Macromedia Flash MX

Review by David Cammack

Flash has always been a great program. In the beginning, its purpose was to create animation. Flash 4 introduced ActionScript, and, in Flash 5, ActionScript became much more sophisticated. ActionScript, which looks a lot like JavaScript, has taken a simple animation tool and turned it into the choice application for creating rich multimedia content for the web.

In version MX (or version 6), the main change you will notice is the user interface. Gone is the myriad of palettes littering the screen found in Flash 5, and, in their place, is a very slick expandable menu system. The new tool palettes easily join together and take up minimal space. There's also a new Property Inspector palette that changes depending on what object or tool is selected, much like the one used in Macromedia Dreamweaver. This new Property Inspector combines several of the old Flash 5 palettes. Overall, these improvements let you organize your work area better.

Flash now has the ability to integrate QuickTime video. Just import an uncompressed QuickTime video into your Flash Movie. Flash uses Sorenson Spark for compression. The frame rate of the original video must match the Flash movie frame rate. A good frame rate is 10-15 fps. Once video is imported into Flash, it appears in the library just like any other symbol. Look for some interesting uses of video on the web in the coming months, as video can be controlled using ActionScript.

JPEG images can now be dynamically loaded directly into a published Flash movie. The same can be done with MP3 files. Just use the loadMovie() and loadSound() methods. The name of your JPEG or MP3 is placed in the code as a parameter, as in loadMovie(myPic.jpeg). In previous versions of Flash, users would have to create a separate .swf file just to hold the .jpeg image.

Smart clips have been replaced by Components. Flash comes with several ready-made components such as radio buttons and a scrollable text field component. More can be found on Macromedia's web site. Components can be modified with care, but most look very generic and could get boring quickly. Better to design and build your own.

Text can now be easily broken apart into individual letters. The individual letters are placed on their own layer in the timeline. This is a great shortcut when you need to animate words, letter by letter.

The new Named Anchors feature allows you to name frames in the timeline of a movie so that when published on the Internet, a surfer can use the back and forward buttons of their browser to navigate your site.

The actions panel can be customized to your liking. Lines of code can now be numbered. Code colors can be customized to your liking. The Debugger has finally been debugged and now works when it's first fired up (...one big problem when using Flash 5).

There is a new code hinting feature, which shows a list of code possibilities as you type. To take full advantage of this new feature, you need to memorize the required suffixes that Flash uses, such as _mc for a movie clip or _btn for a button. To try this out, in the properties panel type:

myClip_mc.

As soon as you type the period, a list of properties for a movie clip will appear at the tip of your cursor. Choose a line of code from the list, and Flash will add the code for you.

Buttons can be given instance names and have properties which can be changed. For example, a button can be disabled with this code:

myButton.enabled=false;

This is very useful for buttons that need to be temporarily covered by other movie clips and other buttons.

Buttons can also be triggered by code placed in a keyframe in the timeline, so your button can be free of code, and your code can become more centralized. For example, a button can have this code placed on it:

on(release){

play();

}

Or, you can instead place this code in a keyframe:

my_btn.onRelease=function(){

play();

}

You don't need to code to be able to use Flash. But you can do so much more with some simple ActionScripting, and your final file size can be kept to a minimum. Using Flash makes learning to program an enjoyable experience.

Overall, these new features make Flash MX well worth the upgrade price. Today, users of Flash are creating some of the most exciting content on the web. The days of boring static html documents are hopefully coming to an end. Flash is king.

Resources:

Books

ActionScripting in Flash MX by Phillip Kerman

Teach yourself Flash MX ActionScript in 24 hours by Gary Rosenzweig

ActionScript, The Definitive Guide by Colin Mook

Web

www.flashkit.com

www.macromedia.com

www.gotoandplay.net

www.oregon.org