Lesson1.Learning the Basics

Lesson 1. Learning the Basics

So you want to learn how to use Flash 8 Basic or Flash 8 Professional? No problem. You probably already know what these tools do, but here's the breakdown: Flash gives you the ability to create applications, animations, games, or applications for mobile devices such as cell phones. You can deploy all these things on the web, on CD-ROM, and over a network, or you can run them on desktops or laptops. Because of the ubiquity of Flash Player, using Flash to produce websites is ideal because Flash isn't burdened by the restrictions of HTML. You can use it to create desktop-like applications delivered via the web!

The Flash interface

In this first lesson, you'll learn what is probably the most important concept: how to navigate through the Flash interface and use its tools to produce the advanced websites that you want (and have wanted since you first launched your first browser). You'll learn about the workspace, the panels, the tools, and of course how to publish a SWF file (although the complexity of publishing isn't covered until Lesson 11). At the very end of this lesson, you'll look at the application you'll build throughout the rest of the course.