MM Builder Projects Guide

Introduction

This guide is for creating an autorun CD with a variety of options available to the user by simply clicking on buttons or thumbnail images.  The main reason I started this is to put together an Interactive Resume CD, where the prospective Employer will receive both my paper resume along with the CD.  It is up to him whether he wants to take the time to play the CD, and of course – many will not.  However, I believe that those interested in me as a serious candidate, will view the CD, and will see me as a “cutting edge kind of guy”.

Therefore, I will use the Resume CD as the theme here, with examples of that.  However, this guide can be applied to any multimedia autorun CD that you may want to create !!!

The contents of the CD will include an initial autostart Video, where I introduce myself, and tell tell the employer what items are on the CD for their perusal.  Then when the intro video ends, there will be buttons in view that when clicked – will run items such as Videos, Images, Macromedia Flash, Audio (wav, mp3), Powerpoint, Word, and Excel documents.  Here is the initial screen shot that appears after the intro video plays:

Links:

            www.bokzy.com   - cool MMbuild plugins

<SrcDir> and the testing “Path’s” Problem

By default, the variable <SrcDir> is given the path to your MMbuild application folder.  However, each project has it’s own unique folder.  I place my project folders under the MMbuild app folder.  This works fine as you work with the project, since all the files are given absolute paths.

But when you are ready to finalize the project and burn it to a CD – you need to change the paths to absolute.  You will then use “Project/Paths Replace” and set your paths so that <SrcDir> is assumed to be the root of your CD.  BUT now you can no longer test the project within the MMbuild app, since SrcDir points to the app folder – not your project folder.

To ignore the value of SrcDir by running a player directly from your project folder, for testing the final version of your project:

1)  go to;          “Tools/Testing from Designer/Run External Player in the location . . .”

2)  select the project folder

3)  hit F5 to test

*** this setting is saved even when you close MMbuild – so be sure to change it back to:

            “Tools/Testing from Designer/Use Internal Player”

The two Projects workaround

Using the external player is a clean solution, but it does require that you change all paths back to absolute if you want to make a lot of changes and work a lot with the project again.  Therefore create two MDB projects -  one for the building of the project and another for the final compilation.  Therefore I created resume.mdb, and when I was ready to finalize and fix all the paths for my compilation, I saved it as resume-final.mdb, and then changed the paths.

*** this would all be fixed if MMbuild let you change the value of <SrcDir> to the root of your project folder – not the MMbuild program folder.

Before you start a project you need a folder to store the files – create a folder under the MMbuild program folder, and so I can distinguish it, I prefix “Ken” to the folder name.  For this example, “Ken-Resume”.  Under that folder I create 3 subfolders “Videos, Images, and Documents”.  As I create my project I always copy the video, image, and document files to my project folders before adding them into my MMbuild project.

In the paths, MMbuild uses <SrcDir> as the first part of all relative paths.  For creating and testing the project, <SrcDir> is the MMbuild folder. BUT, my source dir is the “Ken-Resume” folder under the MMbuild folder. 

For the final compiled, <SrcDir> is the root of the CD when the project is compiled.  Here is the problem . . .

For example, I placed my resume.doc file in:

c:\MMbuild\Ken-Resume\Documents\resume.doc

Since <SrcDir> = c:\MMbuild, then the relative path is:

 <SrcDir>\ Ken-Resume\Documents\resume.doc

This works fine for testing the project, but when you compile it and burn the project to a CD, there will not be a folder called “Ken-Resume” on the CD – only the 3 subfolders.  So the final path needs to be:

<SrcDir>\Documents\resume.doc

So you will have to change all the paths, getting rid of “Ken-Resume” from each path.  Then you are finished with the project.  Click Project/Check & Distribute, and select the location and the exe file (always use “autorun.exe” – I prefer to simply use the same folder as my project folder so that I do not have to copy all the files to another location.

Then burn the CD – Done !!!

Scripting

To add a comment insert an asterisk ( * ) as the first character of a line.  This is very useful when testing several version of one line in a script – you may be trying 4 versions of a line of script to open a Word Document.  Comment out all but one line, test, then comment out all but another line, test, etc.

Stopping a Video from “re-playing” when you return to Page1 - To make a video or anything else run on Page1 once and then “not” run once you have gone to another Page and returned to Page1, do the following (assume a video automatically runs once when the CD is inserted but you do not want it to run again when you go to another Page and then return to Page1):

NOTE:  oddly, all variables initially = 0, even if you have not declared them (not created them with a variable= statement). 
 
Page1
if (v=0) then
 VideoPlay("Video")
end
Page2
v=1

Or a workaround where you allow the Video to play but Hide and Stop it:
Page1

VideoPlay("Video")
if (v1=1) then
 Hide("Video")
 VideoStop("Video")
end
Page2

V1=1

How to Run Video, Images, Word Documents, and Powerpoint Presentations

Version 4.9 of MMbuild allows parameters to be sent to an application via RUN command that includes botht the application exe, and the file that will be opened by the application as follows:

Run("application.exe","<SrcDir>subfolder\filename")

OR run the file directly and the association of the computer will launch the application:

Run("filename","")

For example:

Run("mspaint.exe","<SrcDir>\images\yourpic.bmp")

                        OR

Run("<SrcDir>\images\yourpic.bmp","")

     - will open whatever app the end user has associated with bmp files

NOTE: not all programs needs to have the parameters enclosed in a quotes.

Video

- see the MMbuild Video Guide

Word Documents

1)      drag a test text or bitmap button into the project

2)      double-click the button

3)      click the “Script Properties) bottom 4^th icon

4)      click the “Mouse Down” tab

enter the script:  Run("<SrcDir>\ . . . \ . . . \yourfile.doc","”

Powerpoint Show (pps files)

NOTE:  it is a great idea to include narrations.  Typically I create a ppt file, and then finally, save it as a pps file.  However you lose your narrations when you do this – so first save it as a pps files, and then add your narrations, and make sure to save the Transitions at the end of recording your narrations (Powerpoint will automatically ask you if you want to save the transition timings).

To Re-record a voice narration

No matter what you do – after recording all your narrations, there will be some that you flub.  Review the entire PPS presentation and jot down which slides you want to re-record.

To record narration, you need a sound card, microphone, and speakers.

1. On the Outline tab or Slides tab in normal view, select the slide icon or thumbnail that you want to start re-recording on. 
2. On the Slide Show menu, click Record Narration.
3. Do one of the following:
• If you've already tested your microphone, click OK. 
• To test your microphone, click Set Microphone Level, follow the directions, click OK, and then click OK again.
4. If in step 1 you selected the first slide to begin the recording on, go to step 5. If you selected a different slide to begin the recording on, the Record Narration dialog box appears. Do one of the following:
• To start the narration on the first slide in the presentation, click First Slide.
• To start the narration on the currently selected slide, click Current Slide. 
5. When the slide appears in slide show view, record the narration for the slide, and then do one of the following:
• To stop re-recording, press ESC.
• To continue re-recording, click the mouse to advance to the next slide, speak the narration on the slide, and click to the next slide to continue re-recording. To end the re-recording before you go through all the slides, press ESC. If you want to re-record through all the slides, just click when you get to the black Exit screen.

In MMbuild, use the run statement:

1)                  drag a test text or bitmap button into the project

2)                  double-click the button

3)                  click the “Script Properties) bottom 4th icon

4)                  click the “Mouse Down” tab

5)                  enter:   Run("<SrcDir>\ . . . \ . . . \yourfile.pps","")

NOTE:  in Powerpoint SlideShow/Set Up Show . . .  you can use the Kiosk Mode, but just realize that the mouse controls will be disabled, since it is not supposed to interact with the user. 

PPS Tips:

Audio + Multimedia CD’s

To make an audio CD with digital multimedia track, the industry standard format is CD Extra. In this format the audio tracks are recorded in the first session and the second session are the data. You can create CD-Extra with most of the mastering software, Adaptec Easy CD Creator for example.  These are typically very difficult, since they require a lot of scripting (the example below required 8 MMB files to create !! )

There is a also an older format named Mixed Mode CD. On such CD the audio and data are recorded in the same session where the data are as a track 1 with following audio tracks. The disadvantage of this is that a CD player can play a CD from track 2 skipping the track 1.

Here is an example of a commercially available “CD Extra” by the artist known simply as “Akosh” :

Akosh is multiple award winning self-produced artist, writing songs for a decade. He is acting and composing music for the theater as well. Akosh' music could be described as a gothic pop using 80's guitar sounds and variety of samples mixing with his distinctive vocal style.
"Call my name" is an Enhanced Audio CD. The multimedia part of the CD is done in 800x600 full screen. From the main screen (hanging TV sets) you can jump to different rooms - Discography, Biography, Press Clippings, Photo Gallery, Videos,Lyrics and add-ons.

The digital track includes 8 full length videos, over 200 photos, bio & discography, songs of past albums in mp3, live and rare material and more.