
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
CMX Weekly Newsletter News Fun and Freebies Recent CMX Content Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats Check the News! TODCon. It's Closer Than You Think. TODCon is an annual event known for its informal, personal feel and for the tremendous amount of information and camaraderie one can find there. If you've ever bought a book on an Adobe or Macromedia product, chances are you'll meet the author of the book at TODCon. Glance over the list of speakers and you'll likely see some familiar names from the Adobe community. There are a huge number of learning tracks available to attendees, and the personal way in which you interact with the instructors is unmatched at events such as this. People who attend TODCon usually come back year after year when they see how unique it really is, and it's great watching everyone evolve together. You're invited to register for this fantastic, one of a kind event. Introducing CMX JumpStart Tahoe: Like Vegas, Only Fluid If you've been around a while, you may remember the CMX JumpStart Vegas that was released in the summer of 2005 by Stephanie Sullivan and Linda Rathgeber. As one of our most popular JumpStarts, it inspired some CMX subscribers to request a fluid version of this fixed-width design. Zoe Gillenwater, one of our great CSS gurus, happily complied by creating CMX JumpStart Tahoe, a JumpStart modification. Tahoe, like Vegas, is located in Nevada, and because it shares a similar ambience, seems like a fitting city for a permutation of the Vegas design. And Tahoe has one thing that Vegas doesn't - the beautiful Lake Tahoe that gives literal meaning to the tagline in the Tahoe JumpStart: "Like Vegas, only fluid." Tahoe uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Tahoe is a two column elastic layout, which means it expands in width based on the user's font size. This allows the overall proportions of the page to stay intact regardless of the visitor's window or font size. The package includes an extension for installing Tahoe into the New Document dialog box, 14 tutorials, a source PNG, main and Internet Explorer style sheets, a design time style sheet, and starter and form pages. Tahoe is available for $29.99 to non-members, but is absolutely free to CMX subscribers. Read more about how to make it yours. Introduction to the CMX JumpStart Tahoe article for nonmembers and members who would like to read more about its features and see a modified Tahoe design. CMX JumpStart Tahoe article for members and for those who would like to purchase Tahoe now. Adobe Helps You Create... a Security Breach It's just been discovered that Adobe CS3 Version Cue can disable the firewall that is built into Mac OS X. Version Cue's installation disables your firewall during installation, but never re-enables it. It's not a difficult problem to fix though. If you have installed CS3's Version Cue application, just go into your system preferences and re-enable the firewall, and you're safe again. Read more at MacWorld.co.uk. Adobe Illustrator: What's It Good For? Users of Adobe Illustrator know it's the premiere tool for illustration. Heck, where do you think they came up with the name Illustrator? It's no coincidence. But the word "illustration" tends to make people think of cartoons or simple graphics. Illustrator is much more than that, and artists like Yukio Miyamoto prove it. Check out Miyamoto's artwork at KHulsey.com and you'll see what Illustrator is really capable of. This artwork is so realistic, that you can't distinguish most of it from the real thing. It's really incredible, and speaks volumes about Illustrator is capable of doing. When I Was Thirteen, I Was Reading Comic Books. And I Learned Nothing From Them. And I Liked It. When most folks think of a CEO, they think of a forty or fifty-year old that has climbed up the corporate ladder. Anshul Samar is an exception to that rule. He started his own company, Elementeo, which sells trading cards that represent the elements. Kids do battle with the cards, and when doing so, they learn what reaction and relationship each element has with one another. Samar understands that learning things like the table of elements can be hugely boring, but he also knows that trading cards are wildly popular. We wish him well. In this video posted at VentureBeat.com, Anshul explains his company, and how the cards work.
Satisfied Customers Speak Out! "Bravo! I opened Bridge and thought it looked cool, but had no idea how to apply it (and no time to figure it out). Thanks for making the videos. That explained your usage well and gave me some ideas how I could use it right away." - Theresa W., CMX Subscriber, commenting on Jim Babbage's video article, Bridge CS3 Overview - Part 1 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: "The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness." - John Keats Adobe Abandons Flash On The Exchange The Macromedia Exchange was the place to go to find extensions for Dreamweaver, Flash and other Macromedia products, most of which were meant to speed up your production time. It was a simple thing to navigate, and easy to find what you were looking for. A few years back, Macromedia switched the Exchange over to Flash format, and people were up in arms because the loading and navigation time became nearly unbearable. After Adobe took over, the Exchange stayed as it was for a while, but if you look at it now it's back to a plain ol' HTML format. While we truly believe in rich internet applications, we also believe that Flash is simply not meant for some things... like the Exchange. Check out the new look and functionality at Adobe.com. Just Didn't Wake Up Inspired, Eh? I don't know about you, but the toughest part of web development for me has always been getting started on a project. If it was just a case of dropping in some ColdFusion code or setting up a database it wouldn't be so bad. But the design part of "web design" can drive me buggy. Sometimes the brain just doesn't provide you with what you need to get a project started. What to do? You can start by visiting any of the websites listed here at FreelanceSwitch.com, all of which are meant to inspire you one way or another. Oh Baby, Wanna Come To My Place And See My Data? Chatbots are essentially programs that are designed to interact with humans, and they respond to questions through a series of algorithms that take a "best guess" of the question's intentions. The results of "talking" to a chatbot can be unpredictable and sometimes pretty funny. But this article at DiscoverMagazine.com is the first instance I've seen of two chatbots "talking" to one another. When one tells the other a joke, only to leave out the punchline in favor of an insult, it's priceless. Honk If You've Heard These Clients. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Most of the clients I've had are the owners of the company I'm building a website for. As business owners, you'd think they'd know a bit more about making rational business requests. Not so much. Sure, most clients are rational, but the ones that are not rational are really not rational. MBWebDesign.co.uk provides some examples of clients falling of the proverbial beam by making comments like "Black on white is boring. How about hot pink on lime green? And can we make the logo spin? And Ariel is boring, let’s use Comic Sans." Been there? If you like these, you'll love ClientCopia.com, where abused developers go to vent and commiserate. Pros and Icons GoSquared.com has once again proven itself a wonderful resource of useful - and usually free - graphics. This time they've got 165 web icons in Illustrator format ready for download, available in five different colors. The icons are the token forward, back, stop, shopping cart buttons you've seen many times, but the quality is pretty darn good. And most of all...they're done, and free, saving you time and money.
CMX Slideshow (Flash Extension) This extension for Flash MX 2004 loads external JPEG and SWF files to create a Flash slideshow. The CMX Slideshow component is very customizable and includes support for hyperlinks, captions, padding, resizing, transitions, controls, and much more. You can also access CMX Slideshow's methods, properties, and events using ActionScript. The support files demonstrate how to create your own custom controls, and how to load a list of images from an external XML file. Take a look at this extension by CMX Partner Paul Newman
Fun and Freebies! Even Bob Dylan Doesn't Observe This Holiday Did you know that May 24th is "International Talk Like Bob Dylan" day? Oh yeah. It is. If it wasn't, why would there would there be a website called TalkLikeBobDylan.com? Vegetarians Can Just Skip To The Next One... Even busy web developers need some rest, relaxation and food. We can't help with the rest and relaxation. But as far as the food goes, we can help you make the perfect burger by pointing you to this article at WashingtonPost.com. Save Money When Choosing a Money Application Quicken and Microsoft Money are two of the leading programs people consider when they're looking to budget their money and pay their bills. ZenHabits.net has a quickie article that gives you some freebie alternatives. The better news is that you'll have one less item to add to your outgoing money column.
A Simple Multi-language ColdFusion Content Management System - Part 1 There are various ways to create a data-driven multi-language site, but the method I will show in this article series uses an underused technique involving ColdFusion custom tags. Basically, the technique shown will turn any simple, well-formed HTML or XHTML page into a content management system with only one tag required on the page. This first part will show the principles behind the custom tag technique. The next part will show how to implement the multi-language aspect. The third part will create an administrative interface to administer the system. This free article by CMX Partner Tom Muck can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing On Page WYSIWYG Editing! Paul Davis Add this WYSIWYG editor and some JavaScript to your page and create a unique content management system that switches to edit content on your live web pages! Only supports Internet Explorer for Windows and Firefox for Windows and Macintosh. Spry Repeat List Chaz Chumley So far in our series on Spry (the Ajax Framework), we have taken a look at how to build a Spry XML Data Set and publish the results to a web page using Dreamweaver CS3. Although it is not required to have Dreamweaver CS3 to utilize the Spry Framework, it definitely makes it much easier. We will continue to look at another subset of the Spry toolbar when it comes to repeating XML data in a list. Spry Repeat List gives us an option to specify our Spry Data Set and output the contents we want repeated within an unordered list, an ordered list, a definition list or a select. The Spry XML Series: Spry XML Data Set Spry Region and Repeat Spry Repeat List Bridge CS3 Overview - Part 1 Jim Babbage With the launch of Adobe CS3, many former Macromedia users are now being exposed to a wider range of software applications. One of these applications is Adobe Bridge. I have written about Bridge in its CS2 incarnation and also recently put together an article that looked at the integration between Bridge CS3 and Fireworks CS3. To better demonstrate the usefulness of Bridge, I thought a video (or a series of videos) was in order. This video, the first in the series, gives an overview of the Bridge interface and talks specifically about customizing the workspace, and how to work with ratings, labels, keywords and filters. Approximate download size: 17MB The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series Part Seven Sheri German You may remember way back in the second part of this series that you explored two common methods for creating the look of two columns with CSS. First you used absolute positioning to create a left column that could never be longer than the content column or it would drape over a footer or any other content beneath it. Then you used a left float to create a side column that does have the potential to be longest. This latter method is what you used in the Shakespeare site, and in this seventh part of the series you'll get to make use of its flexibility. You'll create an editable region for secondary content pods, which when applied to pages that have a short amount of main content, will allow for a left column that can be longer without covering content beneath it. In this part of the series, you will learn to do the following: Modify the structure of the layout Add a div in code view using Code Hints Use nested divs with editable regions Use the code indenting feature Modify the style sheet in code view Use Fireworks/Dreamweaver roundtrip image editing Roughly balance the columns of the layout into thirds Use the Properties for panel for direct CSS editing Approximate download size: 1MB The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series: The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 1 The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 2 The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 3 The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 4 The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 5 The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 6 The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 7 XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 6 Rob Williams When it comes to web development there are often a lot of technologies that people are aware of but never really understand or come to use in their daily tasks. XML tends to be one such technology. Most developers have heard of it, and usually have a general idea of what it is, but on the same level most have also almost never used it or understood the purpose of it for their usual projects. In this series we're going to explore how we can use XML in a practical way to help us develop rather interesting and uniquely controlled/flexible web applications by combining it with AJAX. In the sixth part of this series we're going to put some last finishing touches on our basic window system and look at how to tie it into the XML documents and methods that we explored earlier. The XML and AJAX Series: XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 1 XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 2 XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 3 XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 4 XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 5 XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 6 Feed Tools in Dreamweaver 8 and CS3: RSS and XSL [FREE] Tom Muck Adding an RSS feed to a web page is a piece of cake with the XSL features of Dreamweaver 8 and CS3. This article will show the new features of XSL transformation using the freely available Community MX RSS feed, or any other of your choice. The tutorial will require PHP, ColdFusion, or another of the available server models in Dreamweaver, as the XSL functionality uses a server-side file to parse and transform the XML news feed. Working with the Camera Class - Part 7: Controlling Audio Quality Robert Reinhardt In this "Working with" series, you learn how to use the Camera class in Flash Player. The Camera class has been available in Flash Player since version 6, yet many Flash designers and developers don't know much about it. The Camera class gives you access to the user's webcam, to do everything from publishing a live video stream to detecting movement in the camera frame. In this tutorial, you learn how to control the audio quality and bandwidth usage of the Microphone class used with a live publisher stream. NOTE: In order to follow along with the tutorials in this series, you should have a webcam and microphone compatible with Flash Player 6 and higher. Just about any webcam and microphone works with the Flash Player. SPECIAL OFFER: The first twenty readers of this tutorial series to send me an e-mail via the feedback link on this tutorial will receive a free time-limited Flash Media Server account at Influxis. You can use this account to publish live video streams. Please allow one to three days for me to verify your subscriber (or pay per use) status with Community MX. (There are still accounts available as of May 20th, 2007!) The Working With the Camera Class Series: Working with the Camera Class - Part 1: Viewing Live Output Working with the Camera Class - Part 2: Detecting Motion Working with the Camera Class - Part 3: Publishing a Live Stream Working with the Camera Class - Part 4: Subscribing to a Live Stream Working with the Camera Class - Part 5: Adding Audio to a Live Stream Working with the Camera Class - Part 6: Controlling Image Quality and Bandwidth Usage Working with the Camera Class - Part 7: Controlling Audio Quality Making Acrobat Press-Quality PDFs from InDesign and Other Creative Suite Programs Bevi Chagnon This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to make press-quality PDFs from Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop (versions CS2 and CS3) with the correct job options for your particular type of document. When made correctly, a press-quality PDF will sail like a breeze through your print shop’s prepress section. The PDF has the correct color and resolution settings, your print shop is able to make their technical adjustments to it such as separations and trapping, and the finished printed product is just as you expected. Plus…it gets printed on time and within your budget without any problems. Sound like a graphic designer’s Utopia? Nah! Once you master Bevi Chagnon's 3-step method, making perfect PDFs is as easy as pie. Audience: Graphic designers, publishers, desktop publishers, ad designers, prepress technicians, publication production managers, and others who are involved in print media. This tutorial is especially helpful for those sending electronic files to a print shop for either offset-, web-, or digital-printing presses. (Note: I mean web printing presses, not the World Wide Web or Internet.) Topics covered in this tutorial: Acrobat presets: which one to use Press-quality vs. print-quality vs. PDF/X Customizing the job options Compatibility levels and how they affect your PDF Printer's marks and bleeds Compression and downsampling settings for photos and bitmapped images Color conversion settings Reviewing color breaks (separations) Embedding fonts Security settings The Adobe PDF Series: Acrobat PDF 101: What’s a PDF and What Do I Use to Make One? Acrobat PDF 102: PDF Ground Rules for Press, Print and Web Press-Quality PDFs: Making Acrobat PDFs from InDesign and Other Creative Suite Programs CMX JumpStart: Tahoe Zoe Gillenwater CMX JumpStart Vegas, created in the summer of 2005 by Stephanie Sullivan and Linda Rathgeber, has proven to be a very popular JumpStart. And with good reason: it's a clean, two column design that adapts well to a variety of subject matter, content types, and graphic identities. However, some CMX subscribers were interested in using it as a liquid or fluid design, meaning the layout's overall width would be determined by the width of the user's browser window, instead of a rigid pixel-based width assigned in the style sheet by the designer. Out of this idea the CMX JumpStart Tahoe was born. Tahoe, the place, shares many similarities with Vegas, the place: both located in Nevada, they are centers of entertainment known for their casinos, nightlife, and incredibly cheap buffets. But Tahoe has something Vegas doesn't: a whole bunch of water in the form of the beautiful Lake Tahoe. Thus, the tagline for the Tahoe JumpStart: "Like Vegas, only fluid." As do all our JumpStarts, Tahoe uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Both pages from Vegas, a home page and contact page, are included in Tahoe as well. They feature a two column, centered, fluid layout that is constrained to your desired range of widths by using a minimum and maximum width. The layout is constructed of floats and utilizes a faux column technique. We provide an extensively commented style sheet so you know what each rule does and how to change it to suit your design, as well as an uncommented version for deployment on your site with smaller file size. This JumpStart has been designed to teach you about the logistics of designing a fluid layout, as well as how to convert an existing fixed-width design into a fluid design. All of the files for Tahoe — the Fireworks PNG, XHTML pages, and style sheets — are simply modifications of those used in Vegas as an exercise to demonstrate how an entire site design can be radically transformed with very little modification to its XHTML structure. However, you need not be familiar with Vegas to use Tahoe. As with all our JumpStarts, each technique or component of Tahoe is fully explained in either this article or one of the 14 tutorials we've included in your download. Approximate download size: 10MB Introducing CMX JumpStart Tahoe [FREE] Sheri German If you've been around a while, you may remember the CMX JumpStart Vegas that was released in the summer of 2005 by Stephanie Sullivan and Linda Rathgeber. As one of our most popular JumpStarts, it inspired some CMX subscribers to request a fluid version of this fixed-width design. Zoe Gillenwater, one of our great CSS gurus, happily complied with our newest CMX JumpStart Tahoe, a JumpStart modification. Tahoe, like Vegas, is located in Nevada, and because it shares many of the same kinds of entertainment centers, seems like a fitting city for a permutation of the Vegas design. And Tahoe has one thing that Vegas doesn't - the beautiful Lake Tahoe that gives literal meaning to the tagline in the Tahoe JumpStart: "Like Vegas, only fluid." Tahoe uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Tahoe is a two column elastic layout, which means it expands in width based on the user's font size. This allows the overall proportions of the page to stay intact regardless of the visitor's window or font size. The design also features a subhead area, skip link, a styled list as a navigation menu, and floated images.
Extruding and Bevelling Fun in Illustrator Illustrator has some great effects that make it very easy to create complicated looking artwork. One such effect is Illustrator's Extrude & Bevel Effect. This effect not only produces very cool results, it is also a lot of fun to use. In this tutorial we will use the Extrude & Bevel effect to create two 3D graphics from simple paths. When using this effect many options such as lighting, shading, bevel, rotation and depth can be controlled to change the appearance of the 3D objects. Check out the Article by CMX Partner Kim Dudley
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats! This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Joseph Balderson, CMX Partner. Precise Coordinates for Ruler Guides in Flash Rather than positioning your ruler guides according to the ruler, which can lend itself to inaccuracy as you squint trying to hit that perfect pixel, use the Info panel to help. As you drag a guide from the Ruler, watch your cursor coordinates in the Info panel. Where you let go of the mouse is the precise vertical or horizontal position of the ruler. This ensures that your ruler guides are pixel perfectly positioned (say that fast five times!) 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. It's Closer Than You Think.

TODCon is an annual event known for its informal, personal feel and for the tremendous amount of information and camaraderie one can find there. If you've ever bought a book on an Adobe or Macromedia product, chances are you'll meet the author of the book at TODCon. Glance over the list of speakers and you'll likely see some familiar names from the Adobe community. There are a huge number of learning tracks available to attendees, and the personal way in which you interact with the instructors is unmatched at events such as this. People who attend TODCon usually come back year after year when they see how unique it really is, and it's great watching everyone evolve together.

You're invited to register for this fantastic, one of a kind event.

Introducing CMX JumpStart Tahoe: Like Vegas, Only Fluid

If you've been around a while, you may remember the CMX JumpStart Vegas that was released in the summer of 2005 by Stephanie Sullivan and Linda Rathgeber. As one of our most popular JumpStarts, it inspired some CMX subscribers to request a fluid version of this fixed-width design. Zoe Gillenwater, one of our great CSS gurus, happily complied by creating CMX JumpStart Tahoe, a JumpStart modification. Tahoe, like Vegas, is located in Nevada, and because it shares a similar ambience, seems like a fitting city for a permutation of the Vegas design. And Tahoe has one thing that Vegas doesn't - the beautiful Lake Tahoe that gives literal meaning to the tagline in the Tahoe JumpStart: "Like Vegas, only fluid."

Tahoe uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Tahoe is a two column elastic layout, which means it expands in width based on the user's font size. This allows the overall proportions of the page to stay intact regardless of the visitor's window or font size.

The package includes an extension for installing Tahoe into the New Document dialog box, 14 tutorials, a source PNG, main and Internet Explorer style sheets, a design time style sheet, and starter and form pages.

Tahoe is available for $29.99 to non-members, but is absolutely free to CMX subscribers. Read more about how to make it yours.

Introduction to the CMX JumpStart Tahoe article for nonmembers and members who would like to read more about its features and see a modified Tahoe design.
CMX JumpStart Tahoe article for members and for those who would like to purchase Tahoe now.

Adobe Helps You Create... a Security Breach

It's just been discovered that Adobe CS3 Version Cue can disable the firewall that is built into Mac OS X. Version Cue's installation disables your firewall during installation, but never re-enables it. It's not a difficult problem to fix though. If you have installed CS3's Version Cue application, just go into your system preferences and re-enable the firewall, and you're safe again. Read more at MacWorld.co.uk.

Adobe Illustrator: What's It Good For?

Users of Adobe Illustrator know it's the premiere tool for illustration. Heck, where do you think they came up with the name Illustrator? It's no coincidence. But the word "illustration" tends to make people think of cartoons or simple graphics. Illustrator is much more than that, and artists like Yukio Miyamoto prove it. Check out Miyamoto's artwork at KHulsey.com and you'll see what Illustrator is really capable of. This artwork is so realistic, that you can't distinguish most of it from the real thing. It's really incredible, and speaks volumes about Illustrator is capable of doing.

When I Was Thirteen, I Was Reading Comic Books. And I Learned Nothing From Them. And I Liked It.

When most folks think of a CEO, they think of a forty or fifty-year old that has climbed up the corporate ladder. Anshul Samar is an exception to that rule. He started his own company, Elementeo, which sells trading cards that represent the elements. Kids do battle with the cards, and when doing so, they learn what reaction and relationship each element has with one another. Samar understands that learning things like the table of elements can be hugely boring, but he also knows that trading cards are wildly popular. We wish him well. In this video posted at VentureBeat.com, Anshul explains his company, and how the cards work.

Satisfied Customers Speak Out!

"Bravo! I opened Bridge and thought it looked cool, but had no idea how to apply it (and no time to figure it out). Thanks for making the videos. That explained your usage well and gave me some ideas how I could use it right away."

- Theresa W., CMX Subscriber, commenting on Jim Babbage's video article, Bridge CS3 Overview - Part 1

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:

"The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness." - John Keats

Adobe Abandons Flash On The Exchange

The Macromedia Exchange was the place to go to find extensions for Dreamweaver, Flash and other Macromedia products, most of which were meant to speed up your production time. It was a simple thing to navigate, and easy to find what you were looking for. A few years back, Macromedia switched the Exchange over to Flash format, and people were up in arms because the loading and navigation time became nearly unbearable. After Adobe took over, the Exchange stayed as it was for a while, but if you look at it now it's back to a plain ol' HTML format. While we truly believe in rich internet applications, we also believe that Flash is simply not meant for some things... like the Exchange. Check out the new look and functionality at Adobe.com.

Just Didn't Wake Up Inspired, Eh?

I don't know about you, but the toughest part of web development for me has always been getting started on a project. If it was just a case of dropping in some ColdFusion code or setting up a database it wouldn't be so bad. But the design part of "web design" can drive me buggy. Sometimes the brain just doesn't provide you with what you need to get a project started. What to do? You can start by visiting any of the websites listed here at FreelanceSwitch.com, all of which are meant to inspire you one way or another.

Oh Baby, Wanna Come To My Place And See My Data?

Chatbots are essentially programs that are designed to interact with humans, and they respond to questions through a series of algorithms that take a "best guess" of the question's intentions. The results of "talking" to a chatbot can be unpredictable and sometimes pretty funny. But this article at DiscoverMagazine.com is the first instance I've seen of two chatbots "talking" to one another. When one tells the other a joke, only to leave out the punchline in favor of an insult, it's priceless.

Honk If You've Heard These

Clients. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Most of the clients I've had are the owners of the company I'm building a website for. As business owners, you'd think they'd know a bit more about making rational business requests. Not so much. Sure, most clients are rational, but the ones that are not rational are really not rational. MBWebDesign.co.uk provides some examples of clients falling of the proverbial beam by making comments like "Black on white is boring. How about hot pink on lime green? And can we make the logo spin? And Ariel is boring, let’s use Comic Sans." Been there? If you like these, you'll love ClientCopia.com, where abused developers go to vent and commiserate.

Pros and Icons

GoSquared.com has once again proven itself a wonderful resource of useful - and usually free - graphics. This time they've got 165 web icons in Illustrator format ready for download, available in five different colors. The icons are the token forward, back, stop, shopping cart buttons you've seen many times, but the quality is pretty darn good. And most of all...they're done, and free, saving you time and money.

CMX Slideshow (Flash Extension)

This extension for Flash MX 2004 loads external JPEG and SWF files to create a Flash slideshow. The CMX Slideshow component is very customizable and includes support for hyperlinks, captions, padding, resizing, transitions, controls, and much more. You can also access CMX Slideshow's methods, properties, and events using ActionScript. The support files demonstrate how to create your own custom controls, and how to load a list of images from an external XML file.

Take a look at this extension by CMX Partner Paul Newman

Fun and Freebies!

Even Bob Dylan Doesn't Observe This Holiday

Did you know that May 24th is "International Talk Like Bob Dylan" day? Oh yeah. It is. If it wasn't, why would there would there be a website called TalkLikeBobDylan.com?

Vegetarians Can Just Skip To The Next One...

Even busy web developers need some rest, relaxation and food. We can't help with the rest and relaxation. But as far as the food goes, we can help you make the perfect burger by pointing you to this article at WashingtonPost.com.

Save Money When Choosing a Money Application

Quicken and Microsoft Money are two of the leading programs people consider when they're looking to budget their money and pay their bills. ZenHabits.net has a quickie article that gives you some freebie alternatives. The better news is that you'll have one less item to add to your outgoing money column.

A Simple Multi-language ColdFusion Content Management System - Part 1

There are various ways to create a data-driven multi-language site, but the method I will show in this article series uses an underused technique involving ColdFusion custom tags. Basically, the technique shown will turn any simple, well-formed HTML or XHTML page into a content management system with only one tag required on the page. This first part will show the principles behind the custom tag technique. The next part will show how to implement the multi-language aspect. The third part will create an administrative interface to administer the system.

This free article by CMX Partner Tom Muck can be found here.

Weekly Content Listing

On Page WYSIWYG Editing!

Paul Davis

Add this WYSIWYG editor and some JavaScript to your page and create a unique content management system that switches to edit content on your live web pages!

Only supports Internet Explorer for Windows and Firefox for Windows and Macintosh.

Spry Repeat List

Chaz Chumley

So far in our series on Spry (the Ajax Framework), we have taken a look at how to build a Spry XML Data Set and publish the results to a web page using Dreamweaver CS3. Although it is not required to have Dreamweaver CS3 to utilize the Spry Framework, it definitely makes it much easier.

We will continue to look at another subset of the Spry toolbar when it comes to repeating XML data in a list. Spry Repeat List gives us an option to specify our Spry Data Set and output the contents we want repeated within an unordered list, an ordered list, a definition list or a select.

The Spry XML Series:
Spry XML Data Set
Spry Region and Repeat
Spry Repeat List

Bridge CS3 Overview - Part 1

Jim Babbage

With the launch of Adobe CS3, many former Macromedia users are now being exposed to a wider range of software applications. One of these applications is Adobe Bridge. I have written about Bridge in its CS2 incarnation and also recently put together an article that looked at the integration between Bridge CS3 and Fireworks CS3.

To better demonstrate the usefulness of Bridge, I thought a video (or a series of videos) was in order. This video, the first in the series, gives an overview of the Bridge interface and talks specifically about customizing the workspace, and how to work with ratings, labels, keywords and filters.

Approximate download size: 17MB

The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series Part Seven

Sheri German

You may remember way back in the second part of this series that you explored two common methods for creating the look of two columns with CSS. First you used absolute positioning to create a left column that could never be longer than the content column or it would drape over a footer or any other content beneath it. Then you used a left float to create a side column that does have the potential to be longest. This latter method is what you used in the Shakespeare site, and in this seventh part of the series you'll get to make use of its flexibility. You'll create an editable region for secondary content pods, which when applied to pages that have a short amount of main content, will allow for a left column that can be longer without covering content beneath it.

In this part of the series, you will learn to do the following:

Modify the structure of the layout
Add a div in code view using Code Hints
Use nested divs with editable regions
Use the code indenting feature
Modify the style sheet in code view
Use Fireworks/Dreamweaver roundtrip image editing
Roughly balance the columns of the layout into thirds
Use the Properties for panel for direct CSS editing

Approximate download size: 1MB

The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series:
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 1
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 2
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 3
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 4
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 5
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 6
The Dreamweaver Web Standards Lesson Plan Series - Part 7

XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 6

Rob Williams

When it comes to web development there are often a lot of technologies that people are aware of but never really understand or come to use in their daily tasks. XML tends to be one such technology. Most developers have heard of it, and usually have a general idea of what it is, but on the same level most have also almost never used it or understood the purpose of it for their usual projects.

In this series we're going to explore how we can use XML in a practical way to help us develop rather interesting and uniquely controlled/flexible web applications by combining it with AJAX.

In the sixth part of this series we're going to put some last finishing touches on our basic window system and look at how to tie it into the XML documents and methods that we explored earlier.

The XML and AJAX Series:
XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 1
XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 2
XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 3
XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 4
XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 5
XML and AJAX: A New Paradigm - Part 6

Feed Tools in Dreamweaver 8 and CS3: RSS and XSL [FREE]

Tom Muck

Adding an RSS feed to a web page is a piece of cake with the XSL features of Dreamweaver 8 and CS3. This article will show the new features of XSL transformation using the freely available Community MX RSS feed, or any other of your choice. The tutorial will require PHP, ColdFusion, or another of the available server models in Dreamweaver, as the XSL functionality uses a server-side file to parse and transform the XML news feed.

Working with the Camera Class - Part 7: Controlling Audio Quality

Robert Reinhardt

In this "Working with" series, you learn how to use the Camera class in Flash Player. The Camera class has been available in Flash Player since version 6, yet many Flash designers and developers don't know much about it. The Camera class gives you access to the user's webcam, to do everything from publishing a live video stream to detecting movement in the camera frame. In this tutorial, you learn how to control the audio quality and bandwidth usage of the Microphone class used with a live publisher stream.

NOTE: In order to follow along with the tutorials in this series, you should have a webcam and microphone compatible with Flash Player 6 and higher. Just about any webcam and microphone works with the Flash Player.

SPECIAL OFFER: The first twenty readers of this tutorial series to send me an e-mail via the feedback link on this tutorial will receive a free time-limited Flash Media Server account at Influxis. You can use this account to publish live video streams. Please allow one to three days for me to verify your subscriber (or pay per use) status with Community MX. (There are still accounts available as of May 20th, 2007!)

The Working With the Camera Class Series:
Working with the Camera Class - Part 1: Viewing Live Output
Working with the Camera Class - Part 2: Detecting Motion
Working with the Camera Class - Part 3: Publishing a Live Stream
Working with the Camera Class - Part 4: Subscribing to a Live Stream
Working with the Camera Class - Part 5: Adding Audio to a Live Stream
Working with the Camera Class - Part 6: Controlling Image Quality and Bandwidth Usage
Working with the Camera Class - Part 7: Controlling Audio Quality

Making Acrobat Press-Quality PDFs from InDesign and Other Creative Suite Programs

Bevi Chagnon

This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to make press-quality PDFs from Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop (versions CS2 and CS3) with the correct job options for your particular type of document.

When made correctly, a press-quality PDF will sail like a breeze through your print shop’s prepress section. The PDF has the correct color and resolution settings, your print shop is able to make their technical adjustments to it such as separations and trapping, and the finished printed product is just as you expected. Plus…it gets printed on time and within your budget without any problems.

Sound like a graphic designer’s Utopia?

Nah! Once you master Bevi Chagnon's 3-step method, making perfect PDFs is as easy as pie.

Audience: Graphic designers, publishers, desktop publishers, ad designers, prepress technicians, publication production managers, and others who are involved in print media. This tutorial is especially helpful for those sending electronic files to a print shop for either offset-, web-, or digital-printing presses. (Note: I mean web printing presses, not the World Wide Web or Internet.)

Topics covered in this tutorial:

Acrobat presets: which one to use
Press-quality vs. print-quality vs. PDF/X
Customizing the job options
Compatibility levels and how they affect your PDF
Printer's marks and bleeds
Compression and downsampling settings for photos and bitmapped images
Color conversion settings
Reviewing color breaks (separations)
Embedding fonts
Security settings

The Adobe PDF Series:

Acrobat PDF 101: What’s a PDF and What Do I Use to Make One?
Acrobat PDF 102: PDF Ground Rules for Press, Print and Web
Press-Quality PDFs: Making Acrobat PDFs from InDesign and Other Creative Suite Programs

CMX JumpStart: Tahoe

Zoe Gillenwater

CMX JumpStart Vegas, created in the summer of 2005 by Stephanie Sullivan and Linda Rathgeber, has proven to be a very popular JumpStart. And with good reason: it's a clean, two column design that adapts well to a variety of subject matter, content types, and graphic identities. However, some CMX subscribers were interested in using it as a liquid or fluid design, meaning the layout's overall width would be determined by the width of the user's browser window, instead of a rigid pixel-based width assigned in the style sheet by the designer.

Out of this idea the CMX JumpStart Tahoe was born. Tahoe, the place, shares many similarities with Vegas, the place: both located in Nevada, they are centers of entertainment known for their casinos, nightlife, and incredibly cheap buffets. But Tahoe has something Vegas doesn't: a whole bunch of water in the form of the beautiful Lake Tahoe. Thus, the tagline for the Tahoe JumpStart: "Like Vegas, only fluid."

As do all our JumpStarts, Tahoe uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Both pages from Vegas, a home page and contact page, are included in Tahoe as well. They feature a two column, centered, fluid layout that is constrained to your desired range of widths by using a minimum and maximum width. The layout is constructed of floats and utilizes a faux column technique. We provide an extensively commented style sheet so you know what each rule does and how to change it to suit your design, as well as an uncommented version for deployment on your site with smaller file size.

This JumpStart has been designed to teach you about the logistics of designing a fluid layout, as well as how to convert an existing fixed-width design into a fluid design. All of the files for Tahoe — the Fireworks PNG, XHTML pages, and style sheets — are simply modifications of those used in Vegas as an exercise to demonstrate how an entire site design can be radically transformed with very little modification to its XHTML structure. However, you need not be familiar with Vegas to use Tahoe. As with all our JumpStarts, each technique or component of Tahoe is fully explained in either this article or one of the 14 tutorials we've included in your download.

Approximate download size: 10MB

Introducing CMX JumpStart Tahoe [FREE]

Sheri German

If you've been around a while, you may remember the CMX JumpStart Vegas that was released in the summer of 2005 by Stephanie Sullivan and Linda Rathgeber. As one of our most popular JumpStarts, it inspired some CMX subscribers to request a fluid version of this fixed-width design. Zoe Gillenwater, one of our great CSS gurus, happily complied with our newest CMX JumpStart Tahoe, a JumpStart modification. Tahoe, like Vegas, is located in Nevada, and because it shares many of the same kinds of entertainment centers, seems like a fitting city for a permutation of the Vegas design. And Tahoe has one thing that Vegas doesn't - the beautiful Lake Tahoe that gives literal meaning to the tagline in the Tahoe JumpStart: "Like Vegas, only fluid."

Extruding and Bevelling Fun in Illustrator

Illustrator has some great effects that make it very easy to create complicated looking artwork. One such effect is Illustrator's Extrude & Bevel Effect. This effect not only produces very cool results, it is also a lot of fun to use. In this tutorial we will use the Extrude & Bevel effect to create two 3D graphics from simple paths. When using this effect many options such as lighting, shading, bevel, rotation and depth can be controlled to change the appearance of the 3D objects.

Check out the Article by CMX Partner Kim Dudley

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Joseph Balderson, CMX Partner.

Precise Coordinates for Ruler Guides in Flash

Rather than positioning your ruler guides according to the ruler, which can lend itself to inaccuracy as you squint trying to hit that perfect pixel, use the Info panel to help. As you drag a guide from the Ruler, watch your cursor coordinates in the Info panel. Where you let go of the mouse is the precise vertical or horizontal position of the ruler. This ensures that your ruler guides are pixel perfectly positioned (say that fast five times!)

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!