Macromedia Flash MX 6 And Above:

To add amazing animation to your website you need Macromedia Flash. Some basic tips in using FLASH. Generally flash files that contain animation and graphics are stored in FLA file and they can be managed by using Macromedia Flash MX 6 or higher versions that are installed in the system

How to open your FLA File in Macromedia Flash Editor:

To open Select FILE/OPEN from top menu and browse to the location of your FLA file. (Or) drag and drop from file browse to your Macromedia Flash editor window. (Or) Double click it, in your file browser and this file will be opened and ready to use.

If you see any alert message it means that you have not installed all fonts included in the package. For further details you can refer the Font installation section.

How to change Text in Flash:

In order to fit a flash header you have to change company name, slogan and button text. For this the following steps are to be done:

Open your FLA file from web design template package and locate the text you want to change. This can be done in two ways.

• Access it from the timeline. After opening the FLA file in flash, move the red timeline slider and watch the animation process. Stop it when you see the text you want to modify.
• Now choose the selection tool from tool panel or call this tool by pressing “V” hotkey. Double click this text until you get the cursor and then type the text in it.
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• This way may not be advisable if the flash headers have complicated structure or to create powerful animation effects.

We have to take the second way, that is by using symbol library for doing this and to open the symbol library:

• You can use hotkey (“Ctrl+L”) or choose the window/library from the top menu.


• Find the symbol whose text you want to modify by browsing the symbol library. you can also see the symbol preview in the preview window at the top of symbol library panel. All symbols that contain text have appropriate names such as “Company name” or “contact us” etc.


• If in any way you can not view the text, change the movie background to non-hide as white colored text on white background are invisible.

For changing the background choose Modify/Document from the top menu and change background color.

• After you have found the symbol containing text that should be changed, double click symbols icon to show text symbol in main window and just double click the text with selection tool or single click it with Text Tool (hotkey “T”) for editing the text. For editing in flash there are wide choices of attributes which can be accessed from the properties panel at the bottom of flash workspace. Use “CNTL+F3” hotkey for launching the properties panel.


• For modifying text color or font size select the text using TEXT TOOL and then go to Properties panel to change the appropriate options. There are Font Family and size dropdowns, color select box and align icons which you can modify and update to selected text. You can press "ESC" key to quite from the editing mode. All the above steps can be repeated for editing other text blocks.


• After modifying you need to publish your flash movie to SWF file and update it to your web design template. If you still find any problem follow the instructions about it in your flash movie section.

How to assign links in Flash:

• For adding more interactivity to the flash part of your web design template add some links to the flash objects. Examples can be, if you want to link flash buttons with pages of your website or redirect your Flash Intro to homepage. Some of the links in Flash are Button symbol links, frame links and text links.


• Open the source FLA file in Macromedia Flash editor (see instruction on how to open your FLA section).


• For adding links to the button symbols in your flash movie you should locate button symbol you want links to be assigned.

For locating there are two ways that is either by timeline process or by using Selection tools.

In timeline after you have opened FLA file in flash move the red timeline slider and watch the animation process. You can stop the process when you find button symbol that needs to be linked.

• In Selection tool you can choose selection tool from tools panel or press “V” hotkey Go to properties panel to check the behavior and if you can not see this you can launch it by pressing (Ctrl+F3).
  
  
• In the top left corner of panel symbols behavior dropdown is located which must be a button and if it is Movie clip, Graphics or some other that differs from Button you can not give links to it.



• Do not try to change it to Button it may spoil the original structure. Double click the symbol to get inside of it and select its content and check the behavior of the symbol.

If you are still unable to locate symbol, they may be hidden or locked. For unlocking/unhiding the symbols do the following:

Go to timeline panel where you can find layers list at the left and there are three icons at the top of this list they are eye, lock and rectangle. You can unhide/unlock by clicking eye and click lock icons twice to unhide and unlock all layers in current symbol.

• Some flash headers have complicated structure and for accessing such headers you can not use timeline and the easiest and most efficient way is to use symbol library. You can launch symbols library by using “Ctrl+L” hotkey or choose WINDOW/LIBRARY from the top menu. Now go through symbols library to find the button symbol for which you want to assign link. Double click the symbols icon to edit it and then do operations as given above for locating the Button behavior.


• Select F9 to open Actions panel and if this button has any effect you will see some script code like this:

                 on (rollOver) {
                 gotoAndPlay(2);
                 }
                 on (rollOut) {
                 gotoAndPlay(10);
                 }
  Now you need to add the getURL action script code and should give the URL that will be linked as getURL functions argument.
  on (release) {
                getURL("your_url_here");
                }

  Here getURL function accepts three arguments that is URL, Window type and variables send method.
  Window type argument – Used to specify were new URL will be opened and if it’s blank then link will be opened in same window. And if your URL needs to be opened in another window then use “_blank” argument.

  Variable Send method – They should be used if you are parsing variables and the options are “GET” and “POST”. Example:
  on (release) {
  getURL("http://mywebsite.com/products.php?item=9", "_blank", "GET");
  }

• For flashIntro templates you need to redirect visitor to your site after playing the movie and for redirecting you have to move red timeline slider to the end of FlashIntro movie. After that, select the last frame by clicking it with mouse and then press “F6” for creating key frame in this fame. Also can press “F9” to open Action panel and write the following code:

getURL("your_url_here"); (here your_url_here should be substituted with your website URL)

• For linking some portion of your text to some location on web:
• Navigate to the symbol containing text as specified in (Changing text section).
• Now select text and link the URL using text tool.
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• From properties panel press “Ctrl+F3” and at the bottom see for the input box where you need to give the URL.
• To publish you flash movie (read publishing your flash movie section for details)

How to change images in Flash:

You may need to insert or change the existing image to new one in the process of customizing you website. For that you need to do the following steps:

• Open source FLA file in Flash editor (as specified in FLA section)


• Press F11 to launch symbol library


• Browse the symbols to find the symbol you want to edit or change from the list of bitmap symbols.


• If you have see the necessary bitmap symbol double click icon at the left to see the properties of the symbol.


• Check for the image preview and other options there and see for the image size that should be 193x214 pixels at 32 bits but to make the image fit original effects and animation the best way your image must be of the same size as changed image size.


• Use Photoshop if you want to resize or crop your image (refer Photoshop tutorial for further details).


• After cropping and resizing you can open it in flash by choosing one of the formats that are standard image formats JPEG, GIF or PNG. Press import button at the left and navigate to the path of the image.


• Now publish your flash movie for that, you need to do all the appropriate changes to the flash animation header of your web design templates and then publish and update it. You may also want to modify publish settings to reduce download time or increase image quality for that you need to choose FILE/PUBLISH settings from the top menu and in Publish settings window choose Flash tab.


• The jpeg quality, audio stream and audio event are the main options that have influence on published SWF movie file size. For changing jpeg compression ratio move jpeg quality slider or type it in the input box at the right of it. Generally low quality extremely reduces download time. To affect movie size change audiostream and Event options.


• Movie can also be published directly from Publish settings window that is at the bottom or can also publish it by pressing "Shift+F12" hotkey. The published SWF file will appear in the folder corresponding to the FLA file located. Now replace the old SWF file in HTML/FLASH folder with new file to check the modifications you have made.

Browse to HTML folder of your web design template and launch HTML file to see the modifications to HTML folder of your web design template and launch HTML file to see the modifications.