of the player: for example flash movie with flash projector player, your installer, notepad with text, another independent MMB project etc.

 PlugIn:
Allows you to insert a PlugIn into your project. A PlugIn is a small program which has its' own capabilities that can be inserted into your project. PlugIns can be made and distributed by independent programmers. Please refer to 'instructional documents' provided by the individual programmers to set that PlugIns property. examples of existing PlugIns are: clock; multiple timers; advanced functions; etc.