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Shockwave Flash/Questions Answered by Expert Mike Dixon
| Subject | Date Asked |
| flv or swf for downloaded language program | 7/1/2009 |
| Q: I'm an English Second Language teacher who made 30 powerpoint slideshows (240 slides) to teach ... A: The initial question was about previewing files, I believe. I do not know how Flash Movie Player ... | |
| jpegs into flash | 6/30/2009 |
| Q: Ive drawn a couple of characters in sequence, scanned them in using photoshop, and made each ... A: I am sure there is a program that can export animations to flash, search around online for character ... | |
| Flash Video Works In CS3...Not On The Web... | 6/22/2009 |
| Q: Website Address is: http://hwc.ccc.edu/newsite/indextest.aspx. I took the .html file that was ... A: Coould be many things. First thing I would do is upload the html. if it works, its you asp page (why ... | |
| flv or swf for downloaded language program | 6/2/2009 |
| Q: I'm an English Second Language teacher who made 30 powerpoint slideshows (240 slides) to teach ... A: the quickest way to do this is also the way that will ensure most people will have no trouble ... | |
| flash loads slowly do u need toput flv file on ? | 4/12/2009 |
| Q: . http://www.mangiaitalianfood.com/menus/pastashow/ I have a program called Photodex Producer. I ... A: Depending on how the clip is set up you might need to have the fla on the server. You'll know if it ... | |
| Loading movie clips via buttons | 4/10/2009 |
| Q: Is it possible to have a button load a movieclip from the library? If so, any ideas how to go about ... A: Michelle, Yes it is possible. If you are using AS2 yu would use attachMovieClip. In AS3 you use ... | |
| flash scenes | 4/6/2009 |
| Q: I'm trying to create a website that has several scenes. Scene 1 is the home page, scene 2 -7 are ... A: SCenes are only used when developing, once you publish the file flash removes the scenes. The best ... | |
| Flash Movie question | 4/2/2009 |
| Q: Can you make a swf. flash movie open on a homepage of a site automatically only once, browse the ... A: Ken, I am assuming you mean an html site with some kind of introduction on the home page, and not a ... | |
| Flash - Nested Movie Clips | 3/21/2009 |
| Q: Dixon, I'm building three short flash movies that explain how different 'Alternative ... A: Claran, From what you describe it is hard to tell, sounds like everything should work. If it is not ... | |
| Animated gif to flash | 3/13/2009 |
| Q: I am trying to make a flash animation for our company web site. I had previously made some animated ... A: Kyle, Animated gifs are not the way to go. Flash was initially an animation software for web, so it ... | |
| flash rollover button | 3/10/2009 |
| Q: http://agostdesign.com/amici.html . . . . . . I want the buttons in the top menu to only show ... A: Leeann, There are several ways to do this - heres one: 1. make the buttons one movie clip by ... | |
| wHat programs do i need to edit this website www.antipastiny.com | 3/10/2009 |
| Q: wHat programs do i need to edit this website www.antipastiny.com my friend owns it and wants me to ... A: you will need flash and the original .fla's, which are the source files used to build flash ... | |
| Brush tool bug? | 2/5/2009 |
| Q: Well I am using flash 8 at the current moment and when I paint with my wacom tablet (not sure if ... A: thats strange... without the source file its difficult to say. It might be a stroke, it might be ... | |
| swf websites | 1/15/2009 |
| Q: Whenever I go to a website with the ending of swf on it the web site shows up as a blank screen. I ... A: webpages should not end in .swf, it should be .html, php, ect. I believe files that have been ... | |
| SWF files | 12/13/2008 |
| Q: Using WinXP Home,Service Pack 3, IE7, Outlook Express 6.0. I used to be able to open SWF files just ... A: I have been getting a lot of requests along these lines. My expertise lies in developing flash ... | |
| email a swf file | 12/8/2008 |
| Q: I am trying to understand how to make a swf file open up automatically in an email. I have read ... A: What you are asking is not a flash question per se, but rather an html email question. The process ... | |
| Flash Player 10 Won't Install | 11/30/2008 |
| Q: I used to watch videos on YouTube. At some point the area where the video plays went blank. It's ... A: I am not an expert at os and plugin installs. There seems to be issues with the flash player since ... | |
| Flash to avi to dvd | 11/27/2008 |
| Q: I'm using Flash MX, which I have imported photos and music, at 700 x 500 resolution, then export to ... A: The problem is in the conversion by nero to dvd I would assume. IF it is compressing the video to ... | |
| help flv | 11/18/2008 |
| Q: i put up a video on youtube it loads quickly there.. but when i use the flv file i have or the mpg ... A: youtube compresses the videos then streams them in. you will need to use something to compress the ... | |
| using flash with buttons | 11/13/2008 |
| Q: I am a beginner web designer who wishes to use flash for building a flash slideshow with back and ... A: couldnt find the sound page- did you mean music page? regardless, i design my sites, including ... | |
| Button linking | 11/13/2008 |
| Q: how do i link a buton with am animation on two separate scenes. I am using flash 5 so tell me the ... A: the answer to this is very involved. i would recommend tutorials on kirupa.com. i personally use a ... | |
| flash files on my web site | 10/22/2008 |
| Q: Not an expert, but compiled my own website, checked it out on the machine i built it on and it ... A: Geoff, That could be anything. As I have responded to others about, flash cs3 has issues to say the ... | |
| flash mx - make a graphic symbol a link | 10/21/2008 |
| Q: Greetings- Thanks for any tips. I am teaching myself a bit about Flash. I have a simple animation ... A: you can make new layers in the timeline. in the top menu go to insert>timeline>new layer. Select the ... | |
| Flash won't install | 10/21/2008 |
| Q: I'm not sure if you are the right person to ask this to, but here goes. I am using XP and Firefox, ... A: Joost, I don't know off the top of my head what the problem is, and this is for flash development ... | |
| adobe flash CS3 stops responding | 10/19/2008 |
| Q: my operating system is Windows vista and my i have a 3GB harddrive. Inspite of this when i am ... A: Helina, I do not know what the problem could be, but I do know that flash CS3 is buggy. I have ... | |
| flash mx - make a graphic symbol a link | 10/14/2008 |
| Q: Greetings- Thanks for any tips. I am teaching myself a bit about Flash. I have a simple animation ... A: John, You do this by selecting the symbol on the stage, choosing "modify" in the top menu and ... | |
| alpha applied to movieclip | 9/26/2008 |
| Q: I have a multi-layer mc with bitmaps on each layer. I want to set the alpha of the mc when i nest it ... A: Sean, I dont quite understand what you are asking, sorry. Do you mean that the bitmaps are ... | |
| alpha applied to movieclip | 9/19/2008 |
| Q: I have a multi-layer mc with bitmaps on each layer. I want to set the alpha of the mc when i nest it ... A: sean, It seems like you are asking how to change the alpha of a mc, without changing the alpha of ... | |
| programmer wont let owner of site ftp to the site. holding back the id and password | 8/9/2008 |
| Q: programmer wont let owner of site ftp to the site. holding back the id and password. so we want to ... A: i beleive you were the person who asked this already? i answered it - look at the previous ... | |
| swf to flv | 8/8/2008 |
| Q: my friend got locked out of his website. i was able to download all his files we got the swf files ... A: yes, you can get a quality decompiler to make fla's out of swf's. this will require a high level of ... | |
| Flash Player | 7/8/2008 |
| Q: Hey, my computer says i have flash player on it bit it doesn't work. When i do to a sight that ... A: I would try going to different sites. The sitre in question might not be using flash detection ... | |
| Flash 8 | 6/30/2008 |
| Q: Is it possible to click attached movieclips in Flash 8? I have one movieclip on the scene. When I ... A: i am guessing you never read the flash help documentation on this function. you will need to learn ... | |
| FLASH PLAYER | 6/29/2008 |
| Q: Vista 32 bit/IE7 Dell Inspiron 9400 I cannot run videos anymore. I deleted Adobe Flash Player 9 ... A: ouch. i am an expert(not really but thats the site name) on developing with flash, this might be a ... | |
| Flash 8 | 6/28/2008 |
| Q: Is it possible to click attached movieclips in Flash 8? I have one movieclip on the scene. When I ... A: Nerijus, You need to assign an unique identifire to new movieclips created with attachMovie. In ... | |
| linking a button to another movie clip | 6/18/2008 |
| Q: in my main timeline i have two frames. one frame has a movieclip which contains more frames inside ... A: Char, You will need to separate the clips to different layers and make sure they occupy the same ... | |
| input text box | 6/18/2008 |
| Q: i was wondering how you can clear a input text box after you submit say a contact form? when i enter ... A: inside the function that submits the form set all to text = ""; this will place an empty string ... | |
| flash actionscript 2 | 6/13/2008 |
| Q: i have a problem. when i click on a button, it opens two windows and i don't konw why! here is my ... A: if this is the case then i dont know what could be wrong. your code is correct, and as you have ... | |
| looping in flash | 6/4/2008 |
| Q: I have a strip of photos all tied together as a jpeg. It runs great in Flash as it goes scrolling by ... A: Yvonne, I think I know what you are asking for but I am not sure... I will try. To solve this you ... | |
| Flash 8 Workspace | 5/14/2008 |
| Q: I was playing around with the tools on my Flash program and I screwed up my workspace. I used to see ... A: Allie, Flash has this weird thing that if you have a mask, both the mask and the layer it is ... | |
| display multiple data in flash | 5/8/2008 |
| Q: when I display the data form SQL to flash using dynamic text box. it show only 1 record at 1 time. ... A: to be honest i am not well versed in bringing sql into flash. I use php to go between the 2. There ... | |
| Alpha in Flash | 5/1/2008 |
| Q: When I try to use alpha on a symbol, it shows as white. I want it to be black. How can I change it? A: Debbie, Alpha is transparency. When you change a movieclip's alpha to 0, it is transparent, not ... | |
| Stopping a sound in a scene | 5/1/2008 |
| Q: I have a number of scenes in an animation that I am creating. In the first scene music starts ... A: Rod, I do not know much about scenes as I never use them. Are you bringing the sound in using ... | |
| Access is denied | 4/23/2008 |
| Q: I have embeded swf file in html and when a button is pressed in swf a function(getValue) of html ... A: Anil, I believe you are having aissues resulting from the flah players security sandbox, which is ... | |
| form scroll | 4/10/2008 |
| Q: I saw your question regarding wanting to let your form scroll within Flash. The answer provided was ... A: Paul, I do not know what is going on with your swf exactly. I do know that I have had trouble with ... | |
| how to load an external .asp(any dynamic )page to flash site? | 2/20/2008 |
| Q: How to load an external .asp(any dynamic )page to flash site? A: Rejil, it is difficult to understand what you are asking. i use php and flash when i need dynamic ... | |
| The ERIKA effect. | 2/20/2008 |
| Q: The ERIKA effect. I have been trying to figure this out for days. I am just lost with it. Follow ... A: Dan, I use After effects to key the video and make an alpha channel, export it for flash. This ... | |
| Flash+HTML | 1/25/2008 |
| Q: I have finished a Flash website for a friend and am ready to upload. My friend has heard that Flash ... A: it all depends on the site. sometimes i will use a flash header and menu on an html site, sometimes ... | |
| Flash+HTML | 1/22/2008 |
| Q: I have finished a Flash website for a friend and am ready to upload. My friend has heard that Flash ... A: it will change things a little , but as long as you just move the html into a folder, keeping the ... | |
| Flash+HTML | 1/21/2008 |
| Q: I have finished a Flash website for a friend and am ready to upload. My friend has heard that Flash ... A: you make an html page called index.html and in there you put links to a flash site and an html site, ... | |
| Moving Shape from one .FLA project to another | 1/7/2008 |
| Q: a few question about Flash 8 - I installed recently a its my first steps. I have few ready .FLA ... A: i dont know what panels you are referring to sorry. all i use is the timeline, stage, and library ... | |
| Game Problem | 12/24/2007 |
| Q: Sir, I like little flash games. For last few days these games have stopped running. When I open the ... A: Yasir, I don't really know. This seems to be occurring a lot lately. I do not know if there are ... | |
| Flash button | 12/24/2007 |
| Q: I read your previous answer on basic flash scenes, layers, and actionscripts but it did not help me ... A: Teyu, To avoid any confusion i would suggest not adding actions to buttons directly. The way I ... | |
| puzzle | 12/17/2007 |
| Q: I have a puzzle for you. I'm not asking for the code but just your opinion. Go here ... A: i use fuse. it is a very powerful sequencer engine that is based on the zigoengine. fuse is useful ... | |
| flash will not install | 12/16/2007 |
| Q: i go on the web sites youtube.com and aim.com but i cant use them. when i go on youtube it says ... A: this is a browser issue more than a flash issue, but my friend just had this happen to him. i am ... | |
| viewing webpage problem | 12/15/2007 |
| Q: My son recently designed a webpage for us and used flash and the windows txt editor to edit it ... A: it is tough to describe if you have little css layout knowledge. You will have to put the flash in a ... | |
| viewing webpage problem | 12/14/2007 |
| Q: My son recently designed a webpage for us and used flash and the windows txt editor to edit it ... A: This is a prblem a lot of people run into. The short answer is you need to add a param and some ... | |
| Turning a Magazine into flash | 11/30/2007 |
| Q: I hope you can help me for I am now desperate:( I am doing an online magazine and I am designing ... A: As far as I know Indesign does not have an export to flash feature. CS3 does have an export to ... | |
| recordings using Flash? | 11/29/2007 |
| Q: I want to allow my website visitors to be able to record their voice and play it back using my ... A: I have not done this on my own, but a quick search brought this up: http://www.wintechmedia.com ... | |
| Scrolling an entire form with components in Flash | 11/19/2007 |
| Q: I've created a Flash Form with text area, combo box, and text input components. All of these ... A: In flash you need to make a new movieclip, place it on your main stage in the main timeline, then ... | |
| Gallery script help, please | 11/19/2007 |
| Q: Gallery script help, please Hello, I'm new to actionscript in general, I do know a little... I ... A: sandra, I cant get a clean file out of your archive. my advice to you is to look for any code ... | |
| Gallery script help, please | 11/17/2007 |
| Q: Gallery script help, please Hello, I'm new to actionscript in general, I do know a little... I ... A: that zip file is broken. also, my policy is not to do pro bono work for someone who is charging ... | |
| loadVars Question | 11/15/2007 |
| Q: I am fairly new to Flash and have just one question. I have looked exhaustively online to find the ... A: not that i know of, at least not the way you are describing. you coul dtry some alternatives, such ... | |
| contact page script | 11/10/2007 |
| Q: You really helped me a lot with that one. Ok I've got some reading to do but I am messing with ... A: Phil, I dont use a send(); for contact forms. I dont know all of your code, but I'll show you how I ... | |
| swf file sive | 10/29/2007 |
| Q: some question re file size. 1/ does it matter if my fla file gets bloated with symbols and photos ... A: Hope things are going well with you. 1. Yes. It doesnt matter as far as the swf is concerned. If ... | |
| accidental double click flaw | 10/26/2007 |
| Q: Some visitors to a website I'm working on have complained that double clicking on a button takes ... A: There may be a number of problems casusing this. I will give you my personal practices for button ... | |
| Fla files | 10/17/2007 |
| Q: I've had a website made for me, where I'm finding it hard to open the Fla file.I have latest ... A: flash mx is 2 versions old. If it was developed in 8 or 9 (which is a good possibility) you wont be ... | |
| Flash | 10/8/2007 |
| Q: I would be very grateful if you could advice me of how to go about building my own solitaire games ... A: I dont know of any software. Perhaps you could look on google for "flash card game source"... souce ... | |
| Embed | 10/3/2007 |
| Q: Is there an easy way to embed a flash player into a page so that it does not require the 'Click to ... A: easy is relative. there are a few methods. the method i use is Geoff Stearns' swfobject. Almost all ... | |
| axis symmetry | 9/27/2007 |
| Q: I've created rectangular coordinate system (two lines - horizontal and vertical, as two movie clips) ... A: the trick is that you would simply move lines to give the illusion that you are rotating the object. ... | |
| macromedia | 9/19/2007 |
| Q: not sure if your the person for the question but here it goes. i need to make a learning object ... A: I think what you are asking is how to make a flash built quiz run off of a server? I would just ... | |
| Layer Positon | 8/31/2007 |
| Q: Hey i have anI want to make move the position of the layers per actionscript. I now how to switch ... A: Ok, I understand now! Sorry! Your problem comes from the fact that you are calling swap depths ... | |
| Layer Positon | 8/30/2007 |
| Q: Hey i have anI want to make move the position of the layers per actionscript. I now how to switch ... A: I am a little confused. so, you have two animations, neither are movieclips. You want them to switch ... | |
| Adding the shockwave flash control in execution time | 8/29/2007 |
| Q: i want to add this control by code, the problem comes when I put the movie and i don't see anything. ... A: This problem is not in flash, but in VB, which is not my area. Im sorry. But I thought your first ... | |
| Layer Positon | 8/28/2007 |
| Q: Hey i have anI want to make move the position of the layers per actionscript. I now how to switch ... A: The stacking order, or 'z-order', or depth, is set up by using levels in flash. The key to switching ... | |
| Function at the end of a countdown/onPress method | 8/23/2007 |
| Q: very helpful I have two questions: I'm making an alarm clock with a sleep function on it (the radio ... A: I can not get that link to work, so I cant help with the first part. As for the second part I will ... | |
| Adding the shockwave flash control in execution time | 8/22/2007 |
| Q: i want to add this control by code, the problem comes when I put the movie and i don't see anything. ... A: I don't know vb well, but I remember reading this: Flash.ocx (SWFlash.ocx) ActiveX component To ... | |
| radio buttons/conditional statements | 8/20/2007 |
| Q: I'm working in ActionScript 2.0, using the radio button component. I haven't had any success getting ... A: I do not believe you can use just one radio button. The Flash documentation states: "The ... | |
| flv file question | 8/15/2007 |
| Q: I have a flv video I want to put on my website. Do you know if its possible to have the flv video ... A: Yes it is possible. The way to achieve this depends on your video. Are you embedding the video or ... | |
| Download movies | 8/11/2007 |
| Q: How can I grab a movie from a Shockwave Flash animation? Thanks in advance. A: Are you asking how to download video that is embedded in flash? I ask this because one of Flash's ... | |
Mike Dixon
Top Expert on this page
Expertise
I can answer most flash related questions. I am not at this time expert using action script 3.
Experience
Using flash since version 4. currently web director.
Education/Credentials
certified ;)
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