Flash MX Components Most Wanted: Ready Made Drag ?n? Drop Design Solutions

Creating web designs and site content in Macromedia Flash MX can be a lot of fun, but there are always tasks that you'll want to do again and again. It's always a bit of a hassle to have to keep recreating and tweaking the same old content or functionality in different projects, so why can't you just reuse what you've created? With components, you can do just that!

Flash MX Components enable the creation of self-contained design building blocks that can be simply dragged and dropped into any Flash movie. They are flexible enough to be easily customized to take care of many different tasks. No fuss, no bother―you can repurpose the standard elements of your design, application, or game, and use them over and over again.

But wait, it gets better! Components can be used by anyone, not just the person who created them. So in this book, we've done all the hard work for you and collected together the Most Wanted components that will make your life easier.

In this book (and on the CD), you'll find a perfect combination of creative and functional components from some of today's leading Flash designers and developers. Just look at the fantastic components yo'llu get:

• Event Calendar
• Text Editor
• News Feed
• Tool Tip
• Sketch Pad
• Video Player
• Image Scroller
• Pattern Generators
• Tab Control
• Sliding Panel
• Color Picker
• Game Player Selector
• Particle Emitter
• Layout Manager
• Data Grid
• Movie Loader
• Image Modulators
• XML-to-ActionScript Converter
• Virtual 3D Trackball
• Text Animation
• Dynamic Text Manager

Each of these components is included on the accompanying CD, ready to be incorporated into your designs, along with plenty of example files giving practical demonstrations of their use. On top of that, each chapter in thisbook presents a comprehensive designer-oriented guide that will help you to get the most out of using all of the featured components.

If youre a Flash designer, of any ability from novice to professional, this book will increase the power of your Flash designs and enhance your project workflow―instantly!

Aral Balkan is a Flash veteran and overall Internet junkie. In 2008, he produced the world's first large-scale online web conference, Singularity. Aral cofounded and coordinates OSFlash.org, authored the pattern-based ActionScript framework Arp, and created the SWX data format, SWX RPC, and SWX PHP. His open source project, GAE SWF Project, provides Flash and Flex developers with knowledge and tools to build rich Internet applications on Google's App Engine. Aral is a published author and has contributed to several books and magazine articles, including Adobe Flex 2 QuickStart Guide and Flex 3 QuickStart Guide and six courses on Flash, Flex, ActionScript, and open source development. Aral is a regular speaker at international conferences including Macworld, FlashForward, d.construct, FITC, Wizards of OS, and Adobe MAX.