Flash Image displaying differently ???

**pauland** · 18 June 2006, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by j4mes_bond25

By the way, when you say "keep" them all in flash, do you mean save it as ".swf" file ???

From your posts am I right in guessing that you're using flash as an illustration tool to create graphics on an html page (but not building a website in Flash)?

I think the "keep them in Flash" comment was related to you building the website in flash - you haven't really made things entirely clear.

Paul

(looking around your site I can see that you have some html templates kicking about, so I guess html it is!)

**RedWombat** · 18 June 2006, 06:17 PM

You could build the site in Flash, although that has it's own issues with search engine crawling. You could also keep your nav buttons in the SWF format. I've attached a simple sample. It looks like you were using Flash as a Graphics Tools as Paul says.

I looked at your Button, ButtonHover and MenuText FLA's. They are all the parts of your buttons you were trying to create the PNG, JPG and GIF's from. When I said keep them in Flash, I meant to create each entire button in Flash or the whole navigation in it and use the SWF. Look through the FLA and SWF I posted.

However, your problem is easly solved with the other approach you were using. Just don't make your background transparent. In your example I would set it to black and use either a JPG or GIF. It will match up with the black of your web page. Does that make sense? You don't even need Flash to do this, just use Fireworks. You would use it's frames to create the Over state and a little JavaScript in your page code to create the image swap as you roll over.

You could still do it with Flash if you wish, just use the SWF instead trying to export out of flash as you were doing. This would take the work out of putting to image files and coding the image swap. Flash does this automatically.

Hope this is helpful and not missing information. I'm in a rush.

Good luck,

**j4mes_bond25** · 18 June 2006, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by RedWombat

You could build the site in Flash, although that has it's own issues with search engine crawling. You could also keep your nav buttons in the SWF format. I've attached a simple sample. It looks like you were using Flash as a Graphics Tools as Paul says.

I looked at your Button, ButtonHover and MenuText FLA's. They are all the parts of your buttons you were trying to create the PNG, JPG and GIF's from. When I said keep them in Flash, I meant to create each entire button in Flash or the whole navigation in it and use the SWF. Look through the FLA and SWF I posted.

However, your problem is easly solved with the other approach you were using. Just don't make your background transparent. In your example I would set it to black and use either a JPG or GIF. It will match up with the black of your web page. Does that make sense? You don't even need Flash to do this, just use Fireworks. You would use it's frames to create the Over state and a little JavaScript in your page code to create the image swap as you roll over.

You could still do it with Flash if you wish, just use the SWF instead trying to export out of flash as you were doing. This would take the work out of putting to image files and coding the image swap. Flash does this automatically.

Hope this is helpful and not missing information. I'm in a rush.

Good luck,

In the early stages of my Flash training, when I learnt about creating basic graphics & using the Vector shapes, I designed the buttons & saved it as ".swf" file, but in my HTML code, I couldn't for some reason link them, although I'll delve into it further to ensure if I was doing it right or not.

By the way, creating my required graphics (buttons, banners, etc.) in ".swf" made more sense to me, since it saves me from any hassle that I'm currently facing.

The reason, I'm inclined to use Flash as opposed to Fireworks at the moment is cos I'm training myself in Flash to guess it'd make more sense in using Flash instead by creating my graphics based on whatever I learn.

Just to clearify, if I save my buttons, banners, etc. in ".swf", would you say I should create 2 different buttons i.e. one with NORMAL & another the HOVER. I'd have thought that I could make do with JUST ONE ".swf" & use some sort of Action script in Flash to create its hover effect, but I haven't enlightened myself up with it yet but if it is possible, it would be just fantastic, frankly speaking.

I've got 3 CD of Flash Video Tutorial & I've only finished 1 and half, so haven't looked into Actionscript, as yet.

**remi** · 18 June 2006, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by j4mes_bond25

Just to clearify, if I save my buttons, banners, etc. in ".swf", would you say I should create 2 different buttons i.e. one with NORMAL & another the HOVER. I'd have thought that I could make do with JUST ONE ".swf" & use some sort of Action script in Flash to create its hover effect, but I haven't enlightened myself up with it yet but if it is possible, it would be just fantastic, frankly speaking.

I've got 3 CD of Flash Video Tutorial & I've only finished 1 and half, so haven't looked into Actionscript, as yet.

You don't need 2 different buttons with Flash. Flash has a "Button object" to create mouseover effects.

You don't have to be a Actionscript programmer to learn to do this. Take a look at this Tutorial to create Buttons with Flash.

Remi

**RedWombat** · 18 June 2006, 11:46 PM

I created a simple button for you in the ZIP file I posted. It has the FLA and SWF in it. It also has the ActionScript coding to make it act like a button - Go to whatever URL you specify. Download it and have a look, I think it will answer some of your questions. Select the button on the Stage in the FLA and press F9 to open the Actions panel, you can see the code, it's very straight forward.

Just to clearify, if I save my buttons, banners, etc. in ".swf", would you say I should create 2 different buttons i.e. one with NORMAL & another the HOVER. I'd have thought that I could make do with JUST ONE ".swf" & use some sort of Action script in Flash to create its hover effect, but I haven't enlightened myself up with it yet but if it is possible, it would be just fantastic, frankly speaking.

In answer to this question, you only need one SWF file for both states. In the FLA I posted you can see this.

If you're teaching yourself to use Flash then go for it!!! Emersion learning is the way to go. Sometimes a lot of headache, but you'll learn quicker.

If you have any questions about the attachment I provided, just let me know.

Happy to help.

**j4mes_bond25** · 20 June 2006, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by RedWombat

I created a simple button for you in the ZIP file I posted. It has the FLA and SWF in it. It also has the ActionScript coding to make it act like a button - Go to whatever URL you specify. Download it and have a look, I think it will answer some of your questions. Select the button on the Stage in the FLA and press F9 to open the Actions panel, you can see the code, it's very straight forward.

In answer to this question, you only need one SWF file for both states. In the FLA I posted you can see this.

If you're teaching yourself to use Flash then go for it!!! Emersion learning is the way to go. Sometimes a lot of headache, but you'll learn quicker.

If you have any questions about the attachment I provided, just let me know.

Happy to help.

Thanks for your help, time & effort. Much appreciated.

I managed to make the buttons EXACTLY the way I wanted & .zip file provided by you was of great help, since I simply edited text & links & created similar other buttons.

Tiny hiccup from the browser compatibility side, I'm afraid, since it works perfectly well in Firefox but not with Internet Explorer. Buttons are having couple of problems on Internet Explorer as:

>> We have to click TWICE to go to the links on the button
>> When we hover the mouse over the button, the background turns LIGHTER "only in Firefox" (so it does work perfectly well), but this effect is sadly NOT appearing in Internet Explorer, I'm afraid.
>> When we hover the mouse over the button, ONLY in Internet Explorer, we can see a rectangular "thing" appearing covering the border of the button.

Once again, thanks for your help & any further help with the present problem would be greatly appreciated.

All relevant pages of website (presently ONLY uploaded "contact.php" though) can be viewed on (please click on Contact.php):

http://members.lycos.co.uk/darsh25/personal_website/

**RedWombat** · 20 June 2006, 03:03 PM

j4mes, I'm afraid the problem you're having is related to changes that Microsoft did to IE because of the EOLAS vs. Microsoft court battle. After April 11 if you did an update to Windows, Microsoft also updated IE. It has to due with them being sued for the way IE handled the Object tags.

This problem can be fixed, but it requires a little bit of coding.

Here's a few links to help you out?

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowled...fm?id=7779d219

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/activeco...devletter.html

http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/

http://www.milonic.com/activateflash.php

Read through these links, I think it will help you solve your problem.

I was baffled by that box for awhile as well until I found this out. Perhaps others in this forum have as well.

Best of luck,

**j4mes_bond25** · 18 June 2006, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

From your posts am I right in guessing that you're using flash as an illustration tool to create graphics on an html page (but not building a website in Flash)?

I think the "keep them in Flash" comment was related to you building the website in flash - you haven't really made things entirely clear.

Paul

(looking around your site I can see that you have some html templates kicking about, so I guess html it is!)

Yes, you guessed it right. I'm developing the website in CSS & PHP & ONLY certain content of it such as Graphics, Banners, Buttons are something that I've been trying to design in Flash, since I'm learning Flash at the moment & thought of implementing whatever I learn in it by using it in CERTAIN content such as Buttons, Banner, Certain graphics, etc. (but am NOT creating an entire Flash based website, at the moment, since I'm not at all comfortable with it, as I've only recently started learning Flash through Video Tutorial).

Although, ".png" is the best image I could get but sadly not being displayed properly in Internet Explorer. ".jpg" (white background) & ".gif" (rough edges) has its own problem, as you could see on the website itself. In that case, I wonder how exactly could I save my graphics in Flash in order to display it perfectly well on browser.

Would you say, designing in Fireworks would solve the problem ???