How to Create a Flash Website Using Dreamweaver 8
Dreamweaver 8 is a Web page design and layout program. While you can't actually create Flash animations and movies in Dreamweaver, you can embed Flash Player SWF files in your Dreamweaver pages to create a Flash website. When you embed Flash movie files in Dreamweaver pages, Dreamweaver automatically creates the necessary HTML code and JavaScript programming to display and play the movie in a Web browser.
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Things You'll Need
- Macromedia Flash 8, Flash MX or Adobe Flash CS1 or later
- Macromedia Dreamweaver 8
Instructions
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Creating a flash website with Dreamweaver 8
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Design a movie in Flash as you normally would, or start with an existing Flash SWF movie file you want to use as a website Keep in mind that, since the Flash movie is essentially the website---you should design it with the desired web display dimensions. For example, many designers use 766 by 700 pixels for Flash movies they intend to use as websites. This size fits comfortably on most monitors without forcing users to scroll right and left to see the entire page. You cannot create navigation and other buttons that interact with the Flash movie in Dreamweaver. You should add these features in the Flash movie itself, as well as any playback control options, such as "Play," "Pause," and "Rewind" buttons.
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Launch Dreamweaver 8 and start a new page, like this: Click "File" on the menu bar and choose "New." This opens the New Document dialog box. Choose "Basic Page" from" the "Category" list, and then choose "HTML" from the "Basic Page" list. Click the "Create" button.
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Click "Insert" on the menu bar, choose "Media," and then select "Flash" from the sub-menu.
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Navigate to the SWF movie file, select it and click "OK." (If Flash displays the Object Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog box, click "Cancel" to close the dialog box.) This embeds the SWF movie container into the page. It displays as a gray box with a Flash icon in the center. You can now use the options in the Properties panel to control how the movie plays.
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Go to the "Properties panel." By default, Properties displays directly below the document window. Select the movie container on the page and make the desired changes. For example, to tell Dreamweaver to play the movie automatically when the page displays, place a check mark in the "Autoplay" check box. Set the movie playback quality from the "Quality" drop-down. To choose where on the page the movie displays---"Top," "Middle," "Left," "Right," and so on---use the "Align" drop-down. You get the idea.
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Name and save the Web page like this: Click "File" on the menu bar and choose "Save As." Type the file name in the "Name" field and click the "Save" button.
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Tips & Warnings
In most cases, the HTML page you create with this method acts as a container for the movie. The website content is the Flash movie itself. When you save the web page, give it the default homepage name. On most Web servers, the default homepage name is "index.html."
When you embed a SWF movie into a web page, it doesn't actually become part of the page. Instead, it'ss a linked external file. When you upload your page to a web server, be sure to upload the movie file. Also, make sure you keep the file names and paths intact. Otherwise, the movie won't play.
References
- Photo Credit internet image by Stephanie Bandmann from Fotolia.com
