Tutorial - Multimedia Extension

Please see the description of Multimedia Extension first.

This describes creating a simple button with text and exporting it to Multimedia Builder. (You can get MMB from http://www.mediachance.com)

First write a text My simple application.
Then create a button from Rounded Rectangle and chose a texture, smooth bevel and drop shadow.

From the menu View - select Multimedia Extension.
The Multimedia Extension window will appear.
Select the button and on the MM Extension check Has Highlighted Frame and Has Pushed Frame
On the Frame -Selector on MM Extension window click on Highlight item.
Now we are editing Highlighted frame. Change the color of a button for some lighter color for example red.
Then click on Pushed item in the Selector and now select a darker color, put some 3D texture, put smaller Bevel. Then Click on the object and with arrow keys move it one pixel down and one pixel right.
The basic button is ready. Click on Normal frame to return the button to its normal stage.
Now create a new text object and write 'Click Me' and chose the white color.
Now for the text we check again Has Highlighted and Pushed Frame. But this time we also check Keep With Previous to tell CompactDraw we don't want the text to be exported as a separate button, instead we would like to use it with the previous object.
Again we change the appearance of the Highlighted frame - lets put some Glow around the text.
For the Pushed Frame set a red color and again, select the text with the mouse and with arrow keys move it slightly down and right.
We are ready !
From menu File - select Multimedia Export. Leave the Multimedia Builder selected and click Export.
This will create a standard MBD file. Don't worry if the file is rather big, Multimedia Builder will do the compression when you save it .
Run Multimedia Builder and open the file.
We have two objects on the page. A background bitmap - that's the place for all graphics which has no mm extension. In our case it is the text.
The next object is a Bitmap Button which is the combination of our 2 objects button and text.
Now press run and you have windows application with one nice button. If you move mouse on top of it you will see it changes to red and if you click on it it changes to the third frame and slightly go down and right creating the right effect.
Now it is up to you what action you assign to the button in MMB.
If you are using an other multimedia authoring tool you can export the project with Multimedia Export to Generic JPG or BMP separate Files. This will create a few precisely aligned bitmaps which you can import to your authoring tool and create the buttons.
You will get also text file with exact position of the objects and you can use it if your authoring tool allows you to enter a object coordinates.