Design whole (small) website with Pro in Flash?

**tomcat** · 06 December 2006, 07:19 PM

I think, if you intend making a flash website, this only makes sense if you use actionscript (the internal programming language) as well.
If you only do it with graphics and animations it either will grow up rapidly or it might look like made for a kiddys place. Especially if you have several text flying around makes the file size explode.

Although I don't like fully flash-sites, you can make them for use with low-band modem too. The preloading of content can be made in the background so the user almost won't notice it. Just put your animation into pieces which you load BEFORE the user will click them.

The argument with the back-button is true ... and not. The original back-button don't work with flash, that's right, But nobody refuses you from making one by yourself. Works wonderful.

By the way: SwishMax is not as easy as most of the "quick and dirty" flash-generators. Yo're right. But it is much easier than the original Flash by Macromedia/Adobe. And 99,5 % compatible with it. And much cheaper anyway.

Have a nice flashy night.

**Egg Bramhill** · 06 December 2006, 07:58 PM

Remi,

It depends - I'm not sure if you really want buttons for navigating through the website.

If you really want to use a button as a navigation element, the button needs an OnRelease effect like a normal button in the following example.

Isn't that exactly the same as I did in post #26? The buttons Decrease in size on release.

But I would recommend to change the layout of your navigation: Don't use rectangles around the menu entries to avoid the button-look. Perhaps more something like that:

I agree totaly, but the mini site was a simple example for new users and is used in the tutorial. That's why it's deliberately basic, no hidden button areas etc.

Tom,

I think, if you intend making a flash website, this only makes sense if you use actionscript (the internal programming language) as well.
If you only do it with graphics and animations it either will grow up rapidly or it might look like made for a kiddys place. Especially if you have several text flying around makes the file size explode.

I create all my web sites in Flash and would never dream of going backwards by using XXPro. However the original question was "With Pro supporting flash now, is it possibleto create an entire, albeit tiny website in XXP? Buttons can be used for navigation from a main menu instead of simple forward-backward arrows to progress thru an animation? If yes, do you think there might be a tutorial in the future?" I was answering this question and supplying a simple tutorial. It needn't be like a kiddy place at all and where did you get all this flying text from?

**remi** · 06 December 2006, 09:47 PM

Egg, you're right, with post #26 and with your example for new users.

Personally, I prefer to create HTML/DHTML pages, because of their advantages (I've talked about the reasons in detail in another thread).

Remi

**aridzone** · 06 December 2006, 10:42 PM

Hi all

I've only designed webpages in html, dhtml, and javascript.
But I'm open to all possibilities!
What about the possibility of PDF?

I have'nt bought PRO yet but it seems possible.

**Tallis** · 12 December 2006, 08:31 PM

Egg: "And now the tutorial."

Page 3 of your swf-formatted tutorial on how to make a swf website, you indicate that ( in animation properties, frame tab ) "change the display-this-frame-for to zero seconds". IN XXP, doing this creates an access violation error- continue or quit. THis happens 100% of the time. The program inserts 0.01 seconds instead of 0.0 or 0. I tried going into the "animation loop and speed" tab to change the 0.01 to 0, and that wouldnt take either

edit- i just noticed in page 4 of the tut that your dialog box indeed has the 0.01 seconds is well... so you cant put zero in there, can you ( technically)?... Did you get the error though?

**Egg Bramhill** · 12 December 2006, 08:53 PM

Tallis,

No I didn't get a AVE error, but you're correct you can enter a zero value in the frame rate and it does now revert to 0.01 secs. It never did pre PRO as far as I can remember, does now but seems to apply the animation with no problems.

**Tallis** · 12 December 2006, 09:15 PM

Ugh. Another update :-) I closed down the program and then reopened the saved file, and now it works. Go figure.

By the way, nowhere in help can I find a reference to "Target frame for URL" needing to be "_frame" when arranging navigation within a swf file.... Where should I be looking for the official documentation? Your tutorial is great.

**Egg Bramhill** · 12 December 2006, 10:12 PM

Tallis,

I think this is perhaps due to the late addition of this feature. Paul seems to have discovered this feature without any reference to help files. I don't know how he tripped over this fact. Hopefully the help files will be updated in the CD Rom launch.

**Tallis** · 12 December 2006, 10:46 PM

Egg, thanks for sticking with me on this semi-old topic... ( Things move so quickly here that a 3-5 day old post is ancient history it seems! )

One last dumb question. The "zero" second frame delay about which we're tallking now-- the one which is switched out for 0.01 by the program when you hit apply-- I noticed that in your other earlier post in the same thread where you attached flashsitesrcrapdotcom.xar

Open it. The Frame 1 ( background ?) delay is actually ZERO!

How did you achieve this in light of what we're discussing!?

I went and changed it to 1, applied, then went to change it back to 0, thinking the program would insert that 0.01 that's in your tutorial, and it just stayed with the 0! Weird.

ps- one thing that's been bugging me that i can't fingure out about the size of the exported swf animation ( H&W not mb ) . The help file says that the animation size is determined by a clipview. Your tutorial says the animation size is determined by the background.

So I see when I export your tutorial the_site.xar, I do get a swf with a height and width the same as the larget rectangle you painted. But I couldnt find any clipview on it.

And the export dialog for animations has many less features than the export for a drawing. Now where to choose the size dimensions.

Is it just unwritten that the export defaults to the extent of footprint of all the items on the drawing?

If so, if I need a 850 by 550 flash web page, I should just make that size rectangle on the first frame, the background as you called it in your tutorial, build everthing on top of it in frames 2-xx, then export to get a 850x550 swf.

sorry for the run-on questions....

**Egg Bramhill** · 13 December 2006, 05:18 AM

Is it just unwritten that the export defaults to the extent of footprint of all the items on the drawing?

If so, if I need a 850 by 550 flash web page, I should just make that size rectangle on the first frame, the background as you called it in your tutorial, build everthing on top of it in frames 2-xx, then export to get a 850x550 swf.

Tallis,

Basically that's correct. The size is determined by the footprint of all the items in the drawing EXCEPT if you use a clipview. The clipview will reduce the swf size down to the cliping shape. This is very handy when you want objects appearing to slide on & off the stage.

I think I might have been confusing myself re the background display timing. I've just done a quick experiment and it is still possible to give a single frame a zero duration (via the Frame tab). However if you select the Animation Loop & Speed tab and give a zero timing (which is a global setting) it reverts to 0.01secs across all frames (which makes sense).