Book description
Macromedia's Flash 8 is the world's premier program for adding animation to websites. And with the latest version, this popular program becomes more versatile, letting beginning webmasters and expert developers alike create sophisticated web content. But Flash isn't intuitive. And it doesn't come with a manual. Whether you want to learn the basics or unleash the program's true power, Flash 8: The Missing Manual is the ideal instructor.
This hands-on guide to today's hottest web design tool is aimed at nondevelopers, and it teaches you how to translate your ideas into great web content.
It begins with a solid primer on animation, which helps you get comfortable with the Flash interface. Once you have these basics under your belt, Flash 8: The Missing Manual moves on to advanced animations, including adding special effects and audio, video, and interactivity to your presentations. When you're really feeling steady, the book shows how to use a dollop of ActionScript to customize your content. It then teaches you how to publish your Flash creations for web surfers everywhere to enjoy. Along the way, the book shows you good design principles and helps you avoid elements that can distract or annoy an audience.
Author Emily Vander Veer has more than a dozen books to her credit, including titles on web design and scripting--most written for non-technical readers. Her background makes her the perfect author for a straightforward book on a complex subject. She takes Flash 8: The Missing Manual from the basics to the advanced, yet avoids a hasty jump into tough topics that can leave readers confused.
Not only will Flash 8: The Missing Manual help you turn a concept into unique, dynamic content, but it will continue to serve as a reference as you develop your website.
Publisher resources
Table of contents
- A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
- The Missing Credits
- Introduction
-
I. Creating a Flash Animation
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1. Getting Around Flash
- 1.1. Starting Flash
- 1.2. A Tour of the Flash Desktop
- 1.3. Toolbars
-
1.4. Panels
- 1.4.1. Tools Panel
- 1.4.2. Accessibility Panel
- 1.4.3. Actions Panel/ActionScript Debugger Panel
- 1.4.4. Align Panel
- 1.4.5. Behaviors Panel
- 1.4.6. Color Mixer Panel/Color Swatches Panel
- 1.4.7. Common Libraries
- 1.4.8. Components Panel/Component Inspector Panel
- 1.4.9. History Panel
- 1.4.10. Info Panel
- 1.4.11. Library Panel
- 1.4.12. Movie Explorer Panel
- 1.4.13. Output Panel
- 1.4.14. Properties Panel/Filters Panel/Parameters Panel
- 1.4.15. Scene Panel
- 1.4.16. Transform Panel
- 1.5. The Timeline
- 1.6. The Flash 8 Test Drive
- 1.7. Opening a Flash File
- 2. Creating Simple Drawings
- 3. Animating Your Drawings
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1. Getting Around Flash
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II. Advanced Drawing and Animation
- 4. Organizing Frames and Layers
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5. Advanced Drawing and Coloring
- 5.1. Selecting Graphic Elements
- 5.2. Manipulating Graphic Elements
- 5.3. Adding Text to Your Drawing
- 5.4. Advanced Color and Fills
- 5.5. Creating Custom Colors
- 5.6. Saving Color Swatches
- 5.7. Importing a Custom Color Palette
- 5.8. Copying Color with the Eyedropper
- 6. Adding Special Effects
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7. Reusable Flash: Symbols and Templates
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7.1. Symbols and Instances
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7.1.1. Graphic Symbols
- 7.1.1.1. Converting an existing image to a graphic symbol
- 7.1.1.2. Creating a graphic symbol in symbol editing mode
- 7.1.1.3. Using a graphic symbol (creating an instance of a graphic symbol)
- 7.1.1.4. Editing an instance of a graphic symbol
- 7.1.1.5. Editing a graphic symbol
- 7.1.1.6. Deleting a graphic symbol
- 7.1.2. Multiframe Graphic Symbols
- 7.1.3. Movie Clip Symbols
- 7.1.4. Button Symbols
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7.1.1. Graphic Symbols
- 7.2. Templates
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7.1. Symbols and Instances
- 8. Incorporating Non-Flash Media Files
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III. Adding Interactivity
- 9. Automating Flash with ActionScript
- 10. Controlling Animation
- 11. Interacting with Your Audience
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12. Components for Interactivity
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12.1. The Built-in Components
- 12.1.1. Data Components
- 12.1.2. Playback Components
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12.1.3. User Interface Components
- 12.1.3.1. Accordion
- 12.1.3.2. Alert
- 12.1.3.3. Button
- 12.1.3.4. Checkbox
- 12.1.3.5. ComboBox
- 12.1.3.6. DataGrid
- 12.1.3.7. DateChooser
- 12.1.3.8. DateField
- 12.1.3.9. Label
- 12.1.3.10. List
- 12.1.3.11. Loader
- 12.1.3.12. Menu
- 12.1.3.13. MenuBar
- 12.1.3.14. NumericStepper
- 12.1.3.15. ProgressBar
- 12.1.3.16. RadioButton
- 12.1.3.17. ScrollPane
- 12.1.3.18. TextArea
- 12.1.3.19. TextInput
- 12.1.3.20. Tree
- 12.1.3.21. UIScrollBar
- 12.1.3.22. Window
- 12.2. Adding Components
- 12.3. Customizing Components
- 12.4. Finding Additional Components
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12.1. The Built-in Components
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IV. Delivering Your Animation to Its Audience
- 13. Testing and Debugging
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14. Publishing and Exporting
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14.1. Optimizing Flash Documents
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14.1.1. Ten Optimization Strategies
- 14.1.1.1. Choose tweens over frame-by-frame animations
- 14.1.1.2. Choose the Pencil tool over the Brush tool
- 14.1.1.3. Choose solid over dashed or dotted lines
- 14.1.1.4. Simplify curves
- 14.1.1.5. Use symbols
- 14.1.1.6. Avoid bitmaps (or optimize them)
- 14.1.1.7. Keep sound clips to a minimum; when you do use them, optimize them.
- 14.1.1.8. Group elements
- 14.1.1.9. Avoid the extraneous
- 14.1.1.10. Tell Flash to keep your file size down
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14.1.1. Ten Optimization Strategies
- 14.2. Publishing Your Animations
- 14.3. Exporting Flash to Other Formats
-
14.1. Optimizing Flash Documents
- V. Appendix
- About the Author
- Colophon
- Copyright
Product information
- Title: Flash 8: The Missing Manual
- Author(s):
- Release date: March 2006
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9780596101374
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