Flash
Flash is a natural partner and occasional rival to Dreamweaver. Both are
sold by Macromedia,
along with Director,
the multimedia heavyweight behind shockwave files on the web and almost
all interactive cd-roms.
Flash is an excellent way to produce cartoon animation such as that at www.angryalien.com (fun film parodies) or www.joecartoon.com (some swearing and adult content) with synchronised high quality mp3 sound.
You can create just a few elements or a whole website in Flash, with multi-media interactivity which is supported cross platform. Many major sites such as Disney use Flash extensively.
Hoam museum features a very fine map:
The
minority who still lack a Flash viewer need just a single plug-in to download.
Thereafter they can appreciate every element of the Flash site - an attractive
alternative to the polyglot collection of specialised plug-ins for sound,
video and animation you might need to emulate a Flashed site using a mix
of other technologies. Macromedia now claims up to 98% of browsers are
Flash enabled - though some surveys put this lower. Note that Internet
TVs may not support Flash - showing just a white square with 'plug-in
not available'. It is not such a good idea to use Flash for your introductions
to your index page and all navigation elements without providing an alternative
system for those who lack Flash. Also note that while support for Flash
4 and 5 and 6 is strong,
the Flash 8 player is progressively
rarer so try to save straightforward Flash work as Flash 5 compatible
if possible to increase your potential audience. Newer features such as
video support require newer versions, so test thoroughly.
Flash can use vectors to create fast loading images which can be scaled (without bitmap 'jaggies') to match the user's browser window size. Flash can also render text in your original and perhaps unusual typeface by including the font outlines as vectors, but this prevents the text from being read by a search engine. Versions before Flash MX lacked features to improve navigation and accessibility, leading to Jakob Nielsen's infamous Flash 99% Bad article, written in 2000 and since updated following his consultancy with Macromedia.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 changed how embedded Flash content is viewed. Read here for Macromedia's suggested workarounds.
Flash enhanced sites and online tutorials for those who would like to know more.