Many different multimedia formats exist, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. But no other multimedia format is as widely accepted, capable, or supported by so many different multimedia and Web page creation tools as QuickTime. Adding multimedia to your Web page is easy with QuickTime, and using QuickTime-based multimedia is likely to be easy for your users as well. Here are the necessary elements for a successful QuickTime Web publishing experience:
QuickTime is big! Users who don't already have QuickTime on their machines have to download it from the Web, and several megabytes is a lot to ask your users to download. However, doing so gives them a lot of capability. Just be aware that you may get some questions and complaints about the download hassle.
You don't have to pay fees or sign special licenses before using QuickTime, as you do with competing technologies. From a business point of view, using QuickTime is as easy as putting a GIF or JPEG image in your Web page.
Here are the steps to add a QuickTime movie to your Web page:
1. Install QuickTime and the QuickTime plug-in on your own machine.
To download these files, go to the QuickTime software page.
2. Create or obtain a QuickTime movie — animation, sound, video, or VR.
3. Embed the movie in your Web page. (If you are using Netscape Composer, click the <HTML> Source tab at the bottom of the page so you can add the following HTML tag directly.)
Use the EMBED HTML command. In its basic form, for a file file.mov in the same folder as the Web page, it's very simple:
<EMBED SRC="file.mov">
You have additional options when you use the EMBED command with the QuickTime plug-in; for details, see the QuickTime Web page. But try the simple command shown above first to make sure that you don't accidentally introduce a problem when you try to add options.
4. Test it on your own machine.
Test the Web page by opening it in Internet Explorer and seeing if the movie acts properly. Then test in Netscape Navigator.
5. Upload the changed Web page and the multimedia file to the Web and test.
Congratulations — you're a multimedia Web publisher!
- Multimedia content. You need a QuickTime multimedia file to put in your page. Dozens of multimedia tools create QuickTime multimedia; for starters, use one someone else has created and that's available for free re-use.
- HTML commands. Some Web tools support embedding of QuickTime content directly. But unless you have such a tool, you need to write HTML commands to embed QuickTime content. Luckily, the commands are simple; an example follows shortly.
- QuickTime and the QuickTime plug-in. You and your users need the latest version of QuickTime and the QuickTime player. (Many versions of QuickTime include QuickTime VR support as well, adding virtual reality to what you can do with QuickTime.)
QuickTime is big! Users who don't already have QuickTime on their machines have to download it from the Web, and several megabytes is a lot to ask your users to download. However, doing so gives them a lot of capability. Just be aware that you may get some questions and complaints about the download hassle.
You don't have to pay fees or sign special licenses before using QuickTime, as you do with competing technologies. From a business point of view, using QuickTime is as easy as putting a GIF or JPEG image in your Web page.
Here are the steps to add a QuickTime movie to your Web page:
1. Install QuickTime and the QuickTime plug-in on your own machine.
To download these files, go to the QuickTime software page.
2. Create or obtain a QuickTime movie — animation, sound, video, or VR.
3. Embed the movie in your Web page. (If you are using Netscape Composer, click the <HTML> Source tab at the bottom of the page so you can add the following HTML tag directly.)
Use the EMBED HTML command. In its basic form, for a file file.mov in the same folder as the Web page, it's very simple:
<EMBED SRC="file.mov">
You have additional options when you use the EMBED command with the QuickTime plug-in; for details, see the QuickTime Web page. But try the simple command shown above first to make sure that you don't accidentally introduce a problem when you try to add options.
4. Test it on your own machine.
Test the Web page by opening it in Internet Explorer and seeing if the movie acts properly. Then test in Netscape Navigator.
5. Upload the changed Web page and the multimedia file to the Web and test.
Congratulations — you're a multimedia Web publisher!