
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
CMX Weekly Newsletter News Fun and Freebies Recent CMX Content Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats Check the News! TODCon 2007 Announced For the few who haven't experienced it yet, TODCon is the most informative yet informal Adobe-related event you're going to find. Whether you're a seasoned veteran of Macromedia products or just starting out, you will have a great time learning a great deal from many knowledgeable speakers about CSS, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, ColdFusion, Flash, Central and even about running your business properly. Those who attend usually end up coming back every year because of the unique and informal atmosphere. You don't want to miss out on this event. This year, TODCon will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. We predict that this year's turnout will be even bigger than last year's. You're invited to register for this fantastic, one of a kind event. Hurry, so you can get the early bird registration fee. Adobe CS3 Icons: Really Cool Concept, Or Too Many Martinis For Breakfast? With the release of any new Adobe product, you can expect a makeover of the logo associated with that product. Not only is CS3 no exception to the rule, but Adobe really decided to go all out with this release with respect to product logos and icons. Some people dig the idea of each logo representing a piece of some bizarre color wheel of the elements, but other uses think that Adobe went for simplicity and got in spades... and not in a good way. There's more talk out there about the CS3 icons than we've seen with any other adobe product release. If you like them, great. If you don't care what your icons look like (and frankly, most of us here at CMX don't), great. If you are just plain disappointed in Adobe's artistic choice this time around, and you want to stage your own personal protest, you'll be glad to know you can swap out those CS3 icons for another set of icons you might find more to your liking. One website with some really cool replacement icons is IconClock.com Choices, Choices Adobe CS3 is still brand-spankin' new, and a lot of designers and programmers are still trying to figure out which version is right for them. Sure, Adobe has a chart that compares each of their six different CS3 editions, but for those who want a little more information on which version would best suit their needs, where do they go? PCMag.com has a short but informative article on each different bundle, and it just might help you over the hump. And This Is What The Web Is All About Like it or not, some people use the internet to meet people to get... uh... lucky. There's a lot of social "networking" going on out there, and some websites will get you noticed by potential dating material mor than others. Of course, someone had to take a poll and find out which of the most popular internet communities were bound to get you into the bed... errrr... the arms of someone else, and Mashable.com is just the website to do it. The winner is no surprise. We won't give it away, but it rhymes with Pie Face. Yahoo! A Chat Client From Yahoo That You Don't Have To Download! Those of you who are into chatting with friends on the internet will be glad to know that Yahoo just released a chat client that works inside your browser - or any browser for that matter - without having to download any software. This is a big plus to all of the folks out there who want to do some chatting at work but don't have the admin privileges to install a chat client. Did we say that out loud? What we mean to say is that now your grandmother can now chat with "VirgoStud42" without having to figure out how to install a program. Yahoo! Read more about it at... Yahoo!
Satisfied Customers Speak Out! "Oh man, this is terrific! We are in the process of converting several huge sites from one template (look and feel) to another and this ability to preview images is saving me hours and hours. Thanks so much for sharing! This is terrific!" - Jan M., CMX Subscriber, commenting on Danilo Celic's , Image Preview 2 Extension for Dreamweaver. Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!
Great Quotes: "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line." - Oscar Levant Supplemental Index: Where Google Sends Your Blog To Die Last week we talked about reworking your blog so that you'd get more visitors reading all about your tough day at work, or last night's date with that crazy girl from the credit department. So now you have tons of people coming to read your blog, but yet, Google is not indexing it the way it should. What happened? It could be that Google is throwing your blog into its supplemental index. What's that? Well, you can learn all about it at Chris Garrett's blog, or at TropicalSEO.com, where they call Google's supplemental index - among other things - "the Siberian work camp for web pages." Speaking of Google... Much has been said and written about the way Google ranks web pages. So we're going to point you to at least one resource that has a ton of information specifically about Google Page Rank. SearchEngineLand.com has an article about what page rank is, how it works in Google's world, and what you can do to increase your chances for getting higher up on the Google totem pole. We hate to break this to you if you didn't know already, but just like high school, it's a popularity contest. Cheating On Tests: Brought To You By the iPod The iPod is for more than just listening to music. A lot of folks have discovered uses for the iPod that go beyond the obvious. For instance, did you know that the iPod can be used to plan a jogging route for you? Too simple? Then try storing the entire human genome on your iPod like Will Gilbert, from the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies. There are other uses for the iPod too, but of course, we don't want to give them all away here. You'll have to read the rest of the magical uses for the iPod at oCulture.com. Mistakes? We Thought They Were Hidden Features... TUAW.com has a list of "Common Mistakes Made by New Mac Users." It's a short list, and not a very exciting one at that. But thanks to the replies by fellow Mac users, as well as PC users, the list gets a lot longer, and is chock full of mistakes that Mac users make - not to say that PC users don't make mistakes. They do. Oh, yes. But this list is for the Mac users among us. But It's Funny To Make Fun of Apple PC World magazine almost ran an article that poked some fun at Apple and Steve Jobs. Nothing scathing or vicious, but reportedly lighthearted and in the spirit of rivalry. But apparently, Colin Crawford, the new CEO for PC World magazine, is looking to create a kinder, gentler PC World where rivals and vendors don't have to fear words on paper. PC World's Editor-in-Chief, Harry McCracken, quit after the new CEO decided not to run the article. You have to admire that kind of chutzpah. Read more about it at Wired.com.
CMX MP3 Player (Flash Extension) The CMX MP3 Player component enables you to load external MP3s from an XML playlist. Features include track info display (title, artist), elapsed and remaining time, audio scrubber, volume slider, and playlist navigation. Take a look at this extension by CMX Partner Paul Newman
Fun and Freebies! Ah, To Work (And We Use That Term Loosely) At Google Check out these pictures at PhotoPumpkin.com and you'll want to work there too. I mean, come on... a masseuse? A pool, free meals, a pool table... makes my cubicle look like the worst prison you could ever think of. Maybe They Were His Magic Pants... Roy Pearson, from Washington, D.C, is suing a dry cleaner for sixty seven million dollars for losing his "prize pair" of pants. Pearson is a judge in D.C., and so he should know whether or not his case is worth pursuing. He is claiming, among his damages, "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort." We can only guess that the discomfort is due to some super-fabric embedded in his magic pants that helps him judge... Read more about it at ABC News. Geeks? You Mean Not Everyone Wants This? OK, we admit it. We'd totally dig a waffle maker that makes waffles shaped like a keyboard. No, we didn't get this vision from some maple syrup-fueled nightmare. We saw it at TechEBlog.com.
Do You Want To Do That With CSS? - Multiple Column Lists (Free Article) It is generally well known that list items in an <ol> or <ul> will display vertically in their default presentation. For short lists, or navigation menus, this generally isn't considered a problem. But in other cases, having an extensive list display vertically isn't quite as desirable. It might be a better use of screen space to have that list appear as a series of columns, side by side. In the past, this was done by placing separate lists in individual table cells, or by floating the lists. Semantically it is more desirable not to break up a list this way, but is there another choice? Yes, there is! Join us as we explain a new CSS method that uses a single list while displaying that list as multiple columns. Let's go! This free article by CMX Partners John Gallant and Holly Bergevin can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 3 - Updated Zoe Gillenwater This tutorial is the third part in a series on creating "teaser thumbnail lists" with CSS. Teaser thumbnail lists are those lists of items made up of a title, short description, and thumbnail. They're often used to provide short teasers that link to more information about the products, articles, or sections of the site being listed. In Parts 1 and 2, you've learned how to build teaser thumbnail lists from both definition lists and unordered lists and learned a couple different ways to style them. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create a version of the teaser thumbnail list that is not seen as often as the versions we have already created: the horizontal version, where each item follows the next to its right instead of below. We'll give the horizontal list a unique style from the list created in Part 2 to illustrate the various styling possibilities that exist for lists like these. Without touching the markup and only editing the CSS slightly, you can create lists that match the look and feel of your site easily. This is an updated version of the original tutorial published in April 2006. The CSS used to create the teaser thumbnail lists in the original Parts 1 and 2 was slightly modified to allow the lists to accept text that is very short or images that are very tall without overlaps occurring. Part 3 has been updated accordingly to reflect the updated CSS from Parts 1 and 2, though the method in this part has not had to change, since the original did not suffer from overlaps. The Updated Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS Series: Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 1 - Updated Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 2 - Updated Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 3 - Updated The AS3 Event System - Part 5: Managing Event Flow Steve Schelter In the fifth installment of the AS3 Event System series, we'll be covering advanced techniques of event flow management. The AS3 Events System Series: The AS3 Event System - Part 1: The Basics The AS3 Event System - Part 2: Timer Class The AS3 Event System - Part 3: Custom Dispatchers The AS3 Event System - Part 4: Event Flow Basics The AS3 Event System - Part 5: Managing Event Flow Using E4X to Retrieve XML Data in Flash CS3 David Stiller Back in early 2005, Danny Patterson took us on an early examination of something called E4X (see ECMAScript for XML (E4X): Overview). He was looking ahead to a technology that would greatly simplify XML data retrieval when it made its introduction to Flex developers in ActionScript 3.0. With the recent commercial release of Flash CS3, this enhancement has become available to Flash developers too. You're going to love what E4X means to your XML-in-Flash workflow! The following tutorial is slightly modified from an excerpt of the XML chapter in Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers, by Tom Green and David Stiller, to be published summer 2007 by friends of ED. Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 2: Altering Exposure Jim Babbage As I was experimenting with some of the new blend modes in Fireworks, I quickly learned some of these modes can be very helpful in correcting exposure and contrast in a photograph. And the best part is, using Blend Modes for this type of thing is incredibly easy. In previous tutorials, I've shown how to fix an over exposed image using the Multiply blend mode. But we can take this process further with other blends, allowing us to adjust: high contrast images low contrast images under exposed images In part one of this two part series, we looked at ways to alter contrast and color saturation. In Part 2, we will look at adjusting exposure using blend modes. The Using Fireworks Blend Modes Series: Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 1: Altering Contrast and Color Saturation Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 2: Altering Exposure The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 3: Advanced Compression Settings with Sorenson Squeeze Derrick Ypenburg In the first two installments of the Art of Encoding Series, I covered the basics of the FLV Format, The Art of Encoding Flash Video: About the FLV Format and introduced everyone to encoding video using Sorenson Squeeze, The Art of Encoding Flash Video: Sorenson Squeeze. This installment will go further into the compression settings of Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 using its advanced compression settings. Getting familiar with and using these advanced settings will result in higher encoded video quality and better playback performance of Flash video. If you are not familiar with Sorenson Squeeze 4.5, please read the introduction article to Sorenson Squeeze, The Art of Encoding Flash Video: Sorenson Squeeze. The Art of Encoding Flash Video Series: The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 1: About the FLV Format The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 2: Sorenson Squeeze The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 3: Advanced Compression Settings with Sorenson Squeeze Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 4: Creating the Movie Class Joseph Balderson Ever wondered how some Flash applications "break free" of the constraints of a fixed stage size, flowing from one size to another depending on browser size or application state? Creating these fluid layouts in Flash is considered by some to be one of those hidden mysteries of Flash coding. By others it is regarded as a milestone to be achieved on the path of ActionScript mastery. For me, it is both. We will take you through the steps, from intermediate to advanced, necessary to create application layouts in Flash which can exhibit "fullsize" or "fluid" functionality. In this series we will explore the basic principles of creating fluid layouts in Flash, build a sample application with a class architecture using components, finishing off with an exploration of the new "fullscreen" feature available in Flash Player 9. In the last tutorial we created an application with a fluid proportional layout using v2 components. In this tutorial we will continue evolving our code by encapsulating certain properties of the Flash document SWF into a static class file called the Movie class, which will be used as a foundation for the rest of this series. We will also show you how to get the document size set in the FLA, at runtime, without needing to use a constant or pre-defined variable. The Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash Series: Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 1: The Basics Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 2: Proportional Layouts Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 3: Application Development Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 4:Creating the Movie Class InDesign CS3: New and Improved Features for Power Users and Publishers [FREE] Bevi Chagnon InDesign CS3 adds many features for power-users and publishers of books, magazines, and technical publications. Tools for formatting tables (table styles and cell styles), nested InDesign documents, and electronic notes are just a few of the new utilities that boost productivity. Toss a few more features into the mix, like multi-level numbered lists and variable data fields, and InDesign now has the tools to tackle just about any type of long document out there, including catalogs, directories, technical manuals, and SMT books. Coloring Your World - Part 3: Color Trends and Possibilities Derrick Ypenburg Why do we choose the colors we do? Look back at your past projects and see the colors that you have used over and over. A trend will surely emerge. I notice that often I use browns and sky blues together. Color trends are everywhere whether they are incental, or planned. Working with color can be a tricky thing. Many designers get stuck at times using color to "decorate" a design rather than using color effectively to draw attention and lead the eye. We'll have a look at what you can do to avoid the "color slump" by stripping your designs of color and starting from black and white. Further, we'll look at creating color combinations and the "hot" new color for 2007! The Coloring Your World Series Coloring Your World - Part 1: Color Basics Coloring Your World - Part 2: Two Worlds of Color - Digital vs Print Coloring Your World - Part 3: Color Trends and Possibilities Dreamweaver CS3 - CSS Management Chaz Chumley We have all been awaiting the new Adobe CS3 products to come out, especially that of Dreamweaver CS3. There have been a lot of great improvements with this latest version in terms of Cascading Style Sheet management. Not to say that Dreamweaver 8 didn't display CSS particularly well, but we all know it had its shortcomings. However this newest version implements some great design flow tools when it comes to how most developers work with CSS. We will be taking a look at converting inline styles to a CSS rule, reordering CSS rules and finally how to move embedded styles to an external style sheet all from the CSS Styles Panel or context menu. Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 1: Altering Contrast and Color Saturation Jim Babbage As I was experimenting with some of the new blend modes in Fireworks, I quickly realized some of these modes help to correct exposure, contrast and color saturation in a photograph. And the best part is, using Blend Modes for this type of thing is incredibly easy. In previous tutorials, I've shown how to fix an over exposed image using the Multiply blend mode. But we can take this process further with other blends, allowing us to adjust: high contrast images low contrast images under exposed images In Part One of this two-part series, we will use blend modes to alter contrast and color saturation. We will cover a large number of blend modes as many modes are designed to alter contrast. In Part Two of this series, we will look at using Blend Modes to alter the exposure of images which are too light or too dark. The Using Fireworks Blend Modes Series: Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 1: Altering Contrast and Color Saturation Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 2: Altering Exposure Coming Soon
Access Levels and Login For PHP Dreamweaver has many tools to help simplify page creation. Beginning with Dreamweaver MX 2004, Dreamweaver contains Server Behaviors for password protecting PHP pages in your site. This tutorial will show how to password protect your pages using a username, password, and access level defined in a MySQL database. Check out the Article by CMX Partner Tom Muck
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats! This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Nathan Rohler, CMX subscriber. Freeware For The Mac If you type "freeware" into your search engine, hundreds - nay, thousands of hits will come up. The thing is, if you're a Mac owner, you're out of luck with most of them, because freeware for the PC is much more prominent than freeware for your Mac. Check out the collection of Mac-centric freeware at Tucows.com. Some of it is shareware, so you still might have to wade through some muck to find some great free stuff, but we always find time to find great free stuff. Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com. That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!

CMX Weekly Newsletter

News
Fun and Freebies
Recent CMX Content
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats

Check the News!

TODCon 2007 Announced

For the few who haven't experienced it yet, TODCon is the most informative yet informal Adobe-related event you're going to find. Whether you're a seasoned veteran of Macromedia products or just starting out, you will have a great time learning a great deal from many knowledgeable speakers about CSS, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, ColdFusion, Flash, Central and even about running your business properly. Those who attend usually end up coming back every year because of the unique and informal atmosphere. You don't want to miss out on this event. This year, TODCon will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. We predict that this year's turnout will be even bigger than last year's.

You're invited to register for this fantastic, one of a kind event. Hurry, so you can get the early bird registration fee.

Adobe CS3 Icons: Really Cool Concept, Or Too Many Martinis For Breakfast?

With the release of any new Adobe product, you can expect a makeover of the logo associated with that product. Not only is CS3 no exception to the rule, but Adobe really decided to go all out with this release with respect to product logos and icons. Some people dig the idea of each logo representing a piece of some bizarre color wheel of the elements, but other uses think that Adobe went for simplicity and got in spades... and not in a good way. There's more talk out there about the CS3 icons than we've seen with any other adobe product release. If you like them, great. If you don't care what your icons look like (and frankly, most of us here at CMX don't), great. If you are just plain disappointed in Adobe's artistic choice this time around, and you want to stage your own personal protest, you'll be glad to know you can swap out those CS3 icons for another set of icons you might find more to your liking. One website with some really cool replacement icons is IconClock.com

Choices, Choices

Adobe CS3 is still brand-spankin' new, and a lot of designers and programmers are still trying to figure out which version is right for them. Sure, Adobe has a chart that compares each of their six different CS3 editions, but for those who want a little more information on which version would best suit their needs, where do they go? PCMag.com has a short but informative article on each different bundle, and it just might help you over the hump.

And This Is What The Web Is All About

Like it or not, some people use the internet to meet people to get... uh... lucky. There's a lot of social "networking" going on out there, and some websites will get you noticed by potential dating material mor than others. Of course, someone had to take a poll and find out which of the most popular internet communities were bound to get you into the bed... errrr... the arms of someone else, and Mashable.com is just the website to do it. The winner is no surprise. We won't give it away, but it rhymes with Pie Face.

Yahoo! A Chat Client From Yahoo That You Don't Have To Download!

Those of you who are into chatting with friends on the internet will be glad to know that Yahoo just released a chat client that works inside your browser - or any browser for that matter - without having to download any software. This is a big plus to all of the folks out there who want to do some chatting at work but don't have the admin privileges to install a chat client. Did we say that out loud? What we mean to say is that now your grandmother can now chat with "VirgoStud42" without having to figure out how to install a program. Yahoo! Read more about it at... Yahoo!

Satisfied Customers Speak Out!

"Oh man, this is terrific! We are in the process of converting several huge sites from one template (look and feel) to another and this ability to preview images is saving me hours and hours. Thanks so much for sharing! This is terrific!"

- Jan M., CMX Subscriber, commenting on Danilo Celic's , Image Preview 2 Extension for Dreamweaver.

Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!

Great Quotes:

"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line." - Oscar Levant

Supplemental Index: Where Google Sends Your Blog To Die

Last week we talked about reworking your blog so that you'd get more visitors reading all about your tough day at work, or last night's date with that crazy girl from the credit department. So now you have tons of people coming to read your blog, but yet, Google is not indexing it the way it should. What happened? It could be that Google is throwing your blog into its supplemental index. What's that? Well, you can learn all about it at Chris Garrett's blog, or at TropicalSEO.com, where they call Google's supplemental index - among other things - "the Siberian work camp for web pages."

Speaking of Google...

Much has been said and written about the way Google ranks web pages. So we're going to point you to at least one resource that has a ton of information specifically about Google Page Rank. SearchEngineLand.com has an article about what page rank is, how it works in Google's world, and what you can do to increase your chances for getting higher up on the Google totem pole. We hate to break this to you if you didn't know already, but just like high school, it's a popularity contest.

Cheating On Tests: Brought To You By the iPod

The iPod is for more than just listening to music. A lot of folks have discovered uses for the iPod that go beyond the obvious. For instance, did you know that the iPod can be used to plan a jogging route for you? Too simple? Then try storing the entire human genome on your iPod like Will Gilbert, from the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies. There are other uses for the iPod too, but of course, we don't want to give them all away here. You'll have to read the rest of the magical uses for the iPod at oCulture.com.

Mistakes? We Thought They Were Hidden Features...

TUAW.com has a list of "Common Mistakes Made by New Mac Users." It's a short list, and not a very exciting one at that. But thanks to the replies by fellow Mac users, as well as PC users, the list gets a lot longer, and is chock full of mistakes that Mac users make - not to say that PC users don't make mistakes. They do. Oh, yes. But this list is for the Mac users among us.

But It's Funny To Make Fun of Apple

PC World magazine almost ran an article that poked some fun at Apple and Steve Jobs. Nothing scathing or vicious, but reportedly lighthearted and in the spirit of rivalry. But apparently, Colin Crawford, the new CEO for PC World magazine, is looking to create a kinder, gentler PC World where rivals and vendors don't have to fear words on paper. PC World's Editor-in-Chief, Harry McCracken, quit after the new CEO decided not to run the article. You have to admire that kind of chutzpah. Read more about it at Wired.com.

CMX MP3 Player (Flash Extension)

The CMX MP3 Player component enables you to load external MP3s from an XML playlist. Features include track info display (title, artist), elapsed and remaining time, audio scrubber, volume slider, and playlist navigation.

Take a look at this extension by CMX Partner Paul Newman

Fun and Freebies!

Ah, To Work (And We Use That Term Loosely) At Google

Check out these pictures at PhotoPumpkin.com and you'll want to work there too. I mean, come on... a masseuse? A pool, free meals, a pool table... makes my cubicle look like the worst prison you could ever think of.

Maybe They Were His Magic Pants...

Roy Pearson, from Washington, D.C, is suing a dry cleaner for sixty seven million dollars for losing his "prize pair" of pants. Pearson is a judge in D.C., and so he should know whether or not his case is worth pursuing. He is claiming, among his damages, "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort." We can only guess that the discomfort is due to some super-fabric embedded in his magic pants that helps him judge... Read more about it at ABC News.

Geeks? You Mean Not Everyone Wants This?

OK, we admit it. We'd totally dig a waffle maker that makes waffles shaped like a keyboard. No, we didn't get this vision from some maple syrup-fueled nightmare. We saw it at TechEBlog.com.

Do You Want To Do That With CSS? - Multiple Column Lists (Free Article)

It is generally well known that list items in an <ol> or <ul> will display vertically in their default presentation. For short lists, or navigation menus, this generally isn't considered a problem. But in other cases, having an extensive list display vertically isn't quite as desirable. It might be a better use of screen space to have that list appear as a series of columns, side by side. In the past, this was done by placing separate lists in individual table cells, or by floating the lists. Semantically it is more desirable not to break up a list this way, but is there another choice? Yes, there is! Join us as we explain a new CSS method that uses a single list while displaying that list as multiple columns. Let's go!

This free article by CMX Partners John Gallant and Holly Bergevin can be found here.

Weekly Content Listing

Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 3 - Updated

Zoe Gillenwater

This tutorial is the third part in a series on creating "teaser thumbnail lists" with CSS. Teaser thumbnail lists are those lists of items made up of a title, short description, and thumbnail. They're often used to provide short teasers that link to more information about the products, articles, or sections of the site being listed. In Parts 1 and 2, you've learned how to build teaser thumbnail lists from both definition lists and unordered lists and learned a couple different ways to style them.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create a version of the teaser thumbnail list that is not seen as often as the versions we have already created: the horizontal version, where each item follows the next to its right instead of below. We'll give the horizontal list a unique style from the list created in Part 2 to illustrate the various styling possibilities that exist for lists like these. Without touching the markup and only editing the CSS slightly, you can create lists that match the look and feel of your site easily.

This is an updated version of the original tutorial published in April 2006. The CSS used to create the teaser thumbnail lists in the original Parts 1 and 2 was slightly modified to allow the lists to accept text that is very short or images that are very tall without overlaps occurring. Part 3 has been updated accordingly to reflect the updated CSS from Parts 1 and 2, though the method in this part has not had to change, since the original did not suffer from overlaps.

The Updated Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS Series:
Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 1 - **Updated**
Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 2 - **Updated**
Create a Teaser Thumbnail List Using CSS: Part 3 - **Updated**

The AS3 Event System - Part 5: Managing Event Flow

Steve Schelter

In the fifth installment of the AS3 Event System series, we'll be covering advanced techniques of event flow management.

The AS3 Events System Series:
The AS3 Event System - Part 1: The Basics
The AS3 Event System - Part 2: Timer Class
The AS3 Event System - Part 3: Custom Dispatchers
The AS3 Event System - Part 4: Event Flow Basics
The AS3 Event System - Part 5: Managing Event Flow

Using E4X to Retrieve XML Data in Flash CS3

David Stiller

Back in early 2005, Danny Patterson took us on an early examination of something called E4X (see ECMAScript for XML (E4X): Overview). He was looking ahead to a technology that would greatly simplify XML data retrieval when it made its introduction to Flex developers in ActionScript 3.0.

With the recent commercial release of Flash CS3, this enhancement has become available to Flash developers too. You're going to love what E4X means to your XML-in-Flash workflow! The following tutorial is slightly modified from an excerpt of the XML chapter in Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers, by Tom Green and David Stiller, to be published summer 2007 by friends of ED.

Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 2: Altering Exposure

Jim Babbage

As I was experimenting with some of the new blend modes in Fireworks, I quickly learned some of these modes can be very helpful in correcting exposure and contrast in a photograph. And the best part is, using Blend Modes for this type of thing is incredibly easy.

In previous tutorials, I've shown how to fix an over exposed image using the Multiply blend mode. But we can take this process further with other blends, allowing us to adjust:

high contrast images
low contrast images
under exposed images

In part one of this two part series, we looked at ways to alter contrast and color saturation. In Part 2, we will look at adjusting exposure using blend modes.

The Using Fireworks Blend Modes Series:
Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 1: Altering Contrast and Color Saturation
Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 2: Altering Exposure

The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 3: Advanced Compression Settings with Sorenson Squeeze

Derrick Ypenburg

In the first two installments of the Art of Encoding Series, I covered the basics of the FLV Format, The Art of Encoding Flash Video: About the FLV Format and introduced everyone to encoding video using Sorenson Squeeze, The Art of Encoding Flash Video: Sorenson Squeeze.

This installment will go further into the compression settings of Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 using its advanced compression settings. Getting familiar with and using these advanced settings will result in higher encoded video quality and better playback performance of Flash video. If you are not familiar with Sorenson Squeeze 4.5, please read the introduction article to Sorenson Squeeze, The Art of Encoding Flash Video: Sorenson Squeeze.

The Art of Encoding Flash Video Series:
The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 1: About the FLV Format
The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 2: Sorenson Squeeze
The Art of Encoding Flash Video - Part 3: Advanced Compression Settings with Sorenson Squeeze

Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 4: Creating the Movie Class

Joseph Balderson

Ever wondered how some Flash applications "break free" of the constraints of a fixed stage size, flowing from one size to another depending on browser size or application state? Creating these fluid layouts in Flash is considered by some to be one of those hidden mysteries of Flash coding. By others it is regarded as a milestone to be achieved on the path of ActionScript mastery. For me, it is both.

We will take you through the steps, from intermediate to advanced, necessary to create application layouts in Flash which can exhibit "fullsize" or "fluid" functionality. In this series we will explore the basic principles of creating fluid layouts in Flash, build a sample application with a class architecture using components, finishing off with an exploration of the new "fullscreen" feature available in Flash Player 9.

In the last tutorial we created an application with a fluid proportional layout using v2 components. In this tutorial we will continue evolving our code by encapsulating certain properties of the Flash document SWF into a static class file called the Movie class, which will be used as a foundation for the rest of this series. We will also show you how to get the document size set in the FLA, at runtime, without needing to use a constant or pre-defined variable.

The Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash Series:
Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 1: The Basics
Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 2: Proportional Layouts
Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 3: Application Development
Creating Fluid Layouts in Flash - Part 4:Creating the Movie Class

InDesign CS3: New and Improved Features for Power Users and Publishers [FREE]

Bevi Chagnon

InDesign CS3 adds many features for power-users and publishers of books, magazines, and technical publications. Tools for formatting tables (table styles and cell styles), nested InDesign documents, and electronic notes are just a few of the new utilities that boost productivity. Toss a few more features into the mix, like multi-level numbered lists and variable data fields, and InDesign now has the tools to tackle just about any type of long document out there, including catalogs, directories, technical manuals, and SMT books.

Coloring Your World - Part 3: Color Trends and Possibilities

Derrick Ypenburg

Why do we choose the colors we do?

Look back at your past projects and see the colors that you have used over and over. A trend will surely emerge. I notice that often I use browns and sky blues together. Color trends are everywhere whether they are incental, or planned.

Working with color can be a tricky thing. Many designers get stuck at times using color to "decorate" a design rather than using color effectively to draw attention and lead the eye. We'll have a look at what you can do to avoid the "color slump" by stripping your designs of color and starting from black and white.

Further, we'll look at creating color combinations and the "hot" new color for 2007!

The Coloring Your World Series
Coloring Your World - Part 1: Color Basics
Coloring Your World - Part 2: Two Worlds of Color - Digital vs Print
Coloring Your World - Part 3: Color Trends and Possibilities

Dreamweaver CS3 - CSS Management

Chaz Chumley

We have all been awaiting the new Adobe CS3 products to come out, especially that of Dreamweaver CS3. There have been a lot of great improvements with this latest version in terms of Cascading Style Sheet management. Not to say that Dreamweaver 8 didn't display CSS particularly well, but we all know it had its shortcomings. However this newest version implements some great design flow tools when it comes to how most developers work with CSS.

We will be taking a look at converting inline styles to a CSS rule, reordering CSS rules and finally how to move embedded styles to an external style sheet all from the CSS Styles Panel or context menu.

Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 1: Altering Contrast and Color Saturation

Jim Babbage

As I was experimenting with some of the new blend modes in Fireworks, I quickly realized some of these modes help to correct exposure, contrast and color saturation in a photograph. And the best part is, using Blend Modes for this type of thing is incredibly easy.

In previous tutorials, I've shown how to fix an over exposed image using the Multiply blend mode. But we can take this process further with other blends, allowing us to adjust:

high contrast images
low contrast images
under exposed images

In Part One of this two-part series, we will use blend modes to alter contrast and color saturation. We will cover a large number of blend modes as many modes are designed to alter contrast.

In Part Two of this series, we will look at using Blend Modes to alter the exposure of images which are too light or too dark.

The Using Fireworks Blend Modes Series:
Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 1: Altering Contrast and Color Saturation
Using Fireworks Blend Modes - Part 2: Altering Exposure Coming Soon

Access Levels and Login For PHP

Dreamweaver has many tools to help simplify page creation. Beginning with Dreamweaver MX 2004, Dreamweaver contains Server Behaviors for password protecting PHP pages in your site. This tutorial will show how to password protect your pages using a username, password, and access level defined in a MySQL database.

Check out the Article by CMX Partner Tom Muck

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Nathan Rohler, CMX subscriber.

Freeware For The Mac

If you type "freeware" into your search engine, hundreds - nay, thousands of hits will come up. The thing is, if you're a Mac owner, you're out of luck with most of them, because freeware for the PC is much more prominent than freeware for your Mac. Check out the collection of Mac-centric freeware at Tucows.com. Some of it is shareware, so you still might have to wade through some muck to find some great free stuff, but we always find time to find great free stuff.

Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!