The windows sidebar has been removed from Windows 7. However, Gadgets are still supported. Our earlier blog article ‘Make a Vista sidebar gadget’ explained how to make a gadget for Vista, this followup article explains how to convert these previously described gadgets for use on Windows 7.
One of the more powerful features of SWiSH Max3 (and Max2) is the availability of the Content Library. (Sorry, the Library is not available in miniMax products.) The Library allows various Resources to be shared across multiple objects in your movie. Not only does this reduce the size of your movie (i.e. it will load faster), it can also simplify editing changes to your movie since editing the single library resource will cause the change to be reflected in all of the objects that link to this common resource.
This collection of MP3 player components are designed to be easy to use. You can load any standard MP3 file and easily specify parameters to display track properties, such as the title and artist. The audio can be looped when completed and you can set an initial volume level. The spectrum EQ animation is also customizable – with parameters for colors, mode, and the number of displayed bars/peaks.
This component will be included in a future installer of SWiSH Max2 and SWiSH miniMax2, but for now please download this component here – swishzone_simplemp3
This new component will give your viewers the ability to control the animation in your SWF movie just like they would any other video file. This can be used for presentations in a slide show format, video embedded into your movie, or any other animation on a single timeline. You can customise the look and feel of the component by changing its color scheme and hiding certain buttons.
This component will be included in a future installer of SWiSH Max2 and SWiSH miniMax2, but for now please download this component here – swishzone_simplevideo_swf
You can also download the source (SWI) file for the example displayed above, here – simplevideo_swf_demo.
Vista users will be aware of the sidebar and the gadgets that it can contain. Although the sidebar has been dismissed by many as a hog of screen real estate, I personally think it is quite useful. I suspect that most SWiSH’ers are not aware of how easy it is to make great looking sidebar gadgets using SWiSH Max2 or SWiSH miniMax2.
This new FLV video component is simple in design but has many customisation options available. You can change many of the colors, the clock display mode, hide certain buttons, enable or disable the preloader, and much more. Most importantly, you can access a specific function to load any FLV file you choose at runtime. An event callback can be used to perform different actions when the video finishes playing (such as loading a different video file or opening a link in the browser).
This component will be included in a future installer of SWiSH Max2, but for now the component can be obtained from - simplevideo_flv
Unzip the files into your SWiSH Max2 components folder. Typically, C:\Program Files\SWiSH Max2\components\Video Players\
You can either import and encode a new video file directly into SWiSH Max2 or you can use an existing FLV file with this component. I will describe both methods below. At the bottom of the page, you will find a complete list of available parameters and methods for this component. (more…)