Links of the Month (June 2009)




My best finds of June for you:




1. 50 Stunningly Creative Interactive Flash Websites - "In the world of Flash-based web applications, there are an endless number of possibilities. Flash is a platform which allows for creativity to flow into a website. Interactive is one way that Flash websites are set away from the rest. Here are 50 amazing interactive and creative Flash websites."

2. Flash Bookmarks - must to be bookmarked by everyone who's interested in flash. Bookmark this site and you'll get tons of bookmarks in one. Everything about Flash, Flex, Air from across the Web, sorted by date and category for easier search.

3. Most Wanted Flash Tutorials - 5 great tutorials for beginners which will help you to complete Flash common tasks such as how to create Flash preloader, how to create sliding content in Flash..etc.

4. Free Flash Photo Gallery - "You don't need the Flash software for editing the gallery. You can easily add, edit or delete pictures by editing the xml file in Notepad. All images are loaded externally. You can add unlimited number of images. Creating your own Flash photo gallery has never been easier! These photo albums include a simple fade-in and fade-out transition effect for the photos."

5. How to Change Flash Chart after Publishing to the Web - Learn how to change already published Flash chart. You can change flash chart published to a web page even without editing its HTML code. Read the tips and advices how to make desired changes to your web chart in the easiest and quickest way.

Have fun!

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How to create Flash Flipping Book for free

Have you ever wanted to create online album or image gallery with page flip effect for your blog or website? Now you have a chance to create it for free with the tools I've found for you.

1. Free Flash Page Flip - "Free Version of Flash Page Flip has no advanced functions but it has some nice features like resizing and navigation. You can make and publish your own publications (Online Catalog, Digital Brochure, Flipping Book, Interactive Flyer, Virtual Magazine, Flip Album etc.) by writing JPEG or SWF formatted pages names on XML file in the Free Version. You don't have to know Flash software to make your flipping book".
Online Demo

2. PixelWit's Free PageFlip Flash - The original dynamic Flash ActionScript page flip effect code. Maybe one of the most popular Flash page flips codes. "Improved" version costs $12.50 only and offers lots of great options. Require Flash knowlege but gives a great result for free.







3. Flash Flipping Book - "Flash Flipping Book is a web tool for you to display your images / photos in the form of a book / catalogue / brochure. The page transition animation is like flipping pages of a book". Free version contains Flash-here logo.
Online Demo

4. Free PageFlip - "professional and realistic Adobe© Flash based flash book". There is a free basic version with source files included. Basic Flash knowledge and the software are required.




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The easiest ways to save Flash files from websites

There are many different ways and tools for saving Flash directly from a web browser. I picked up the easiest ones to share with you. Let geeks search caches for the needed files, we have much simpler ways:

How to Save Flash in Firefox

1. Download Sothink SWF Catcher for Firefox and open the file. This is .xpi file (Firefox extension) and Firefox will offer you to install the add-on. Add SWF Catcher button to the toolbar (right-click toolbar > Customize > Drag and drop needed button). Click the button and you'll see all available flash files in a sidebar. Right-click file name in the list for options.


2. Right-click any web page. Click View Page info, go to Media tab and find needed file in a media list (Flash files have Embed type). Select your file and click Save As.


How to Save Flash in Internet Explorer

1. Use Sothink SWF Catcher for IE. The difference between versions for Firefox and Internet Explorer is that IE version is an installator, not add-on. But the installation process is easy and quick. The same as for Firefox, you can use toolbar button or open SWF Catcher from right-click context menu. In IE you'll see a list of files in Save window, not in a sidebar.


2. Use Flash Saving Plugin for Internet Explorer. Download and install the plugin. It will add to your IE toolbar the button which displays the names of all Flash movies that are loaded on the current web page. Click a name and the corresponding Flash movie is saved to the folder specified.


P.S. Also, you can download Flashget download manager and use its own browser to look for swf files and save them.

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How to add Flash content to Blogger sidebar


There are several ways to add a Flash object to the sidebar of your Blogspot blog.

1. If you create your flash object yourself with any tool that provides both .swf file and html code of the object, use this way:

Go to Blogger Dashboard > Layout > Add a Gadget > HTML/Javascript. Paste your code to the gadget editor field and specify the correct file location (.swf file must be uploaded to the Web – to any file storage you use, for example Google Sites). Save the gadget and you're done.

2. If you have only a flash file you want to embed and don't have its html code, you can use Widgetbox to create a flash widget for blogger. Go to Widgetbox.com, create an account, click Make a Widget button, select Flash and specify your file URL (swf file must be uploaded to the Web). After editing and publishing your widget, you'll be able to add it to Blogger automatically or copy its html code and paste it as I described in the first paragraph.

Also, you can try the following code. Replace the red text with your values (and remove 'SAMPLE' marks) and insert this code into HTML/Javascript Gadget as described above.

<'SAMPLE'object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0"

width="your value" height="your value">

<'SAMPLE'param value="http://yourwebsite/your_flash_file.swf" name="movie"/>

<'SAMPLE'param value="high" name="quality"/>

<'SAMPLE'embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src=" http://yourwebsite/your_flash_file.swf "

width="your value" height="your value" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <'SAMPLE'/embed><'SAMPLE'/object>


That's it. You've embedded Flash content into Blogger sidebar.

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