Summary

In this chapter, youve seen how you can export and import XML data using Access 2003. You learned about the limits of working with XML in Access, and we worked through an exercise to include the database content in a Flash application. In Chapters 5 and 6, we covered Word and Excel 2003. If youve worked through all of these chapters, youll have learned how to set up Office documents that can generate XML content for use in Flash.

Its important for you to learn Office 2003 XML skills so that you can incorporate them in your workflow. When you build XML Flash applications, you and your clients will need some way to maintain the XML content. You can create new Office documents or modify existing documents so that your clients can use Word, Excel, or Access 2003 to update XML Flash movies.

You may need to provide some training to your clients so that they can learn the extra import and export skills, but as youve seen, these techniques arent difficult to grasp. The result is that your clients will have complete control over the content in their Flash applications without having to learn to use Flash.

Microsoft provides some excellent resources for learning XML with Office 2003 at its website. There are also a number of tools that you can download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/xmloffice/tools/default.aspx, including reference information for WordprocessingML and SpreadsheetML as well as add-ins for Word and Excel.

In the next chapter, Ill look at the data components that ship with Flash Professional. The components allow you to load and bind XML data directly to other data and user interface components. Youll learn how to incorporate XML content into Flash by writing a single line of ActionScript. Youll also see how you can script these components.