Section 12.4. Finding Additional Components

12.4. Finding Additional Components

In addition to the components that ship with Flash Professional 8 and Flash Basic 8, you can also find components on the Web (try searching the Web for "Flash components" using www.google.com or your favorite search engine).

Below are a few of the most popular sources for Flash components as this book goes to press:

• Flash Exchange . Adobe hosts a Web site called Flash Exchange (see Figure 12-28). Adobe itself doesn't create the components on the Flash Exchange; instead, regular folks and third-party software companies submit the components and the site categorizes and rates them. To visit the Flash Exchange, select Help Flash Exchange.

  Figure 12-28. The Flash Exchange Web site (which you can surf to by selecting Help Flash Exchange) lists hundreds of components in nearly a dozen different categories, from Navigation to Commerce and Accessibility. Some you pay for; others you can download for free. Use the component specifications, number of downloads, and rating associated with each component to help you decide which ones to try.

  

• The Flash components network (www.flashcomponents.net). Similar to Macro-media's Flash Exchange, this site lists and rates Flash components submitted by a variety of Flash enthusiasts and software companies.

• ActionScript.org (www.actionscript.org/components). This everything-Flash site lists dozens of freely downloadable components.

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Note: Because anyone with time, inclination, and ActionScript experience can create a Flash component, Flash enthusiasts (as opposed to established software companies) create most of the Flash components on the Web. Many of the components are free, too. But there's a downside: Components don't always come with the documentation you need to customize them, and they virtually never come with a guaranteeeither that they'll work as promised , or that they don't harbor viruses that can damage your machine. Don't be afraid to try out useful components, but do exercise the same care and caution you use when you download and install any other software program.

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UP TO SPEED
Installing Third-Party Components

After you find and download a component (Section 12.4 lists several online component resources), you need to install the component so that you can use it in Flash. You do this installing with the Macromedia Extension Manager:

1. Select Help Manage Extensions. The Macromedia Extension Manager window appears.

2. In the Install Extension window that appears, type (or surf to) the name of the component file you want to install, and then click Install (Windows) or Open (Mac). Component file names all have .mxp extensions. Flash installs the component and updates the Macromedia Extension Manager window.

   Close Flash (File Exit), and then launch it again. The newly installed component appears in the Components panel.