Add a little life to your web
pages
With most people now connecting via 56K modems and the growing
popularity of broadband, it's feasible to incorporate some
really cool and functional effects within your pages.
Once the mark of a
beginner, animations and interactive menu systems are
increasingly popular even on serious sites.
Interactive pages get more
action...
Static pages, even well
designed ones, lack the extra "oomph" that can spell the
difference between success and failure. Used judiciously,
interactive features can add value to your site, make it more
engaging and effective, and make it appear more expensive and
impressive.
The trick to using
the kinds of effects made possible by Flash and JAVA is to
integrate them into your page design. Roll-over buttons,
scrolling marquees, interactive menus, and animated
presentations all have their uses and abuses. Thrown in
just for the sake of motion, they make your pages take too long
to load, get in the way, and are distracting.
When they actually
perform a function though, they can make your site easier to
navigate, more dramatic, and more interesting.
We especially like
what can be done with Flash- anything from simple buttons to an
entire online presentation with animated elements that download
and display very quickly.
All on a shoestring budget...
Until relatively
recently, you had to shell out big bucks on Macromedia's Flash
software if you wanted compact yet attention getting animation
on
your site. Old fashioned animated GIF's were just too big
and boring, DHTML too unreliable, and others required a long
download of some obscure plug-in before they'd work.
We were pleased and
amazed to discover FireStarter from CoffeeCup Software, a budget
priced tool for producing Flash animations quickly and easily.
FireStarter outputs standard swf files that require only the
Flash Player browser plugin, an option so popular and widespread
that advertisers now use Flash for online ad's.
The program is
relatively simple to use, and the output is compatible with both
major browsers. Although not as capable as the full Flash
program, it's a tiny fraction of the price and very adequate for
most common needs. It's distributed as "try before you
buy" with a free trial download so you can see how it works,
which is very well indeed.
We ask only one
thing of you. Please bookmark this page or add it to your
favorites, so when you decide to buy you can come back here (so
we'll get credit).
JAVA Applets Jazz Your Sites
CoffeeCup has a full line of
specialized JAVA applet makers, including ones for buttons,
navigation systems, scrolling headlines, general effects, and
more. When purchasing FireStarter, we opted for the
specially priced bundle that included the most popular ones- the
deal was just too good to miss.
You can download
trial versions of any or all of these. We ask only one
thing of you. Please bookmark this page or add it to your
favorites, so when you decide to buy you can come back here (so
we'll get credit).
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