Need some help with Flash

[Pruddock]

Hey guys. So I started building my site in flash and I have a very limited amount of knowledge regarding flash and ActionScript 2.0 (don't have a clue when it comes to 3.0 and need to learn it but I'll save that for later). I'm having some trouble with my navigation linking and I was wondering if anybody would be able to help me out with it. I created a dropdown menu and I created the link with the instance name of the button in the menu, but it won't link the button to anything and make it functional. I don't have any idea whats going on and I've tried every way I know to fix it. Would anybody be willing to let me send you the file and take a look at it for me? If so just pm me or something.

Thanks

Payton

[Foxgguy2001]

Yeah you can shoot me the file, i'll throw a quick link in there so you'll have the script snippet you need to do it for others.... I'll PM you my email addy.

[Pruddock]

Bump. I'm still having troubles with this and the more I stare at it and can't find anything the more it annoys me. Anybody up for a challenge?

[jonnythan]

My advice is to (please, for the love of god) not build your site using Flash :(

[Pruddock]

Why do you say that?

[jonnythan]

Flash is a PITA from a user's perspective, for a lot of reasons.

The "back" button doesn't work.
You can't bookmark or link to an individual page.
You often can't copy and paste text.
Search engines can't index your content.
Destroys the concept of accessibility.
Usually breaks the concept of various window sizes.

It's just a pain in the butt. Flash sites are sort of the joke of the internet, among users and developers alike.

It buys you nothing in terms of site design. If a site is done entirely in Flash, I almost always just navigate away. And I'm definitely not alone.

[aram535]

- Not everyone has Flash installed, and many refuse to install it.

- The different versions are not fully compatible.

- Some security issues have popped up from time to time. Hence the first point.

- Search engines can't search it, therefore you get a much lower PR number. A low PR means when users search for whatever you're selling, you won't show up until page 24 of the search results. Most people don't go past 2 when searching.

[dahl]

Most people have Flash installed today, the stats are outstanding.
http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html

If you want to built in Flash, export to an earlier version than 9. There are no reason to export to 9 unless you have some specific needs. Most photo sites are fine in Flash 7 or even lower.

While it's still very new, Adobe have figured out a way to have Flash sites show up in search engines. http://theflashblog.com/?p=407 btw. Awesome blog on Flash.

One of the best ways right now is to build a "hybrid site", it's how many top sites are done these days. It's basically a site with both HTML and Flash. Maybe a Flash header or button animations, but the content HTML.