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Introduction to FLASH

© Umais Ahmad

Welcome to my first article. We are going to learn Flash, so let's start. If you have surfed the web you might have experienced that most of the web pages are static, they have no animation and attraction for the visitors. It is an age of fast growing Multimedia. Every person wants to build his web site more interactive, animated and dynamic by adding background sounds, visual effects and animated scenes etc. All this is possible by Java Applets and animated pictures but Java Applets are difficult to learn and take much more time to load in a browser. Macromedia has solved this problem by introducing a new technology FLASH.

What is FLASH?

Flash is a tool used for building interactive, animated and dynamic web sites, developed by Macromedia. Its amazing results have grabbed the attention of today’s programmers. Flash sites are more attracting and dynamic than other web sites. There are certain advantages, which give flash priority over Java Applets and animated pictures.

If you have not ever seen a web site designed in Flash, you might be crazy to explore this secret. I shall not let you wait anymore, please visit http://www.shahkam.com/ to see the wonderings of Flash.

Why we use FLASH?

• The loading speed of flash sites in a browser is much more fast than Java Applets and animated pictures which take a lot of time to load.
• Flash requires no programming experience and easy to learn. Flash only requires a designing peace of mind while Java Applets require complex and difficult programming.
• Flash uses Vector Graphics i.e. when we zoom a flash movie to any extent it does not lose clarity while animated images does not remain clear at high zoom level.
• Flash is not only used in building web sites but is also used as a graphic application and movie editor. You can use flash in creating AVI, MOV and EXE format movies.
• Flash also behaves like a programming language. You can create interactive games using Flash.
• By using Flash we can create animated .GIF pictures.

What you should know before learning FLASH?

Flash requires no previous programming experience. Although it will be better if you are already familiar with the HTML but I shall recommend that you must learn HTML along with flash. Where to Learn HTML? I have a very nice HTML tutor, if you say I can email you.

Who can view FLASH sites?

Flash web sites require a flash player already plugged in a browser. If a browser doesn't have flash player plugged in, it cannot view flash sites but it will invoke a message to download a flash player from Macromedia's site. Today flash player comes with Microsoft Windows and installed during Windows installation. Flash player is also present in a Netscape Communicator.

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