Macromedia Inc.
Monday announced Director 7 Shockwave
Internet Studio, the new version of their multimedia authoring tool, as
well as a matching Shockwave 7 player.
The name change is an attempt to link the Director name with the more
well-known Shockwave brand, since not everyone realizes that Director is
the creation tool for Shockwave content.
Director 7 now supports Internet standard protocols such as HTML, with
links to all Director-supported media types (text, graphics, sound, video,
and animation), HTTP for media distribution, HTTPS for secure e-commerce
transactions, XML for data exchange, CGI POST for two-way communication
and updated support for Java. Compressed “Shocked” fonts are downloaded as
part of the presentation, but can be edited even at run time. New
drag-and-drop behaviors in Director 7 include multi-state buttons, progress
bars, rotation, and scale effects.
The full Studio product will includes Macromedia Fireworks, a Web graphic
tool, as well as Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge XP4 or BIAS Peak LE for sound
editing. A multi-user server will also be included for creating distributed
Shockwave experiences such as multi-player games and online chat rooms,
although it will run on Mac and Windows 95/98/NT only, not Unix. It will be
available in December simultaneously on the Mac and Windows platforms. For
more information, see http://www.macromedia.com/software/director.