Using Director > Cast members and Cast windows > Launching external editors |  |

Launching external editors

You can specify external applications to edit many types of media. All the types of media for which you can define an external editor are listed in the Editors Preferences dialog box. Once you set up an external editor for a particular media type, Director launches the application when you edit a cast member of that type. When you finish editing a cast member in an external editor and then save and close the file, Director re-imports the cast member media.

If you want to use an external editor for a cast member you import, select Include Original Data for External Editing when you import the cast member. (For more information, see Importing cast members.)

It is not possible to define an external editor for any cast member created by an Xtra. These include text, vector shapes, Flash movies, and custom cursors.

To define an external editor:

1 | Choose File > Preferences > Editors.
2 | Choose a type of media for which you want to define an external editor.
3 | Click Edit.
4 | Click Browse or Scan to locate the application.
| You can specify any application capable of editing the selected type of media.
5 | To determine which editor appears when you double-click a cast member, choose Use Internal Editor or Use External Editor.
| If you usually want to make changes inside of Director and only occasionally want to use the external editor, choose Use Internal Editor.
| If you usually want to use the external editor to make changes to the cast member, choose Use External Editor.

To launch an external editor:

1 | Select a cast member of a media type for which you have defined an external editor, then do one of the following:
| If you specified Use External Editor when you defined the external editor for this media type, double-click the cast member.
| Choose Edit > Launch External Editor.
| While the cast member is selected and the Cast window is active, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) and choose Launch External Editor from the context menu.
| Director launches or switches to the application used to create the cast member, sending the original data to the external editor.

Note: If you've specified an external editor and you want to edit a cast member with Director's internal editors, select the cast member and choose Edit > Edit Cast Member.

2 | Edit the cast member.
| Note that if you change an image in the Paint window and then edit the image with an external editor, changes made in the Paint window, with the exception of registration points, are lost. Director warns you if this is a possibility.
3 | Save and close the file. Director re-imports the cast member.