Welcome to the Apple Media Tool, the first in the next generation of media-rich authoring tools from Apple Computer. These tools will help redefine the multimedia production process by providing different tools to designers and to programmers.
The Apple Media Tool is the media integration tool for creative teams: allowing you to assemble and add interactivity to media elements without scripting.
The Media Tool, along with the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment, a fully object oriented programming environment, make up the Apple Media Kit.
Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the Apple Media Tool Getting Started Guide and the User's Guide.
Should you have specific support questions, please call our Apple User Assistance Center at 1-800-767-2775 between 6am-6pm PST Monday-Friday.
We welcome your feedback.
Please take a moment to review the following late breaking information:
• The Apple Media Tool requires prefers 6MB of RAM, although some projects will run in 4MB. PLEASE ALLOCATE MORE MEMORY IN THE GET INFO BOX OF THE APPLICATION.
•Quicktime 1.6.1 is required for PowerCD
Changing Color Bit Depth of an Existing Project
The bit depth of a project can not be changed from within that project. If you discover that you wish to change the bit depth, it can be accomplished by creating a new project with the desired bit depth and copying the screens from the old project to the newly created project.
•Hot Region Tools
The "Magic Wand" tools for creating hot regions based on color are limited in the size and complexity of the hot region that they can create. Avoid using the magic wand tool for creating very large or complex hot regions. Large, complex hot regions are best created using the geometric hot region creation tools or, where the functionality of the magic wand tools are desired, by building up the hot region from combinations of smaller less complex regions.
•Low Memory Alert
When attempting an operation that requires more memory than is currently allocated to the Apple Media Tool, the system will alert the user. The recommended action is to save your work, quit the Apple Media Tool and allocate more memory to the application before continuing. If the user repeatedly tries operations of the same type, without allocating more memory, it is possible to crash the application.
•Printing Problems
When printing hard copy documentation very large projects, printed representations of screens may become garbled part of the way through he print job. If this should occur, the project can be successfully printed by breaking it into several smaller print jobs.
WINDOWS PC RUNTIMES
The location of the Apple Media Tool Windows runtime software consisting of QuickTime for Windows 1.1 and the Apple Media Tool runtime files (PROGRAM.EXE, PROGRAM.INI) has been changed from the description given in the documentation. On the Windows disks you will still find QuickTime for Windows 1.1 but not the Apple Media Tool Windows runtime files. The Apple Media Tool Windows runtime files are now generated by the Runtime Maker along with the three project files.
•Creating a Windows PC Runtime
1. Make sure that all your media are in Windows PC formats and named with DOS names.
2. In the Apple Media Tool, check your media and save as text in an empty folder.
3. Quit Apple Media Tool. Launch Runtime Maker.
4. Select the Windows option and click on Make to compile your project.
5. Runtime Maker will generate five DOS files: PROGRAM.EXE, PROGRAM.INI, PROGRAM.KW1, PROGRAM.KW2 and PROGRAM.KW3.
6. Copy the five DOS files and the MEDIA folder to a Windows folder on your Windows PC.
7. Run your project on the Windows PC by launching PROGRAM.EXE.
If you select Macintosh as well as Windows from Runtime Maker, the folder which contains Runtime Maker output; the Macintosh application, the MEDIA folder and the five DOS files, is ready to be put on an ISO CD-ROM. This ISO CD-ROM will run on both a Macintosh and a Windows PC.
•Windows PC media formats
- Movies have to be flat and self-contained. See your QuickTime for Windows documentation for more details.
- Pictures can use a system palette of a maximum of 256 colors. If you have created projects using more than 256 colors that you wish to run on a Windows PC, follow the instructions for converting the projects to a lower color bit depth described above.
- Sounds must be in Apple Media Kit sound format. Convert sound resources and AIFF files with Easy Open's Document Converter and the Media Kit Sound extension. Apple Media Kit sound are Windows WAVE files.
- Text must be in Apple Media Kit text format. Convert TEXT files with Easy Open's Document Converter and the Media Kit Text extension. See the Easy Open documentation or use a Claris tool with the Claris Media Kit Text extension. See the Claris documentation for more details. In the current version of the Apple Media Tool runtime there is no mixed style text on the Windows PC runtime. On Windows, the style of the first character is used for the entire body of the text.
•DOS file names
DOS names cannot have more than eight characters and can contain only the letters A through Z, the numbers 0 through 9 and the following special characters: underscore (_), dollar sign ($), tilde (~), exclamation point (!), number sign (#), percent sign (%), ampersand (&), hyphen (-), braces ({}), parenthesis (), at sign (@), apostrophe ('), and the grave accent (‘).
Extensions can follow the name to help you identify the type of files:
- Movies should have a .MOV extension.
- Pictures should have a .PIC extension.
- Sounds should have a .WAV extension.
- Texts should have a .PAR extension.
The PROGRAM.INI file
Runtime Maker creates a file called PROGRAM.INI. Files with the .INI extension are used on Windows to initialize executables options. The PROGRAM.INI allows you to modify the font mapping between the Macintosh and Windows. On the left is the name of the Macintosh font, on the right the name of the Windows font. Use NotePad on Windows to add, remove or change conversions.
The default PROGRAM.INI contains
[font map]
Chigago=System
Courier=Courier New
Geneva=Arial
Helvetica=Arial
Monaco=FixedSys
New York=Arial
Symbol=Symbol
Times=Times New Roman
TROUBLESHOOTING
• Your Windows Runtime displayed the message: "The display device does not support 640x480 pixels!"
-Select a video device driver that supports at least 640x480 pixels. All MPC video device drivers have this option.
• Your Windows Runtime displayed the message: "The display device does not support 256 colors palette!"
-Select a video device driver that supports 256 colors palette. All MPC video device drivers have this option.
• Your Windows Runtime displayed the message: "The display device does not support transparency!"
-Select a video device driver that supports transparency. Most of the MPC video device drivers have this option. If your video card supports V7VGA.DRV or MMWD480.DRV, select one of them. Windows 3.1 is supplied with a selection of device drivers. If you do not find the appropriate driver here, ask your video card supplier for the most recent video device driver.
• Your Windows Runtime displayed the message: "QuickTime for Windows is not installed!"
-Use the three Windows disks of your Apple Media Tool package to install QuickTime for Windows.
• Your Windows Runtime displayed the message that it cannot find some media file.
-A media file is missing or does not have a valid DOS name. Verify that the media has a valid DOS name.
• Your Windows Runtime displayed the message that some media file is corrupted.
-A media element is not compatible. Verify that the media is compatible.
