"Please Help"

[Marcus-Hill]

Hi everyone,

I need some advice/help. I made a change from the direct marketing world to online marketing and as a result am a bit of a novice at coding.

I've wrapped my head around HTML and am getting much better at PHP, but flash coding is a complete 'haven't got a clue' area for me. I've got a site template from Host Gator and would love to keep the template as a flash template but I just can't figure out how it works or how to edit it.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a good, quick how to page/site or advise any good sites that could explain how it all works. I've got a good head on me to learn it but want to find a good source of info.
Can you help?

Much appreciated.

[Medyman]

Hmm....

Flash and ActionScript is a vast topic. You'll have to be more specific in which topics you want to learn about.

There are tutorials that you can purchase. LearnFlash.com is one that some people like (I find the people behind it to be idiots, but that's a separate matter). Lynda.com is a good resource.

I haven't yet come across an all-inclusive tutorial that did the job. With that said, there are several good tutorials on limited subjects -- animations, videos, mp3 player, etc... etc...

So, if you can be more specific, I might be able to recommend something.

As far as editing the template, you'll first need to get your hands on Adobe Flash. I don't know if that's what you were asking of if I'm just stating the obvious. Flash CS3 is available from Adobe on a 30 day trial. You might want to check that out.

There are other cheaper Flash authoring tools out there. I won't recommenced any because they're all sub-par. But it's an option.

Sorry that I can't be of more help. But if you can be more specific I can recommend some resources.

The place where I started was GTAL (www.gotoandlearn.com). Lee Brimelow's video tuts are amazing. His newest 5 or 6 tutorials are in AS 3.0, the rest are in 2.0. Your template is probably code in AS 2.0 so you'll want to focus on the tutorials a bit lower on the page. He shows you how to make some basic Flash apps...some great examples to learn basic coding practices and techniques.

[Marcus-Hill]

That's helped me a bit. The site template I have is all ready to go, I just need to learn how to edit the text on the web page and what editor I need to use. Will Adobe flash do the job?

[Medyman]

That's helped me a bit. The site template I have is all ready to go, I just need to learn how to edit the text on the web page and what editor I need to use. Will Adobe flash do the job?

Yes, absolutely! Adobe Flash is only software that will. Other flash authoring suites use proprietary file types.

.fla files can only be opened with Adobe Flash.

[Marcus-Hill]

Much appreciated, thank you very much!