NOTE: I am no longer able to offer support for this tutorial. I don't do Flash like this anymore and simply don't have the time. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The eighth in a series of eight tutorials on how to create a full Flash site.

If you found this tutorial useful or if you used it at all, please . Thanks!

C&C

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PLAIN-TEXT VERSION

NOTE: As you will notice, none of the images are included in this plain text version of the tutorial. At each point where "*IMAGE*" is placed, refer to the original version of the tutorial for the images.

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1. ALRIGHT. YOU'VE DONE IT ALL. IT'S ALL MADE TO YOUR SPECS AND IT LOOKS GREAT. NOW, WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH A FINAL CHECK OF EVERYTHING TO MAKE SURE IT'S ALL THERE. FIRST, SOME TIPS FOR PLACING IT ON THE INTERNET. FOR A FLASH SITE, YOU MUST HAVE A SPLASH PAGE TO INFORM YOUR VISITORS THAT YOUR SITE IS IN FLASH. IF YOU DON'T DO THIS, SOME VISITORS WILL ENTER YOUR MAIN PAGE AND SEE NOTHING AND LEAVE. AT LEAST IF YOU TELL THEM IT IS IN FLASH, THEY WON'T LEAVE ON A CONFUSED AND GENERALLY BAD NOTE. AS WELL, YOU COULD PUT A LINK TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE FOR FLASH ON THE MACROMEDIA SITE. BUT MOST OF ALL, DO NOT MAKE YOUR SPLASH IN FLASH; IF YOU DO YOU'VE UNDONE ALL THAT THE SPLASH PAGE IS FOR, DO IT IN HTML. AS WELL, WHEN YOU PUT YOUR SITE ONTO THE INTERNET, UPLOAD ONLY WHAT YOU NEED; THE HTML PAGES, YOUR IMAGES FOLDER AND THE .SWF'S, DO NOT INCLUDE THE .FLA'S, THEY ARE LIKE THE PHOTOSHOP .PSD'S, THEY SERVE NO PURPOSE IN THE END.

2. NOW THAT IS DONE, CREATE YOUR HTML PAGES; ONE FOR YOUR INDEX AND ANOTHER FOR YOUR FILE "MAIN.SWF". I WON'T GO THROUGH HOW TO DO THAT, THIS IS A FLASH TUTORIAL, NOT A CODING ONE. AND ANYWAYS, IF YOU'RE DOING FLASH, YOU SHOULD ALREADY HAVE A GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF OTHER COMPUTER LANGUAGES. NOW, OPEN FLASH AND OPEN UP ALL YOUR PAGES. FOR EACH ONE, HIT "CTRL+ENTER" TO PUBLISH THE .SWF (THE FILE THAT IS SHOWN) AND CHECK OVER EACH FILE TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS WORKING RIGHT. WHEN THIS IS DONE, GO THROUGH THE CHECKLIST BELOW AND MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS THERE.

- OPEN UP YOUR FILES AND MAKE SURE EVERY FILE IS THERE
- MAKE SURE YOU SPLASH IS IN HTML
- MAKE SURE ALL YOUR CONTENT LOADS, SOME OF IT MAY BE MISSING (ESPECIALLY IN THE "CAPTION" ONES WE MADE IN THE LAST TUTORIAL BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO SCROLL BUTTONS
- CLICK ALL YOUR LINKS, ENSURE ALL THE STUFF THAT SHOULD BE THERE IS THERE (THE PRELOADERS WON'T SHOW BECAUSE THE FILES ARE ON YOUR COMPUTER)
- CLICK ALL THE LINKS YOU HAVE IN YOUR CONTENT AND ENSURE THEY'RE ALL RIGHT AND WORKING
- BASICALLY BE METICULOUS AND CHECK IT ALL OVER (CAUSE I'VE PROBABLY FORGOTTEN SOMETHING), IF SOMETHING IS WRONG, GO BACK AND LOOK AT IT IN THE .FLA

THESE ARE JUST SOME PARTING WORDS THAT ARE FAIRLY IMPORTANT. YOU MUST KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS SERIES OF TUTORIALS IS JUST MEANT TO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A FINITELY DESIGNED FLASH SITE. I DIDN'T GO INTO ALL THE THINGS YOU COULD DO, LIKE ANIMATION AND MOVEMENT OR ANYTHING DEEPER THAN "THIS IS THE CODE, DO IT LIKE THIS". TO TRULY UNDERSTAND AND KNOW FLASH, YOU READ OTHER TUTORIALS AND MOST OF ALL PLAY AROUND YOURSELF AND LEARN THINGS ON YO??UR OWN BY FIGURING IT OUT; THAT'S WHAT HAS HELPED ME LEARN THE MOST NOT ONLY IN FLASH BUT IN EVERYTHING. JUST KEEP THAT IN MIND.

IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS; SOMETHING ISN'T