The First Issue Books and Antiques

Flash Studio

Adobe Flash: Web Design Wonder or a Flash Menu for Disaster?

Adobe Flash is a truly amazing innovation, even after more than a decade Adobe Flash is a software platform for multimedia content. It was originally created by Jonathan Gay as a project known as Future Splash Animator. When Disney Studios and MSN got interested in using it for their websites, this pricked the awareness of Macromedia who were already developing their Director software. Macromedia bought out Jonathan Gay’s parent company and the software was rebadged under the title of Macromedia Flash 1.0.

Currently, it is under the wing of Adobe Systems. Ever since its introduction, Adobe Flash has enjoyed tremendous popularity as an essential tool for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. It is increasingly being used for a growing variety of website related tasks such as Flash menus. These include; adding animation, advertisements, and widgets and integrating video into web pages.

The speciality of this application is that it can manipulate both vector and raster graphics and it supports bi-directional streaming of audio and video. This makes it extremely easy to embed animation, interactive movies and virtual tours on web sites, which would previously not have been possible. In the hands of an experienced web designer, Flash can lend a slick and professional look to all kinds of web sites.

The software uses a scripting language called ActionScript. This provides the first challenge for people who intend to enter the world of rich multimedia content development. There is a steep learning curve before you can produce the high quality results modern web visitors expect. The reward for all that effort is the fact that your content is probably playable on almost everybody’s PC.

This is thanks to the free Adobe Flash Player, which is the most common tool available for playing Flash content in web browsers. This is under constant review and development with updates available online (almost weekly at times, it seems). In other portable electronic devices a slimmed down version known as Flash Lite is used to display the content.

Flash is incorporated into websites through files in the SWF format, traditionally called "ShockWave" movies. These files usually have a .swf file extension and are technically an "object" on the web page, usually "played" in a standalone Adobe Flash Player. Flash Video files have an .flv file extension and are either used from within .swf files or played through an flv aware player, such as VLC, or QuickTime and Windows Media Player with external codecs added.

Flash is credited with giving the common man, the power of animation because it becomes relatively easy for experienced programmers to create animation and develop interactivity. In fact there have been several attempts to produce low cost Flash animation editors that have even been trialed successfully with UK primary school children.

One of the most ubiquitous uses of the technology is in the production of animated Flash advertising banners, which despite common gossip, remain an effective tool in the advertising cupboard.

What is considered to be the main argument against Flash is that it breaks some of the conventions associated with normal HTML pages. Some actions like selecting text, scrollbars, form control and right-clicking act differently than in a regular HTML webpage.

There are those who consider Flash to be unfriendly towards to disabled users of IT. Currently, it is only compatible with certain screen readers and then, only under Windows. So in the case of Internet users who are visually impaired; who require larger text sizes or high-contrast color schemes, they will frequently find sites that make extensive use of Flash difficult to read. This problem has been solved to some extent by controlling the full page zoom options found in many modern browsers.

Some of the other disadvantages of Flash are dependent on its implementation in the web site structure. If you anticipate your website receiving large numbers of customers, it is better to avoid the excessive use of Flash, because the fairly large files will take time to load. With multiple users accessing the same content you can put a heavy load on your servers.

Another disadvantage of Flash is that it is not optimized for search engine indexing. As a result of this the content of Flash animation is not visible to most of the search engines. Thus, much content of this type gets excluded from search results. Some developers are now coming up with ingenious solutions for including indexable information in the coding around Flash objects on the webpage. The most significant example is within Flash rollover menus where the "Googlebots" can now index the links on those menus.

If a Flash file contains un-optimized raster images (i.e. big images you haven’t sized to the player’s window), the final animation’s size will cause higher than necessary page loading times. With the notoriously short attention span of information hungry surfers, this always ends up irritating users and losing you potential customers. It is also more expensive to update the Flash content of a given website than traditional non-Flash based content due to the quite technical nature of generating and editing that content.

Overall, Adobe Flash is a pretty amazing innovation in web design. It has allowed ordinary people, with commitment, to develop graphical eye candy that was once upon a time, only in the realm of the big animation studios. It is and remains, revolutionary: even this far down the line. However, it is not a panacea for your graphical requirements. The high skill levels needed and the large file sizes involved can, give you expensive overheads and laborious web page loading. On the other hand, for some effects it is the only practical solution, if you have very specific requirements.

Always take a long hard look at the effect you want to achieve; the alternative methods and the cost in money or time before you launch yourself into a major Flash project.

About the Author

Ray Cassidy

http://www.cosmicrayimages.thenorthernview.biz

Website header graphics cropped from stunningly atmospheric photos in a range of sizes, ready for a variety of inspirational website headers.

Studio Flash from www.smick.co.uk in action with Gavin Hoey

6 Ways To Convert PowerPoint To Flash

There are many benefits of converting PowerPoint to Flash, such as greater accessibility, compatibility, smaller file size, sound integration, streaming, secure, email-ready, etc. Here are 6 ways for you to convert PowerPoint presentation to Flash.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash with Wondershare PowerPoint to Flash

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Wondershare PowerPoint to Flash is a PowerPoint add-in which could help anyone convert PowerPoint presentation to Flash with one click. Here are the following steps:

1. Download Wondershare PowerPoint to Flash and install it on your computer.
2. Launch the program, import your presentation you want to convert.
3. Click Publish to convert your presentation to Flash.

Virtue:
Retains all the animations, hyperlinks, multimedia objects after conversion.
Has up to 90% reduction in file size after conversion.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash using OpenOffice

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1. Launch OpenOffice.org Impress.
2. File -> Open, open the PowerPoint presentation that you wish to convert to flash.
3. Click File -> Export.
4. Choose Macromedia Flash (SWF) (.swf) in the Filter box. Click OK.

Defect:
All the animations, multimedia files in the presentation will disappear after conversion. So it is ideal way for static presentations.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash manually with Adobe Flash

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1. Saving PowerPoint slide into WMF.
Office button -> Save As -> Other Formats, choose Windows Metafile (*.WMF) at Save as type drop-down list, and click Save. Then click Every Slide button in the pop-up dialog.
2. Importing the WMF files into Flash.
3. Exporting the FLA file to a SWF file.

For detailed, please refer:
http://www.sameshow.com/ppt2flash/convert-powerpoint-to-flash-manually.html

Defect:
So complicated and all the animations will disappear after conversion.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash via online file conversion

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Zamzar zamzar.com/ is a web application to convert files. It allows user to convert files without downloading a software tool. Users can type in a URL or upload file from their computer, Zamzar then converts the file(s) to specified format. You could upload the presentation you want to convert, select swf format and then input your email to receive an email with a URL from where you can download the converted file.

 

Defect:
Conversion will often fail, limitation to file size, and most of the animations will disappear.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash with presentation sharing website

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Slideshare.net, slideboom.com, authorstream.com are good presentation sharing websites. You could upload your presentation to these websites, and then they will convert your presentation to Flash and share it on web.

Defect:
Ideal way to share the Flash presentation online, you cannot download the Flash to your computer.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash with screen recorder

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Download and install Comtasia (techsmith.com) on your computer and then follow the steps below.

1. Save your PPT file as PPS file.
2. Set Camtasia studio to record the whole screen.
3. Play your PowerPoint PPS file and Press "F9" to start recording the screen.
4. When you reach your last blank slide, Press F10 to tell Camtasia Recorder to stop recording. You will be prompted to save the captured slideshow, so choose a directory and enter a filename.
5. Save your capture in SWF format.

Defect:
It will a little time-consuming if there are many slides in your presentation.

Which way works for you

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All the above methods can help you convert PowerPoint to Flash, which method works for you depends on your presentation. For static presentation with no music, videos and animations, you can use OpenOffice, Adobe Flash or online file conversion service for you. For multimedia presentation with music, videos and animations, Wondershare PowerPoint to Flash or screen recorder is a good choice. However, a good screen recorder is a little expensive than a PowerPoint to Flash.

About the Author

The author is a senior expert in eLearning who works at Wondershare E-Learning department. Wondershare Software is an industry-leading learning and training software application provider. You could get more eLearning tool for your teaching and training, such as PowerPoint to Flash Converter, Quiz Maker and so on.

Jeff Smith's Studio Flash Photography $21.27 Jeff Smith's Studio Flash Photography

Flashpoint Replacment Flash Tube for Budget 160 Studio Monolight Flash. $19.95 Flashpoint Replacment Flash Tube for Budget 160 Studio Monolight Flash.

Animation With Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Studio Techniques $27.99 Animation With Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Studio Techniques

Video With Adobe Flash Cs4 Professional Studio Techniques $39.99 Video With Adobe Flash Cs4 Professional Studio Techniques

ADOR BUDGET STUDIO FLASH $49.95 @@ The unit mounts onto any standard lightstand with a 5/8 or smaller mounting stud. It has a circular flash tube that is daylight balanced at 5600 deg. K, a guide number of 90 at ISO 100 and a recycling time of 5-7 seconds. It also comes with a 60 watt removable modeling lamp. The Budget Studio monolight Flash can be triggered through the camera with its included 12' sync cord, by another flash being fired and activating the built-in Photo-Slave, or through its open-flash test button. It's a compact 7.0 long with a diameter of 3-3/4 and weighs only 15 ounces.

Flash 5 Actionscript Studio $3.98 ActionScript is Javascript for motion-web designers using Flash. In the summer 2000 release of Flash 5, the capabilities of ActionScript as a fully-fledged scripting language have expanded dramatically. The pressure on web designers using Flash has been seriously stepped up. If you want to compete in state-of-the-art interactive web design, you had better learn ActionScript.

Flash Studio Secrets $4.98 This stunning, four-color book is built around specific projects with underlying themes that introduce specific points about using Flash. Each project features a world-class Flash designer or organization, and includes a real-world case study detailing the objectives of the project. Each case study includes a description of the techniques and skills used in the project. Also integrated into these chapters would be specific notes on how doing these projects might differ slightly with Flash 5.

Flash 5 Studio with CD-ROM $3.98 Macromedia Flash has set new standards in web motion graphics. Version 5, due for release in late Summer 2000, will be the next and best version out there, pushing Flash's capabilities even further and demanding a new level of expertise from Flash artists. Data from NPD, the parent company of Media Metrix, reports that over 90% of the Web population, or over 220 million users, can now view Macromedia Flash content. As the Flash audience grows, so it expects higher standards of web design - dynamic content, sound and video, interactivity - as the norm. Every Flash developer has to be ready to meet that challenge or risk being yesterday's news.

Adorama Budget Studio Monolight Flash Basic Kit with One 100 Watt Second Flash, Umbrella and 7' Ligh $69.95 Adorama Budget Studio Monolight Flash Basic Kit with One 100 Watt Second Flash, Umbrella and 7' Light Stand.

Blazzeo 16-Channel Wireless Studio Flash Receiver (CCA202) $17.06 HighlightIt is a part of the item 'Blazzeo 16-Channel Wireless Slave Studio Flash Trigger Kit (Transmitter + Receiver)', and can not be used separately.Each receiver works with one flash, several flash units work together helps fill in shadows and improve the evenness of lighting.This is particularly useful for portrait and product photography. Most importantly, without the need to connect the flash by wire or cable, you can move the flash to anywhere that produces the best lighting to the object you shoot.SpecificationSignal Type: FM RadioChannel: 16 channels selectableWorking Range: 30m