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Style. The Style tab packs myriad options for customizing the window that your projector "lives" in. From making the window semi-transparent to applying a mask (fig. 4) to specifying a startup transition (fig. 5) to choosing the mode of the window and which system buttons are active, Zinc's window styling options run the gamut from simple eye candy to more profound usefulness, depending on your needs.
Figure 4: That's no moonthat's a masked Zinc projector window.
Figure 5
Installers. In addition to packaging up your projects into nice, neat little projectors, Zinc also offers the option of adding an installation program to your projector (fig. 6). You can set your own bitmap, choose a default location, customize the setup message, and, best of all, add your very own legalese! Exciting! Sarcasm aside, you can also add extra files to the installer through a panel on the right side of Zinc's interface, which we'll talk about shortly.
Figure 6
Screensavers. If projectors aren't your bag, feel free to create SWF files for use as screensavers. Zinc can publish to a standard Windows .scr file (fig. 7). It's a bit of a shame that other platforms aren't supported with this feature, but you'll find that feature disparity between platforms is something of a running issue.
Figure 7
Trial software. Remember, Zinc isn't just about simple Flash wrappingMDM would very much like you to develop entire applications with Zinc, and the settings in the Trial Options tab definitely fit that philosophy (fig. 8). In addition to being able to have your software time out in a number of methods (time from first launch, arbitrary dates, or number of uses), you can add serial number protection to your applications.
Figure 8
Splashscreens. Continuing with the whole application development theme, Zinc allows you to specify a bitmap (and a sound file, should you wish to make your programs extra annoying) to use as a splashscreen (fig. 9). You can even add a touch of eye candy to this step as well, as transitions can be used for just this step of your projector's launch process.
Figure 9
Variables. Zinc lets you set global variables (even secure ones, if needed) from within Zinc rather than Flash itself. It's not really Figure-worthy, so no picture for you here.
I've left out a few of the tabs, but you get the ideaZinc packs plenty of bling for setting up projectors around your Flash movies. That was a pretty lengthy stay at the middle of the Zinc interface, so let's move on. To the right of Zinc's interface, you'll notice a couple of tabbed areas. The top area gives you a preview of your SWF file (fig. 10, left), as well as access to project templates (fig. 10, center) and a log of how your projectors build (fig. 10, right). The bottom area houses the Library and the CD ROM/Installer files, which are both interesting features in their own right. The Library panel (fig. 11, left) allows you to specify external files that will get packed into a Zinc projector. This feature comes in handy if you want to distribute a single executable that contains a hierarchy of external files, which Zinc lets you unpack and access at runtime. Then there's the CD ROM/Installer files tab (fig. 11, right), from which your can build directories and file structures external to the projector. If you're building an installer, this hierarchy represents all the files that will get installed along with the projector (instead of packing files into the projector itself, as with the Library). If you're looking to burn a CD, this same panel allows you to lay out the entire structure of the CD and burn it directly from within Zinc.
Figure 10
Figure 11
And, just to finish up our trip around the Zinc interface, it's worth pointing out the horizontal toolbars at the top and bottom. At the top is the toolbar (fig. 12), where file icons, a space for your application's title, and a row of icons that represent all the various tabs reside.
Figure 12
At the bottom (fig. 13), you'll see an icon that displays which platform you're currently authoring for, as well as build settings.
Figure 13
So that's that. There are more options for your projectors than you can shake a stick at, but that's only part of the Zinc equation. While you're perfectly welcome to stop at simply wrapping up your Flash movies, Zinc's real power asserts itself once you take the next step, which is done from within the Flash IDE itself.
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