How to Create a Website With Flash Professional 8

• Step 1

  Select "File"> "New" to create a new document . Familiarize yourself with the Flash workspace prior to beginning your web site. The Timeline is located at the top of the workspace and displays your Layers, Frames and the Playhead. The Timeline controls the rate at which each Movie or animation in Flash is displayed as the Playhead moves throughout the Timeline and displays the content from each Fame onto the Stage. The Stage appears below the Timeline and represents the actual project.

• Step 2

  Go to "Window" > "Properties" to set the property dimensions to reflect the size, color and animation rate of your web site. Unless your site will contain actual animation, set your Frame Rate to 15 fps or frames per second. Set your site width at 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high or larger, according to research done by W3 Schools web site, as most viewers engage with Internet browsers at this size.

• Step 3

  Go to "Insert" > "Timeline" > "Layer" and label the Layer based on the content which will appear in this Layer, such as Background or Images. Layers are filled with various content that can change for each frame. For a basic web site, with only one page, use just the first Frame labeled with the number 1. For more complex sites, each Frame would serve as a different page. For example, the About page might be on Frame 2 and in the Navigation element placed on the Stage in the first Frame, a Button would appear that directed the Playhead, using an ActionScript language, to travel to Frame 2 when the user selected the About Button.

• Step 4

  Go to "Insert" > "Timeline" > "Keyframe" to insert a Keyframe in the first Frame next to the Layer just created. Keyframes indicate content is present in a Frame and are used to change the content in each Frame.

• Step 5

  Use the Text Tool and add copy to your Stage. Select the "Anti-Alias" text setting for easy rendering of text online and choose a simple to read font, such as Arial or Times New Roman.

• Step 6

  Select "File" > "Import" > "Import to Library" to import assets into your Library to add to your web site. Assets are any graphics, images or videos created outside of Flash. The Library is used to store and organize all the elements of the Flash site. As you build the site and begin to convert objects to Buttons and Symbols to add functionality to the objects with ActionScripting, these conversions will be stored in the Library.

• Step 7

  Save your file and label it "index.fla" with FLA being the Flash file extension. The FLA will serve as your master file and will not be posted to the Internet. Use the "Publish Preview" option to create SWF, HTML and JavaScript files. Once uploaded to the Internet, the "index" file extension on the HTML file will tell the server that this document is the Home page.

• Step 8

  Go to "File" > "Publish Preview" and an offline browser window will appear for you to test your web site. Once larger, interactive projects are created, this is one method of testing your ActionScripting and ensuring that the code is properly written and that your site functions as intended. The Publish Preview setting will automatically create your necessary online files. Placed these in your online server using your FTP connection or File Transfer Protocol provided by your web hosting company.

• 4

References & Resources

• W3Schools: Browser Display Statistics
• Creative Cow: Inside Flash Professional 8