macromedia flash sitedesign: I'm just getting started designing my own sites, and the toughest thing for me
is deciding on a toolset and workflow that suits me. I've just finished reading
Peachpit Press' "Creating a Website with Flash," which takes you from A to Z in
developing a working Flash site. It was my first exposure to the idea that you
can design and develop a site entirely in Flash -- I had always thought that
Flash was only used for animations and navigation.

The book, however, lacked any discussion regarding the pros and cons of
developing a site in Flash. I'm hoping some forum members are willing to share
their experiences -- what are the most compelling reasons for developing web
sites in Flash? What are some of the negatives?

Thanks in advance!

search engine spiders cannot read flash and it doesnt get indexed. I use pay
per click so im not worried about it. i like flash because it looks great,
versatile and just about every user has it. tb58

Hello,
It's a little bit hard to answer your question in less then a milion words..
but I'll try.
You can make a web site in any other program you would like, but in flash it's
dfferent, and not because I say so, but because once you got it you can't let
it go. It's very simple to use and the worklow it's great if you know what you
want to do with it, and yuo have a bit more imagination. You can even build a
site if you only know.. 10% of everything you could know in flash. mainly
because everything can be done in more then one way, and anyone can use it in
every way he/she wants. and the progress is inevitable in flash.. as I said,
once you get started, you can't let it go.
of course you can only build a site in a design manner, but you can also use
AS for interactivity, and this is one of the best things in flash, the
interactivity. You can do anything in action script, load variables from
diferent files/servers, use the microfone, camera, and other peripherals you
can have , you can build anything you think you can't in flash(video chat,
forums, games, .. you name it)...
I know I've forgot alot of other things.. but I'm trying to keep it
simple..for now..
Sorry, for my bad english.... hope you're gonna use flash at your future web
sites..

Thanks for the feedback. It seems that Flash is just such a different way of
designing a web site -- the usual method I'm familiar with is to build a comp
in Photoshop or Fireworks, then slice it all up for export to Dreamweaver,
where you can tweak the tables to fine-tune your formatting. Honestly, this has
always struck me as a tremendous and tedious chore, my least favorite part of
the process. It seems to me that Flash allows you to sidestep this a bit
because once you're happy with your site layout in Flash, that's it -- you
don't have to slice and dice and tweak in any other application. Of course, you
have to configure it to load properly into a web page, but the tedious business
of slicing and messing with tables is not an issue.

Is this right? Are there any other benefits folks can share along these lines?

Thanks!

Two major *drawbacks* to Flash sites are:

a. lack of accessibility for impaired persons -- reading machines cannot
'read' text
that is embedded in Flash also, unless extra steps are taken, Flash
web sites are
not keyboard navigable.

b. Flash web sites are, for the most part, extremely search engine
UN-friendly. Most
search engines cannot 'read' Flash web sites, therefore as far as
the search engine
is concerned, there is no content there by which to establish ranking.

Just my two cents,

Cynthia

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Hi all,
Well flash is easier to manage.
updates are easier.
u dont have to keep checking for browser compatibility issues.
pixel perfect layouts.
if u can handle vector shapes good u can have a swf file a lot smaller
(filesize) than a HTML page.(mine is just 30kb whereas most html pages are
around the 80kb mark or more)
ur codes are not easily accessible.
and lots more.....
:)

I just started redesigning my site in Flash in order for it to show full
screen on any size monitor from 600x800 to 1024x 1280. I wasted a lot of time
trying to do that in HTML, and finally gave up when I realized that a 1024 x
1280 Flash movie would automatically play at whatever resolution , as long as I
DID NOT put it inside an HTML page. Check out my web page and give me some feed
back please. If there are any potential problems, I would like to know before I
spend too much time on this...I only have a few pages fonctional so far. Only
the button called ARTICLES on the JEANJACQUESGAUDEL.COM part of the site lead
somewhere. My site is:

http://jjgaudel.com

gaudel,

Did you know that at lower resolution the text on the article scans
cannot be read? It looks similar to
taking an 800 x 600 jpeg and forcing it to be 640 x 480 using height and
width attributes. Probably the
biggest downside to Flash, though, is the detriment to search engine
ranking.

There simply is no content for the search engine to chew on with a 100%
flash site.

Just my two cents...

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DigitalRainmakers.com - Search Engine Optimization & Web Design
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U have [width="1300" height="1050"] in ur html file for the flash .

Merlin,
Thanks, it does work after all ! I was putting the movie inside a table
set at 100%x100%, but the movie itself was still set at 1300x1050. I should
have ask earlier.... While we are at it, you can I am sure answer another one
of my dumb questions...
The movie takes long to load because of the sound track, which is mp3.
Can't make it any smaller. It loads much faster alone, so I have been trying to
put the sound on the site and write an action that loads the music after the
movie has loaded and started to play. I tried it with behaviours > sound > load
streaming mp3 file, and in the action panel too, but cannot make it work. Any
suggestions?

Flash movie would automatically play at whatever resolution , as long as I DID
NOT put it inside an HTML page
Flash can also be played at maximised resolution in the browser if u just
replace the height and width pixel attributes with a value of 100%. So it
scale according to the browser window size.
:)

Yes, theoratically, but I cannot make it work. The swf alone adjusts to the
screen size, the HTML page gets cropped.Check the two examples below.They both
show full screen on my 19" monitor, but I can size the swf page down to almost
nothing and see the whole page scaled down, whether the HTMLpage gets cropped.
http://homepage.mac.com/gaudel/flash.html

var myySound:Sound = new Sound();
mySound.onLoad = function (loadedOK) {
if(loadedOK) {
myySound.start();
}
}
mySound.loadSound("http://www.merlinvicki.com/sounds/my_music.mp3", true);