Dreamlinestudio Flash (Starter Document)

Welcome to our general help document. You will find basic information to get going on your flash product. Click on the Bookmarks button on the left for quicker info.

You must be using Flash Software to edit our templates. Flash MX 2004 format is available upon request, but the latest program is recommended LINK Before you edit your template, please save it on disc or a secure place on your hard drive. Its always wise to keep a clean copy of your product. Overview Generally flash templates come with .fla source files and the final product compressed .swf file. Html files may also be included in your purchases. Step 1. The .fla file

The .fla file is a red icon and is the open-source document you need to edit your flash template. This file can be opened with Macromedia Flash Software. If you do not have this software, you can download a demo here. Step 2. Flash Library The next step we recommend is to explore your template and arrange the library to your liking. Bring up you library window by pressing (Ctrl+L) on your keyboard. Once the library window appears, press the kind button to auto organize.

We recommend spending a few a few minutes searching through the elements and renaming them to your liking, simply right click and rename. Double click on the movie clips to access the hearts of the website.

Step 3. Timeline Know how the timeline works. The timeline hold all the layers that make up your whole flash website. Along with editing through the library, you can slide the timeline dragger (highlighted yellow) across to view the different elements. Here you can view all the sounds, actions, graphics, and text being used. We do recommend that you modify through the library first, but editing through the timeline can be as effective as well.

Step 4. The Art of Double Clicking You will find that you will be doing a lot of double-clicking whether in the library or on the stage. Editing text, modifying movie clips, graphics requires double clicking

Step 5. Editing Images So you want to edit images, we will show you the easy way to do this, open the library (Ctrl+L) and look for your image you want to edit/replace. Next, right click on the image icon and choose properties.

Once you choose the properties option, you should see your image properties. Here you can see how big the image is in pixels, and your compression data.

Make sure the image you are replacing has the same pixel dimensions. Click on the Import button and browse for your image, its that simple. If you are using an image of different pixel dimensions, replace by using the main timeline.

Step 5.1 Editing Text Editing text in Flash is perhaps the easiest part in your development. I will show you step by step how to edit. Hopefully you have the flash document and a cold drink next to you. One of the first objects you will see is your Flash Timeline.

1. Make sure that your layers are NOT locked, if they are you will be unable to edit anything in your product. Click on the lock if you happen to see any lock icons on any layer. Okay next? Fig.2

(Fig.3)

There are 2 ways to access text. 1. Drag the timeline slider across revealing text as you go. (Fig.2) 2. Access the Flash Library (Ctrl+L) and double click on the movie clip containing the text. Movie clips are represented by the purple "gear" icons. A good way to organize your movie elements is to press the "kind" button. Also renaming the movie clip to something you remember is recommended.

Once you find the text you want to edit, simply double-click on the text until you can edit. Please invest a few minutes double-clicking on movie elements, running the slider. This is the best way to learn more and know where certain aspects of the template are located. That's it.

Step 6. Modifying Text It is important you have your properties window open to make edits to text color and formatting.

One you select the Properties option, you will see this palette: You must have the text selected to view these properties.

Step 7. Email Links First create a button, press F9, double click getURL and place the codes below. In Flash you can use the mailto: email link method to open a new email window. Most browsers support these email links, but an email client must already be set up for the browser. In a getURL action place mailto: followed by the email address (no space between them) and leave the Window: box blank. mailto:[email protected] You can use 'search parameters' to automatically fill-in subject, body and other entries in the email. To add parameters to the email you add a question mark (?) following the email address, then the parameter is added, followed by an equal sign (=) and the text to be entered. Parameters include subject, body and cc. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Flash Additional parameters can be added by separating them with an ampersand (&) and no spaces. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Flash&body= I have some questions. Some browsers do not support email parameters or only support some of them. If unknown parameters are included then the browser will just ignore them.

Step 8. Done Editing After your done editing, its time to prepare to embed your flash website into a html page. You can do these 2 ways. You can either publish the html flash or do it manually through Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or any other html editor. To publish your html file through flash, simply go to: File>Publish Preview>HTML. This will save both the finished .swf file and the html file in the same directory where you have your source files saved. If this html happens to be your main index page, you will have to rename the html to index.html

If you do not want to use flash to publish your html page, you can do it manually using your html editor. Embed this code in an html document by specifying certain parameters like height, width, quality, etc. The following example shows the necessary html code to place into an .html document in order to embed a movie. To change the embedded swf file you have to modify the parameters in blue. Other important parameters are in red. <OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.ca b#version=6,0,0,0" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="80" id="name" ALIGN=""> <PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="movie.swf"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high> <PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF> <EMBED src="movie.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="80" NAME="movie" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"> </embed> </OBJECT>

Step 9. Uploading files to your web host account The only files you will need to upload are .swf and html. Make sure the main .swf file is embedded in the html file. Place in the same folder or directory. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) In order to transfer files via FTP, you must have an FTP client installed on your PC.

1. Connect to your Virtual Server via FTP using your login id and your login password that you received in your email Configuration Letter. Do not login as "anonymous", as you will not have access to the directories and files you need. 2. After you log in, you will be placed in your Virtual Server home directory (~/usr/home/login_id). This is the same directory you find yourself in when you connect to your Virtual Server via Telnet or SSH. 3. Your FTP client should allow you to select the file transfer mode, either ASCII or BINARY. Use ASCII mode to transfer text files and BINARY mode to transfer binary files. Most FTP clients have an "Automatic" transfer mode option that can be set. When this option is selected the FTP client will automatically determine which file transfer mode to use when you upload or download files

Fetch (Macintosh) If your computer is a Macintosh, Fetch is probably the most popular FTP Client available and is quite easy to use. Specific instructions about how to use Fetch are included below:
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a. Establish a connection to your Virtual Server by selecting the "New Connection" button under the "File" menu. Specify your domain name (or temporary domain name if your domain name has not yet been registered) as the "Host", your login name as the "User ID", and your login password as the "Password" b. You will want to navigate to the ~/www/htdocs, ~/usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs, or the folder you indicated as the document root if you created a subhost. folder on your Virtual Server. This is the directory where you will store your web content.

c. To upload content to your Virtual server you can either drag files and folders from your desktop to the Fetch window or select the "Put File..." button and select files and folders. d. Be sure that all HTML documents and cgi script are transferred in ASCII mode. Graphics should be transferred in Binary format. Fetch also has a setting, "Automatic", that you can select- Fetch will then automatically determine which mode to transfer the file (we recommend you use the "Automatic" mode).

Here is a list of good resources you can go to and help you answer and help in your website development. Flashkit.com flashkit.com Actionscript.org Actionscript.org Were-here http://www.were-here.com/ Dreamlinestudio Forum http://dreamlinestudio.com/forum/ Hosting http://www.xisn.com

Upon opening your flash files you receive a wrong file format; it may because you need to update your flash software. Contact us so we can format your flash files to your program version. We recommend using the latest software You may see missing fonts ignore and use Arial or verdana as default. If you need a specific font, please contact us. It may appear as though there is nothing on the stage. If this is the case, open the flash library panel (Ctrl+L). You will then see all the movie contents. You may encounter frustration when playing with flash. Flash does have a learning curve, but hang in thereits worth the patience. A punching bag may help.

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