Macromedia Director MX Redefines Multimedia Authoring Flash Integration Speeds Deployment of Interactive Content Eric Grevstad
Mon 11/25/02 -- For more than a decade, industry professionals have been using Macromedia Director to create and deliver interactive multimedia content both via online Web sites and offline CD-ROM (or, more recently, DVD) discs and kiosks.
Now Director MX -- the first upgrade since April 2001 -- integrates the heavyweight authoring program with the Macromedia Flash MX product family and its new interface, adding features ranging from an Object Inspector for visual, no-scripting examination and modification of object properties to drag-and-drop conversion of existing content into international-standards-compatible, accessible content -- with features like captioning and text-to-speech -- for users with disabilities.
Priced at $1,199 with a $399 upgrade for Director 8.0/8.5 users, Director MX supports and is available for Mac OS X 10.1 or higher as well as Windows XP, 2000, and 98SE. The program supports most major video, audio, bitmap, 3D, and vector formats as well as the lightweight vector graphics of Flash MX files, plus the option to create new Flash objects from inside Director.
Director MX can stream files ranging from seconds to hours in length, with support for new QuickTime 6 features including streaming MPEG-4 video. And from users' viewpoint, the upgrade is transparent -- the millions of Web surfers with Macromedia's Shockwave Player won't need to download an upgrade to enjoy rich content created with Director MX.
