Lingo
- Good ol’ Macromedia Director!
JavaScript
- .jsf command files in Fireworks
- .js action files in photoshop (.jsx in CS2)
- JSFL automation language in Flash, etc.
Don’t count out Director!
- Mature product, cross-platform
- Excellent ability to work with file system; Xtras further extend this ability
- Wicked fast, handles most any media type (both advantages over Flash)
- Even older versions are useful!
Case Study: Course Builder
- Creates folders & organizes files
- Imports and formats text & graphics
- Exports thumbnails of completed pages
- All within Director (EXAMPLE: proTools.dir)
Extending Director
- www.updatestage.com (Gretchen Macdowell)
- Mile High Table O'Products™ (many free)
- Director-based tools need just a few Xtras:
- Buddy API or free FileXtra for file access
- Free SharpExport Xtra for saving image files
Case Study: Reader for existing CD courses - Problem
- Current course CDs have audio & slides but no transcript
- Transcriptionist needs interface to view slides/videos, listen to audio, and enter in transcript for each slide
Case Study: Reader for existing CD courses - Solution
- Manually analyze disc structure & data files
- Use Director to parse data files and display course media & transcript text entry fields
- Use Director to save formatted transcripts
Case Study: Reader for existing CD courses - Advantages
- Works with all existing CDs or data folders
- Fast, cross-platform
- Easy to add extra features (slider for slowing down/scrubbing audio)
- EXAMPLE: Course viewer (demo at MIT talk)
Fireworks: better batching through JavaScript
- File => batch process... for single-image batch
- Click "Save script" button to save as .jsf
- The resulting .jsf can be used as starting point for your own scripts
- Download Extending Fireworks 8
(covers all versions, not just v.8) to help you do this
Case Study: 3 exports from each batch image
- Single batch script for large images, smaller images, and thumbnails
- Coded to automatically add cute slide frames around the thumbnail images
- Download script for Mac/Windows: fireworks_make-multi-JPEGs.jsf.zip (5k)
Case Study: recreating usable source files - Problem
- 3000+ GIFs to recreate
- Source PSDs are often inaccurate or missing
- Need new, standardized, layered PNG of each image, with different versions on different named frames
Case Study: recreating usable source files - Solution
- Use Fireworks .jsf to create batch that will be run on one set of GIFs
- Find & import PSD based on GIF name
- If no PSD present, add layers & frames based on existing GIF states
- EXAMPLE: demo of a project-specific script in MIT talk
Photoshop: Actions with more action
- Photoshop's scripting system has much better documentation & examples
- Guides are installed with the application
- In Photoshop’s "Scripting Guide" folder
Case Study: I hate to type - Problem
- Hundreds of text slides saved as GIFs
- Original PSD may or may not be present or accurate; may contain text for several slides
- Can’t bear thought of retyping
Case Study: I hate to type - Solution
- Use JavaScript to export PSD text to XML
- Create Flash or Director interface to read in XML & display all text blocks from PSD (in the original position & size from the PSD)
- Allow user to simply click on relevant text blocks to recreate text slide
Case Study: I hate to type - Download
- Exclusive! Download photoshop_parse-PSD-text.js for converting Photoshop text to XML
- In Photoshop, go to File->Scripts->Browse... and select photoshop_parse-PSD-text.js
- Choose a folder of Photoshop files to parse (may contain subfolders)
- Click "Yes" to save individual XML files for each PSD file that has text layers
- Click "No" to save a single XML file that includes all PSD files with text layers
- In both cases, the resulting file will have XML nodes for each text layer, named with the layer name
- All font, size, color, and position info is saved as a style for each text layer
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