New to Web Design

[NickWalker]

Are there any software alternatives to Adobe Flash for MAC OS X?

Does Dreamweaver enable any flash building - such as a basic slide show?

I understand that Dreamweaver allows plugins, are there any decent Flash plugins that will create a basic slide presentation in the SWF format?

The Flash content at my current web page <snip>

Thanks.

[ggwarpig]

Looks like you already have a flash slideshow on your homepage... Are you trying to replace it?

[NickWalker]

I am looking to develop my own web-site and learn Flash. As the Flash portion of my web-site is so basic in terms of its function - a mere slide show - I am trying to locate Flash based software to make the slide show for the home page without (hopefully) purchasing Adobe Flash.

[ggwarpig]

Well I dont quite understand how you plan on learning flash without actually purchasing (or pirating) flash. But if all you want to do is create a slideshow, i recommend adding the pictures you want to a Flickr album and using some open source gallery script to display them as a slideshow. Something like http://www.flickrshow.com/

Search delicious.com for flickr slideshow gallery

Hope this helps.

[NickWalker]

My understanding is that Adobe Flash creates an SWF file format?

MorphInk 2.0 creates SWF files - albeit very basic and confined to the Windows platform. Are there no other companies producing Flash based software, to create a basic slide show using a SWF format?

"(or pirating)" Not taken personally - I would never pirate any software - I strongly defend my &#169;-I have successfully pursued several large companies, including multi national corporations, for multiple image copyright infringements on the web.

[molona]

SWF is the format used for Flash when published to the web. Swish can do it too.

Dreamweaver cannot do a slide show per se with a flash technology, but use Javascript... although to do that you can use one of the many javascript libraries to create effects... that would do a better job. If you need to do a slide show using Flash, you'd better go for a program such as Swish or similar. They can do the majority of the flash effects used in flash websites, although not all of them.

[NickWalker]

Molona,

Thank you for your advice. New to this world I am like a fish-out-of-water with web building and Flash. To begin to understand HTML I have just purchased Ian Llyod's Build Your Own Web Site The Right way V2; I hope that this book will lead me on the right path to providing the structure for a new site.

At <snip> my page the sitebranding and tagline (if correct terms) also 'appear' to be Flash driven - a new consideration in addition to the Flash image slide presentation, when I redesign the site.

I will take a look at Swish.

[molona]

They use Flash but, as you can see by the Flickr slideshow, that effect can also be achieved with javascript. In this case, Flash isn't necessary. There are javascript libraries that create similar effects easily with the same quality: Prototype, JQuery, Dojo...

And they are free

[cyjetsu]

Why not just use flash? You could download it off bit torrent, but I am not suggesting that you commit an act of piracy.
If you are serious about developing, then the money would not be wasted either if you buy it.