Using Director > Movies in a Window > Movies in a window overview |  |

Movies in a window overview

Director can play several movies simultaneously by creating windows that additional movies can play in. A movie in a window (MIAW) is a distinct Director movie that retains all its interactivity.

You can use a MIAW simply to play another movie in a separate window while the main movie plays on the Stage. In addition, movies in windows and the main movie can communicate and interact with each other. This lets you create a variety of interactive features, such as an interactive portfolio, a control panel for a second movie or digital video, or a status display window.

Here's the typical workflow for using a movie in a window:

| Create and set up the window.
| Assign a movie to the window.
| Open the window and play the movie.
| Delete the window when the reason for playing the movie no longer applies.

When creating a MIAW, first decide how you want it to behave and work. For example, decide how you want to display it, how users should be able to move the window around the screen and dismiss it, and how the window should appear. You can specify the window's size and whether the window is visible, has a frame and title, or is in front of or behind other windows on the screen.

You can create and control MIAWs by writing Lingo scripts.

Shockwave doesn't support MIAWs. Use MIAWs only with movies that you intend to distribute as projectors (see About distribution formats and About projectors). However, you can use Lingo to have a Shockwave movie target a URL in a browser window. See Jumping to a URL.