FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Acrux Software announces X-Builder version 1.0, the company’s flagship
authoring tool for OS X
X-Builder is an authoring tool specially designed for creating multimedia
projects and applications for Apple Macintosh computers running OS X.
X-Builder combines a powerful, intuitive multimedia authoring environment
with the ability to save projects as standalone applications. These are
royalty-free, so you can give them to friends and colleagues, or sell them
as shareware or as commercial applications.
X-Builder distinguishes itself from other authoring systems with it’s
modern, simple and intuitive project development environment. Much less
intimidating than most other comparable authoring systems. Using a single
menu command or function key shortcut you can instantly switch between run
mode and X-Builder’s development environment; no compilation required.
X-Builder projects contain slides, and each slide in a project is
constructed using X-Builder’s built-in tools for creating text, banners,
lines, rectangles, buttons, input boxes, controls, choice lists, graphs
etc. You can add objects by “drawing” them, or by dragging ready-made
examples from a Library. Text can by typed directly in the project window.
The appearance and behavior of other types of objects are governed by
properties which can be set via a floating “Inspector” palette; changes are
immediate and there’s no need to open and close dialogs for each change.
It’s also easy to import graphic elements and movies, for example Photoshop
files, PDF’s or QuickTime movies. Simply drag the files on the X-Builder
dock icon and then position the image in the project window.
Creating a standalone application from a project is a simple as saving the
project as an application. You can optionally provide a custom icon, about
box or custom menus.
A context-sensitive online Guide is always at hand to provide explanations
of the program’s facilities.
More info: http://www.acruxsoftware.com/xbuilder/index.php
Download: http://www.acruxsoftware.com/xbuilder/X-Builder.dmg (7.4Mb)
X-Builder is shareware and a single-user registration code costs $49.
Registered iBuild users can upgrade for $19. Details on our web side.
Unregistered demo copies of X-Builder are fully functional and can be used
to save projects of up to 30 slides.
More X-Builder features:
* Constant visual overview of projects provided by thumbnail pictures of
slides.
* Library of ready-made objects and example projects.
* Dynamic slides, with objects appearing and disappearing when users press
buttons or perform other actions. Visual effects can be applied to both
object and slide transitions, and sound effects can be added as well. All
this can be done without any scripting.
* Slides shows with visual effects.
* Button and hypertext links to slides, web pages, files and applications.
* Suitable for tests, quizzes and educational courseware: X-Builder can put
questions in various forms, check answers, and keep and display scores,
making it the ideal tool for educational applications and courseware.
* Spoken text: X-Builder can read out text which it displays, using the
Mac’s synthesized speech facility; no need to record! It can also display
or highlight individual words as they are read out, and can also spell out
words. Great as a learning aid.
* Scripting: You can create substantial projects and applications with
X-Builder without any scripting at all. (All features listed here are
implemented without scripting). But for really serious projects X-Builder
provides built-in support for Apple’s AppleScript scripting language. This
can be used not only to control X-Builder, but also to communicate with any
other scriptable application or to control the standalone applications
generated with X-Builder.
* Multilingual facilities: X-Builder has just about the easiest facilities
for creating multilingual projects and applications; no separate files to
worry about, simply switch between each language as you are building your
project and type or import the translated text. Users can even switch
languages at run time.
* Report generation: A number of built-in reports are available as aids to
the project developer, and you can also generate your own reports via the
scripting facility. These can contain data from the project’s slides, or
from other sources. Headings and tables are supported.
* Cascading master slides: these allow commonly used objects to be placed
on a single slide and then utilized on any number of other slides, avoiding
the need for duplication of objects, and ensuring visual consistency. And
of course this makes it easy to change the layout of an entire project.
Master slides can be cascaded, which means that master slides can use their
own master slides. This provides a highly structured and easily changed
construction.
* Form auto-fill for retaining users’ data on a slide.
http://www.acruxsoftware.com