The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Flash 8 Basic: What’s a Vector, Victor?

Flash uses two primary types of graphics—vector graphics and raster (bitmap) graphics. Although Flash is primarily a vector-based tool, sometimes one image type is better than the other.

Raster graphics include the Windows Bitmap format (BMP) as well as JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, PICT and others. Raster graphics use pixels to determine the location type of each piece of color information. While bitmap images are great for high quality images, such as photographs, they can be very large (in file size), which can be problematic when used on Web pages. If not compressed, a large bitmap can take forever to download on the Web. A solution to the large bitmap file size is compression. But bitmap images tend to lose quality when scaled to a higher size.

Vector images use mathematical values to reproduce the appropriate display and can, therefore, be scaled without distortion. As a result, the file size of vector images such as EPS, Adobe Illustrator (AI), Macromedia Freehand (FH8 or FH9) and others are significantly smaller than bitmaps. Unfortunately, vector images can be demanding of a computer’s processor and generally do not reproduce high-quality details without a significantly larger file size.

Click here to learn more about Flash Basic 8.

Adobe/Macromedia Flash 8: Look Ma, Two Drawing Models...

There are two drawing models in Flash 8: Merge and Object. Depending on the model you select before you draw an object, Flash can behave in some unexpected ways when you attempt to select objects.

To switch between the two models, all you have to do is click the Object Drawing Tool on the Tools panel. If the tool is gray, you are in the Object Drawing Model. If not, you are in the Merge Model.

Regardless of the model you use (Object or Merge), shapes are usually drawn with the tools on the Tools panel. Remember the following when dealing with Shapes: (1) They can be edited within Flash unlike imported images. (2) In the Merge Model, strokes and fills are independent of each other, (something you will learn very, very soon); in the Object Model, shapes are instantly grouped. (3) In the Merge Model, overlapping objects of the same color will merge into one new object. That can be a bit of a rude awakening if you’re not ready for it. This seemingly bizarre behavior will not occur in the Object Model. (4) In the Merge Model, overlapping objects of different colors will be erased by the top object’s shape—not so in the Object Model. (5) Objects can be reshaped by dragging their edges in Merge Model; drag the edge of an object drawn in the Object Model and the object will resize.

If you Group two or more shapes drawn in the Merge Model, the group will look like the individual shapes, but will not have the individual shape properties. Most importantly, grouped shapes will no longer erase each other when overlapping, nor will they treat strokes and fills independently. Imported images and text (both of which we will look at later) are groups and can’t be edited with the tools on the Tools panel like Shapes can.

Want to learn more about Flash 8 Basic, click here.

Dreamweaver 8: Creating and Defining a Site Folder

For new Web developers, creating a Web site is challenging enough; learning Dreamweaver can seem impossible. And for many people who find Dreamweaver difficult to master, it's creating a site folder that causes significant confusion. Let's see if I can simplify the whole site folder deal.

Before starting Dreamweaver, the first thing you should do is select a folder on your computer (or create a new folder) to be used as a site folder. After you start Dreamweaver, you will "point" Dreamweaver to the folder. Every Web page you create from within Dreamweaver will automatically be saved to the site folder. You can manage multiple Web sites by simply defining more folders as site folders.

Create and Define a Site Folder on Your Desktop

1. If necessary, close or minimize all open windows so that you can see the desktop
2. If you are on a PC, right-click the desktop and choose New > Folder to create a new folder; right- click the new folder and choose Rename from the shortcut menu and name the new folder MyFirstSite
   
   If you are on a Macintosh, choose File > New Folder to create a new folder on the desktop and then name the new folder MyFirstSite
   
   There should now be a new folder on your desktop called MyFirstSite. Now it's time to define this new folder as a Site Folder.
   
3. Start Dreamweaver
4. Choose Site > Manage Sites
5. Click the New button and choose Site
6. Select the Basic tab
7. Type Your First Name's First Site into the Site Name area (e.g. Kevin’s First Site)
8. Click Next
9. Select No, I do not want to use a server technology
10. Click Next
11. Ensure Edit local copies on my machine, then upload to server when ready is selected
12. Click the little folder at the right
13. Navigate to the Desktop (this is where you saved the MyFirstSite folder)
14. PC users, open the MyFirstSite folder and click Select; Mac users select the MyFirstSite folder and click Choose

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