The Macromedia Dashboard

The Macromedia Dashboard brings the Macromedia Flash developer community to your fingertips. Built into Flash 5 (Help > Macromedia Dashboard), the Dashboard is updated twice a month, once at the beginning of the month and again mid-month. To update the Dashboard contents on your computer, you need to have an Internet connection. Some of the items you can find on the Dashboard include the following:

• Interesting Sites. The featured Flash site changes every couple of weeks. See what the best of the best are doing.

• News. Current news about what's happening with Macromedia and Flash.

• Community. Links to mailing lists and the Macromedia Online Forums, how to find User Groups and Authorized Training Locations, and resource Web sites for Flash developers.

• Support. Links to popular Tech Notes, the Flash Support Center, and the Developer's Support Network. When you register your copy of Flash, you are eligible for 90 days of free technical support ”that's 90 days from your first request for assistance. You also can e-mail technical support from here.

• Resources. Extend Flash by checking out the offerings on the Flash Exchange. You also can get information about Macromedia University. You also can find links to Tech Notes about where to find Flash books and sound files for use with Flash. In addition, you can sign up for the monthly Macromedia EDGE Newsletter.

• Generator. Online Generator resources and the Generator Support Center.

• Feedback. Tech Note on how to send feedback to the Flash and Dashboard teams . If you have content you'd like to submit for inclusion on the Dashboard, you can get more information about how to do that here.

• Flash Player. Download the latest Flash player. Boss asking you about the latest Player Adoption Statistics? You can find them here!

• Update/Auto Update. You can choose to have the Dashboard update automatically, or you can choose to update it on your own schedule. Either way, you'll need an Internet connection to connect to the update server.

Warning

Do not open the Dashboard and leave it running in the background while you work in Flash. There is an undocumented feature in the Dashboard that will cheerfully run your CPU usage up to 100 percent while you're not looking.