Going with the times

Although CSS and HTML are becoming more and more widespread, they seem to have reached the point of no further development. As for Flash, it’s getting better and more convenient with every new version from Macromedia. Most importantly, Flash is capable of doing what cannot be done with CSS.

The problem of indexing Flash content can be often confusing for site owners. Tim Mayer, Vice-President of Web-Search at FAST, comments:
«Search engines were originally built to index HTML documents. With the Internet changing very fast, knowing how to index Flash content is becoming more important for search engines».

While the issue or promoting Flash-based sites is being discussed during the seminars on search optimization, Google and Yahoo already index text, images and video.

Flash is a designer’s ultimate freedom. You are not limited by tables-inside-other-tables-and-yet-other-tables, have no trouble with your Flash being displayed in other browsers – no problems at all. It allows creating impressive, from aesthetic point of view, sites, plug-ins and modules.

Here we would like to bring to your attention 5 most successful, from our point of view, Flash products, that can help you to make your site more appealing and easy to use.

Flash-book based on ActionScript 3.0

What can you do with the help of this book from Page-flip.com? Well, it can become your personal diary, presentation, photo album… It all depends on your objective and imagination, for which plenty of room has been left by the developers.
The size of the book is unlimited, but in order for it to work fast it’s recommended to keep the size at 800х600. And now the most important thing – program capabilities:

• you can post photos, video, text, external document links, as well as links to other pages and buttons on the pages;
• you can bookmark pages;
• the following formats are supported: JPEG (non-progressive) and SWF in Adobe Flash Player 6-7; PNG, GIF (non-animated), progressive JPEG

A 3-month license costs just €25, license for half a year - €99, and for 1 year - €299. For this money you get an MPX file along with all the technical documentation necessary, a few MP3 files to add sound to your work (the sound of flipping pages), and numerous FLA files featuring the examples of filling the pages with different kind of content (working with video and sound, navigation, XML use etc.).
The site offers the possibility of flipping through the book – everything is carefully thought through there.

Flash-book – module for Joomla!

Joomla! is a great example of a successful open source product. A Flash-book that is a module for Joomla! from page-flip-tools.com is a wonderful way of presenting information at the site working on this CMS.
The developers made sure embedding the code into the page and its use is as simple as it could get.

The book is compatible with JPG files (to embed images) and SWF (animation, video, links etc.)
There are two versions of the book available: for Joomla! 1.0 and Joomla! 1.5. The cost is the same - €40 for a 3-month license, €99 for half a year and €199 for a 1-year license. The latter, as a mater of fact, allows installing the module on the unlimited number of domains (it’s 10 domains for the half-year license and 1 for the 3-month license).
Online-demo provides us with a few hints about how this module could be used: it can become an electronic diary, a merchandise catalogue, photo album or portfolio. Have a better idea? You can always download the demo-version and explore its possibilities.

Flash-book – plug-in for WordPress

Program capabilities of Wordpress Gallery Plugin:

•  you can upload a photo through FTP, from URL or in Zip file;
• full-screen mode;
• print-out option;
• image zoom-in/zoom out;
• JPG and SWF format support;
• integration with WordPress media gallery;
• convenient management (based on the AJAX technology).

Free version. A license for using this plug-in for one site costs €40, for up to 10 sites - €99, and for an unlimited number of domains - €299. And finally – great news: all of these licenses have unlimited validity period!

Flash galleries offer probably the best way of organizing your photo albums.

Flash-gallery.com developers offer a choice of four spectacular galleries to organize a photo album at the site. One thing that must be mentioned is the design – some great work has been done here. Here is, for example, the Zen Flash Gallery:

Besides that, there are three other galleries worth your attention. They all support XML, have flexible configuration and have been created to provide for the enjoyment of the site’s owner, content-manager and all the visitors.
Like them all? You can always get Gallery MegaPack for €55, which includes one year of support and can be installed on any number of domains. Just for €15 you can purchase a license that allows installing any gallery on one site, and for €29 – on the unlimited number of sites.
Still in doubt? Try out demo versions. They have certain limitations, but are quite suitable for first introduction.

Online builder of Flash-menu: as simple as it could get

Whoever said building Flash-menu is difficult… probably knew nothing about the existence of the online-builder from Flash-menu.net. The site claims the product to be the pride of the entire team of developers. Indeed, even a beginner can create a menu here.
Its work is based on the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) principle – by ticking boxes, choosing from drop-down menu lists and moving scrollers you are creating a Flash-menu. Control panel is on the left, on the right you see all the changes that have been made so far.

 By switching to the XML editor tab you get the code. Everything loads and works very fast. The possibility of getting an SWF file is also provided. Would you like to try and create your own menu?