MMB 4.8 History - Fully customizable interface. The new verion of 4.8 MMB designer GUI is changed to the latest trends with full toolbars, menu, and keyboard customization. Now you can customize the designer anyway you like. You can practicaly customize any important aspect of the designer interface, including: - Drag and drop buttons between toolbars and menus - User-defined image editing of buttons (simple bitmap editor is included!) - Ability to create a new, empty toolbar that you can add buttons and menus to - Context menu customization - "Alt+drag" customization - Keyboard shortcut key assignments customization to any command - MMB will remember the new position of any toolbars, menus or page/object list and all your customization, even menu can float or be docked to any side. - User-defined tools - you can add additional application shortcuts to the MMB Tools menu - Smart expanding Menus shows basic and frequently used commands on personalized versions of menus. The menu learns by itself which commands you use the most. - Tear-off menus: Submenus can be teared-off so they can float as a toolbar: - Ability to change look (skin), currently build-in themes: Standard, Windows XP, MAC look and Gradient. - Change other aspects such menu animation, shadow etc.. - Added shortcut to the object actions (menu Object-Action) - you can tear-off this menu and use it as a toolbar or move the buttons anywhere you like. - A new Rulers for a workplace - Guides with snap to Guides feature. To add guide you drag it from the rulers, if you want to delete guide, drag it outside window. You can also Add/Edit the guides by numbers as well (right click on rulers) - Support for updatable MEF file. This will work with Real-DRAW - you are able not only to load the design but also update it later. - Mostly designer enhancements: - Smaller fonts in Object list, more objects are visible in the list - Is it too small or it is OK? - By clicking on the new list button you switch between Full object list and Separated object list. - In separated list the objects are divided and sorted into 5 list groups : Graphics, Text, Buttons/HotSpot, Script and Misc. This will help to better navigate in large project. Members of Grouped objects are displayed with an arrow on front: . The rest works like normal list, you can select multiple objects with Shift also across the list groups. - Script object display a name of the script on the project desktop - ReplaceImage for Hotspots as well - Binding Object - Added option how to close (Un-Bind) the program. Two way: - Terminate Process-default (brute force method which doesn't give the program chance to do anything about it) - Send Close and wait. This is softer method and it gves the application a chance to do closing stuff (for example ask if you want to save changes etc...) Also if application doesn't like the first method, try this one. - Binding object - advanced option, added another Caption string: Caption must NOT have string... Along with Must Have string, this is your chance if the app you binding has many windows and MMB can't decide which one to bind and bind the wrong one. Youcan specify which string the main caption must have and which it must not have. If empty - then it doesn't apply. - HTML Object Disable right-click menu option. The browser control will not display its context menu after selecting this option. - HTML Object: Hide Border Option and Always Hide Vertical Scroll Bar Option. This can create a web page which is seamless with your MMB page design with no border and no vertical scroll bar. (The horizontal scroll bar is created dynamically if the web page you displaying require larger width (if you use tables or frames for example). Note: if you use Hide Vertical Scroll Bar it will always hide the scrollbar. Even if the page is longer than the HTML object height user won't be able to vertical scroll (only with Microsoft Scroll wheel) - Binding Object - Un-Bind on Page Exit option (default). If checked the Binding exe file will be terminated if user goes into other page. That means any time you go to the page with binding object the exe will start again. This is probably great for applications as Flash animations etc... you don't want them to run if you are in other pages. Unchecked - once the binding object is created it is not terminated on page exit but hidden. That means any time you go to the page with binding object, the object will stay the same as you left it last time. - If you apply a Show(...) script command to an EditBox which is already visible it will put a focus in it and select all the text. - If you hide binding object the screen is updated properly. - The HTML link page: now works also with transitions. - SendCommand script command to send Menu Commands to the binding Object. SendCommand("Object","a,b") where a, b are the indices of the Menu item you want to run based on zero. See detailed info in binding.mbd sample. - Clipboard script command to send/ receive a string to/from clipboard. Clipboard("SEND/GET","stringvariable$") - Experimental: Project-General Settings-Style, new style Windows Desktop Component. This will make the player snap to the background - it will stay always on the windows desktop, emulating the behavior of Active Desktop component, however without any need to have Active Desktop enabled or even installed. Unfortunately it can't be combined with Full Screen Background option so if you want to perhaps cover whole desktop you have to make the project non movable and resize the player with script. Example of resizing the player to full background: SysCommand("MoveWindow","0,0") SysCommand("ResizeWindow","ScreenWidth,ScreenHeight") This option is experimental - it may be removed from release if it cause problems. Also during testing from designer, MMBuilder will hide to uncover the background - don't be surprised then. - Please test if the player correspond properly to the internal player. - Keyboard input fix for HTML object. It should also fix all the keyboard problems related to Input Boxes and other windows (such a plugins), input boxes gain and lose focus properly now - You can move between Input boxes with TAB key, the Tab order is the same as layout order - The Variable associated with Input Box will be from now automatically initialized with the default text. You don't need to separate initialize the variable any more. This is more logical and easier. (You can still override the variable in Page Start script) - Smarted LoadText. - Load custom cursors - normal or animated. The cursor dialog in page, text button, bitmap button and hotspot has now 5 Custom cursor location. If you select unassigned custom cursor it will prompt you to load either *cur or *ani file. These cursors will be auto-loaded into Embedded files. So if you don't want the cursor anymore, you can delete it from there. - HTML Object Html Object is a full Browser object in MMB. It uses Microsoft IE control. - example Browser.mbd - Hopefully a final fix for Tooltip controls for Objects - Binding object can be hidden or moved with Move command - Introducing Binding Object Binding Object is a way how to easily put exe file into MMB - it will become a part of the player: for example flash movie with flash projector player, your installer, notepad with text, another indenpendednt mmb project etc... See example binding.mbd included in the beta archive, shows notepad, regedit and plays a flash movie inside page.Tested on Win2000 and Win 98SE Note: Not all exe files can be binded, but many I tested could (for example you can even bind CompactDraw or PhotoBrush....) Some exe files may be unhapy to be binded and may freeze your system - save often. Some exe files can't be binded at all or shws garbage (Winamp).You can't call just the file to open associated exe yet. you need to specify the executable and then the parameter (file). You can hide Menu , status bar or toolbars from the binded applications. Fixes: - If you typed a space in the edit box, it displayed 2 - While in long loop, you couldn't interact with edit box even that Refresh() command was used - In LoadText, you can now explicitly specify if you want to load the string variable as a string or in fact you wan't to open the file which path is in the string variable. Now if you are in doubt, use the command before variable: STRING:variable or FILE:variable Also if the file doesn't exist the LoadText will display it as a string. Example: path$ = '\myfile.txt LoadText("Text","FILE:path$") will load the text from a file specified in the path$ LoadText("Text","STRING:path$") will load the text from the path$ directly - in our case the Text will show the \myfile.txt - You can Minimize now while in full back mode. - When executing web link using Netscape 6, MMB displayed "file not found error" while the page was loaded ok. Displaying of this error was disabled, even that it is legitimate. - Generate Autorun.inf option added into Check & Distribute - so now you can switch off generating the inf file if you don't need it. - Autorun.inf is now finally generated with the filename of the exe instead of default autorun.exe - The Change Resolution now don't allow up-sizing by default, only down-sizing. You can change this with Allow Up-Sizing, but you will be warned that this isn't a good idea. If users have low resolution set on the display, they have it for a good reason so we shouldn't try to up-size it by default - this will solve many problems with older hardware. - Solving some display compatibility issues with Transitions and Dynamic FX. MMB 4.7b (revision) addressing: - Full Screen background not properly covering task bar & shifting window to top. - ReplaceImage, if you don't use extension .bmp then the command assume that image is jpg regardles of the extension - MoveTo and MoveObject can accept object[num] syntax (as in Show or Hide) MMB 4.7 - OBJECTX( Object label) and OBJECTY( Object label) functions added in the script. These functions return the current position (left, top corner) of the object specified by the label. Example x= OBJECTX(Text1) - ISVISIBLE( Object label) function was added This returns -1 if object doesn't exist on the page, 0 if object is hiden 1 if object is visible - OpenFile$ variable was added. This variable will have the path after using OpenFile script command. - VolumeUp can now take a parameter - the volume from 0-100 Example: VolumeUp("50") will set volume to half - ReplaceImage can load BMP beside the JPG - MOUSEX() and MOUSEY() functions added in the script.These functions return the current position of mouse cursor. - Added Default cursor listbox into the Page Properties. The last item there is a dot cursor - great for touch screens. - Plug-In's loading code Plugin's are now loaded before the window and they don't require to be visible. - MoveObject("Object","x,y,w,h") Move (and/or resize) the object (or group) to the x,y position. The w and h parameters are not required and if they are defined the object is resized - However it wont resize any bitmap object or text - it resize only its active boundaries. But it works fine for rectangle, buttons, hotspots...etc.. Yu can make a code: for i=0 to 100 MoveObject("Bitmap","i,20") Refresh() Pause("30") next i and it will move the object form left to right! - MoveTo("Object","x,y,steps,type") This simple command moves object (or group) from current position to the x,y using # of steps. The type can be EASYTO, EASYFROM or none to define the linearity in time. It basically does the same as code above, however you can specify slowing or accelerating with the TYPE. - Refresh() command This command will force to redraw the changes. It also works like a pump, if you use Refresh() in a loop the program reminds active and in fact you can still interact with the active objects (while the loop is continuing). - Pause("ms") command Pause command in the script, takes a number of ms to pause before continuing the script - CBK_Time and CBK_Total can be addressed as an integer variables Example: a=CBK_Total This always returns the number of seconds (equivalent to what would be displayed in these objects. - Ability to insert Contents Copyright into the project executable This allows you to insert your text in the Comments field of executable properties. For example you can put your copyright for the contents you created or comments about used materials. You can put up to 60 characters. That doesn't replace the other MMB player properties, but it resolves some legal issues if your custommer doesn't want to put your copyright on the project pages but you still want to have your copyright or name there. Many other authoring tools didn't allow you to do this. You can access this option in the Check & Distribute dialog box. - Dynamic Changes of Display Resolution You can tell the project before the start to change (or at least to try) the Display Resolution to one of few typical resolutions. You can set this option in the Project-General Settings. You can make a project which will play always on a full screen. Note: Some video cards (very old ones) don't allow to dynamically change the resolution so the project will continue in its standard size. The most common sizes are 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 and should work on most of the cards. The resolution will be returned to the original settings after you exit the project. Checking this option will uncheck "Standard Window" and "Movable" from the default values - because it makes little or no sense, however you can turn them back on if you making a "special" project. - Control over Process Priority This new version allows you to control the priority of the process. You can change the priority in the Project-General Settings. If you select High, the application you create will steal more CPU for itself from other windows application, making the transitions and FX running smoother. This is great for presentation type of applications where you don't expect user to be often switching between applications. The Normal settings is good for most of the application (it is the default setting) and the Low priority setting can be used for special (background) application which shouldn't use much CPU (launch bars etc..) - Masking Video In 4.6 you can use B/W mask for Video Masking. With the Mask, video doesn't have to play in rectangular square anymore and it can have any shape you want. You need to prepare an image mask with size of the video. The video will be played through this mask where the black pixels will be video and white transparent. The mask could have any shape or image (for example black text on white background). You can load the mask in the Video Properties. (Two buttons were added - Load and Clear Mask) You can create a very interesting effects because finally you don't have to be stuck with the boring rectangular video found in many authoring tools... - MCI object was added This makes easier to play video or audio using MCI without doing much scripting. Let's say you want to play ASF so instead of bunch of messy MCICommand script lines you simply draw a MCI object which could play your asf automatically on page start or you can control basic functions (play, stop, close) with new script command MCIObject. - 3 additional script timers were added TimerA, TimerB and TimerC were added to the ScriptTimer command, making that four timers for script. You can use ScriptTimer command as before - then it uses the standard timer or you can use syntax: ScriptTimer("TimerA=Script","500") (You can use TimerB and TimerC the same way) These are independent timers. The same rules apply for them like for the standard timer: After the script is executed the attached timer is killed as well as if you go to another page. - The Secure Layer In the Check and Distribute a Secure layer option was added. This will process the mbd data in such way that no Text or Script would be visible if you look at it in the Hex editor. Also the file can't be loaded back to the designer (no password will help!) so it can only be played. However, note that the loading of file with Secure layer would need more time and memory that without this layer so you should use it only on necessary files. The same option was added to Compress and Export to easy create mbd files which can't be viewed in Hex editors and loaded in designer. MMB 4.5 - Active Objects can have Tool Tips. That is a text you can see on runtime when you move mouse over some object and wait. - Enhanced Object list. It supports multiple selection. - Snap to Grid was added. You can switch it on by clicking on the Snap To Grid button on the toolbar. - Quick Object Roll-Up was added. You can add a Bitmap, Paragraph Text, Bitmap button or MMB Object just by double-clicking on the file in the Quick Object file list. - Dimensions Roll-Up window was added You can change the position of objects by entering a number. - Pages in the project can be easy repositioned and copied with new Page Manager - Animated Gifs reviewed - better support for optimized animated gifs with disposal methods. Enhanced Animated Gif properties dialog box. Run Script after last frame added. Load New file button added. - In Paragraph text properties switching between enhanced and international editor added. Also a new button to load text from the file into the editor. - In the page actions Go To Page was added a list box for pages just to make it easier to use. - In Video Object added Run Script after video Stop/Finish - Added arrays to the string variables in the Script ( a$[1] = b$[a+1] ) - The Text Buttons and Bitmap Buttons now change back to default image if you click on a button and drag cursor off the window before lifting it - Looping of MP3 Playlist. Whenever the last item of the playlist have instead of mp3 file word LOOP then the playlist will loop. - Fixed the Video & EditBox problem - after video stopped the edit boxes were no longer receiving input. - Video & the Go to Next Page on FW & BW problem fixed - Bonus: Color Tweak effects 30 new bitmap color, art and special effects. MMB 4.4 - Text Button can have customized font - Ability to change the default cursor on most active objects - ten predifined cursors - Full Script editor enhancements - color highlighting keywords, wizard, remembering the size and position - Paragraph text editor enhancements - MP3 can be also a command line parameter in player - Ability to Resize Page, Move Page, Stay On Top from script - Ability to copy file and to create a full path directory. - Ability to Show or Hide Objects on any page from any page (Master pages included) from script - Ability to run designer directly from CD without installing it on hard drive. - other fixes MMB 4.3 - String Support in Script - Input Text EditBox - Clone Bitmap Object Enhancement - Video Object Enhancement (action after movie finish) - Ability to change icons for compiled application MMB 4.2 - MP3 enhancements, ID3 Tags - MP3 List Enhancements - Replace Text, global function MMB 4.1 - MMB Plug-In support - Templates - Load text from external file MMB 4.0 - New Transitions, Page Curl, Fire - 14 cool new Bitmap Effects (menu Effects), Water, Impresionists, Warp, Bump.... - Matrix Object - VR Panorama Object - Dynamic FX MMB 3.3 - Page Transitions - Embedded MIDI and MOD - Embedded external files MMB 3.2 - Text-To-Speech support - MP3 List Support - Printing - Temporary install TTF fonts - E-cards MMB Version 3.1 New: -Print Text Function -Page Import/Export -Bitmap Button has new option 'Auto-Button' This allows you to create bitmap button only from one Image. The button will have look and feel like Text Button but with a bitmap. -Video Object has the option to load MPEG, VideoDisc or MOV - using MCI - this saves some writing in script for MCI. -OctaMed sound support (*.med). Thsi is the first from upomming mod formats. -OpenFile command and internal added. This allows you to pop-up Open File dialog For Example: OpenFile("MPEG files |*.mpg||","*.mpg") Then you can use the (the same way like you were using ). So for example for MCI you can use: MCICommand("play ") -VolumeUp and VolumeDown commands were added -Custom Shape window: The B/W Mask option was added allowing you to create any shape even with holes -The candy See Through was added. This will turn the background of project transparent and then you can cast shadow on desktop or make fully semitransparent window. However it has some limitation. -Cover Windows taks bar in Full Screen background option. Fix: -The final fix for the 32 bit 1 pixel shift on 32 bit adapters -Nasty bug crashing applications containing few mbd project -,, for second parameter in Run command or Run program action. -Random Generator each time you start app will have different seed. -In ScriptTimer and ExitTimer you can use variable instead of time -Return Key close the project -Esc or Return stops the video 01/Oct/98 MMB Version 3.0 - Animated gif support - embedded wave - midi - smaller players - Script Object - new script functions - MCI command - allows you to play MPEG, Video Disc, DVD... - Full Screen Background - Stretched image on background - Kiosk mode - disable Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Alt-Del... - Keyboard shortcuts in MMB - for - next loop - script timer function - many other improvements 15/Sept/98 MMB version 2.02 - Copy-paste of nested groups bug fixed - Check for lost objects added in Page menu - related to the Copy-paste bug 14/Sept/98 MMB version 2.01 - RunMBD command fixed - Name Arrays (Example: Image[a] will be translated into Image1 if a=1 - this can save an if - end commands) 01/Sep/98 MMB MP3 version 2.0 - Full MP3 Support - Script language - Global Variables - New cool effects - Always on the top option - In Place testing - Better Object list 05/AUG/98 MMB 1.3 New Object - Paragraph Text Paragraph text with word wrap and scroll bar. Master page and Master Top Layer This is very important feature if you have project with many pages. You don’t want to copy all the common objects to all pages, do you? Instead of this you can put the common objects to the Master Page or Master Top Layer. What is the difference? Master Page - will appear as a bottom layer on each page. The objects on the page will appear all the time on the top of the objects from Master Page. This is great to put your artwork here. Sure you can put also interactive objects here, but you must be sure other objects on pages will not cover them. Master Top Layer - will appear as a top layer on each page. The objects on the page will be behind the Master Top Layer objects. This is great for active objects like menus, buttons, windows, etc... CD Audio or Mixed-Mode CD support. This is for those who wish to write their own CD-ROM and have access to a recordable CD drive. In ver 1.3 each page can play different audio track from the CD. Great for the Mixed-mode custom CD - on track 1 you have your programs, mmb player and data and on other track you can put audio songs. Objects can play Tracks from CD Audio In the Sounds Actions you can write into the On Click box commands for CD Audio: CD:2 - will play second track CD:STOP - Stop Playing CD:PLAY - Play CD:PAUSE - Pause CD:FW - play next song CD:BW - play prev. song CD:PLP - Play/Pause You can easy create simple CD player now. (see CDAudio.mbd sample) Selection preview. If you are interested how the objects you selected look like - the Selection view is for you. To open/close selection view click on long button on the bottom part of Object List. In the preview you can see hidden objects, groups and much more. If you have heavy graphics and you think it is slowing down the designer - switch the preview off! (It goes into the groups etc... so it may slow down the designer a bit.) Stand Alone compiler is now part of the designer. In the Exteral Comands and page actions - The "Minimize" item was added.