Afterburner A utility that is freely available at Macromedia's Web site that compresses a Director movie for use over the Internet.
animation Any process where multiple images are presented rapidly, giving the illusion of motion.
Applet A program created using Java that can be inserted into HTML documents via the <APPLET></APPLET> tags.
Authorware A multimedia authoring tool made by Macromedia that excels in delivering highly interactive applications, which can include video, audio, animation, and even Director Movies. Authorware-made applications can be used for Intranets.
Backstage Designer An HTML editor that features WYSIWYG Web page creation. Made by Macromedia, it offers a very easy way to add Shockwave movies to any Web page.
bitmap image A graphic format that records color information about each individual pixel of an image.
Browser A program that functions as an "interface" for viewing HTML documents. Typically, browsers (e.g., Netscape, Mosaic, and so on) are used for retrieving data off the Internet, hence the phrase "browsing the net."
cast member In Director, an element to be used in the movie. Cast members can be bit-map images, vector graphics, sounds, scripts, and so on.
clickable image maps An image within an HTML document that has multiple "hot spots" defined within the image, so that when a user clicks in a predefined area, the associated document is loaded. There are two kinds of image maps: client-side image maps and server-side image maps.
client-side image map A clickable image map that differs from traditional image mapping in that when a user clicks an image, the browser does all the processing required to interpret the action and return the desired result. Browsers that support this type of image map are Netscape 2.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0, Enhanced Mosaic, and later versions.
DCR The file format that results when a Director movie (DIR or DXR) is compressed through Afterburner.
DIR The native Director file format.
Director A multimedia-authoring tool from Macromedia. Director is the tool used to assemble Shockwave movies.
DXR A protected Director movie that cannot be edited-typically used as the final stage of a Director movie before distribution.
embed The embed HTML tags <EMBED></EMBED allow for a wide variety of objects to be placed or "embedded" within HTML documents. Shockwave movies are placed in Web pages using the embed tags.
frames A way to divide the window in a browser into any number of subwindows. Each subwindow may contain a unique HTML document and each document may have links "targeting" different subwindows for displaying relative information.
Freehand A vector-graphics-based design program from Macromedia.
FTP File Transfer Protocol. This is the protocol used to transport files over the Internet from one computer to another.
GIF The most widely used graphics format on the Internet. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and provides lossless compression for images with 256 colors or less.
handler In Director, a complete group of Lingo statements set to perform when the handler is called. Handlers are stored in scripts.
home page The first or top level document in a Web site.
HoTMetaL Pro A professional HTML editor that supports HTML 2.0 and all the Netscape Extensions. The current version, Version 3.0, supports embedded objects, Active X Objects, JAVA applets, and scripts.
HTML Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the language used to build Web pages. Browsers rely on HTML to tell them how to display information.
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is used to transfer HTML documents from a Web server to a user's Browser.
Internet Local area networks (LANs) that are all connected by a common communications protocol.
Intranet An Intranet is an internal network of computers based on the standards of the Internet. Intranets are not accessible through the Internet, as they are meant to provide information only to the employees of some organizations and typically have a much higher bandwidth than what the vast majority of users experience with 28.8 or 14.4 dial-up connections.
Java Java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that is similar to C++. It is platform independent, which makes it perfect for use over the Internet. Java programs, called "Applets," can be placed in HTML documents to perform a wide variety of functions.
JPEG Like the GIF file format, JPEG is another image format in wide use across the Internet in Web pages. The JPEG format differs from the GIF format in that you can generally achieve higher compression ratios than what can be achieved with GIFs, but with a loss in quality. JPEG also supports 24- bit color images.
Lingo The programming language of Director. The commands are very similar to the English language, allowing Lingo to be relatively easy to learn.
list The Lingo equivalent of an array. Lists are variables with multiple slots to store information. They may be linear lists (single items) or property lists (labels with a value).
Macromedia The guys who made this book possible. More information can be found about this fine company at http://www.macromedia.com.
markup Another term for referring to HTML tags, which define the layout of HTML documents.
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. The format used to transfer files, the MIME Type of a file tells browsers and servers how to process files. This is important because without setting the MIME Type for Director movies, a server will not know what to serve up the file when it is called.
movie The term Macromedia has chosen for a Director file. The analogy runs throughout the software-cast members, score, stage, and so on.
palette A collection of available colors used by an image. An 8-bit palette, for example, is a group of 256 different colors, each in a particular position.
PhotoShop A professional image-editing program that is the program of choice among artists and designers. It is made by Adobe.
playback head In Director, the position holder in a movie. Without any modification, the playback head will move from the beginning of the score to the end, executing any commands it encounters. The playback head can be controlled through Lingo to move to various locations in the movie. The playback rate (in frames per second) controls the speed of the playback head.
puppet In Director, any element (sprite, tempo, palette, and so on) that is controlled by Lingo commands where usually it is controlled through the score.
resolution The value of detail in a bit-map graphic image. Measured in dots per inch, onscreen graphics are usually 72 dpi, while printed graphics are often 300 dpi or higher.
rollover The term used to describe an event that occurs when the mouse moves over a certain area of the screen; for example, highlighting a button to alert the user that he or she may click there.
score In Director, the tool that organizes and controls all of the elements in the movie. The playback head travels from point to point in the score and executes the commands recorded there. Sprites, scripts, palettes, and other elements can be positioned in the score to perform a certain way.
script In Director, a group of Lingo statements organized to execute certain commands. There are different types of scripts: frame, sprite, cast member, and movie scripts. The Lingo statements must be organized into handlers within the scripts.
server-side image map The most widespread type of clickable image mapping. This type of mapping requires the server that the Web page resides on to do all the processing. The sequence of events that returns the desired result is more involved in this type than in client-side image mapping, and therefore not as fast.
Shockwave for Authorware The technology that allows the embedding of Macromedia Authorware files into HTML documents for multimedia presentations over Intranets.
Shockwave for Director The technology that allows the embedding of Macromedia Director movies into HTML documents for multimedia display over the Internet.
Shockwave for Freehand The technology that allows the embedding of Macromedia Freehand files into HTML documents for scalable vector images over the Internet.
sprite In Director, a cast member that is placed on the stage using one of the 48 possible channels in the score.
stage In Director, the visible area of the movie where all of the action takes place. Cast members that are placed on the stage become sprites and are controlled by the score.
streaming The process where a large file is broken into small pieces that are loaded only as they are needed. Shockwave for Authorware and Shockwave for Audio both use the streaming process.
URL Uniform Resource Locator. A URL contains the address where a file resides and usually also contains the scheme that describes how the file is to be retrieved. The scheme used for much of the Internet is HTTP.
variable An item that may change depending on certain events. In a programming language, variables are used to store information that can potentially be modified.
vector image A graphic format that records geometric information to define the properties of an image. Angles, curves, lines, boxes, fills, and other properties are included in the vector format.
Web Server Any one of the wide variety of computers that is configured to deliver data over the Internet.
WYSIWYG An acronym that stands for What You See Is What You Get. It's commonly used to describe an application's interface. It refers to the ability to see onscreen any graphics, text, or other elements as they appear in the final creation.