David Stiller’s blog

I just got word from Adobe that a number of The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide excerpts are freely available in PDF format from the Developer Connection’s ActionScript Technology Center:  Check ’em out!

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/as3_quick_ref.html

Combine those with the freebie excerpts at CommunityMX.com, and you’ll find you have a decent selection to help you choose if this book would be useful to you.  Keep reading »

Most of us have at least one mentor, even if it’s someone we haven’t met in person.  In fact, if you’re anything like me, you have a different mentor for each field that interests you:  someone who inspires you to keep practicing the piano, to get creatively crazy in the kitchen, to learn yet another unicycle trick, and to keep strengthening your grasp on Flash (or Photoshop, or Dreamweaver … you get the idea).

When it comes to Flash, one of my mentors has helped me significantly with troubleshooting — with making things work when, against all expectation, they simply don’t work. In a recent four-part series I wrote for CommunityMX.com, I explored a single theme — troubleshooting — from a variety of angles, sharing with readers what my mentor has shared with me.  Along the way, the series turns up a few quirks involved in working with Flash, but more importantly, it reviews how to approach arriving at useful workarounds, regardless what the issue is.

The first of four articles is free and investigates a puzzling visual issue I encountered while working on a set of custom UI tabs.  (It was originally published back in November, but I didn’t realize at the time it was a freebie!)  The follow-up articles go into other scenarios, and each one stands alone.  Community MX offers free trial memberships, so it’s possible to read all four without cost, in addition to other CMX content.  If you want to subscribe, do—but there’s no obligation. 

http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=49197

Generally speaking, Flash designers have become more considerate. In the late 1990s, it was common to encounter dozens of Flash websites a day with bloated, pointless intro animations. Ultimately, sure, content was king: users would eventually get to the meat of a website, but all too often, were subjected to unnecessary bells and whistles, simply because Flash was the shiny new kid on the block. Nowadays, bloated intros are largely a thing of the past, but back then, designers were proud of these intros and assumed users were thrilled to see them. Frankly, it just wasn’t so.

Fortunately, designers began to change their ways. Best practices took hold, and the “Skip Intro” button became a fashionable device (in fact, it appeared so often it became an industry joke). If users were really lucky, they’d even see an “Always Skip Intro” button, which remembered their preference for the next visit. In this freebie Community MX tutorial, you’ll learn how to create such a button.

http://www.communitymx.com/abstract.cfm?cid=124BC

Back in March, I made a quick blog post (“New O’Reilly Title, Coming Soon!”) about a book I had just finished co-authoring.  My eleven chapters were done, and I was happy with my portion of the book (the other chapters were not yet completed).  This one aims to help folks migrate their existing skill set from ActionScript 2.0 to ActionScript 3.0.  Which folks in particular?  Not the hardcore programmers.  There’s a whole community of advanced developers, most of whom are now using Flex, that doesn’t need this book  This reference is for people who have a decent understanding of timeline coding, who may have begun writing custom classes in AS2, but do most of their programming in the Actions panel and are bewildered by the changes in ActionScript 3.0.  From a standpoint of tone and encouragement, I like to think this book has a lot in common with Colin Moock’s InsideRIA.com article “ActionScript 3.0:  Is it Hard or Not?,” which I’m quick to recommend on various forums as a confidence booster.  You can read a few chapter excerpts from the links below.  Keep reading »

Adobe has announced the CS4 lineup!

Hop around to your usual favorite Adobe-focused blogs, and you’ll find quite a few sites demonstrating new features (and there are tons of new features in all of these apps!).  Chris Georgenes, for example, spells out a number of Flash UI improvements at his keyframer.com site.  Colin Smith demonstrates some slick new Photoshop features at photoshopcafe.com.

And me?  I created four Flash CS4 video tutorials at the companion website for Layers magazine, layersmagazine.com.  Check ’em out!  If any of you are curious what I sound like, now you’ll know.    I’ve enjoyed working with the Layers folks very much, and will be happy to do so again, so this might just be the beginning!  Quick note:  I did include sample files with some of those videos, but until Adobe makes Flash CS4 available for purchase or trial download, you wouldn’t be able to use them (they’re saved as CS4 files, which means they don’t open in CS3 — you can actually save CS4 files as CS3 files, but naturally the new features disappear when you do).  I’m assuming Layers will update those pages when the time comes.  If not, I’ll pester them, and/or you can email me for the sample files.  Keep reading »

Last night, at the stroke of midnight (I kid you not), I finished the very last exercise for the very last chapter on my plate for a new book for friends of ED.  When I lifted my hands from the keyboard, I was beaming.  Why?  Because it’s been a long time since I’ve had a normal work week.  This is all about to change, and wowzers, am I looking forward to it!

The main reason I’m happy is that I’m about to get more time with my family—time where I’m not bleary-eyed and half asleep.    Another part of my happiness, though, honestly, is that I’m about to get more time to spend on this blog, on forums, and on tardy email replies.  I’ve added a special folder to Outlook just for blog comments.  I really do read every single question, and I do my best to answer them.  If you’re still waiting to hear from me, please keep hangin’ on!  I’ve been behind on replies for months (that Outlook folder has 62 items as I write this) … but that’s about to change too.  Keep reading »

In one implementation of the QuickTime VR format, known as QTVR Object Movies, the user can click-and-drag an image to seemingly rotate it, as if spinning the real-life object on a lazy Susan.  This simulated 3D interactivity can improve multimedia curb appeal, and makes for a nifty way to showcase merchandise.  But it doesn’t stop there:  the same basic principle can also bring click-and-drag responsiveness to short video sequences and even user input widgets, such as the click-and-scrub input fields of numerous Adobe dialog boxes.  Keep reading »

In one of the recent comments to “How to Position Movie Clips Based on Browser Resizing,” a look at the ActionScript 2.0 Stage.onResize event, reader Eddy asked about adjusting an image loaded at runtime; particularly, about fading in an image set to scale and reposition itself based on the size of the browser.  I was originally going to reply to his comment directly, but this seems to me like something that would make a decent blog entry of its own, so here’s one particular stab at it.  Keep reading »

My favorite mechanism for embedding SWFs, hands down, is Geoff Stearns’ SWFObject.  It’s clean, lightweight, and easy to use.  Since April 2006, SWFObject has been my first choice for working around the “click to activate and use this control” warning in Internet Explorer.  Microsoft has decided to remove this activation behavior from Internet Explorer in April 2008 — right around the corner, as of this writing — but there’s still plenty of reason to keep right on using SWFObject.  Why?  Because it provides an elegant way to detect what version of Flash Player (if any) a website visitor has installed.  If you’re using the On2 video codec, for example, it means your site requires Flash Player 8 or higher.  With SWFObject, you can detect if your visitor has at least 8 and then display the SWF; otherwise, display a stand-in message (or image), such as “This site requires Flash Player 8 or higher.”  But what if you want to redirect to another page instead?  Or what if you want to display two different SWFs, depending on what’s installed?  Read on.  Keep reading »

I just finished the last of my eleven chapters for a new O’Reilly title, ActionScript 3.0:  The Quick Answer Guide for Flash Professionals, last Wednesday.  This was shortly after lunch, 12:30 on the dot, and a neat thing happened almost as I lifted my hands from the keyboard (more on that in a sec).  The rest of the book is still being written, and it’s shaping up nicely.  I’m pretty excited about this project already!    The aim of this reference is to help developers, even keyframe coders, get up to speed with AS3, so keep your eyes peeled in June!

I took a wild tumble off the grid while I was researching and writing for the past five or six weeks, so I apologize for my late replies to blog comments and email.  I’ve been catching up on my inbox since last Wednesday and plan to reply to everyone as soon as I can.  Thanks, so much, to my friends for all the encouragement!  (Go, FlashGods.org!)

I’ll be going over author reviews in the coming weeks, but the heavy lifting is behind me.  The neat thing that happened, on day I finished, is this:  I went downstairs to gaze out the window for a few moments, and right as I did, UPS brought a package to the door.  I opened the box, and inside was a huge tin of Turkish coffee (over a pound!), imported from Turkey, sent by reader Çağatay.  What a way to commemorate the milestone!  Thanks, Çağatay!  This coffee is a real treat!