GETTING STARTED

As mentioned in the previous section, you’ll need a web development application such as Dreamweaver in order to start building your website. (This is one of many and only mentioned here because it is owned by the same company – Adobe). Then you’ll need Flash. (Note that in order to simply view a website developed in Flash it is only necessary to download the ‘plug-in’ which is free of charge, thankfully). There are also available many books and instruction manuals on the subject. Some are written in plain and simple English as in the Dummy’s Guide series, where others may be quite technical and somewhat difficult to follow. Unlike computers, which are constantly coming down in price, specialist software documentation is generally expensive. Expect to pay in excess of £10 for even the basic of books!! The other choice of course is to look on the internet, where you’ll find many sites, as well as communities and groups, offering free help and advice.
dummies

Before charging ahead and designing your own website, take time to see what others have done. You may be surprised to see what is possible and consequently you may revise your own thoughts and ideas.

Also (and this covered in more detail in the last section) - don’t re-invent the wheel!! There are a lot of specially written programs to help you when using Flash. So before spending hours designing a logo that twists, turns and spins all over the screen, have a look to see if someone has already written something that you can download for free and that will do the job for you.