After the general introduction of Flash in the previous blog entry, including the definition of Flash and the advantages & disadvantages of Flash, now we come to the second chapter of Flash Schools and Flash Tutorials series – how to deal with Flash? This part includes the following contents:

Who can View and How to View Flash?

According to a survey conducted in 2000, 96.4% web users have Shockwave Player(Flash Player) preinstalled in their computers. There it goes, exactly those people can experience Flash content via the Flash Player.

How to Create Flash Movie?

To create your own Flash movies, Flash games, Flash banners, Flash slideshows, Flash animations, etc. you have to have some Flash programs. For example, Adobe Flash Lite, Flash SWF Editor, Flash SWF Banner Maker and so on.

How to Download & Convert Flash SWF Files?

Have no idea and prefer not bother to make Flash by yourself? Try to download it directly from Internet with a handy online Flash downloader and then proceed to convert the downloaded Flash SWF to video in popular formats for playback on various portable devices.

How to Ask for Help about Flash?

After you have installed Flash, you should go through the lessons that are included in the program. Start Adobe Flash, click Help in the menu and choose Lessons. These lessons will teach you the basics of Flash.

This blog is going to be the first entry of “Flash Schools and Flash Tutorials” series, which is aiming to systematically introduce and analyze flash in an unique way, focusing on the common issues that everybody should know, no natter you are a flash master or a beginner, and using very simple and easy-to-understand words.

The first chapter – Flash Introduction – includes two parts: What is Flash? And What is the Difference between Flash and Animated Images & Java?

What is flash?

Flash files are in the SWF format, traditionally called “ShockWave Flash(SWF)” movies, “Flash movies,” or “Flash games”, usually have a .swf file extension.

Flash is a multimedia graphics program specially for use on the Web.

Flash enables you to create interactive “movies” on the Web.

Flash uses vector graphics, which means that the graphics can be scaled easily to any size without losing clarity/quality.

Flash does not require programming skills and is easy to learn.

What is the Difference between Flash and Animated Images & Java?

All of them can be used to create dynamic and interactive effects on webpages, however, flash SWF stands out because of the following advantages:

SWF is faster loading than animated images because it was intentionally created small and light.

SWF is easy and smooth to compress.

SWF supports transparencies, allows interactivity and requires no programming skills.

Everything has two sides, flash SWF is the same. The major disadvantage of SWF is the compatibility. You can not play SWF videos properly unless you have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer.

For more info, please refer to my previous blog entry here.