Macromedia Flash 3.0 Flashy Features and an Aftershock Jim Fox
Flash 3 also includes many new actions. You can make things happen when a user clicks a button or when the movie reaches a certain frame. Multiple actions can be attached, such as START or STOP the movie, GO TO A URL, LOAD a new movie or perform any number of other functions.
Numerous changes to the interface and program functions have been incorporated into Flash 3 such as:
Inspector allows the user to view and change important information about a selected object.
Standard shift selecting of multiple objects is now supported as a preference.
All major commands are shown on the main menu bar in addition to pop up menus.
Flash 3 comes with a separate application called Aftershock. Aftershock automatically creates HTML files for you that contain your Shockwave Flash movies. With Aftershock you can create a new HTML file or add a Shockwave Flash movie to an existing HTML file. Aftershock will also create a script to detect when the Shockwave Flash plugin or ActiveX control is missing and either download it or display your movie as a GIF or Java applet instead. With Aftershock you can also create a cookie that allows visitors to set a preference for how they would like to view your Shockwave Flash movies.
Another unique feature of Flash 3 is the Bandwidth Profiler. With the Bandwidth Profiler you can test movies to find places where pauses may occur during downloading. The Bandwidth Profiler checks the contents of every frame in the movie, analyzes the contents according to the specified modem speed and graphically indicates where the downloading might fall behind.
If you are looking for just the right product to add those professional looking animations to your web page, this is the product for you. Flash 3 is easy to use, full featured and supports both Internet Explorer and Netscape.
