A recently received a letter from a reader asking if I knew of any plug-in programs to create text effects in Fireworks MX. The reader seemed a bit surprised when I wrote back and told them that Fireworks already had the tools to get the job done. 'Where is the bu...

Contribute 3 provides powerful control for professional Web designers and developers, allowing them to maintain, distribute, and control Web site content while empowering content owners to participate in the Web editing process. Contribute keeps content fresh by e...

Since the introduction of Macromedia Studio in 2001, websites and applications have grown continuously in sophistication and importance, from communicating corporate brands to delivering mission-critical data and transactions. Technical, communication, and marke...

Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go! Ok, let me give you a chance to restore your heart rhythms. Each year I see a recurring situa...

Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go!

As many of you know, I do Macromedia seminars around the world. A fair number of participants are independent contractors. The number one question I get asked isn't about the latest programming techniques in Flash or how to develop dynamic pages in Dreamweaver. Th...

Business guru Tom Peters once wrote 'we need to embrace change; to welcome it; to transplant ourselves periodically.' Through change, we grow and avoid complacency or staleness. With change, we start on the proverbial Spring cleaning and make way for the new and exciting.

The proposed acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe is not a done deal. Both companies are under the scrutiny of the SEC, and it must also be approved by stockholders. While Macromedia/Adobe gives this process three to nine months, some industry analysts feel that i...

When I took over this publication last September, I stated that I wanted to eventually change the tone of the publication so that the articles did not seem like 'textbook' exercises. Instead, I wanted to take on a more pragmatic approach by showing how many busi...

As we go to print, we are finally seeing the realization of what must have been the worst kept secret beta in history: 'Blackstone.' As a matter of fact, at the New Orleans conference in November, Macromedia finally threw in the towel and gave everyone a beta copy of it.

In Part 1 I introduced you to very basic concepts of ActionScript 2.0. We looked at some simple programs such as setting a variable, basic object-oriented concepts, and some basic interaction with the Flash MX 2004 Interface.

'The new version of ColdFusion extends the Internet to mobile devices and delivers groundbreaking rich forms support, reporting, and printing solutions,' says Gruber, ColdFusion product manager at Macromedia on his SYS-CON.TV interview today with MX Developer's ...

It is the New Year, a time when we make resolutions and change (alright, I promise I won't talk about diets). It is also a time when we look back on the previous year. Publishing this journal is certainly no different.

I am writing this editorial the day after returning from the MAX 2004 Macromedia Conference in New Orleans, LA. As a veteran (or survivor) of many conferences, I can honestly say that this was one of the finest events I have ever attended.

Flash ActionScript has come a long way since Flash 5. However, never has the leap been as great as with the release of Flash MX 2004.

One thing was abundantly clear at the 2004 MAX conference in New Orleans: the third-party Flash market is growing rapidly. This is due to Macromedia's decision to provide APIs and open standards. The result of this decision is that the Flash developer will now hav...

In the October issue of this journal, we had a small error; John Bland's fine article entitled 'A Little OOP, CF Style' ended up with the classification of Flash ActionScript. Unfortunately it was not caught until the edition was in print. However, when I reviewed...

Recently, while doing some consulting, I observed a programmer hand-coding a query and database fields onto a Web page. Here is the scary part: they were using Dreamweaver MX 2004. The following week I delivered a seminar and spoke about dynamic technology. I was ...

As a Web developer, trainer, and conference speaker, the question I am asked most frequently is, 'Where is this industry going?' My answer is one simple word: Flash!!!

There is a little bit of irony going on here: this is an article about a software package that will go a long way toward rendering printed technical media, such as this journal, obsolete. Last year Macromedia purchased the company eHelp and, as a result, acquired ...

I have to begin this month's article with a confession. Each year, because of my articles and books, software publishers send me piles of free software with the hope that I will do an article about their product. I use the software and then, at some point, start f...

The value of any piece of software is in how much time and effort it can save you. What good is the software if it is not going to increase productivity and efficiency? In several of my past articles, I have examined ways of automating common or repetitive process...

Approximately 10 years ago a new word started to appear in programming circles: objects. The theory was that little bits of code, doing a specialized job, could be prewritten and plugged into existing code as needed.

I often receive photographs from readers asking me what went wrong. The picture files are too large or of poor quality. This month, we're going to look at some ways of improving your quality both within, and outside of, Fireworks MX.

OK, Fireworks class, let's see a show of hands: How many people understand how to really use the color tools in Fireworks MX? About 80% of you! Now, how many people understand the hexadecimal code behind colors? Hmmm....about 50%! Now, how many understand the ma...

I recently received a letter from a reader asking if I knew of any plug-in programs to create text effects in Fireworks MX. The reader seemed a bit surprised when I wrote back and told them that Fireworks already had the tools to get the job done.

In this tutorial, we're going to examine some aspects of creating a navigation bar in Fireworks MX. We will create three buttons for our small navigation bar, and then we will instruct Fireworks to write the JavaScript code necessary to create rollover effects for...