Apple Media Tool

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The Apple Media Tool was a multimedia authoring tool and associated programming environment sold by Apple Computer in the late 1990s. It was primarily aimed at producing multimedia presentations for distribution on CD-ROM and was aimed at graphic designers who did not have programming experience. It featured an advanced user interface with an object-oriented user model that made production of rich and complex presentations easy.

Overview

The Apple Media Tool is a visual, object-based authoring environment that lets creative designers integrate media elements -- such as QuickTime movies, PICT files, text, and sound files -- and then make them interact through a direct manipulation interface to create interactive multimedia titles, support and training modules, and other similar projects. Also available is the Apple Media Tool Programming Environment, which allows programmers to customize interactive multimedia projects in a new object-based language called the Apple Media Language.

  • Collaboration aid. Frees creative team members to work simultaneously on various aspects of the same project -- programmers can spend their time developing media elements or "objects," while designers use Apple Media Tool to make these elements interact and build a project.
  • Separate storage formats. Stores media separately from the application -- which reduces application size, and lets you replace work-in-progress with finished content without losing any of the relationships set up between objects.
  • QuickTime integration. Takes advantage of Apple's industry-standard QuickTime technology.
  • Cross-platform development. Lets you deliver interactive multimedia projects on both Macintosh and Windows software-based systems using the same content. The Apple Media Tool Programming Environment gives programmers access to both Macintosh and Windows toolboxes through a C language interface.
  • Runtime tool. Includes Runtime Maker, which lets you create finished files and publish them on CD-ROM discs for Macintosh computers or for computers running Windows 3.1. Creates projects native to both PowerPC and 680x0 processor-based computers.

See Also