November 2007

Swish is an enormously grand way to include flash effects to your site. It includes making small movies run without Macromedia Flash plug-ins. Swish stands for Simple Web Indexing System for Humans. With it you can easily index directories of files and search the generated indexes. When you do a search, it’s the swish program that is doing the actual searching. Swish objective is to fill the need of Web administrators on the Internet.

Swish is easy to use and simple. You can do many things such as stemming or searching for different versions of a word or the use of synonyms. With it, you can do most of the things that full-featured indexers and search programs can. In indexing HTML files, swish can ignore data in tags and give higher relevance to information in header and title tags. In one pass, it can automatically search your whole Web Site, if it’s under one directory. Index files consist of only one file this is the reason why they can easily be transported.

The most powerful Flash creation tool is the Swishmax. It has 230 new effects a Javascript-like scripting language and support for dynamic content and input forms. It is perfect for interactive Flash presentations.

The new Swishvideo allows you to convert your video files into streaming Flash files. With it you can easily display your videos with play controls and playback settings. You can also import your AVI, QuickTime, MPEG or Windows Media videos into Swishvideo. After that, you can select your videos compression quality, key frame intervals, deblocking and smoothing settings. The play controls are already made available for easy access. The control is complete with play, pause, stop, forward and rewind buttons. Not only that, you can also create your own custom controls in any Flash authoring tool and import them into Swishvideo. To export settings, select an SWF or FLV and adjust your video’s border width, scaling, background color, start and end states.

Another swish craze is the Swishpix. It allows you to create flashy photo albums. You just select your photos, add themes, music, callouts or clipart and viola – an animated photo album! You can also publish your output as a screensaver, burn to CD or upload to your website. Here you can also combine multiple movies and define the playing order as well as play back options and control your movie’s size and window state. To display your movie, select the context menu items and about box.

With Swish, you can turn otherwise idle presentation into an irresistible one. Swish offers a lot more, go and check it out!

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For more information on SWiSH, please check out the official
site www.swishzone.com

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We are very excited to announce the release of a new product category - SWiSHmax2 Templates designed for using with the extremely popular SWiSH software. SWiSH Max is a program distributed by Swishzone.com that utilizes Adobe Flash technology to deliver cross-browser compatible presentations namely flash websites, animated menus, Flash-based video, banner ads, text effects and the like. However, I first heard about SWiSH in the summer of 2004. At the time, I was looking for a solution to dealing with Flash alias text properties (or lack there of) and the only swish I’d ever heard of was that cherry flavored fluoride medicine they made us take back in grade school. Good times.

Like the Adobe Flash software, SWiSH utilizes objects, vector graphics, keyframes and a variation of ActionScript for scripting. The main reason SWiSH is so popular is its large number of built in preset effects such as “Spin and shrink, Alternate jump out fade and slide” which would otherwise have to be created manually in Flash. With this you simply draw shapes and text, add the desired effect and that’s it!

With Flash, on the other hand, you’ll need to understand concepts like layers, masking, frames, libraries and symbols before you even begin! And since these effects come built into SWiSH many people find it not only faster to use than the Flash software but that by lowering the learning curve it is also more practical. Not to mention that SWiSH is a heck of a lot less expensive than Adobe’s software. In sum SWiSH Max is basically Flash for those without the wish, need, time and or finances to buy the actual software.

Recently SwihsZone has gotten lots of praise since it’s September 26, 2007 release of the official SWiSH software entitled “SWiSHMax2″. What’s more, developers worldwide agree that the enhancements and simplification of the product makes it superior to the Adobe Flash technology. As you might expect the new version is not compatible with the older SWiSH designs and software –just like newer Flash versions (e.g Flash CS3) are not compatible with earlier Flash version files and the like.

Because the new SWiSHmax2 software package is so advanced, yet so much easier to work with, templatemonster.com partners & affiliates worldwide could not miss the opportunity to pioneer a new line of beautiful website templates for this revolutionary software. If all of this is making your mouth water with anticipation, it is probably because you know that I have a premium sample SWiSHmax2 Template for your education and use free of charge available for you to download right here.

While some web designers may have been rightfully justified to dislike the old SWiSH software (present company included) because it was inconvenient and had a non-user-friendly interface. That, and the fact the many of us were already so accustomed to using Flash, there was little desire to change to SWiSH. Then again, all of that is very different now.

Rewritten from the ground up, SWiSHmax2 offers hundreds of new features including components, content library and assets, effects browser, in place text editing, video/image/sound effects and an improved interface that is much more convenient and much easier for developers to use because it is similar to the Flash interface witch makes managing and navigating your SWiSHMax2 workspace simple.

SWiSHmax2 is such a wide-ranging application that you’re unlikely to ever exhaust its vast range of tools and features – even experienced SwiSHers will often discover new options and capabilities. Moreover SWiSH not only excels at text effects it also duplicates many of the effects available in Flash CS3.

From now on the SWiSHMax2 Templates will be available to you as one of our categories with our revolutionary SWiSH designed templates. We are sure that our beautiful designs in the SWiSHMax2 Templates will find dedicated fans. Our new SWiSHMax2 Templates will become very popular with customers who appreciate the real design advantages at truly great value prices. To learn more about SWiSHMax2 or, to download a free trial version of this revolutionary new product click on this link.

About the Author:
Dave Collado is the Senior Design Consultant at www.foamers.net who provides quality website templates customization, Flash templates customization, CSS templates, web design tutorials, and many other web design and web hosting services. This article may be republished providing it remains fully intact.

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The year was 1985 Saturn makes its national deybute as ” A Different Kind of Car Company” (that’s a laugh!), MacGyver premieres on ABC, and the first film in Steven Spielberg’s “Back To The Future” trilogy profitably brands Marty McFly as a household name. Marty is an average 80’s teenager, except for one problem. He is stuck in 1955. Now, the only other way to get back is to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, but the only source strong enough to generate that kind of power is a bolt of lightning; unfortunately it’s impossible to determine when and where they will strike.

Our topic here is accessing symbols in XML Flash Templates, which is rather like being stuck in 1955 trying to jumpstart a DeLorean. Sure, there are geeks who can do XML, and there are frilly frou frou types that are great at Flash. But an artist writing XML? Or a coder doing Flash movies? Wouldn’t this kind of crossover require a flux capacitor and run the risk of a major disruption to the space-time continuum? Apparently not. In the previous articles (XML Flash Templates - Maintaining your Flash website made simple!) I introduced you to XML Flash Site templates a new product category with a unique feature allowing content to be loaded onto Flash via an XML file.

Basically, what this does is grant anyone the simplicity of editing the Flash template’s content from a text editor, and still keep the performance and beauty of Flash intact. Notwithstanding, what if I needed to access the elements (or “symbols” sometimes these two words may be used interchangeably) within the Flash Template itself (e.g. the frilly frou frou)?
There are three different ways you can do this you can “A” double click the symbol on the stage to edit it in place, “B” select an instance of the symbol on the Stage and right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh), and select Edit in Place or “C” which in my opinion is the safest and easiest way to access Flash elements and that is through the symbols library. You can launch it using Ctrl+L hotkey or by selecting Library from the Windows menu. Note directions apply to both XML Flash templates and all other Flash template types.

The Library contains all bitmaps, sound and movie clip symbols used in the Flash template. To make the customizations of our XML Flash template easier for our customers we have allocated all symbols in individual folders with appropriate names. For example jpeg and or png files would be within a folder named “bitmaps”. Likewise, you will find a “buttons” folder also for buttons symbols and so forth.

As you browse through the symbols library you will be able to see the content of each symbols in the preview area, however if nothing shows in the preview area it means that the symbols color is the same as the background color. For example you would not expect to see white text on white background. You can easily remedy this by momentarily changing the movie background color. Press Ctrl+J hotkey to open Movie Properties window, and select a lighter or darker shade of color.

In some cases you might also want to duplicate a symbol. The menu, for example, may have a total of 5 main navigation items and you desire to add one more (i.e. you wish to include a FAQ page); from the symbols library, what we need to do is right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the symbol, select Duplicate Symbol and give the duplicate symbol it’s name. Next, drag the symbol unto the stage and give it an instance name. Note an instance name and a symbol name are tow totally different things. Meaning, that while there may be two or more instances of the same symbol with the same name “symbol 1”, each instance must have assigned a unique identifier (e.g. instance name) for all ActionScrip reference purposes.
To edit the symbol, you simply double click the symbol to access it in the Main Area. Then double click the text area and enter your own slogan. Once you edit a symbol, Flash updates all the instances of that symbol in your document. You can customize all other Flash elements by repeating these simple steps.

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I’ve seen articles (and websites) that suggest you can buy a website template and skip the expense of hiring a professional website designer. Recently, I read several testimonials from the very satisfied customers of a website template vendor that mentioned how quickly they were able to get their sites done. The template vendor commented that he/she had known people to complete their websites in around two hours.

With experiences and statements like these, it not surprising that more and more people are attempting to build websites themselves. I think that’s great in a way. For those of us who are concerned about the trends in the web industry and community, it’s great to see more people becoming web oriented and involved.

However, I think there is a misunderstanding by many of these people about what a website template really is – and is not. At this point, I think it only fair that I should mention that I am a professional website designer (the person you supposedly don’t need anymore). I should also mention that this is not my sole motivation for questioning this idea of templates replacing web designers. As a matter of fact, I think website templates are extremely useful. I recommend using them to my clients as a way of getting a great graphical look for their site. What I hope to convey is that template consumers need to know what they are and what they aren’t getting with a template.

Consider an analogy for templates: pretty boxes for very important gifts. If you buy a pretty box, and put all the right stuff inside it – won’t everybody want to open the box and use the contents? Doing it yourself will save time and money – so why not? Sounds good, and the people who wrote those testimonials would certainly think it was a good idea – right?

But let’s consider the contents of the box. Aren’t you the best possible source for information about your company, organization, product or service? Of course you are! So the content of your box is bound to be great – right? Well – yes and no. Good web designers know that their clients are the best sources for the information that needs to be presented on their websites. However, they recognize that not everyone can organize that information in the optimal way for inclusion in a web page. If the contents in the box are wonderful, but jumbled, or hard to get out of the box, people may not like the box (or worse yet – the owner of the box). Just as a badly considered gift (even a beautifully wrapped one) may offend someone, a poorly organized site can actually harm your efforts.

Take the analogy a bit further. Assume that all concerns about the content are dealt with: it’s perfectly organized and you’ve got a knack for writing copy that would make most professional journalists green with envy! Voila: great looking presentation, content and organization! Now you’ve got it made – or do you? Where is the box? Your audience needs to find this incredible box before they can open it.

A website template, no matter how beautifully designed or filled, is a box in the middle of a desert. Without adding content and description meta tags, titles, alternate content, proper use of text links and alternate navigation and registering the site with search engines, directories and obtaining useful links (to name but a few of the technical considerations), your pretty box may remain in the middle of that desert. It does no good for anyone if it isn’t findable on the web.

A website template is a pretty box. Pretty boxes make a difference or we wouldn’t all spend so much time wrapping all the gifts we give. Some people make their own boxes and wrapping paper – and that’s really great. But most of us buy mass-produced boxes and wrapping paper. It saves time and money. So do templates. But none of us would assume that boxes or wrapping paper would make up for a poor gift. Website templates make sense if they are kept in perspective as a specialization of labor in the production of websites. They are not however, a substitute for the experience, knowledge and judgment of professionals who have a vested interest in your success.

About the Author:
Chip Lane is the owner of Lane Web Design (http://www.lanewebdesign.com) a full-service web design and consulting firm located in Mebane, North Carolina.

You are welcome to republish this article as long as the link is kept active.

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