Adobe InDesign CS5 Beginners Training Videos – Tutorial

Adobe InDesign CS5 Tutorial – Training Video

This Adobe InDesign CS5 Tutorial Video for Beginners offers an easy and engaging introduction to software-based layout and design. Unlike other online tutorials that offer only a few specific tips, this is a comprehensive course that starts with the basics and gradually proceeds to more involved workflows. Once you have mastered the basics of composition, navigation, and object manipulation in Adobe InDesign, you can quickly begin working on many types of projects, from posters and newsletters, to flyers, books, and more.

Adobe Indesign CS5 Beginners Tutorial – Training

InDesign CS5, eBooks, and the Future

As a major player in both web media and print-based industries, Adobe has had a hand in digital document formats for years. In many ways, their PDF format was a starting point for the eBook, by offering a fast and easy way to replicate a print-style format on a computer screen. As dedicated electronic book readers have become more popular and even expanded to smartphone platforms, a number of new formats have become more prevalent, with the open EPUB standard being one of the most popular.

EPUB, which is short for electronic publication, is supported by Sony Readers, the Apple iPad, and the Barnes and Noble Nook, and it can be imported for use with the Amazon Kindle, as well. It offers flexible text margins and pagination so that books can easily be read on screens of many different sizes, and also offers CSS formatting to include text styles and the placement of graphics. EPUB even supports embedded multimedia playback, such as Flash video and animation, which Adobe InDesign CS5 definitely takes advantage of.

While EPUB output was offered in InDesign CS4, it was sufficient for some purposes but not particularly robust. Adobe engineers have taken up the challenge of extending professional level publishing tools into the format. Users can export css, xml, and full table of contents information from their InDesign files, and quickly separate chapters and special sections as needed. The included Adobe Digital Editions viewer offers preview and browsing functionality of complete EPUB documents, and a new export tool has been incorporated into the Adobe InDesign interface. The time for eBooks is now.

Adobe InDesign CS5 Training Video – Tutorial

Anyone interested in creating a professional quality eBook first needs to understand how InDesign works. In these video-based InDesign CS5 lessons, production expert Brian White walks viewers through the core tasks at the heart of every design workflow. Whether you’re working on postcards or billboards, brochures or photo books, it’s important that you have a solid understanding of how the major tools in Adobe InDesign work.

These Adobe Indesign CS5 Training Videos offer hands-on guidance from start to finish, with provided sample files that let you follow onscreen examples and get started even without raw material of your own. You’ll learn how to work with rulers and guides, master pages and drawing tools, color formatting and text styles and more.

This tutorial video series can now be ordered as one training package on CD / DVD or viewed online through an affordable monthly subscription service. More information and several free demos can be found on the product page:

Adobe Indesign CS5 Beginner Training Videos – Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Tutorial – Training Video

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Tutorial – Training Video

This new Adobe Photoshop CS5 Tutorial Video series is a great way to learn the powerful graphics and multimedia software. Spanning 95 separate lessons and over 7 full hours in length, the training course offers everything you need to get creative in a minimal amount of time. Highlighting basic, core features as well as more involved techniques and tasks, these Photoshop training videos will raise your proficiency and boost your confidence as you work hands on in conjunction with the instructive lessons. By learning Adobe Photoshop CS5, you’re not only gaining a broad set of practical skills but also learning the specific benefits of one of the most powerful programs ever made. More information, including several demo lessons, are available on the site: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Training Video

Photoshop CS5: The Best Upgrade in a Very Long Time

Though it has only been available for a matter of weeks, many users are quickly crowning Adobe Photoshop CS5 as the most comprehensive update to the program since Photoshop 7. In choosing the features to improve, the development team at Adobe actually looked at some of the program’s most popular functionality and resolved to make it even better.

Better, Easier Selections. One of the first priorities in enhancing image manipulation was improving the Photoshop selection tools. While Quick Select has always allowed for objects in a photo to be easily highlighted, it usually misses a great amount of detail as it is not designed to capture rough and fine details at once. With the new Refine Edges selection tool, Adobe Photoshop CS5 lets you add small details to the overall selection. This makes it extremely easy to crop and remove specific, complex items from photos.

Content Aware Fill. Perhaps the most widely anticipated Photoshop CS5 feature announced, content aware filling makes removing unwanted elements from images easier than ever before. The software now uses complex algorithms to detect overall patterns in images and giving you the option to “fill in” spaces left by deleted content. If two people are sitting on a park bench in a photo, for example, and you want to remove the person on the left, content aware filling will intelligently reproduce the park bench where the erased person was sitting, with a surprising level of accuracy. This is already saving countless hours for people working in many disciplines.

New Photography Features. As another perq for its core group of users, Adobe has also included a number of improvements for professional photography workflows. The new Lens Correction functionality now handles specific lens and camera profiles for very specific tweaking, and Adobe Photoshop CS5 also includes an impressive plug-in for Camera Raw 6.0. Included with the plug-in is new noise-removal functionality that is especially helpful for working with photos shot with high ISO.

New Adobe Photoshop CS5 Training Video – Tutorial

The improvements listed above are just a small sampling of what the latest edition of the software can do. There’s never been a better time to learn. By advancing through the Adobe Photoshop Tutorial Video course, you’ll have a better understanding of features both new and old, seeing how the entire program works together to create stunning images and effects. The training comes on CD / DVD or as streaming video online, and several free demos are on the Photoshop tutorial product page: Adobe Photoshop Training Video

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial – Training Video

This Illustrator CS5 Tutorial Video series takes a look at the tools available in the newest edition of the vector graphics software and gives viewers a solid working knowledge of the program’s impressive capabilities. For more information and a free demo try the
Adobe Illustrator CS5 Training Video

New Interactivity in the New Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator CS5 offers a number of new features and tools that optimize the application for the interactive web. Because it previously lacked built-in support for anti-aliasing, a significant number of designers considered Illustrator a bad choice for creating graphics meant for the web. Scaled projects created in Illustrator tended to show jagged edges and all but cancel out many of the advantages offered by actual vector design. In CS5, however, things have finally changed, with Adobe adopting the same powerful anti-aliasing technology used in Photoshop for Illustrator. In fact, the program now offers a set of menu items specifically dedicated to options for Web output. This means not only more versatility for users of Illustrator but also more options for extended workflows.
Even more exciting is the range of options available for working with Adobe Flash. Now users can quickly created whole interfaces and environments within Illustrator CS5 and export directly to Flex in the FXG format. Within Flash Catalyst CS5, one of Adobe’s newest development tools, users can quickly add functionality and interactive options to existing Illustrator compositions, and even seamlessly switch back to Illustrator for adjustments as needed.
As traditional lines between animation, video, and the web continue to blur, having this extended functionality in Illustrator is a definite asset for any professional designer.

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial Video

This Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial Video series offers special insight into using the latest version of the popular vector graphics design application. Digging into new options and tools as well as more established functionality that can be used every day, this extensive training covers a wide range of helpful topics. Veteran tutorial instructor and multimedia professional Dwayne Ferguson narrates the Adobe Illustrator series, pulling together relevant examples and time-saving tips that viewers at many different levels will be able to appreciate. Ferguson’s presentation style is simple, fast and fun.
All good design is incremental. Stage by stage, complex compositions come together as a series of parts, and this training video mirrors this creative process. Whether you are designing for print, multimedia or the web, you will find practical advice highlighting the tools and tasks you need to understand. Artboards, Paths, and Swatches as well as Gradients, Blends and Shadows are included within the course, just to name a few topics. This Illustrator CS5 course even looks at integration with Adobe Flash and InDesign. Three complete projects are also included, with files and walkthroughs to build your confidence and skill.
The tutorials can now be ordered on hardcopy CD / DVD to own or instantly viewed as streaming video online. The unique streaming video option is particularly convenient for designers, as the membership plan also grants full access to hundreds of other design courses on the site, from Maya to Painter, to 3D applications and more. Adobe Illustrator CS5 Training Video

Beginners Premiere Pro CS5 Tutorial – File Formats

In this Beginners Premiere CS5 tutorial expert Premiere author Mark Struthers explains about the many different file formats and to use them correctly within Premiere. Video formats is a complex issue, but this tutorial breaks it down into simple to understand examples.. This tutorial is just a short extract of what’s covered on the full training video which spans over 8 hours in duration. For more details follow this link: Beginners Premiere CS5 Tutorial

The course covers over 100 different topics and the above is only a sample, for more information on this excellent course plus many more free Premire CS5 titles follow the link below.
Beginners Premiere CS5 Tutorial

Full Description of course:
This Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Tutorial Video – Training Video is an excellent option for learning to use the powerful multimedia editing options this software puts in your hands. As the latest release of Adobe’s increasingly popular video editing platform, Premiere CS5 includes a revamped 64-bit engine to take advantage of the latest in computing power and expanded support for tapeless HD and Final Cut and Avid-based workflows. This means that more than ever, Adobe Premiere is suited for high end use by talented amateurs and serious video professionals. In this hands-on Adobe Premiere tutorial, professional video editor and Adobe expert Mark Struthers explores both the newest features and established functionality of the software suite. With downloadable sample files that enable users to easily follow along, this Adobe Premiere CS5 training course covers everything from basic import and capture to cutting, adding transitions and preparing your video to web-based or DVD / BluRay output. Because the tutorial lessons are Mac and Windows compatible, users on both platforms will find helpful advice for getting the most out of their individual systems. The Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 tutorial video can be ordered on CD / DVD or viewed online through the instant subscription option and is suitable for beginner to advanced users who wish to learn Premiere at their own pace

Beginners Illustrator CS5 Tutorial – Selections

In this Beginners Illustrator CS5 tutorial expert Adobe Illustrator author Dwayne Ferguson Shows how to use the improved selection tool. This tutorial is just a short extract of what’s covered on the full training video which spans over 8 hours in duration. For more details follow this link: Beginners Illustrator CS5 Tutorial

The course covers over 100 different topics and the above is only a sample, for more information on this excellent course plus many more free Illustrator CS5 titles follow the link below.
Beginners Illustrator CS5 Tutorial

Full Description of course:
This Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial Video – Training CD / DVD is a comprehensive resource designed for beginners or those looking to explore the full capabilities of Illustrator’s newest version. The combination of audio instruction and video screencasts makes it easy to follow along with expert Adobe trainer Dwayne Ferguson as he breaks each process down into its fundamental elements. With this instructional guide, you’ll learn to use Illustrators CS5’s new features, such as perspective drawing, a pixel grid for raster artwork, and resolution-independent effects, as well as learning basics such as navigating Illustrator’s interface, drawing, working with color and gradients, adding typography, working with layers, using brushes, filters, and effects, transformation tools, and saving and exporting your work. This Adobe Illustrator tutorial video series includes work files, so you’ll get to see real results as you become more confident and effective working within in the graphic design software. The training lessons are available as a CD /DVD or streaming online through the monthly subscription plan. All tutorial videos are Mac and Windows compatible, letting you learn Illustrator no matter which specific system you are using.. Watch our free Adobe Illustrator CS5 Tutorial Videos by clicking the blue lesson links below.

Captivate – Using the Timeline

Opens in Separate Window. The run time of this video is 2:46.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Captivate – Understand Object Timings

Opens in Separate Window. The run time of this video is 6:04.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Captivate – Setting and Exporting Preferences

Opens in Separate Window. The run time of this video is 2:45.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Captivate – Recording Modes – Introduction

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 3:19.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Creating a Basic Recording in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 3:42.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Captivate – Recording Preferences

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 4:536.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Multi Mode Recording in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 6:26.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Overview of Recording in FMR Mode in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 3:51.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Switching to FMR Mode Manually in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 1:59.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Editing FMR Files in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 5:09.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Inserting FMR Files in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 2:06.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Captivate – FMR Preferences

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 1:04.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Using Panning in Captivate

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 2:47.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Create an Image Slideshow in Captivate

Expert author and trainer Mark Fletcher uses a narrated video to explain how to create an Image Slideshow in Adobe Captivate. Mark has been using Captivate since it first arrived, when he’s not training other people on how to use this amazing app, Mark is either updating his blog or writing some Captivate related content. In order to watch the video below Apple QuickTime is required. For users with hearing disabilities Closed Captions have been added to assist.

Opens in Separate WIndow. The run time of this video is 2:04.

Other tutorials on Captivate narrated by Mark include:
Recording a Project with Panning, Full Motion Recording,FMR Preferences, Inserting FMR Files, Multi Mode Recording.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be adding more narrated videos, should you have an issue that you would like to see covered, just drop us a line.

Beginners FileMaker 11 Tutorial Video – Training CD / DVD

FileMaker 11 Training Video

This Beginner FileMaker 11 Training Video is a great way to gain confidence and skill with the program, even if you have no previous experience with Filemaker or database design. As the initial course in a larger three-tutorial series, this training video introduces users to core concepts and the inner workings of the FileMaker interface, laying the groundwork for a solid understanding that will improve the efficiency with which you are able to work.
Written and narrated by longtime FileMaker power user and script developer John Mark Osborne, the course offers expert advice that even more experienced users will respond to. By walking users through the development of a dynamic Contacts solution point by point, Osbourne explains concepts such as data fields, tables, layouts, value lists, automated entry, container fields and reporting in an engaging hands-on fashion that simply makes sense. The project-based approach offered in the training is superior to traditional instruction methods because it lets you learn by doing, not just reading about it. The training can be ordered as one tutorial CD / DVD package or viewed through the online subscription service. Free demo videos are on the site. FileMaker 11 Training Videos

About FileMaker 11

FileMaker Pro has always carried the reputation of a data organization and management tool that lets users work more efficiently without a lot of the drawbacks and barriers to entry that come with other programs and platforms. With a number of smart enhancements in key user interface and functional areas, FileMaker 11 etches this practical emphasis into stone, defining itself as one of the most productivity-oriented database programs available in the professional and consumer markets.
Improved Inspector
The enhanced and consolidated Inspector tool palette now lets users access a wide range of layout objects and design properties in one place. This makes it faster and easier for users to add individual touches to their data design for the purposes of creative customization and functional differentiation.
Quick Find
While some form of searching has been an option in Filemaker for years, now a full featured search box is available right within the Browse mode. Searching all fields within a given layout, accessing data and content is fast, efficient, and more intuitive for beginning users.
Text Highlight Option
The addition of a straightforward way to highlight words that you want to stand out is a no-brainer as far as collaboration tools go. A button built into the Filemaker UI makes it easy to bring attention to important sections of text.
Invoice Starter Presets
Small business owners are sure to get excited over this addition. Now common invoicing fields such as shipping data and customer contact options are just a few clicks away in FileMaker Pro 11, with a workable template that can fulfill the basic needs of a variety of companies and clients.

These improvements just scratch the surface of what is possible with FileMaker 11. Approaching the software with a guided introduction is the absolute best way to learn what you can really accomplish.

AutoCAD Electrical Tutorial Video – Training CD

AutoCAD Electrical 2010 Training Video

This AutoCAD Electrical 2010 Training Video is a user-friendly, cost-effective way to master this impressive new design platform. While it shares many key similarities in look and feel with the general edition of industry standard-bearer, AutoCAD Electrical has a wide range of tools of specific use in designing electrical control systems.
With compatibility for files developed in Autodesk Inventor Professional, designs created in promis-e, and standard DWG files, AutoCAD Electrical is designed to seamlessly fit within your existing workflow. Whether you are at the prototyping stage or in the earliest steps of planning, the built-in troubleshooting and display tools are indispensable, and the 650,000 standard electrical symbols and components will ensure that your materials and resources fit your requirements without needing to hand-design basic parts or pay for costly expansion packages online.
All of the training is shown from right within the AutoCAD Electrical workspace. Files are included with the tutorial lessons that enable you to follow the author step by step, and because everything onscreen is shown in real time, the results in the video will look just as they do on your own workstation. The course is narrated by certified teacher Shaun Bryant (AAI), so you get workshop quality instruction for a fraction of the price.
Now available to order on hardcopy CD / DVD or viewable online through an affordable monthly subscription plan, this training video will give you a working knowledge of this unique design software through detailed tips and examples.

Keys to Productivity

At the core of AutoCAD Electrical 2010 are a number of enhancements meant specifically to make control systems designers more efficient and productive in their work. Autodesk developers researched the professional design process to come up with a number of innovations to save users time and frustration.
The first and most obvious improvement in the program is the user interface, with priority given to tools the electrical designer is most likely to use. That’s just the beginning. At the heart of the productivity enhancements is a built-in Circuit Builder tool that lets users create dynamic, rules-based circuits made to fit specific requirements in components, catalog data, wiring and other considerations. The circuit builder also provides information on the relative energy efficiency of your generated designs so you can easily make adjustments and decisions as needed.
Another time-saving feature in AutoCAD Electrical is the ability to re-use common circuit designs. Once you have created a standard circuit you would like to use again, you can simply save it and import it into any future project you’re working on. Wire and device numbering automatically adjusts to account for the introduction of the circuit, allowing a functional solution that works without any manual conversion or downtime.
The software features a number a number of custom drawing commands and utilities specifically for electrical engineers, as well. To understand the full extent of the tools available, check out the AutoCAD Electrical 2010 Training Video for hands-on examples and expert advice. More information can also be found on our blog : AutoCAD Electrical Training Videos

Poser 8 Training Video – Tutorial

Poser 8 Training Video

This Poser 8 Training Video – Tutorial is a fast and effective way to learn the popular 3D software. By walking you through creative techniques point by point, the course explains even complex procedures in a way that non-technical users can follow.
The training begins with a basic overview of the concepts you need to know to work in 3D. This is especially helpful for those coming from more traditional graphic design backgrounds as well as those approaching digital art for the first time. After covering core concepts and breaking down the basics of Poser’s user interface, expert tutor Dwayne Ferguson shows users how to pose figures, work with props, and incorporate face, hair, cloth and materials for both photorealistic and more creative purposes. Lighting, morphing, animation and rendering are addressed next, with specific examples that address common challenges one step at a time.
Ferguson draws heavily from his background as a professional animator and art designer, and shows you how to express creative ideas with technical tools and effects. The training course also features four projects in which the concepts taught are put into practice, and different elements of Poser’s toolset are shown in use. What is best about the tutorials is that they take a refreshing, hands-on approach. Files are even provided that let you achieve the effects that are shown onscreen.
The training video lessons can be viewed on both Mac and Windows machines, and there are two convenient options for purchasing the course. You can order the tutorials on CD / DVD or watch them all online through a convenient subscription plan. These Poser tutorial videos are ideal for users who like to learn at their own pace.

Poser 8 Is Up to Date

Although it was one of the first 3D modeling and animation solutions available, Poser has failed in recent years to break significant new ground. Rival software Daz Studio has gained more users and critical praise, while the feature set in Poser basically stayed the same. Now this has changed.
Since acquiring the rights to the Poser franchise, software company Smith Micro has injected new energy into the product line. Because one of the main the strengths of Poser was its production ready content, this was one area where they invested even more attention. While Daz Studio provides two fully rigged, posable character models, Poser 8 offers eight distinct choices, with preconfigured actions and movements, including the ability to lip-sync specific sounds. Over 2.5 GB of content comes with the Poser application, including 1 Gig of material that is completely new. Smith Micro also offers a ‘Content Paradise’ online where additional props and models can be downloaded.
In addition to the impressive content offerings, the program has also seen a few needed speed boosts. Support for multiple processors means that rendering times are decreased, and small, thoughtful changes to the user interface will definitely speed up professional workflows.
With the improvements the program has seen to its core feature set, there’s never been a better time to learn the software. This Poser 8 Training Video series offers a smart place start.

Beginners Adobe Flex Tutorial

Easy to follow Beginners Flex Tutorial aimed towards the absolute novice. This tutorial starts with a look at just what Flex is and what it can do. Later tutorials will offer a more practical approach but before we venture into coding a understanding of what Flex is will help.

An Introduction to Flex

In this article we’ll explain what Adobe Flex is and what the software has to offer. So what is Adobe Flex? Well, Flex is a free open source framework used to create Rich Internet Applications or RIAs for short. These applications can be deployed to the web or even to the desktop. In essence Flex allows web designers and developers to create enhanced Web 2.0 applications. If you’re a Flash user you’ll notice that a lot of similarities in the two applications, for example they both use Actionscript and deploy their files in SWF format. You might be wondering what the main differences are? To put it simply, Flex is aimed more towards the developer’s perspective as it uses a programming model whereas Flash is more of a graphics tool with its use of the timeline. Skills in both applications can be combined and used to great effect to create enhanced web 2.0 content, so if you’re a Flash user it will be a seamless transition from Flash to Flex. Flex simplifies creating complex applications, to put together a web application you’d simply arrange the components provided by Flex to create a user interface, then skin or recreate the style of those components using other graphics applications such as Illustrator, Fireworks or even Flash and finally you’d add interactivity to the application using Actionscript code, it’s that easy.

What Applications Can Flex Create?

Flex can create a number of different application types such as E-commerce applications with vast shopping carts enhancing a users experience without getting away from usability issues. It also can be used to create widgets and plugins for popular social sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Another new feature in the latest release of the software is the ability to create desktop applications alongside another free software from Adobe called Adobe Intergrated Runtime or AIR for short. So there are a number of possibilities for the Flex user to think about, it isn’t just limited to web development.

Core Languages Used In Flex

Along with the 100 UI components Flex uses Actionscript and MXML to create the RIAs below is a brief description of both languages.

Actionscript 3.0

Actionscript 3.0 is an OOP object orientated programming language that’s used in Flash to add interactivity to dynamic applications. Actionscript is an Ecmascript language so it’s very similar to Javascript, so if you’re coming from a Javascript background learning Actionscript wont be a problem. If you’re not familiar with Actionscript there are plenty of tutorials on the language on this site to get you started. Flex uses Actionscript to create client logic and user interactivity for the RIAs.

MXML (Multimedia Extensible Markup Language)

You’re probably not so familiar with MXML as you are with Actionscript; MXML was launched in 2004 and is based on XML. As it’s an XML based language it follows the same syntax rules as XML, so if you’re familiar with XML it’s a bonus.   Flex uses MXML to create the UI interfaces of the Rich Internet Applications. However, you don’t need knowledge of MXML to create Flex applications.

Software Options

Flex Software Development Kit (SDK)

The Flex SDK is open source and free to use, the kit includes the complete Flex framework, component class library and the Flex compiler, which will allow you to create and deploy Flex apps.

Adobe Flex Builder 3

Adobe offers a commercial development tool called Flex Builder. The application is an Eclipse based development tool that offers debugging tools and the complete Flex framework including all the components and compilers needed to use Flex. You don’t however need to have Flex Builder installed on your system to use Flex; it’s an optional editing tool.

Commercial and free versions can create RIAs, you don’t have to purchase Flex Builder if you want to create great RIAs, as the SDK can be just as effective.

Beginners PHP Tutorial – Arrays and Web Forms Part 3

PHP Arrays and HTML Forms – Part 3.

PHP Arrays and HTML Forms

This beginners PHP tutorial covers creating Arrays – Suitable for all versions of PHP

This is tutorial #3 in our Array Series. Today you’ll learn how to collect data from a web form and convert it into an array for further processing on the backend.

Why would you need to create an array from a web form? Good question and here is a good answer!

What would you like on that Pizza, sir?

Let’s look at a simple web form for a pizza shop that provides online ordering. We’ll skip over the parts of the form that collects name and address, etc., and go right for the meat (and cheese) of the problem.

The form above allows the user to select the pizza size from a drop-down containing the values Large, Medium, and Small. Nothing special going on there. We name that drop-down “size”, and use the built-in ‘option value’ field to add all of the sizes. In the code view, it would look like this:

<select name="select">
       <option>-- Select --</option>
        <option value="Large">Large</option>
        <option value="Medium">Medium</option>
        <option>Small</option>
 </select>

The real magic happens when we get to the add-on ingredients. Because we want the user to be able to select multiple ingredients, radio buttons were not an option. That’s because radio buttons use a simple off/on methodology. If you have multiple radio buttons in a group, radio buttons are not an option.

We could have used a multi-select drop-down list. That’s the type of drop-down where you can press and hold the Ctrl key while selecting multiple options, but that solution can be difficult for users to grasp. So, the checkbox is the right choice. It allows the user to select multiple options by simply click on each ingredient choice.

Normally, a checkbox looks like this when in code view:
<input type=”checkbox” name=”SomeName” value=”SomeValue” />

If you wanted to have multiple checkboxes to support our ingredients list, you could create them like this:

<input type=”checkbox” name=”Cheese” value=”xtracheese” />
<input type=”checkbox” name=”SomeName1″ value=”pepperoni” />
<input type=”checkbox” name=”SomeName2″ value=”sausage” />
<input type=”checkbox” name=”SomeName3″ value=”onions” />

But that wouldn’t be a very efficient way to do it. Why? Because you would have to write code on the backend using a lot of “if” statements to loop through each variable to see if it was checked. That’s not very efficient.

PHP Arrays to the rescue

By simply altering the way we name each checkbox slightly, we can have the HTML form create an array and pass it to our backend processing script.

<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="xtracheese" />
<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="pepperoni" />
<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="sausage" />
<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="onions" />

Do you see the difference between this example and the one above it? Look carefully.
Notice that all of the checkboxes have the same name value. They are all called ‘options’. Now, there is nothing special about the name. We could have called them all ‘ingredients’, or anything else for that matter. The real magic is the square brackets [ ] that we added after the name.

These brackets tell PHP that we are passing it an array and that multiple values may exist. If we had eliminated those brackets, and simply created four checkboxes all with the same name, PHP would only recognize the checked value of the first checkbox it processed. The additional ingredient choices would be lost.

Processing that pizza order

So now that you have that array of choices passed to your backend script, what do you do with them? You already now the answer. You simply process it using the foreach function that you already learned.

Depending upon whether your form uses the get or the post method, your array is in the $_POST or the $_GET array. Let’s assume $_POST for this example.

foreach($_POST[‘options’] as $ingredients) {

< add your own processing here>;

}

Lets give it a try, create a HTML page and paste the following code in between the <body> tags:

<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="pizza-process.php">
<strong>Papa's Famous Pizza</strong>

<select name="size">
<option>-- Select --</option>
<option value="Large">Large</option>
<option value="Medium">Medium</option>
<option>Small</option>
</select>

What would you like on that Pizza, sir?

<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="xtracheese" />
Extra Cheese
<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="pepperoni" />
Pepperoni
<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="sausage" />
Sausage
<input type="checkbox" name="options[ ]" value="onions" />
Onions

<input type="submit" name="button" id="button" value="Order Your Pizza" />

</form>

Create a PHP page and call it pizza-process.php, paste the following code into the PHP file :

<?php
  echo "I would like a  $_POST[size] Pizza ";
// find what extras are required
  foreach($_POST[options] as $ingredients) {
echo"With $ingredients ";
} 

?>

Beginners HTML Tutorial – Web Design Basics

Are you new to the world of Web Design?, this tutorial is just what you need to get started, it’s aimed at the beginner and assumes no prior knowledge.

What is HTML?

HTML is the most crucial building block of a website. There are many other tools you’ll hear from people talking about making websites – Javascript, PHP, ASP, SQL to name a few – but without HTML you can’t even get started.

HTML is a “markup language” – a structured way of controlling layout and appearance of text, graphics and other elements on a web page. More recently it has developed into “XHTML” which is essentially a stricter and more uniform set of rules for writing HTML. All our code in these articles will be written to the latest XHTML standards, and we’ll use the terms HTML and XHTML interchangeably.

The other thing we’ll be covering in these articles is CSS. This is a way of controlling the style – color, size, font, position, and so on – of various aspects of your page. Its real advantage is that it allows you to alter these properties of more than one area of your page at once, so that you don’t have to set everything individually many times over. We’ll look more at this later on.

What is HTML not?

HTML only allows for static content. That is, pages that do not change in response to user’s commands, and do not draw data out of another source like a database. We’ll look at the best way to achieve “dynamic” pages later on.

HTML is not perfect!

Like anything HTML has its flaws. Over the years the HTML specification has been expanded and altered to take into account users’ demands. However the various internet browsers – Internet Explorer, FireFox, etc – have occasionally made modifications of their own. Some of these were intentional and some were not (i.e. bugs!). As a result, there may be differences between the way a page displays in one browser and another (or even between different versions of the same browser).

Fortunately, today this is less of an issue as all the browsers move towards full and proper compliance with the published standards. However there are still plenty of users who have older versions of the browsers on their computers. You need to be aware of this problem but don’t worry too much for now. We’ll address it as and when it comes up.

What do you need to get started?

An Editor

This is a program to write your code in. Any text editor will do the job, for example Notepad (which you can probably find under Accessories in your Start menu).

However many developers choose to use something a bit more advanced. It can be really useful, particularly when you’re learning, to have an editor that automatically color codes your work to help you tell the code apart from the content. There are lots of editors available that do this. My favourite is EditPlus, which you’ll see in the screenshots in these articles, and is available on a free trial at www.editplus.com.

You may be familiar with programs like Dreamweaver which will write most of the code for you. These are called “WYSIWYG” editors – What You See Is What You Get. They certainly have their place as they can save a lot of time. However they will never be able to do everything that you need them to – so are no substitute for understanding the code behind the scenes. It’s best to learn to write the code properly to start with, and then, if you want to, use a program like Dreamweaver to remove the monotonous tasks, we do offer some excellent Dreamweaver Tutorials for users who decide to go this route.

A Browser

You’ll already have one of these if you are reading this article! Popular browsers include Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/ie) and FireFox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US) , but there are lots more. It doesn’t really matter which you use but just make sure if you can that whatever browser you are using is a recent version (current versions are Internet Explorer 7 and FireFox 3).

That’s it – we’re ready to get started!

Writing your first HTML page

HTML uses “tags” to control display of your content. A tag is a word or letter enclosed by angular brackets – e.g. <p> is the tag for a new paragraph, and <title> is the tag for the title of your page.

Every tag must be opened and closed. This is especially important to remember – a lot of the time the page will still work if you don’t add the closing part, but results will be unpredictable, particularly in older browsers. It’s best to get into the habit now.

To close a tag, add a slash before the word in the tag. E.g. </p> or </title>. For example, to make a paragraph of text:

<p> Text goes here </p>

Outline of the page

Every page needs a few tags before you can think about having any content. Look at the example below then we’ll go through it line by line.

<html>

<head>

<title>Page Title</title>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>

The <html> tag is fairly self explanatory! It’s important though so don’t forget it. Below that we have the <head> tag which starts a section where you can include various pieces of information about the page.

The <title> tag tells the browser what the heading of the whole page is. This is displayed in the title bar at the top of the browser,

<image 1 >

not actually on the page itself. Put something sensible in here – this is a key thing that the search engines look at when ranking your page. Rather than just putting something like “Home” or “Welcome” try to have a heading that includes some key words about your site.

After the title we need to close this tag with </title>, then finally close the header section with </head>.

<body> is the section of the page that includes all the content visible to the user. At the moment we don’t have any content so this is followed by the </body> tag to close this section.

Then the </html> means it’s the end of the page.

HTML is hierarchical

Take another look at the code above. Every tag is opened and closed, and is fully enclosed within its parent (<head> is a child of <html>, and <head> is a parent of <title>).

It is important to make sure the closing tag comes in the right place. E.g. <head><title> </title></head> is right but <head><title> </head></title> is not. You need to make sure that when you write a closing tag, all other tags that you started within it are also closed.

To make this a bit easier to keep up with, developers use tabs and spacing to make the code simpler to read. You’ll see from the code above that each time we write a parent tag, the next line is tabbed further in than the previous line. So all tags that are horizontally lined up are children of the same parent. This isn’t strictly necessary but it makes things a lot easier when you’re trying to read what you’ve written.

It’s also worth noting that spacing and lines don’t matter. You could leave a dozen lines between each tag if you wanted to and it would make no difference. Content within tags (for example a paragraph of text) can also span multiple lines.

Let’s add some text

For now we’ll just put in a single paragraph of text. The tag for a paragraph is <p>. As you know we need to close the tag as well, so the format for a paragraph is:

<p> text here </p>

This needs to go inside the body section of your page – between the <body> and </body> tags. So your page will end up like the one below (remember to use the tab key to make things easier to read):

<html>

<head>

<title>Page Title</title>

</head>

<body>

<p>

This is my first web page!

</p>

</body>

</html>

Save the page

Now it’s time to save the page. Browsers expect the main page of a website to be called “index.html”. This is how you can type an address like http://www.google.com into your browser and end up at http://www.google.com/index.html.

Make sure that you are saving your page with the “.html” extension. In an HTML editor like EditPlus you will need to choose “HTML” from the “file type” box, or in something like Notepad you will need to choose “All files”. Then type “index.html” in the file name box and click save.

Does it work?

Find your saved page and double-click it to open it up in your internet browser. You should see something like this:

It’s not pretty, but it works. We’ll get to making it look nicer in the next article.

This page is actual being served from your own machine, therefore only up can see it , if we wanted this page to be visible to the world it would need to be upload to a web server using a protocol called FTP ( File Transfer Protocol ), this sounds complicated, it’s not, it’s no harder than sending an email and we will cover this in a later tutorial.

Reference

• <html> – must go at the start and end of every page
• <head> – defines the “header” of a page which contains various pieces of information about the page, that do not actually appear on it
• <title> – the title of a page as viewable in the browser’s title bar
• <body> – the main body of the page – the part visible to the user
• <p> – a paragraph of text

Don’t forget, all of the above tags need a closing tag too. As I said earlier the page will quite possibly work if you forget the closing tags but it will create problems for you later on. Get in the habit now!

Beginners HTML Tutorial part 2:
look at some formatting options to give a bit more life to your page, by introducing CSS.

Beginners Flash Tutorial MovieClips

Using MovieClips in Flash

This Flash tutorial introduces the use of MovieClip symbols in Flash and how they function within the main Timeline.

The Timeline is key to understanding how Flash movies work. If you open Flash and create a new document you should see the Timeline running across the top of the screen (choose Window > Timeline from the menubar if it isn’t visible):

When you create a .fla document and export a .swf movie from it, the .swf when opened will start at Frame 1 on the main Timeline and present the viewer with each successive frame with content on it (unless ActionScript code instructs it to do otherwise), looping back to the start each time it reaches the last frame. The frames are numbered on the header above the Timeline as you can see and all frames with content will be coloured in some way.

MovieClip symbols additionally have their own Timeline. When placed on the main Timeline in a Flash movie, a MovieClip will similarly start at its first frame and run continuously presenting all content on its frames (unless instructed otherwise by code).

To demonstrate this, choose Insert > New Symbol from the menubar (or CTRL+F8); give the symbol a name and choose Movie clip as the type:

Flash has now taken you inside the new MovieClip symbol:

The area at the top of the Timeline indicates your current location within the Flash movie (where it reads Scene1 and myclip). The cross in the centre of the stage is the position 0, 0 (x, y) within the new MovieClip.

To add some content to the clip, draw a shape and postion it at 0, 0 (x, y) – with the shape selected enter 0 into the X and Y fields on the Properties panel (Window > Properties > Properties or CTRL+F3 if it isn’t visible):

Still with the shape selected, Press F8 (or choose Modify > Convert to Symbol); choose a name and Graphic as the type:

We will use this shape to create a simple animation inside the MovieClip; select frame 10 on the Timeline by clicking on it. Make this frame a keyframe by pressing F6 or choosing Insert > Timeline > Keyframe:

Now, on this frame, move the shape to another position on the stage. Select Frame 1 again and create a Motion Tween by choosing Motion from the Tween drop-down list on the Properties panel or by right-clicking (or CTRL+click) on the frame and choosing Create Motion Tween:

The timeline now indicates the tween on the frames:

If you’re unfamiliar with tweening, what we have done here is position the shape on the first and tenth frames, then instructed Flash to create a transition between the two; the Motion Tween moving the shape along the distance between the two points so that it progresses evenly along its course. To see the effect, place the playhead on the first frame by clicking on it and press Enter; you should see the animation on the stage as the playhead moves along the timeline.

Now go back to the main Timeline by pressing the backward arrow button on the Timeline header:

All that we’ve done so far is create a MovieClip in the Flash document’s library, meaning that we’ve defined exactly what should happen within the clip and prepared it for use in our movie, but we haven’t actually placed it in the movie yet. To do this, select the MovieClip symbol in the library (Window > Library if it isn’t visible) and drag it onto the stage:


Now test your movie (press CTRL+Enter or choose Control > Test Movie); you should see the animation in your clip looping continuously. To make the clip play only once, we need to edit the MovieClip; to do this right-click (or CTRL+click) it in the Library and select edit, or double-click on the instance of the clip on the stage. Select frame 10 and open the Actions Panel (F9, click on the Actions tab or choose Window > Actions), enter the following code:

 stop(); 

Now test your movie again, the clip should play only once. By placing the stop action here, you have instructed only that particular MovieClip to stop; any other activity on the main Timeline will continue, as the MovieClip operates according to its own Timeline.

Beginners Flash Tutorial – Working with MYSQL and PHP

Flash with PHP / MySQL

The code used in this tutorial is mainly ActionScript 2.0, with notes for using ActionScript 3.0 – basic knowledge of databases (particularly MySQL) and server-side scripting concepts is assumed, for users who require an a tutorial on Beginners PHP and MySQL we recomend the Beginners PHP Training Video

Given that Flash is used primarily on the Web, database driven components are a common requirement. In order to use data in this way within your Flash movies, you will need to use some sort of server-side scripting language, such as PHP. We use server-side scripting to communicate with a data source on the server, and Flash has some built-in capabilities for handling the data at the client-side.

To demonstrate, we will create a simple database-driven Flash movie using PHP and MySQL. This example will need to be deployed on a server with PHP and MySQL installed.

In MySQL, create a database called ‘flashtest’, with one table in it called ‘flashdata’; in the table create just one field (for simplicity – the details of the database are not important), name the field ‘flash_text’ and choose VARCHAR as the data type. Enter a few rows of data into the table, any strings of text will be fine.

Now we need PHP code to connect to and query your database. Create a file called get_data.php in the directory you intend to put your Flash file in – this will need to be on the same server as the MySQL database for the following code to work. In get_data.php enter the following code (replacing username and password with your own):

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<?php

//connect to the local MySQL
mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");

//select your database
mysql_select_db("flashtest");

//query the database
$query="select * from flashdata";
$result=mysql_query($query);

//find out how many entries there are
$num=mysql_num_rows($result);

//write variable out - this is what the Flash document will retreive
echo "&num=".$num;

//keep count
$count=0;

//loop through and write the data into variables for the flash document
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
   //write out each entry as a variable
    $entry=$row["flash_text"];
    echo "&t".$count."=".$entry;
    //increment the count variable
    $count++;
}

?>

Tip: you can test your PHP at this stage by fetching get_data.php in a Web browser – it should look something like this:

Now to use the data within a Flash movie, create a new Flash document and save it on the server also. The Flash document is able to access the variables written out by your PHP script via the GET variable. Open the Actions panel for Layer 1 and enter the following code (replacing ‘filepath’ with the path to your PHP script):

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      //load the variables into a MovieClip by calling the server-side script
var data_mc:MovieClip=_root.createEmptyMovieClip("data_mc", _root.getNextHighestDepth());
     //loadVariables parameters: url, movieclip, method
loadVariables("http://localhost/filepath/get_data.php", data_mc, "GET");

    //create the function for using the data
data_mc.onData=function()
{
    //get the total number of entries
    var numEntries:Number=data_mc.num;
      //loop through the entries
   for(var i:Number=0; i

Now test your movie, it should look something like this:

For Flash MX and above, you can alternatively use the LoadVars object with the following syntax:

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//create LoadVars object
var lv:LoadVars=new LoadVars();
//load the data
lv.load("http://localhost/filepath/get_data.php");
//setup load function
lv.onLoad=function(success)
{
//get the data
var numEntries:Number=lv.num;
//otherwise syntax is the same as above
};

If you’re using ActionScript 3.0, the syntax will be slightly different; you need to use the URLRequest and URLLoader objects to load the data into Flash.

Basic Flash Tutorial – Loading XML Data

Flash with XML Loaded Data

This Tutorial has been prepared with relation to Flash 8, although the principles covered apply to all versions; the code used is mainly ActionScript 2.0 with notes for using ActionScript 3.0

This tutorial introduces the use of externally loaded XML data in Flash; basic knowledge of XML structures is assumed.

Creating Flash components using data stored in XML format is a common task. For example, Flash galleries are often designed in such a way that the selection of images can be changed without having to alter the .fla source file itself; loading the image data in via XML is an ideal solution in this case. ActionScript has built-in libraries for processing XML documents, although there are significant differences between ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0 in this regard.

To demonstrate, we will load some text into Flash from an XML document and display it.

The XML document has the following structure and is called mydata.xml:

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<data> <note colour="0xFF0000">
some red text </note> <note colour="0x00FF00"> some green text </note>
<note colour="0x0000FF"> some blue text </note>
</data>

Create the above document and then create a new flash document in the same directory (remember to save your .fla to the directory before testing it). Select the default layer (Layer 1) and open the Actions Panel (press F9 or choose Window > Actions).

Your approach now will differ according to whether you are using ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0. For 2.0 you use the XML class to load and process the data, whereas with 3.0 the methods of loading external data have changed in general, and as such you use URLRequest and URLLoader objects to actually load the data, then pass it to an XML object for processing; please note however that the XML class is different in AS3, while the AS3 XMLDocument class provides much the same processing functionality as the XML class in AS2.

For ActionScript 2.0, type the following code into the Actions panel:

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//create the XML object
var my_xml:XML=new XML();
//tell it to ignore whitespace in the document
my_xml.ignoreWhite=true;  

//define the function to execute when the data has been loaded
my_xml.onLoad=function(success)
{
if (success)
{
	//first get the data from my_xml into an array
	//'this' is my_xml - the object on which the onLoad function is being called
	var my_array:Array=this.firstChild.childNodes;

	//setup textformat object for text colour
	var tf:TextFormat=new TextFormat();

	//each element in the array will be a <note> element - loop through
	for(var i:Number=0; i<my_array.length; i++)
	{
		//create textfield for each element (name, depth, x, y, width, height)
		_root.createTextField(("field"+i+"_txt"),
			_root.getNextHighestDepth(), 10, ((i+1)*20), 100, 50);

		//assign the value (firstChild) of the current 'note' element to the textfield
		_root["field"+i+"_txt"].text=my_array[i].firstChild.toString();

		//get the element's 'colour' attribute
		var colourAttribute:Number=Number(my_array[i].attributes["colour"]);

		//assign the colour
		tf.color=colourAttribute;

		//format the textfield
		_root["field"+i+"_txt"].setTextFormat(tf);
	}
}
};
 //load the data - this will call the above function
 my_xml.load("mydata.xml");

This code will load the XML document and trigger the function for processing. To process the XML, we write each ‘note’ element into a textfield and colour the text according to its ‘colour’ attribute. To access the root node (<data>) we use my_xml.firstChild; to access the children (<note> elements) we use .childNodes, which are returned in an Array. To access the attributes of a given element, we use the property: attributes[attribute name]. movie, it should look something like this:

Please note: depending on your own XML file, you may also need to strip out the newline characters, you can do this as follows:

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 var plain_data:String = loseReturns(my_array[0].firstChild.toString());

function loseReturns(xml_str:String):String
{
	var plain_str:String = xml_str.split("\n").join("");
	return plain_str.split("\r").join("");
}

For ActionScript 3.0, you use the URLLoader and URLResource classes to load the XML data into Flash, then pass it to an XML object (and optionally to an XMLDocument object – see above). The URLLoader object fires an event on loading the data; as such you need to create a function for processing it, passing this to an event listener.

Beginners Flash Tutorial – Tweening Objects

Creating Motion with Flash

This Adobe Flash tutorial has been prepared with relation to Flash 8, although the principles covered apply to all versions of Adobe Flash.

This Flash tutorial introduces the fundamentals of using Tweening to create the concept of motion.

Basic Tweening in Flash

This resource has been prepared with relation to Flash 8, although the principles covered apply to all versions

This tutorial introduces Shape and Motion Tweening in Flash.

Tweening is one of the basic building blocks of animation. An animation is basically a sequence of images combined and displayed in a way that makes it appear to the human eye like a moving image. Tweening is one of the processes used to accomplish this.

When creating an animated sequence, a set of still images represent different stages in the animation. The illusion of a moving image is achieved by showing the images in fast succession, for example, the default speed for a movie created in Flash is normally 12 frames per second, meaning that the movie presents 12 still images to the viewer every second.

To achieve such effects manually, animators basically have to create each of the images in turn (one for each frame), which is obviously very labour-intensive. This is where digital tools like Flash can prove extremely useful, as they have built-in functions to create some of the frame images using computation. The idea here is that you just create the images at key points in the animation (keyframes) and use Tweening to get Flash to work out the frames ‘in-between’.

Let’s create a simple animation to demonstrate:

Open Flash and create a new document. Draw a shape on the stage, select it using the select tool

(either double click on the shape or click and drag the area around it).

Convert the shape to a graphic symbol either by pressing F8 or choosing Modify > Convert to Symbol. Give the symbol a name and select the Graphic radio button for the type; press OK.

Now click on Frame 10 and create a Keyframe there by pressing F6 or choosing Insert > Timeline > Keyframe:

Still on Frame 10, move your Graphic symbol to another position on the stage. Test your animation by clicking on Frame 1 and pressing Enter, you’ll see that the shape remains in it’s original position until Frame 10, when it ‘jumps’ to the new position. To achieve a smoother transition between these two images, we’re going to apply a Motion Tween. Click on Frame 1 and choose Motion from the drop-down list on the Properties panel (Window > Properties > Properties if it isn’t visible):

The purple area with the arrow on the Timeline indicates that a Motion Tween is operating between the two Keyframes.

Now select Frame 1 and press Enter again, you’ll see that Flash has animated the sequence by calculating what should appear on each of the frames along the way.

Experiment with the Ease Tween setting (on the Properties panel when you select Frame 1), which controls the amount of acceleration/ deceleration in the movement.

Now to try a Shape Tween, create a new layer in your movie – use the new layer button

or choose Insert > Timeline > Layer, then lock the first layer:

On your new layer, create another shape; this time don’t convert it to a symbol. Select Frame 10 on the new layer and insert a Keyframe (as above). At Frame 10, delete your shape and draw a different one in its place (e.g draw a circle on the first frame and a square on the tenth). Now select Frame 1 and choose Shape Tween from the Properties panel:

The green area on the Timeline indicates the Shape Tween. Now, select Frame 1 and press Enter to see your animated effect.

Again, you can experiment with the Tween controls to explore the various Shape Tween settings.

CSS Tutorial – Roll Over Button

Pre-loaded Hover-state Images

In this XHTML CSS tutorial you’ll learn how to create a button for a web page using Photoshop, XHTML and CSS. More specifically, you’ll learn how to create a button who’s hover state image is preloaded. The advantage to this technique is that upon hovering over your button, the user won’t have to wait for it’s hover state image to appear; there’ll be no ‘graphic-less’ moment while the image loads, all without a single line of JavaScript.

Open up a blank XHTML document with a style statement within the <head> tags. This is where we’ll place out CSS code.

We’ll begin by setting out the XHTML markup for our button, between the <body> tags:

Notice the button has been given the class of ‘button’.

Now we’ll set up some basic CSS to establish some styles in our document. Place the following between the <style> tags:

Now some attributes for what will be our button, identifiable by it’s class ‘button’. Firstly, it has a width of 100px, a height of 20px and some extra padding to increase it’s dimensions further.

The above statement dictates that the button has padding of 15px at the top, 20px on the right, 10px at the bottom and 45px on the left. This extra padding on the left will make room for an icon on our button. The total dimensions of our button are now 160px wide and 45px high. You’ll also see that I’ve given any text within the button a color of #666666, that it’s displayed as ‘block’ (making it adhere to the dimensions we’ve set) and that I’ve removed the default underline by stating that there will be no text decoration. Now lets make a graphic for it with Photoshop.

Open up a new document in Photoshop with the dimensions of our button.

Copy a design something along the lines of what you see below. I’ve chosen to use one of the many icons freely available from famfamfam.com and placed it on the left.

Now alter your canvas size (Image > Canvas Size…). Double it’s height to 90px from the top edge. This will give you the following result:

Now duplicate all the elements you’ve drawn and position them at the bottom of your canvas. This copy will be your button’s hover-state.

Your two button images need to be different in some way – perhaps a completely different color, different icon or perhaps something more subtle. I’ve chosen to alter the transparency of my top image making it fainter than the hover-state. The button will appear darker when hovered over.

When you’re satisfied with your image, save (File > Save for Web & Devices…) in whatever format you choose.

Now let’s use this image as a background for our button by further defining our ‘button’ class in the CSS.

This states that the image we’ve chosen will be used as the background for our button, that the image won’t be repeated (it won’t be tiled), that it will be positioned 0px from the left and 0px from the top. Of course, when the page is loaded and the button background is also loaded, the whole thing is placed in your browser’s cache, even the part of your button image which isn’t yet visible. Check your button in a web browser, it should look like this:

Now we need to add the final CSS statement, defining what happens when our button is hovered over.

This simple statement dictates that the hover-state of our ‘button’ link will have a slightly darker color of #333333 and that the background image will be our button.jpg. The difference this time is that the background position has been set at 0px from the left and -45px from the top – or, said in another way, that the background image is raised 45px. Our hover-state graphic will therefore instantly fill the button when hovered over. Try it yourself! Finished CSS Example

XHTML Tutorial CSS Tabbed Menu

Tabbed menu

One hugely useful way of displaying your menu items is in the form of tabs. The following tutorial will take you through some simple steps to build your own tabbed menu, without so much as a .gif or line of JavaScript in sight…

Open up a blank XHTML document with a style statement within the <head> tags. This is where we’ll place out CSS code.

Now let’s set out the XHTML markup for our menu, between the <body> tags:

This is a straight-forward unordered list which we’ve given the class of ‘menu_tabbed’. Within it are four list items, each one of which contains a link.

That’s it for the markup, now let’s set up some CSS to give our document some basic styles. Place the following between the <style> tags:

This just gives our document a default text color (#333333), font and font size. I’ve also just given the documents ‘body’ a padding of 30px in order for our menu to be held away from the page edges. This will make it all slightly easier to view on our part.

Now some attributes for our unordered list, identifiable by it’s class ‘menu_tabbed’. Firstly, it has no list-style. This removes the bullet points from the list items – in all circumstances, in all browsers. Secondly it has a solid border along it’s bottom edge of 1px and the color #999999. Lastly some padding at the bottom in order to hold the border away from our tabs as we’ll soon see.

Test it in a browser, your menu should now look something like this:

Now let’s style our list items, identifiable as ‘li’ within the ‘ul’ which has a class of ‘menu_tabbed’.

We’ll display the list items ‘inline’ which will distribute them horizontally across the page. Each one has a margin on the right of 5px in order to hold it away from the previous list item. Now your menu should now look something like this:

Having dealt with our list and the list items within it, we can now turn our attention to the links, identifiable as the ‘a’ within the ‘li’ within the ‘ul’ which has a class of ‘menu_tabbed’. Place the following within your CSS code:

}

There’s a little more styling involved here as most of the visual effects are tied to the links. First give the text a faint color of #999999 and remove the underline by stating no text-decoration. Then give a background of #f7f7f7 and a solid 1px border of #CCCCCC. There’ll be no border on the bottom, as this is catered for by the border on the bottom of our unordered list.

Lastly, give the links some padding; 10px at the top and bottom and 14px left and right. The 10px padding at the bottom will allow the links’ bottom edge to meet with the bottom edge of the unordered list which we also gave a padding of 10px.

Check your menu again in a browser:

Now let’s give our tabs some styling for their hover state, one simple line of CSS:

This padding overrides the padding for the links which we’ve previously set. It differs only by giving an extra 4px padding at the top which gives the tabs the impression of being lifted like so:

Finally we’re going add some style for when one of the menu items is selected. Add the class ’selected’ to your second list item:

Now let’s add some CSS to determine what the selected tab looks like:

We’ve darkened the text to make it stand out, the background is white, as is it’s bottom border. This will cover the bottom border of the unordered list giving the impression that the tab is ‘connected’ to the page underneath. The padding will match the padding we’ve given to the link hover state; slightly raising the tab.

That’s it! Check your final menu in a browser!

Beginners Flash Tutorial – Creating Dynamic Text

Creating Dynamic Text with Flash

This tutorial has been prepared with relation to Flash 8, although the principles covered apply to all versions; the code included is based on ActionScript 2.0

This Flash tutorial introduces the creation, editing and formatting of dynamic text and embedding fonts.

There are two main ways to create a dynamic text field in Flash, one using the flash interface and the other using ActionScript, this flash tutorial will give you a fundemental understanding of this works.

Create a textfield using the interface

 my_txt.text="new text" 

1. Select your dynamic textfield on the stage and click the Embed button on the Properties panel, then choose Basic Latin (select OK):
   
2. On the library panel (Window > Library if it isn’t open) select the options button:
   
   Select New Font and enter the following details:

   

   Press OK and you’ll see your font appear in the library. Right-click (CTRL+Click for Macs) on the font in the library and choose Linkage. Click the checkbox next to ‘Export for ActionScript’:

   

   This allows you to refer to the font in your ActionScript code (the procedure is the same for any library item that you want to control using ActionScript). Select your code (‘actions’) layer and enter the following code (after your existing line)

   :

   
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    my_txt.embedFonts=true var tf:TextFormat=new TextFormat() tf.font="myfont" my_txt.setTextFormat(tf) 

   

Tutorial on Creating a dynamic textfield using ActionScript

 var other_txt:TextField = _root.createTextField("other_txt", _root.getNextHighestDepth(), 20, 20, 200, 50) other_txt.text="other text" 

 createTextField(instanceName, depth, xPosition, yPosition, width, height) 

Try not to be put off by the code if you’re not familiar with ActionScript. A good way to familiarise yourself with it is to experiment by changing some of the parameters (e.g. change the y position to 100 and you’ll see the text appear further down). To format this text, you need to use the ActionScript approach outlined above.

Beginners Adobe Flash Tutorial – Timeline Basics

The Flash Interface – Using the Timeline

This tutorial covers Flash 8, CS3 & CS4

When you open the Flash authoring environment, you’ll see a number of different sections displayed. In addition to the default display, various other controls are accessible if you choose the Window menu from the top toolbar. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the interface, to begin creating Flash movies you’ll really only need to worry about a few parts of it; the rest you’ll gradually familiarise yourself with as you work along.

The Stage

The main area you should see in the centre of the screen is the stage area, which will look like a white rectangle:

You can use the scrollbars to the bottom and right of the stage to view the various parts of your stage. Use the zoom control above the stage area at the top right of the central section; select from the drop-down list or type in a percentage amount, default is 100%:

To modify the size of your Flash Movie, select Modify > Document from the top toolbar:

Use this to specify the dimensions and framerate (number of frames per second – leave this at the default to begin with). The settings that you specify here will determine the properties of your final exported SWF file.

Be a little wary of specifying the background colour here, as if your Flash movie is going to be deployed on the Web, this will not always be displayed consistently across browsers.

The Flash Timeline

The Timeline is the key to creating animated effects in Flash. You’ll see it running across the top of the main panel:

The red square with the line pointing downward is the Playhead, and the white squares under it are the frames in your movie. When the movie plays, whatever is on the stage when the Playhead is over a certain frame is what will be visible while that frame is playing. Whenever you export an SWF movie, it will automatically start at the first frame on the root timeline (the default) and play until it either reaches the end or receives some command telling it to stop. Additionally, it will play the SWF continuously on a loop while the movie is open.

Try it out by using the following steps:

Draw a circle on the stage: select the oval tool from the left-hand-side ;

click and drag on the stage (keep within the white area as this is the area that will be visible in the final movie):

-you’ll see that Frame 1 of the current layer (Layer 1) has turned grey, indicating that there’s something on it Next create a Keyframe by clicking on the second frame (to the right of the grey one) and pressing F6:

-flash has automatically carried your circle onto the second frame of the movie.

Move the circle by clicking and dragging on the centre of it – move it to another area of the stage; this is where the circle will appear on Frame 2.

Now to see the effect of what you’ve done, place the Playhead at the first frame by clicking at Frame 1, either on or above Layer 1. Press enter and your movie will play – it’s a bit boring at the moment but should give you a basic understanding of how the Timeline works.

Now export your movie either by pressing CTRL+Enter or choosing Control > Test Movie from the menu. You’ll see that your effect loops over and over again as the SWF continually returns to the start each time it finishes.

Experiment with the Timeline by selecting a frame further along (e.g. 10) and creating a keyframe there, then moving the circle again. You’ll quickly see that some sort of transition between the different stages in your movie is going to be necessary for smooth animation – this is where Tweening comes in! Which will be covered in-depth in another tutorial.

PHP Tutorials – Arrays Part 2

Advanced PHP Arrays

This tutorial covers creating Arrays – Suitable for all versions of PHP

Don’t let the word advanced worry you. You are simply advancing along in your knowledge about how to use these amazing data structures.

Arrays are like tables in that they have columns and rows. And, thanks to the array functions PHP makes available, they can be manipulated like tables in many ways.

In the introduction to PHP Arrays tutorial , you learned about how to create indexed and associative arrays. I wrote that arrays were powerful tools, especially when combined with the foreach function and with the other functions designed especially for manipulating the data within arrays.

In this lesson, I’ll show you some practical uses for arrays and how to get them working their hardest for you.

Displaying All Elements in an Array

In the previous tutorial we created these two arrays:

$mystaff = array(0=>’Matthew’,
1=>’Mark’,
2=>’Luke’);

$salaries=array(“Matthew”=>65000,
“Mark”=>75000,
“Luke”=>100000);

Let’s create an array that lets us store the staff member’s name and salary together. Then we’ll use PHP’s foreach function to display them.

$mystaff[‘Matthew’]=65000;
$mystaff[‘Mark’]=75000;
$mystaff[‘Luke’]=100000;

This array structure may look odd, but all we have done is to create an associative array and use the name of each staff member as the key.

This is a great little trick that will play right into the hands of the foreach loop below. We’ll look at the syntax first and then I’ll explain the logic.

Foreach Syntax

foreach( $mystaff as $Name => $salary){
echo “Name: $Name, Salary: $ $salary “;
}

Name: Matthew, Salary: $65000
Name: Mark, Salary: $75000
Name: Luke, Salary: $10000

How It Works

The foreach statement above translates to this:

For each element of the $mystaff associative array I want to call the key by the name of $Name and the value that’s related to that key by the name $salary.

Then I want to print each of those values, one set at a time, until I reach the end of the array.

The foreach statement I provided uses the as modifier, and the as modifier uses the “=>” operator. Just think of this as a finger pointing from the key to the value.

Create a new PHP document and name it foreach.php. Copy the code below into the document and upload it to your web server and open the page in a browser.

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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//
EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Arrays</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php   $mystaff[‘Matthew’]=65000;   $mystaff[‘Mark’]=75000;
$mystaff[‘Luke’]=100000;   foreach( $mystaff as $Name => $salary){
 echo "Name: $Name, Salary: $ $salary ";   }
echo 'I have '. count($mystaff). ' Staff members.';   ?>
</body>
</html>

PHP Array Functions

Here are examples of how PHP array-specific functions provide quick ways to enhance the power of arrays in your PHP programs.

Counting Array Elements

Count() returns the number of elements in an array. Use the Count() function to see how many staff members there are.

echo ‘I have ’. count($mystaff). ’ Staff members.’;

Sorting Array Elements

To sort the names alphabetically before displaying them, use the asort() function.

asort($mystaff);

Array Element Math

To calculate the total payroll for your staff, use the array_sum() function.

Echo ‘The total salary paid to my ‘ .count($mystaff). ’ Staff members =’ . array_sum($mystaff).’’;

Adding Array Elements

You could add a new employee quickly using the array_push() function.

array_push($mystaff[‘John’], 55000);

John would be added to the end of the array. Calling asort(), after array_push(), would alphabetize the array properly.

Deleting Array Elements

If John was hired to replace Matthew, the unset function would send Matthew to the unemployment line and asort() would restore the array’s sorted order.

unset($mystaff[‘Matthew’]);
asort($mystaff);

Tutorial Summary

These are just a few of the 75 functions PHP makes available for working with arrays. You can find the entire list, along with their syntax, by visiting PHP’s online Array Function Manual. If you would like to learn more about PHP and Arrays we offer a extremely comprehensive PHP video tutorial that offers indepth, step-by-step instructions.

PHP Tutorials – Arrays Part 1

PHP Arrays – Basics

This tutorial covers creating Arrays – Suitable for all versions of PHP

Introduction to the PHP Array

The array data structure provides a convenient way to store multiple values in a single variable. An Array uses pointers or index keys to map each value stored within it. The type of pointer, and the syntax for accessing it, varies depending upon the array type used. An array is permitted to store other arrays as values. Here is a look at both of PHP’s array types and how they are created and used.

Indexed Array
An indexed array uses integers as the key. The Array index begins at 0. PHP imposes no limit on the maximum number of elements an array may contain, so there is no maximum ending integer. Of course, array size is subject to the memory limitations established in the PHP.ini file as well as of the server where PHP is running.

Associative Array

Associative arrays use string values as keys.

Creating an Indexed Array

An array can be created simply by storing a value to a variable that uses the array structure.

Example:

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$mystaff[0]=’Matthew’;

The above method creates an indexed array. This method is often used when the array will be built with values that can not be pre-determined or that will be created on the fly.

If the values of the array are known ahead of time, you could use this syntax:

Example:

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$mystaff = array(0=>’Matthew’, 1=>’Mark’, 2=>’Luke’);

In the above example, the array has 3 elements, even though the last element’s key is the integer 2. New PHP programmers may forget the indexed array key structure is zero-based, hence the 3rd element in the above example is referanced by 2 and not 3.

Both indexed array creation methods are interchangeable. You do not have to use one method under any particular circumstance.

Displaying an Indexed Array

The value of an indexed array element is displayed by referencing the array element by its key.

Example:

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echo "The names of my three staff members are:
$mystaff[0] . ", " . $mystaff[1] . ", " . $mystaff[2];

Give it a try, create a new document enter the following code

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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//
EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Arrays</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php   $mystaff = array(0=>’Matthew’,   1=>’Mark’,   2=>’Luke’);
 <p>echo "The names of my three staff members are: ".   $mystaff[0] . ",
" . $mystaff[1] . ", " . $mystaff[2]; ?>
</body> </html>

>and save it as array-test.php, upload it to your web server and view it.

Creating an Associative Array

An associative array uses a string value as the key. Where an indexed array is typically used to store strings, an associative array is typically used to store numeric values. However, it is entirely up to you which array type you use. These are guidelines, not rules.

In this example below, we will create an associative array containing salary information for those three staff members we created in the indexed array example above.

Example

$salaries["Matthew"] = 65000;
$salaries["Mark"] = 75000;
$salaries["Luke"] = 100000;

Instead of declaring each array value on its own line, you could also use this syntax:

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$salaries=array("Matthew"=>65000, "Mark"=>75000, "Luke"=>100000);

Displaying an Associative Array

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echo "Matthew’s salary is: $" . $salaries["Matthew"] . "". "Mark’s salary is:
$" . $salaries["Mark"] . "".
"Luke’s salary is: $" . $salaries["Luke"];

Give it a try, delete the contents of your array-test.php page and replace it with the follow:

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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//
EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Arrays</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php   $salaries=array("Matthew"=>65000,   "Mark"=>75000,
"Luke"=>100000); echo "Matthew’s salary is: $" . $salaries["Matthew"] . "".
 "Mark’s salary is: $" . $salaries["Mark"] . "".
  "Luke’s salary is: $" . $salaries["Luke"]; ?>
</body>   </html>

After saving your page, upload to your webserver and view. You know have a fundamental knowledge of creating and displaying Arrays in PHP.

Summary

Arrays are powerful tools, especially when used with the for and while functions. There are other PHP functions designed especially for working with arrays. They provide convenient methods for sorting, transversing, and manipulating arrays. We’ll look at these in next PHP Array tutorial.