-
-
Q1. How do I burn a Macintosh compatible CD with autorun for my projector?
A. You need a copy of Toast for Mac, this CD burning software will let you do this.
First, create a disk image/partition for your CD, choose "create temporary partition" from the Utilities menu.
Copy your files onto the temporary partition.
Next, go back into toast and choose "Mac volume" from the Other menu. Click the select button, then click your temporary partition in the list. Finally, click the Autostart checkbox, choose your projector (on your temporary partition).
[These instructions are for Toast 5, but the same applies to Toast 4, just some menus/menu items are in different places]
[SJT]
-
Q2. How do I burn a PC compatible CD with autorun?
A. For PCs you need to create a file called "Autorun.inf".
First of all though, you should download BBEdit lite from http://www.barebonessoftware.com/ to create the file, SimpleText won't work.
In BBEdit create a new file, it should look like this:
[autorun]
start=projector.exe
Where projector.exe is the name of your PC projector.
Next, across the top of your window you will see an icon that looks like a small file, click this icon and choose DOS from the list.
Finally save your file as Autorun.inf.
Next, in Toast choose ISO 9660 as the format (assuming this is a PC only disc). Add the files you want burnt onto the CD including the autorun file. It should be in the top level of the CD, not in a folder.
An additional option is the icon attribute, e.g.
[autorun]
start=projector.exe
icon=someicon.ico
This file is the icon used for the CD, icon files must be in Windows icon format. You can't just use a GIF or JPEG. Iconographer http://www.mscape.com/ can produce Windows icon files on a Mac.
Though the Autorun.inf file must be located at the root level of the CD the data doesn't necessarily have to be. You could create a data folder and use the following as well.
[autorun]
start=data/projector.exe
icon=data/someicon.ico
[SJT, ndl]
-
Q3. How do I burn an Autorun Hybrid CD (cross-platform compatible)?
A. The above two answers apply to this question.
However, you will have to choose "Custom Hybrid" from the Other Menu, and then for each side of the disc use the same methods as described above.
As a side-note, if you create a temporary partition, copy all your files that both Macs and PCs will use onto this. Then, when choosing you PC data in Toast, choose the files on the partition that you already selected for the mac.
Toast will then write these files only once, but they will be visible on both platforms, saving space on the CD (and time burning). Files that are only for PC, should not be copied onto the partition when you select them, they will then only show up on the PC side, and not the Mac.
[SJT]
-
Q4. I'm a PC User, how can I burn a Macintosh CD that autoruns?
A. Use CDEveryWhere, a Java application that creates cross platform disc images.
You can get CDEveryWhere here: http://www.cdeverywhere.com
Open CDEveryWhere, click the Macintosh tab.
Choose your Macintosh projector (.hqx encoded) and drag it to the Macintosh tab from the Local Files tab.
Right-click and choose 'BinHex' from the menu, then choose 'Decode'.
You should now see your projector file, without the hqx suffix, listed in the Macintosh tab.
The Type field should say APPL (this is the resource fork code for Application), the Creator field will be different depending on which version of Flash you are using.
Next click the Platform tab at the top of the window, move down to the AutoStart for Macintosh section, check the Enable box and choose your projector from the browse dialog box.
Note 1: CDEveryWhere does not burn CDs, it only creates disc images which you then burn to disc using CD writing software, such as Easy CD Creator from http://www.roxio.com/
Note 2: I have NOT burnt any CDs created with this program, i merely downloaded it to write this tutorial. Use it at your own risk!
[SJT]
-
Q5. How do i burn an standard Audio CD which also autoruns on Macs and PCs?
This tutorial's purpose is to create a CD that can play standard audio on any CD player as well as a cross platform autostarting Flash Projector.
[This assumes you are using a Mac, Flash 5, and Toast 5]
Open Toast. We'll start with the audio because it has to be first anyway - pay attention to that - IT HAS TO BE FIRST! This will not work otherwise, as your standard CD player can only read the first session of the CD.
The Audio Session:
This is how it's done, your going to burn the CD in two sessions. A "Write Session" for the audio and a "Disk Session" for your data (and to close the CD).
Back to the audio. Drag your audio files to the audio window, if you don't have them ripped yet - drag the CD to the window and extract the audio to a new folder. Delete the CD files in the window and replace them with your .aiff files. Set the offsets, 2 seconds on the first track is mandatory - otherwise it makes no matter. Name the disk by clicking on it.
Record the audio, make sure to check "Write Session". Eject when done and reinsert the CD.
The Data Session:
In Toast, hold down on "Other" and choose "Custom Hybrid". Under "Utilities" create a temporary partition. Place your all your files in the partition. You should have something like this:
PC.exe
Mac Projector
Autostart.inf (see the FAQ on Windows autostart)
Support folder
Line up the icons with the Mac icon on top and the support files along the bottom. This matters because this is how it will look on a Mac.
In Toast, click on the "select Mac" button and choose your temporary partition, leave "Optimize on the Fly" checked and check the "autostart" button and find your Mac projector in the temp partition. Click "OK".
Click the "ISO" button and drag everything but the Mac projector to the "Files" window. Double click on and make invisible, everything except for the PC.exe file. Under the "Settings" tab, select CD-XA for the format (you may need to choose CD-ROM for a duplication house, but I got both types to work). Choose "Joliet" for the "Naming" button and uncheck the "Use Apple Extensions" box. You'll exclude Windows 3.1 users by doing this, oh my! Click "Done".
Make sure the trash is empty and click on "Record", choose "Write Disk".
Your done. I saved the disk images to a my main folder (much easier to reuse for duplication and changes). You'll be prompted to save the image when you get done, do it. Close Toast and save the working files on your way out for future use.
[Wheels, edited by SJT]
-
Q6. My PC code won't work on a Mac
A. The simple answer is yes it will
Usually the problem is the version of the player/plugin you are using.
It is Very Unlikely that you have written something that Flash can only do on a PC, all the documented functions of Flash work on a Mac. The purpose of Flash was to be cross-platform...
Unless, you are attempting to do something on a Mac that they cannot do, namely:
• Run/open an EXE file, this is a PC application. It cannot run on a Mac.
• Write variables to a file on the Hard Disk. Flash for mac does not have this capability. Until someone writes a 3rd party application that can handle data passed to it from flash, you cannot do this.
[SJT]
-
Q7. How do I open a document with an FS Command?
A. There are two options here, use Macintosh path syntax or Applescript
You can only open applications from the standalone Flash Player, being able to do this throught the plugin would be an immense security breach...
Option 1)
Use FSCommand to open documents, but use Macintosh path syntax.
So if you wanted to open a file in a "data" folder:
FSCommand("exec","data:myfile.pdf");
OS X users should use the standard slash (/) notation, as this is the normal syntax, (the same as a URL) which will work fine.
[ci-berpages, edited by SJT]
Option 2)
You can also create a custom applescript and compile it as an application which flash can then launch.
Copy the following code into Script Editor, found in the Applescript folder in your Apple Extras folder.
Code:
--set the name of the file to open
property fileName : "thedocument.pdf"
--get the path to the containing folder
set myPath to (path to me as string)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
set the parentFolder to ¬
((text items 1 thru -2 of myPath) & "") as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
-- find the flash file
try
set targetFile to alias (the parentFolder & fileName)
on error
--ie if there's no file here by this name, it will quit.
return quit
end try
tell application "Finder"
open file targetFile
end tell
In the second line of the code there is a variable declared called fileName, you need to change the value between the double quotes to the name of your document.
Then choose Save As in Script Editor.
Change the dropdown menu to read "Application" and set the checkboxes so that "Never show splash screen" is checked and "Stay open" is unchecked.
Save your script as a useful name, then put it in the folder with the document you want to open.
Finally, in your flash file enter the FSCommand and use the name of your script as the name of the application.
e.g. fscommand("exec",myscript);
[SJT, Applescript derived from help at http://www.apple.com/]
-
Q8. What is a HQX file?
A. HQX is a form of file encoding, NOT a Mac executable (exe).
Mac files come with two "forks" one holds the data, the other the resources for the file (it's icon, type, creator etc).
hqx is used to store the resources and the data forks of mac files in one file as other filesystems (dos, unix) don't support two forks for a file, so the resource fork gets deleted. .
This can result in file corruption, for example, applications are no longer recognised as applications by macintoshes as they have no resource fork with the information that they are an application.
The PC equivalent is having the suffix (.exe for example) deleted. You then have no way of telling what the file is.
So, a file can be hqx encoded, sent via PCs or Unix machines to another Mac, unencoded and used without any problems as the resource fork with the information about the file has been retained.
[SJT]
-
Q9. I have the right version Flash Player/Plugin, why doesn't my movie work?
A. You need to increase the memory allocated to the application.
This is only relevant to OS 9 and previous users, OS X dynamically allocates memory.
Select the application that is running the flash movie (e.g. Flash Player, Internet Explorer etc.) in the Finder.
Go to the File menu and choose "Get Info".
An information window for the selected application appears, choose memory from the dropdown menu.
Increase the "Preferred Size" box by 1000.
e.g. 800KB --> 1800KB
Depending on the size of your movie, it may need more, but keep the order of magnitude you increase by in the thousands initially.
[SJT]
-
Q10. How can I make my windows open the correct size on a Mac?
A. Use a piece of JavaScript to adjust the window size for different platfoms.
--Adjust the sizes and window attributes to your taste--
Put this in the Head of your html document:
function platformCheck(){
if (navigator.platform == "Win32"){
window.open('mypage.htm','pagename','toolbar=yes,s crollbars=no,status=yes,width=800,height=600')
} else {
window.open('mypage.htm','pagename','toolbar=yes,s crollbars=no,status=yes,width=785,height=587')
}
}
You can then call the function from somewhere in your html; for example an image that says "Go to Flash site" would have the code placed in it's tag:
< img src="image.jpg" onclick="platformCheck();" alt="Go to Flash site" >< / img >
Or you could resize a window as it loads, using this function in the head of the document:
function resizeMe() {
if (navigator.platform == "Win32"){
self.resizeTo(800,600)
} else {
self.resizeTo(785,587)
}
}
And then in the Body tag of the page:
< Body onload="resizeMe();" >
[Javascript 1.2 or higher is required for this (that's version 4+ browsers, it should work but JavaScript is a really non-cross-browser thing...) so don't rely on it too much, the weird spacing of the tags is to stop them being parsed by the board] - SJT
[SJT]
-
Q11. How can i make my Flash projector load faster and run smoother from a CD?
Make a blank movie with the same background color and dimensions as your main movie. There's just one frame and it has this action:
loadMovieNum("support/main.swf", 0);
stop();
// Main.swf being the real movie.
Publish this as a projector, and then have your main movie in a subdirectory ("support" in this case") to load in.
You do this to get the movie to load faster, as the movie will stream off the CD rather than load all at once.
Make sure your getURL actions have a target like _blank. This will help from locking up the player or your viewers computer, and it's a smooth thing to do regardless.
[Wheels]
-
Q12. How can I make PC files open in the proper file format on a Mac?
[To open a specific file]
The quickest thing to do is launch Flash > Go to the File menu > Open and in the "List Files of Type:" dropdown menu select "All Files", then you should be able to select your fla file.
If this doesn't work, then you may need to resort to ResEdit.
But to fix this permanently so that it doesn't show the quicktime file everytime you download from fk or any other site follow the next steps.
[To change they system settings to fix the overall problem]
Mac OS 9 and previous
This means when you open a zipped file, no more Quicktime icons for the swf's and no more text icons for the .fla's. I can't stand that.
Go to the Apple Icon (top left) > Control Panel > then either "File Exchange" or "PC Exchange" depending on your Operating System version.
A dialog box should open up. From left to right you should see columns named PC extension, Application, File type, respectively. Click on PC extension column and scroll down till you see the extension "fla". Select it then, hit "Change...".
A new dialog box should then open up. Select for file type SPA, then select Change to change the file type.
Wait... we're not done yet. Now we have to find the extension swf. When you find it, select Change... then select for the file type SWFL.
That's it you're done. I did this for my mac and now when I open any zipped file containing flash files my file manager recognizes the extensions.
There might be a possibility that you won't find fla and swf extensions. That's fine. You can always add them. I'll briefly explain how this is done.
Select the Add button in the File Exchange dialog box. Then a dialog box should open, at the top type in the extensions that are missing. Either fla or swf, whatever. Then scroll down and find the application that corresponds to the extension, then Select. That's it, you're done.
Mac OS X
Select a Fla file, choose "Get Info" from the file menu (apple-i).
Choose "Open with..." from the options.
If Flash is in the list, choose that, otherwise choose the "Other..." option
and then select the Flash in the dialog that appears.
Click the "Change all" button to make the Flash the default application.
Repeat this process, but with a swf file to make that open in the Flash Player instead of Quicktime.
[8minus8, edited/Mac OS X version by SJT]
-
Q13. How do I stop Flash material from disappearing in Internet Explorer 5 on a Mac?
This is a bug in Internet Explorer 5, the only known way to fix the problem is to remove all align and valign attributes from the table your Flash content is embedded in.
