Using Director > Using Interactive Media Types > Using interactive media types overview |  |

Using interactive media types overview

To add complex media and new capabilities to your movie, you can use Flash movies, other Director movies, PowerPoint presentations, and ActiveX controls. Each of these multimedia formats has interactive capabilities that are preserved by Director.

A Flash movie in a Director movie provides a vector-based, scalable, interactive animation that is optimized for use on the Web.

Director movies within other Director movies simplify complex productions. A linked movie appears within another movie as a single cast member, saving you the trouble of managing extra cast members and Score data. Using discrete movies also helps you manage file size for easier downloading.

A PowerPoint presentation can be a starting point for a Director movie. Director converts the entire presentation into a movie file that works almost exactly like the original presentation. Director converts all the presentation media into cast members, lays them out on the Stage, and generates Score data to control events.

ActiveX controls in Director can manage ActiveX application resources from within a movie. ActiveX controls provide a variety of features, including Web browsing, spreadsheet functions, and database management. ActiveX controls function as normal sprites in a movie. ActiveX controls work only in Director for Windows.