Swish Tutorials:
To put amazing and effective animation in your website you can use the SWISH .The tutorial gives you some brief details on how to use the SWISH.
How to open the SWI file
All the source files in SWISH Max application are having the extension as (.SWI). These files can be edited to change the text, images and scripts in the SWF movie. There source files are located in the xxxx/with_flash/swish folder of your template package. (Here XXXX is the id number of the template product)
There are two ways for opening a SWI files:
- After the Swishmax application is launched the Startup menu dialog window appears and to open your file you can choose the 3rd menu item
- Now you can work on it as the current movie and can browse to the location of your .SWI files and can open it.
- If you have disabled the start up menu you can open it by selecting the FILE/OPEN from the top menu.
- You cannot work on multiple files in a SWiSHmax, so an already opened file will be closed. When you are opening a .SWI source file, sometimes the SWishMax application will tell you that some fonts will be changed and this indicates that all fonts are not installed on the machine. SWiSHmax will find the closest fonts and substitute it with the missing ones that can distort the original style of the text animation.
It is always advisable to install all fonts provided in the template package before ;opening .SWI file.
Now let us see on how to edit text:
In a SWiSH movie the text is represented as the Text object and the object can be a
static, dynamic or input. Generally dynamic text is used to display text that can be
changed by writing the script while the movie is running and that is the reason why it
is used to display the dynamic content like the current date, dynamically changing
information such as news etc. The object input text allows you to get text input from the user and it is very useful when creating interactive movies having feedback orsearch forms.
The most important and extensively used text object is static text and is used to display the static text in your movie. All the titles, slogans and button captions are represented
using static text object. For editing text select the Text object and for that they are two
ways:
- Use the “Select” tool to select the appropriate text in layout panel and for that you should move the timeline slider to the last frame to see all texts/objects.
(or)
- To select text object, use the timeline layers list or the outline panel.
And for opening outline panel click Panel/Outline top menu item.
A text object is marked with icon in the outline panel as well as in the timeline and the
name should be same as its content. This will really help you to find the text object
that you want to edit. When you find appropriate text object you can edit its properties
and content.
- Open the object panel just by clicking Panels/object top menu item (this panel’s
caption is different depending on the selected object type) and now if you select
the text object then the objects panel caption will be text. Here the Edit area is
located in the bottom part of the text object panel where you can see and edit the text object.
- To change the Font color click the Color select box at the right of the font family and font size dropdown boxes. Modify the text font family and font size
- If you are changing the font family and the new font type differs from the original then you have to change the font type too. That is, for example, if you have given the pixel font with the vector one, the font type should be changed to vector font or vector font pixel. In the Text object properties they are text justification and the direction flow options.
How to assign links:
While customizing your website you may sometimes need to assign links to button elements which can open new pop pages, surf through the page of website, open image preview or send contact letters. Now to assign links
- Start by selecting the button element by using Select tool on the layout panel.
(or)
Select it from outline or timeline panels.
- When you have chosen the right button item, switch to script panel.
- And for opening script panel you can select Panels/Script from the top menu.
- If the button already has rollover effect then the script is displayed in the action Panel
on (rollOver) {
gotoAndPlay(2);
playSound("But.wav");
}
on (rollOut) {
gotoAndPlay(18);
}
- And if this button is to be attached to external URL then by using getURL( ) function you can do it. You should use the on (release) event to assign the function to a button and the script will look like this:
on (rollOver) {
gotoAndPlay(2);
playSound("But.wav");
}
on (rollOut) {
gotoAndPlay(18);
}
on (release) {
getURL("http://www.mywebsite.com","_blank","GET");
}
You can use the on(release) event if you are not using any rollover effects and the previous two events are not needed.
on (release) {
getURL("http://www.mywebsite.com","_blank","GET");
}
In the getURL() function the first attribute is the exact URL of the file to load and
here the URL is “http://www.mywebsite.com”
In the second attribute you have to specify the target frame name to which you will load the file.
Some of the default options are:
- _blank that open the file in the same frame or window and you will experience the same effect if you just skip the window option
- _parent will open the link in the same browser window what ever may be the frame settings
- _top will open the link in the top level frame.
Here is some example of the getURL() function:
Example 1:
getURL("images/myphoto.jpg","_blank") will open the photo.jpg file that is in the
images folders in the popup window.
Example 2:
getURL(“http://www.myfriendswebsite.com”) will open the link in the same window.
Example 3:
getURL("http://www.mywebsite.com/mail.php","_blank","GET") will call the mail.php script located at the http://www.mywebsite.com/mail.php and will transfer the variable info using GET method. And if you have to connect a button having javascript code use the following function
on (release) {
javascript(alert(“this is test”) );
}
- A quoted javascript() function argument should be included in the javascript code. In the above example the alert() javascript function will be executed.
- Now if you have to connect a button with an email address you have to use mailto() function. It is similar to the mailto link option as in HTML
This Example will call the default mail agent and fill the address and subject fields:
on (release) {
mailTo("support@company.com","","This is the support question","");
}
How to Change Images:
When you want to customize the SWiSH animated website template you may have to substitute some of the images with your own images. This process can be done with the help of SWiSHmax.
- For this you need to locate and select a suitable image item.
- This image item can be located either by using outline or timeline panel or by selecting it by single clicking an image using select tool on the layout panel.
- After selecting the image object your object panel should be opened or you can do it by selecting the Panels/Object from top menu.
- Object panel’s name depends on the currently selected object type and in case of an image the object panel name will be shape.
- In a shape object panel you can see the small thumbnail of the image with its properties under properties button and clipped image button.Click the properties button to see detailed info about it. At the right of the image thumbnail they are three buttons that will help you customize the images in your SWiSH animated template.
- Click the top button “Select New Image” to substitute the currently selected image with your own and just by browsing to the location of your own image
file. And when you finish adding images to the templates you may need to
update it by editing it with some graphics editor.
(or)
Substitute it directly with the new one.
- Now click the middle button "Reload image from disk" and then, the selected image object will be updated from the disk. You should see that the image file should be located in the same place where you have loaded it for first time.
- You will get the “Unable to read the file” message after pressing the refresh image button, if no such file exist.
- Click the bottom down arrow button to swap the current image with content library images.The images used for templates are located there and for adding new images into content library just click the “Import” button in the content
panel.
How to Export the SWF file:
After finishing the customization of the SWI files you have to update the changes to your SWiSH animated templates.
- To export it (SWF file) you have to select the FILE/EXPORT/SWF from the top menu
(or)
Click the Ctrl+E hotkey
- Now select the destination folder of your new SWF file.
- To see the changes done to appear in your template you should export this file to the folder with the original SWF file
- The original SWF movies are located in the XXXX/with_flash/HTML/Flash or XXXX/with_fl/HTML/Swish folder (XXXX is the four digits product id number)
- And now to export your SWF movie you may have to change the export options which can be done in the Export panel. The panel can be accessed by clicking the Panels/Export in the top menu.
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