Director Article

Over the last year, two things have changed the way I work. The first was switching to Mac OS X. It's fast, stable, and allows me to work more efficiently. The second change I made was upgrading to Macromedia MX tools, particularly Macromedia Flash MX and Fireworks MX. Here I also found speed, stability, and efficiency.

Now I get to complete the transition by moving to Director MX—a significant transition for me because I spend the majority of my time working in Director. I have no problem working in OS X and the new Macromedia MX interface, but the transition may not be so easy for everyone. I'm thinking particularly of developers who have been using Director 8.5 for a while and have not used any Macromedia MX application yet. For these developers, the new interface—particularly the docking panels—will be different than what they're used to.

Understanding panels
Almost every window in Director MX is a panel. In fact, the only major window that is not a panel is the Stage window. The rest—like the Score, Cast, and Property inspector—are all panels. Think of panels as subwindows. A panel window, sometimes called a panel set, can contain one or more panels.

For instance, you can have a panel set that contains both the Property inspector and the Behavior inspector. They are stacked vertically in one window. While two or more panels are stacked in one window, you can hide any of those panels by clicking the panel's title bar. The panel remains in the panel set, but only the title bar is visible. Click on the title bar again to expand the panel:

The best thing about panels is that they are easily customizable. For instance, you can create a panel set that contains the Property inspector, Behavior inspector, and Text inspector. If these are the three main tools you are using at the moment, it can be incredibly useful to group them as one panel set.

To customize a panel set, simply grab the rough area at the left side of the panel's title bar and drag it. Drag it away from the current panel set to create a new panel set window, or drag it to another panel set to make it part of that window.

Another thing to remember about panel sets is that there are two types of panels, and panels can only be grouped with other panels of the same type. The small panels, like the Property inspector, are one type. The other type of panel is characterized by the larger panels: the Score, Cast, Message, Script, and Media Editors windows.

Using the Media Editors and Cast panels
The Media Editors panels replace the editing windows of earlier versions of Director—the Paint window, for instance. Now similar editors, like the Text and Field editors, are grouped into a single large panel. Tabs at the top of this panel allow you to switch between them.

Similarly, Cast panels and Script panels can have tabs. This is especially useful for Cast panels, because you can access your casts just by clicking on a tab at the top of the panel rather than using the Cast window pull-down menu (which is still present in the Cast panel).

Saving panel positions
Two new items added to the Windows menu help you organize your panels. Panel Sets allows you to revert back to the default panel and window positions. You can also use this menu selection to save the current positions of all panels and windows. After you find a position you like, save it. That way, when you need to move things around temporarily for a special task, you can quickly get your favorite settings back.

The other new menu item, Hide Panels (also shortcut key F4), allows you to quickly hide and reveal your panels. This is very useful if you have a lot of panels open and some of them are covering the Stage or Score. Press F4 to hide the panels, perform operations on the sprites, and then press F4 again to get the panels back.

More control or less control with panels?
If you are not used to working with panels, your first impression might lead you to suspect that you have less control over these little windows than in previous versions of Director. In fact, you have more control than ever before. However, along with more control come more options and settings. It will take some getting used to.

By using the small pull-down menu at the right side of a panel's title bar, you can group and regroup panels into your own sets. You can even rename the panels. Dragging and dropping panels onto other panels also groups them. I recommend that you invest some time playing with panels to get to know them better. After a short time, you will be able to use them effectively.

Using the Object inspector
One of the new features of Director MX is the Object inspector. This panel is like the old Watcher window. The primary difference is that you can easily look into objects and property lists. Here's the Object inspector with four variables, two of which are lists:

You can also use the Object inspector to track objects made from parent scripts or track properties from behaviors. This last feature is incredibly valuable because you can see how a behavior's properties change as a movie is running.

Even better than being able to watch variables, lists, and properties is the Object inspector's ability to change those values. Click on any value in the Object inspector and simply type a new value. The change takes place immediately. This will prove to be a very useful debugging tool for Lingo programmers.

Integrating with Mac OS X
Just by running in Mac OS X, Director MX becomes easier to use. File Open and Save dialog boxes use the new columned view that makes it very easy to navigate through the files on your hard drive. You can also use the standard Command–H shortcut to quickly hide Director MX to get to other running applications or the Finder. The Dock then allows you to get back to Director just as quickly.

Director MX Help is also integrated with OS X. It's now part of the OS X Help Center, which is an easy-to-use and fast help document viewer. Together, Director MX and OS X create an efficient and stable working environment—just the sort of environment needed to foster creativity and productivity.