Adding Flash Animation to your Website.

Adobe Flash, formerly known as "Macromedia Flash" is streaming animation for web pages. This means that the information or data (i.e movies) can be viewed as soon as enough data has been received and the remaining data continues to download (you may have seen a rotating circle and the word “buffering”) while you watch. A webpage can feature a small section of Flash or sometimes the whole web page is made of Flash.

One main benefit of Flash benefit is its loading speed. Unlike file attachments, which you may receive in emails for instance, where you have to wait for the file to download completely before you can watch it, Flash movies start playing straight away. Flash therefore offers an effective way to include powerful animations for website visitors.

The Downsides are that sometimes, Flash movies can be blocked by some organizations from being received through the Internet due to Virus or security fears, and not everyone has the required Flash Player plugin. However more and more people have it on their computers as a standard programme these days as it is very simple, quick and FREE to download.

There are a couple of ways to incorporate Flash onto your DotGO website.

 Firstly, You could commission our professional Flash Designer to create a customised website / header design to give your whole site a fresh new look. One of the options on the simply request form asks whether you would like Flash or not. The designer can create your new website look based on a logo or any existing literature, colour schemes or brand identity and it’s a great way to make your site look more professional. It’s also incredibly great value at just £30 for a header redesign or just £40 to give the background, header, navigation bar and footer a complete facelift. Click Step 2 ( Style) > Website Design > Custom Design.

Secondly, you can actually upload flash files and movies straight onto your page. You may have been given a .swf flash file from a supplier, association, organisation, friend or collegue. You might have downloaded a flash file from the Internet – there are loads of fun and free flash files available for download these days. Once you have your file and have decided which page you’d like to put it on – you need to open your Movie File Wizard.

Here’s How…….

First you have to upload your Flash file, through the Movie File Wizard. In the main control panel window, in the column of buttons down the left side, click the Manage Pictures and Files (Upload Files) button. Then click the link for “Video”. If you haven’t already added extra movie space to your website, click the Add more space, It costs just 25p + VAT per MByte per month and video storage is available in blocks of 10MBytes.

Once you have your storage space in place, click to browse for your flash file (.swf) and click upload.

Next go to the page on which you’d like your flash file to appear. Its always best to tab down to a clear line / paragraph. If you want your flash file to sit next to any existing content, insert a single column, single row table, which you can then align right or left to sit neatly within your content.

Click to place your cursor where you want your flash image to sit (inside the table cell if you are using a table) and click the Insert / Edit Flash button on your page editor icon bar.  A drop down menu of the flash files you have uploaded will appear in the next window with a preview of the file showing.

If you know the exact size of the flash file, enter this in the relevant boxes now. If the size is left blank, the system will automatically set a minimum size. You can enter widths and heights to amend the size but avoid entering sizes, which are bigger than the files true size. Once you click Add to Website, you will see a Flash file box on the edit view of your page. You can left, right or centre align this box to get the position just right, then clik “Save Page” to see the live flash file on your page. If you need to go back to your flash file to amend the size, simply click back to edit view on your page and right click the Flash File box > Insert Flash file to open the insert window again. 

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