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Tables of Contents for Macromedia Flash Mx 2004 for Dummies
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Introduction
1
1
About This Book
1
1
How to Use This Book
2
1
Foolish Assumptions
2
1
Conventions Used in This Book
2
1
How This Book Is Organized
3
2
Part I: A Blast of Flash
3
1
Part II: 1,000 Pictures and 1,000 Words
3
1
Part III: Getting Symbolic
4
1
Part IV: Total Flash-o-Rama
4
1
Part V: The Movie and the Web
4
1
Part VI: The Part of Tens
4
1
Part VII: Appendixes
5
1
About the CD-ROM
5
1
Icons Used in This Book
5
1
Where to Go from Here
6
1
Part I: A Blast of Flash
7
36
Getting Acquainted with Flash MX 2004
9
20
Discovering Flash
10
1
Understanding What You Can Create with Flash MX 2004
11
1
Determining When Not to Use Flash MX 2004
12
1
Getting the Right Start
12
2
Starting Flash on a PC
12
1
Starting Flash on a Mac
13
1
Creating a new movie
13
1
Opening an existing movie
13
1
Taking a Look Around
14
5
Tooling around the toolbars
15
1
Using panels
15
1
Discovering the Flash menus
16
2
Staging your movies
18
1
Following a timeline
18
1
Getting Help in a Flash
19
2
Multiple Help manuals
20
1
Finding more help on the Web
20
1
Try It, You'll Like It
21
8
Conceiving your first animation
21
1
Creating flashy drawings
21
3
Making graphics move
24
2
Publishing your first animation for posterity
26
1
Exiting Flash
27
2
Your Basic Flash
29
14
Looking at the Big Picture
29
2
Setting the Stage
31
2
Grabbing a Graphic
33
5
Understanding vectors and bitmaps
33
1
Finding graphics
34
1
Going to the Library
34
4
Using a Template
38
2
Printing Your Movie
40
3
Part II: 1,000 Pictures and 1,000 Words
43
94
Getting Graphic
45
30
Sharpen Your Pencil
46
3
Setting the Pencil modifier
46
2
Setting the stroke type
48
1
Setting the color
49
1
Creating Shapely Shapes
49
2
Line up
49
1
Be square
49
1
Be an egg
50
1
Mixing and Matching Shapes
51
2
Cutting up shapes
51
1
Placing objects on top of each other
51
2
Creating Curves with the Pen
53
1
Drawing straight lines
53
1
Drawing curves
54
1
Getting Artistic with the Brush
54
5
Brush Mode
55
1
Brush Size
56
1
Brush Shape
57
1
Pressure and tilt modifiers
57
1
Smoothing your brush strokes
58
1
Pouring on the Paint
59
1
Strokes, Ink
60
1
A Rainbow of Colors
60
6
Solid citizens
60
3
Gradient colors
63
1
Bitmap fills
64
2
Locking a fill
66
1
Drawing Precisely
66
4
The ruler rules
67
1
Using guides
68
1
Working with the grid
68
1
Snapping turtle
69
1
Pixel, pixel on the wall
69
1
The Import Business --- Using Outside Graphics
70
5
Importing graphics
70
2
Using imported graphics
72
3
You Are the Object Editor
75
34
Selecting Objects
75
3
Selecting with the Selection tool
75
2
Lassoing your objects
77
1
Selecting everything in one fell swoop
78
1
Moving, Copying, and Deleting
78
5
Movin' on down the road
78
4
Aligning objects with the Align panel
82
1
Copying objects
83
1
Makin' it go away
83
1
Making Shapes More Shapely
83
9
Reshaping shapes and outlines
84
1
Using the Subselect tool
84
1
Freely transforming and distorting shapes
85
3
Straightening lines and curving curves
88
1
Optimizing curves
88
1
Expanding and contracting filled shapes
89
1
Softening edges
90
1
Converting lines to fills
91
1
Transforming Fills
92
2
Transferring Properties
94
1
Finding and Replacing Objects
95
1
Transforming Objects
96
4
Scaling, scaling
96
2
'Round and 'round and 'round we rotate
98
1
Getting skewy
98
2
Flippety, floppety
100
1
Getting Grouped
100
3
Changing the transformation point
101
2
Breaking Apart Objects
103
1
Establishing Order on the Stage
103
1
Reusing Your History
104
5
Using the History panel
105
4
What's Your Type?
109
14
Presenting Your Text
109
12
Creating text
110
1
Editing text
111
3
Setting character attributes
114
3
Hyperlinking text
117
1
Getting the best text appearance
118
1
Setting up paragraph formats
119
1
Creating input and dynamic text
120
1
Creating Cool Text Effects
121
2
Layer It On
123
14
Creating Layers
124
3
Using layers
124
1
Changing layer states
125
2
Getting Those Layers Right
127
5
Deleting layers
127
1
Copying layers
127
1
Renaming layers
128
1
Reordering layers
128
1
Organizing layers
129
1
Modifying layer properties
130
2
Creating Guide Layers
132
1
Opening Windows with Mask Layers
133
4
Creating a mask layer
134
1
Editing mask layers
134
1
Animating mask layers
135
2
Part III: Getting Symbolic
137
32
Heavy Symbolism
139
16
Understanding Symbol Types
139
2
Using graphic symbols
140
1
Using movie clip symbols
140
1
Using button symbols
141
1
Using font symbols
141
1
Creating Symbols
141
7
Changing the properties of a symbol
144
1
Editing symbols
145
1
Using symbols from other movies
146
2
Using the Flash Library
148
1
Using the Flash For Dummies Library
148
1
Working with Instances
148
7
Inserting instances
149
1
Editing instances
150
5
Pushing Buttons
155
14
Creating Simple Buttons
155
3
Understanding button states
156
1
Making a basic button
157
1
Putting Buttons to the Test
158
1
Creating Complex Buttons
159
10
Adding a sound to a button
159
2
Adding a movie clip to a button
161
2
Adding an action to a button
163
2
Creating a button that acts on text input
165
4
Part IV: Total Flash-o-Rama
169
72
Getting Animated
171
30
Who Framed the Animation?
171
1
Preparing to Animate
172
3
Master of the Timeline
173
1
Turtle or hare?
174
1
Animating with Keyframes
175
1
Creating Animations Instantly with Timeline Effects
176
3
Frame after frame after frame
177
2
Stillness in the night
179
1
The Animation Tween
179
12
From here to there --- motion tweening
180
7
Tweening shapes
187
4
Editing Animation
191
6
Adding labels and comments
192
1
Selecting frames
192
1
Copying and pasting
193
1
Moving frames
193
1
Adding frames
194
1
Deleting frames
194
1
Turning keyframes back into regular frames
194
1
Reversing your animation
194
1
Faster or slower?
194
1
Changing the animation settings
195
1
Onion skinning
195
2
Moving everything around the Stage at once
197
1
Making the Scene
197
4
Breaking your movie into scenes
198
1
Manipulating that scene
198
3
Getting Interactive
201
22
Understanding Actions
201
1
Using Behaviors
202
3
Adding Actions to Frames
205
3
Adding Actions to Buttons
208
2
Adding an Action to a Movie Clip
210
3
Using Actions
213
3
Timeline Control actions
213
1
Browser/Network actions
214
2
Making Objects Work For You
216
4
Method acting
217
1
Creating animated masks with movie clips
217
1
Dynamically loading music from the Web
218
2
Exploring Advanced ActionScript
220
3
Programming constructs
220
1
Start-and-stop drag
220
1
Making comments
220
1
ActionScript 2.0
221
1
External scripting
221
1
Learning more
222
1
Extravagant Audio, High-Velocity Video
223
18
Play It Louder!
224
3
Importing sounds
224
1
Placing sounds into a movie
225
2
Editing Sounds
227
2
Deleting parts of a sound
228
1
Changing the volume
228
1
Managing Sound
229
2
Video Magic
231
10
Embedding video into Flash
231
6
Editing video in Flash
237
2
Linking to video in Flash
239
2
Part V: The Movie and the Web
241
72
Putting It All Together
243
32
Building Slide Presentations --- Fast!
243
4
Creating a Preloader
247
2
Sharing Libraries on the Run
249
2
Creating a shared library
249
1
Using a shared library
250
1
Using Named Anchors
251
1
Adding the Power of Components
252
10
Using radio buttons in a Flash movie
253
2
Using check boxes in a Flash movie
255
2
Using combo boxes in a Flash movie
257
2
Using list boxes in a Flash movie
259
1
Using scroll panes in a Flash movie
260
1
Using windows in a Flash movie
261
1
Creating an Entire Web Site with Flash
262
5
Creating navigation with getURL
264
1
Using the Timeline to store Web content
264
3
Testing for the Flash Player
267
3
Letting the user decide
267
1
Detecting the Flash Player version
268
1
Creating alternative sites
269
1
Using the Movie Explorer
270
2
Making Your Site More Accessible
272
3
Publishing Your Flash Files
275
38
Optimizing Your Movies for Speed
276
2
Simplifying artwork
276
1
Optimizing text
277
1
Using shared libraries
277
1
Compressing sound
277
1
Animating efficiently
278
1
Testing Movies
278
3
Using the Test Movie command
279
1
Testing a movie in a Web browser
280
1
Saving Your Work in Flash MX Format
281
1
Publishing Flash Movies
282
1
Publishing to SWF
283
3
Publishing to HTML
286
7
Understanding the HTML code for a movie
286
2
Specifying Flash Player detection and other HTML settings
288
5
Publishing to Other Formats
293
9
Creating GIF graphic files
293
3
Creating JPEG graphic files
296
2
Creating PNG graphic files
298
1
Creating QuickTime movies
299
3
Creating self-playing movies
302
1
Using Publish Profiles
302
2
Using Publish Preview
304
1
Posting Your Movie to Your Web Site
305
1
Exporting Movies and Images
305
2
Creating Printable Movies
307
6
Preparing your movie for printing
308
1
Specifying printable frames
309
1
Specifying the print area
309
1
Printing movies from the Flash Player
310
3
Part VI: The Part of Tens
313
26
Frequently Asked Questions
315
12
How do I make drag-and-drop objects?
315
2
Why is motion tweening not working?
317
1
How can I sync sound with motion?
318
1
What is the best way to import bitmaps?
319
2
How do I rescale my movie's size?
321
1
What are the best movie creating tips?
322
1
Can Flash do 3-D?
323
4
The Top Ten Web Design Tips
327
4
Set Your Goal
327
1
Make Thumbnail Sketches First
327
1
Connect the Parts to the Whole
328
1
Keep It Simple
328
1
Use Fewer Than Four Fonts
328
1
Be Consistent
328
1
Make It Lean and Fast
329
1
Know Who's Watching and How
329
1
Ensure Your Viewer Has the Flash Player
330
1
Test and Then Test Again
330
1
The Ten Best Flash Resources
331
6
Do the Tutorials
331
1
Take a Course
331
1
Look on the Flash Web Page
332
1
Join a Flash Discussion Group
332
1
Check Out the Flash Resource Sites
333
2
Check Out Sites That Use Flash
335
1
Attend a Flash Conference
335
1
Look at Our Sites
336
1
Collect Flash Movies
336
1
Reuse Your Best Stuff
336
1
Ten Great Web Sites That Use Flash
337
2
Part VII: Appendixes
339
2
Appendix A: Installing Flash and Setting Your Preferences
341
10
Installing Flash
341
3
Installing Flash onto a PC from a CD
341
1
Installing Flash by downloading it to your PC
342
1
Installing Flash onto a Mac from a CD
343
1
Installing Flash by downloading it to your Mac
343
1
Setting Your Preferences
344
4
General tab
345
1
Editing tab
346
1
Clipboard tab
346
1
Warnings tab
347
1
ActionScript Editor
347
1
Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts
348
3
Appendix B: The Property Inspector and the Panels
351
14
The Tools Panel
351
1
The Property Inspector
352
2
Property inspector with no selection
353
1
Property inspector with a shape selected
353
1
Property inspector with keyframe selected
353
1
Property inspector with a symbol instance selected
354
1
The Align Panel
354
1
The Color Mixer Panel
355
1
The Color Swatches Panel
356
1
The Info Panel
356
1
The Scene Panel
356
1
The Transform Panel
357
1
The Actions Panel
358
1
The Debugger Panel
358
1
The Movie Explorer Panel
358
2
The Output Panel
360
1
The Accessibility Panel
360
1
The Components Panel
360
2
The Component Inspector
362
1
The History Panel
362
1
The Strings Panel
362
3
Appendix C: What Those Obscure Terms Really Mean
365
6
Appendix D: What's on the CD-ROM
371
8
System Requirements
374
1
Using the CD
374
1
Software on the CD-ROM
375
1
Dreamweaver
375
1
Fireworks
375
1
Photoshop
376
1
Flash Player
376
1
Swift 3D
376
1
Adobe Acrobat Reader
376
1
Your Own Personal Library of Graphics, Sound, and Music
376
1
Flash Movies Galore
377
1
E-book Version of Macromedia Flash MX 2004 For Dummies
378
1
Troubleshooting Your CD Problems
378
1
Index
379
10
End-User License Agreement
389