Need a Little Help

[Dianne Lewandowski]

I'm developing a new website and trying to make some "flashy" buttons (pardon the pun).  I'm having difficulty with them in Firefox.  Can I ask anyone of you, if you use Firefox, to test out the main page on the site to see if the buttons work?  Heck, I'd love to know if any of you use *anything* besides Explorer, which seems to be handling the buttons just fine.  I spent all afternoon trying to get the kinks out.  They work perfectly in Flash, but when I imported them into Dreamweaver, things began to go awry.

http://www.saferoutesgoochland.org

Thanks in advance!

[Ari]

I'm using Firefox, Dianne. Everything seems to be working fine. I assume you're talking about the buttons that open sideways...

[Dianne Lewandowski]

Thanks, Ari!  Yep . . . the nifty sideways buttons you can mesmerize yourself with for all of 30 seconds and then get bored.  I'm just honing my Flash skills.   

[Tom]

Dianne's responsible for all the flash used on this site (the new www.queststudios.com/index.html), and the entire new soundtrack menu system that I hope to have posted sometime next week.  This flash scripting stuff is a lot harder than it looks; she's doing all the coding, manually, so that she learns and understands why things work like they do in flash.

[the_doctor]

Look like they work OK on Safari 3 (Mac OSX) ... they only animate on the main index, i assume that's on purpose tho ...

[Ari]

Thanks, Ari!  Yep . . . the nifty sideways buttons you can mesmerize yourself with for all of 30 seconds and then get bored.  I'm just honing my Flash skills.   

I guess I don't get that easily bored. Took me almost a full minute to lose interest. 

[Dianne Lewandowski]

Look like they work OK on Safari 3 (Mac OSX) ... they only animate on the main index, i assume that's on purpose tho ...

Yep.  I thought once was enough.  And I needed the room on the rest of the site pages.

I guess I don't get that easily bored. Took me almost a full minute to lose interest.

I just about fell off my chair.  Thanks for the morning cheer.

I really appreciate the help, guys!  I had an error in the code and went nuts trying to find it.  Took me two hours.  But like all novices, I learned.

[Dianne Lewandowski]

Thanks, Tom.  Actually, manually coding is the only way to really work in Flash . . . that's why it's taken me so long to start "getting it".  It keeps my little gray cells from deteriorating, that's for sure.  Which is the only reason I took up the hobby.  But self-learning has been a long, slow process with lots of throwing the books at the wall along the way.

[mace]

Thanks, Tom.  Actually, manually coding is the only way to really work in Flash . . . that's why it's taken me so long to start "getting it".  It keeps my little gray cells from deteriorating, that's for sure.  Which is the only reason I took up the hobby.  But self-learning has been a long, slow process with lots of throwing the books at the wall along the way.

I always find that programming languages are all alike. Actionscript is alot like JavaScript in my opinion.
So the knowledge gathered will be useful for other languages as well.

[Marten]

Are people w/o flash still going to be able to navigate this site?

Personal opinion:  Use flash for places where you need animation.

I'm sure it looks cool, but after those mesmerizing 30 seconds are over, what will people really think?

[mace]

Actually, I'm pleased the silly rollover sound is gone from those buttons, because that actually really annoyed me. 

[Tom]

I've been trying to think of reasons why anyone who's browsing the 'net these days would be without Flash player.  Especially, visitors to this site -- who tend to be a tad more tech savvy than the casual visitor, to say, Aunt Martha's Kitchen Supplies website.  (But, even Disney requires flash.)   Perhaps up to 5% of visitors might not have access to a flash-enabled computer at one time or another when visiting.  My dialup Win2k PC at work (using IE v5) choked on some of the animations, but it was pretty easy to update the flash player.

However, my plan is to keep the old "Sierra1.html", with all of the text-based links, in place....at least for a little while.  When I'm ready to upload the new site, there will be a link on the main index page for "non-flash access" which will lead to the old main menu page. Though all the pages are being updated, the links will be the same -- and won't require flash.

Other than the main index page, the only flash animation is something I've wanted to do for many years:  When a game soundtrack is selected, the box-art is presented with a link to both the MIDI and Digital versions.  I've tried, in vain, to figure out ways to do what I wanted without using flash...since I don't know how to program in flash and have to rely on Dianne.  It's possible to do, after a fashion, but adds a lot more "clicking and navigating" to the mix.  Using flash, it's basically a one-step process.  It's not done to be cute, but to be practical.  And I think it's nice to see the original boxart for the selected soundtrack.  All other MIDI and digital pages, specialty pages, information pages, etc. do not use flash. 

Those sounds were getting to me, too, but I didn't know how to edit them out and didn't want to bug Dianne; she's been doing so much for me already.

[MichalN]

I've been trying to think of reasons why anyone who's browsing the 'net these days would be without Flash player.

They could be using an iPhone or another mobile platform.

Some people have Flash turned off because it's mostly good for wasting bandwidth by showing people animated ads.

Especially, visitors to this site -- who tend to be a tad more tech savvy than the casual visitor, to say, Aunt Martha's Kitchen Supplies website.

It's true that your site is inherently multimedia-heavy and requires a fairly complete desktop environment to experience fully. Requiring Flash is probably not a big deal. But for a site that primarily provides information, things should IMO be kept maximally simple. Flash might be an option but never a requirement. Not everyone has Flash, and I don't know how well (I suspect not well at all) Flash works with accessibility technologies like screen readers.

[Tom]

I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding.  My site won't require flash.  My index.html page will, but also contains a text link to a non-flash index page.  I'm still working on the Sierra game index pages, and I've come up with both a flash and non-flash version; they look and function identically, but coding for the non-flash page is extensive and takes a while to do.  At least I've finally figured out how to do it.  I don't know which one I'll use.  Both 'versions' also contain standard text links (in a pull-down menu), so either will provide access to those that do and don't use flash.  And again, people who use older browsers...like IE 4 or Netscape 4...won't be able to view the new pages at all.  All layers, no tables. 

[Tom]

Anyway... 

I'm still experimenting with layouts.  The current Sierra soundtrack index pages are only temporary until I finish with other layouts ... then decide which way to go.  The current scheme is very much like the old main menu page (incorporating all the game links on one page), but doing all of this takes a lot of time -- and I'm a slow-poke.  So, hang in there.   I'm still  learning a lot of new things with Dreamweaver that I had no idea I could do; things that don't require Flash.

[Tom]

...and here's a screenshot of what I finally decided on for the main Sierra music index page.  Click on a game title and you're presented with a MIDI or Digital option under a picture of the game's boxart.  No flash.  Other than the boxart, no graphics.  Fifty-eight game links, each with about 150 behaviors attached to them; do the math.  I should have this done by...oh...say, 2015?      (This would be a lot easier to do in Flash.)

NEW MUSIC INDEX PAGE

[Nathanieltolbert331]

I like the way that sample page looks.  I wish I had to take courses in Dreamweaver for my degree now, cause I would love to be able to help with a project like that.  I hope it's done before 2012, but if not... I'll still be coming here anyway.

[Tom]

Thanks.  My wife thinks I'm nuts doing all this the hard way, but I've wanted to do the 'pop-up gamebox' thing for years but couldn't figure out how.  (Easy to make them popup, but when you have dozens of boxes appearing and disappearing, that's another story.)  Seriously, I think I'll probably have this music index page done in about a month.

[Ari]

It looks really great, Tom! Isn't there any way to automate the process somehow?

[Tom]

I have streamlined it now quite a bit so that each game listing only requires 58 behaviors instead of 150.  Copy and pasting behaviors, then editing them for each game takes just as much time as doing each from scratch, so my automation process is sort of moot.  I don't mind doing this, though; keeps me out of trouble.  I've wanted this kind of menu for ages, so it's worth the effort to me.  And in the process, I've mastered Dreamweaver layer properties and behaviors.