nightwares mini logoA brief introduction to Director

9. Your First Error

What a mistake looks like in Director.

Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio: A Beginner's Guide

Online reader support forum for the book

Now that you've got a StartMovie() handler that actually does something — it calls another handler, CheckColor() — you can try to run your program, right?

Well, try it. Close the Script window by either clicking the close box or by pressing ENTER (not RETURN) and then click the play button.

What happened? Director returned an error!

This is because the handler CheckColor() does not in fact exist yet. You have to make it.

Reopen the Movie Script window by either double-clicking its icon in the Cast window or by pressing the hot-key sequence.

Underneath the StartMovie() handler, press RETURN a few times and type in the following:

  on CheckColor

    if the colorDepth <> 8 then

      ALERT "Caution: This computer is set to something other than 256-color (8-bit) color mode." & RETURN & RETURN & "Some colors in this program may not be displayed correctly."

    end if

  END CheckColor


1. Introduction

2. Definition of Objectives

3. Specific Objectives

4. Stage Size

5. Stage Location

6. Setting the Stage's Color

7. Beginning to Enter Script

8. A bit More About the StartMovie() Handler

9. Entering Another Handler

10. A Break-down of the CheckColor() Handler

11. A Quick Test

12. Adding Text to the Stage

13. Preparing to Enter a Frame Script

14. Entering the Frame Script

15. Adding a Quit Button

16. The Progress so Far

17. Preparing to Add a Menu

18. Discussion of Menu Requirements

19. Preparing the Menu Storage Member

20. Entering Menu Functions for Macintosh

21. Entering Menu Functions for Windows

22. Efficientlly Handling Multiple Menus

23. Preparing to Insert the Menus Onscreen

24. Adding the Menu Installation Handler

25. Discussion of the Menu Installation Handler

26. Adding Code for an About Box

27. Review of the Scripts

28. Creating a Projector and Running it