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Over the releases of new versions of Flash, Macromedia has made Flash more and more controllable via programming, where they have it positioned as a competitor to HTML to build interactive web sites and applications such as an e-commerce store. Macromedia argues that Flash is the way to go instead of HTML because of the following reasons:

All of these points are true, but they can be true for HTML pages as well (except for the vectors). I will address these points now:

Flash pages can be made to load faster, but most of the time, the way they are designed in the real world, they do not. That is not a Flash problem, it is more an issue of the Flash developers going nuts with fancy and heavy Flash movies.

HTML caches pages as well, once images are downloaded they are held in your browser's cache. The cached images are then used instead of dowloading them from the server again.

With new technology like ASP.net and Java Server Faces, HTML now can react just like a ‘rich-client’ application. Even without these new tools, properly designed HTML for most dynamic sites can provide a good user experience.

What I like about Flash development?

1. You can do some really nice work in Flash that would be difficult and sometimes impossible in HTML alone. Things like complex animations and playing video spring to mind.

2. Practically no browser issues: For the most part, Flash movies will work the same if the user is on Netscape or IE, on Mac or PC. The browser issues (where people coming to your site have different browsers that can ‘break’ your pages) are quickly becoming a thing of the past since most people (thank the web gods) are using IE. But even today, I still have to deal with people who may be using some old browser that can break all but the simplest of HTML code.

So when should you use Flash?

In my humble opinion, I would use Flash to create a presentation that is similar to a television commercial. This type of presentation is something where the user sits back and enjoys the show as the Flash movie delivers the message to the client with animation, sound, and possibly video. Please do not get this confused with those ubiquitous ‘intro’ animations that still plague many Flash sites. Rather I am talking about informative movies that the user can decide to view to learn about something like a product or a service.

I can also see Flash being used in straight animations, like what your kids watch Saturday morning. One last use where I find Flash handy, is with so called ‘rich-ui’ components like calendars or fancy navigational systems. The only danger here is that if the user doesn't have the proper Flash plug-in, they won't be able to use those components and as such in many cases (like with a Flash based navigation bar) the user will not be able to use your web site!

Instead of Macromedia’s vision, I see Flash being used selectively to enhance an HTML based site.

1. FLASH An Introduction

Installing and activating Flash
Flash Player, Creating or opening a document and setting properties
Internface of Macromedia Flash 8
Using document tabs for multiple documents
Saving Flash documents
Saving and version control
Adding media content in Flash document
Creating motion and interactivity
Components in Flash
Managing media assets with the library
ActionScript, Nested movie clips, Scenes
Working with scenes
Movie Explorer
History panel, Commands menu
Optimizing Flash documents

2. Working with Projects

Flash Projects include the following features
Creating and managing projects
Using Symbols, Instances, and Library Assets
Types of symbols
9-slice scaling and movie clip symbols
Creating symbols
Creating buttons
Changing instance properties
Changing the color and transparency of an instance
Swapping one instance for another
Using behaviors, Being consistent
Being courteous, Breaking apart instances
Working with runtime shared assets

3. Colors, Strokes and Fills

Color Mixer
Creating gradients, Using the Stroke Color and Fill Color controls in the Tools panel
Modifying strokes with the Ink Bottle tool
Modifying color palettes
Importing and exporting color palettes, To import a color palette

4. Working with Drawing

Vector graphics, Bitmap graphics
Flash drawing models
Overlapping shapes using the Merge Drawing model
Flash drawing and painting tools
Selecting objects
Combining objects, Drawing with the Pencil tool
Drawing polygons and stars, Using the Pen tool
Drawing curved paths with the Pen tool
Painting with the Brush tool
Reshaping lines and shape outlines
Optimizing curves
Modifying shapes
Snapping, Object snapping
Specifying drawing settings

5. Working with Text

FlashType
Creating text
Creating font symbols
Checking spelling
Using Spelling Setup
Transforming text, Using 'Timeline effects with text, Breaking text apart
Controlling text with ActionScript
Creating and removing text fields dynamically

6. Working with Graphics

Selecting objects
Selecting objects with the Lasso tool
Hiding selection highlighting, Grouping objects
Moving, copying, and deleting objects
Copying artwork with the Clipboard
Deleting objects, Stacking objects
Transforming objects, Working with the center point during transformations

7. Creating Motion

Using Timeline effects
Adding a Timeline effect
Tweened animation, Frame-by-frame animation, layers in animation, Creating keyframes
Representations of animation in the Timeline
Frame rates, Extending still images
New layers, Tweening instances, groups, and type
Tweening motion along a path
Using onion skinning
Using mask layers
Working with Video, Progressively downloading video
Supported file formats for video, Embedding video in a SWF file
Playing your Flash SWF files, Using Flash Player

[PART-II]

8. Interface Introduction

General Flash workflow, Plan the application, Add media elements
Arrange the elements, Apply special effects
Use ActionScript to control behavior., Test and publish your application
Customize the workspace, Dock and undock panels
Move panels, Manipulate panel groups
Stack free-floating panels
Resize or minimize panels, Manipulate panels collapsed to icons
Save, delete, and switch between workspaces

9. Working with Stage and

Zoom the Stage, Move the view of the Stage, Use rulers
Use guides
Main toolbar and edit bar, Select tools
Customize the Tools panel, Use context menus
Set preferences in Flash
Set AutoFormat preferences for ActionScript, Set text preferences
Set warning preferences
Set General preferences
Clipboard preferences
Timeline
Change the appearance of the Timeline
Dragging the Timeline, Resize the Timeline
Move the playhead, Change the display of frames in the Timeline
Using Layers, Create a layer, Create a layer folder
Show or hide a layer or folder, View the contents of a layer as outlines
Change a layer's outline color, Change layer height in the Timeline
Change the number of layers displayed in the Timeline, Select a layer or folder
Rename a layer or folder, Lock or unlock one or more layers or folders
Copy a layer, Copy the contents of a layer folder
Delete a layer or folder, Organize layers and layer folders
Property inspector, Library panel
Actions panel, Use the Movie Explorer

10. Working. with Documents

Flash tiles
Create a new document
Create a new document from a template, Open an existing document
Set properties for a new or existing document
Save a Flash document, Save a document as a template
Save a document as a Flash 8 document, Flash Projects
Create and manage projects
View the Project pop-up menu, Create a new project
Open an existing project, Add a file to a project, Test a project
Find a missing file in a project
Managing media assets with the Flash document library
Open a library in another Flash file, Frames and keyframes
Manage frames and keyframes in the Timeline
Specify span-based frame selection, Insert frames in the Timeline
Select one or more frames in the Timeline
Multiple timelines and levels, Nested movie clips and parent-child hierarchy
Scenes, Use scenes
Display the Scene panel, View a particular scene, Add a scene, Delete a scene
Change the name of a scene, Change the order of a scene in the document

11. Drawing in Flash

Vector graphics, Bitmap graphics
Flash drawing models, Merge Drawing model
Object Drawing model, Overlapping shapes
Use the Object Drawing model, Enable the object drawing model
Convert a Merge Drawing model created shape to an Object Drawing model shape
Select objects
Combining objects, Union, Intersect , Punch, Crop
Flash drawing and painting tools
Paint with the Brush tool
Using Paths
Interacting with the Pen tool
Initial Anchor Point pointer, Sequential Anchor. Point pointer, Add Anchor Point pointer
Delete Anchor Point pointer, Continue Path pointer
Close Path pointer, Join Paths pointer
Retract Bezier Handle pointer, Convert Anchor Point pointer
Display and adjust points with the Subselection tool
Reshape using the Selection tool
Quickly delete everything on the Stage
Remove stroke segments or filled areas, Modify shapes, Snapping
Use object snapping, Turn object snapping on or off
Adjust object snapping tolerances
Use pixel snapping, Use snap alignment

12. Colors and Graphics

Color panel
Color panel options
Color palettes, Duplicate, delete, and clear colors
Use the Stroke Color and Fill Color controls in the Tools panel
Creating gradients, Modify strokes with the Ink Bottle tool
Transform gradient and bitmap fills
Copy strokes and fills with the Eyedropper tool
Lock a gradient or bitmap to fill the Stage, Use a locked gradient fill
Use a locked bitmap fill, Working with graphic objects
Selecting objects
Select objects with the Selection tool, Move objects
Move and copy objects by pasting, Copy transformed objects
Delete objects
Align objects, Group objects, Group and ungroup objects
Edit a group or an object within a group
Edit any element within the group, Break apart groups and objects
Transforming objects
Move, realign, change, and track the transformation point
Transform objects freely
Distort objects
Modify shapes with the Envelope modifier
Restore transformed objects
Using symbols, instances, and library assets, Symbols
Types of symbols, Create symbols
Convert animation on the Stage into a movie clip
Create instances, Change an instance's type, Break apart an instance symbol

13. Colors and Graphics

Tweened animation
Layers in animation, Creating keyframes, Frame rates
Frame-by-frame animation
Edit animations, Insert frames in the Timeline
Use onion skinning
Sitnultaneously view several frames of an animation on the Stage
Control onion skinning display
Move an entire animation
Copy and paste a motion tween, Paste motion tween properties
Copy motion as ActionScript
Extend still images, Mask layers
Create a mask layer, Timeline effects, Add a Timeline effect
Edit a Timeline effect
Delete a Timeline effect, Distributing objects to layers for tweened animation
New layers, Distribute objects to layers
Add a motion tween to instances, groups, or type
Tween motion along a path
Apply custom ease in/ease out to motion tweens
Additional controls for the Custom Ease In/Ease Out dialog box
Use the Custom Ease In/Ease Out dialog box
Special effects, Filter, Animating filters
Filters and Flash Player performance, Apply filters
Apply or remove a filter
Copy and paste a filter, Apply a preset filter to an object
Enable or disable all filters applied to an object

14. Working with Text

Flash Text Anti-Aliasing
Unicode text encoding in Flash applications
Font outlines and device fonts, Font outlines and names
Device fonts, Masking device fonts
Anti-aliasing text
Substituting missing fonts, Specify font substitution
View all the missing fonts in a document and reselect substitute fonts
View or delete font mappings, Turn off the Missing Fonts alert
Add text to the Stage
Change the size of a text field, Make dynamic text scrollable
Text effects, Break text apart
Link horizontal text to a URL, Set a font, point size, style, and color
Make text selectable

15. Using Sound and Video

Importing sounds
Import a sound, Add a sound to the Timeline
Synchronize a sound with animation, Add a sound to a button
Using Video in Flash
Import Flash Video files into the library
Controlling video playback using the Timeline
Embedding video in a SWF file
Change video instance properties in the Property inspector
Change the directory path of a linked QuickTime video
Edit video clips in the Video Import wizard

Free Lab Access

Certificate in Flash (CF)

What I like about Flash development?

So when should you use Flash?