Wednesday, December 31, 2003
CMX Weekly Newsletter
Happy New Year from the partners at CMX. We're looking forward to giving you more in 2004!
Check the News!
Take A Shortcut!
Moving that mouse around in Dreamweaver can be exhausting. Did you realize there are keyboard shortcuts to do almost anything? View this Macromedia support document to download the Macintosh or Window PDF reference.
If you'd like to use keyboard shortcuts in Flash that mirror another program, view Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts and teach Flash new tricks.
Lessons From WAP Hackers
AlwaysOn has an interesting story about a wireless hacker — who eventually helps to secure a wireless network. Check out his tips ...
Lights, Camera, ActionScript!
The makers of PrimalScript 3.1 claim that it's the "best Flash ActionScript 2.0 development environment on the planet." We were skeptical, but after installing the beta and running it through its paces for a couple days, we're convinced. Watch for an upcoming CMX article on using PrimalScript. In the meantime, if you want to try it out, hurry up and (direct) download the beta before it expires on January 15th, 2004.
Regular Expressions
Now available - the first Regular Expression Library on the Internet with over 450 expressions indexed from around the world. Great for Flash and Central development.
Year-End Internet Wrap-Up
Internet fraud complaints rose 60% this year, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center in Fairmont, West Virginia. Black-marketed lists of computers infected with the SoBig worm, Phishing and stolen credit card numbers were among the biggest troublemakers. Even though complaints are on the rise, the Merchant Risk Council claims that more fraud is being stymied than ever before, especially in larger companies that put more emphasis on fraud prevention technology. Read more...
Wars, File Swapping, Britney and Paris
Several of the more popular search engines give a year-end report summing up their top searches for the year:
The Debate Continues: Liquid vs. Fixed Site Layouts
Still trying to decide where you stand on the liquid to fixed continuum? Here are a couple arguments for the fixed side of things from recent discussions:
- Death of Liquid Layouts? - Whitespace
- If Filmmakers Were Web Designers II - Jeffrey Zeldman
Social Networking, XFN Style
Developed by Matt Mullenweg, Eric Myer and Tantek Celic, XHTML Friends Network (XFN) is a new, simple way of representing human relationships using hyperlinks. Mainly designed for blogging, XFN makes use of the rel attribute of your href tags.Read more...
Flash Gets a History Lesson
Macromedia technical evangelist, Christophe Coenraets, reports that Macromedia Flex (formerly Royale), solves a long-standing problem with Flash applications: the browser's navigation buttons. Flex introduces a HistoryManager that maintains application state and enables users to navigate through a Flex application using the browser forward and back buttons. For more information, see "Flex History Management: Using the Browser's Navigation Buttons in a Flex Application."
Fun and Freebies!
New Year's Resolutions Causing You to Change Your Tune?
With the new year upon us, many are looking to change their tune. Some are going for a change in lifestyle, others are just signing up for iTunes. However, if you're looking for a truly unique tune, then check out the Musical Instruments Gallery at OddMusic.com. There you'll find a collection of interesting and strange instruments, many with sound clips, including a LEGO harpsichord and a Stalacpipe Organ. For those looking to march to the beat of a different drummer, check out the Boobam drums, which look quite familiar if you've ever seen a Blue Man Group show.
The Glamorous Island Life
It's that time of year. Cold, blustery, dreary.... We work in the technology industry. If we have internet access, we can work anywhere, right? How about an island — maybe the South Pacific. Read about one family's real-world account of just that.
Wondering What to Do with Your Holiday Money?
So you got some gifts for Chanukkah/Christmas that weren't perfect... You returned them and now you've got wads of cash. Here are a couple great ways to spend it:
Fujifilm DBP for GX680 medium format digital camera - 20 megapixels! Word is, it likely won't be available in the U.S. any time soon, but if you've got 2,380,000 YEN lying around, you can try to get one from Japan at the end of January.
How about a decommissioned aircraft carrier? Ebay has one listed with just over 4 days left to bid. The current bid is only $8,000,001, so don't delay!
Weekly Content Listing
Fun with Wingdings and Webdings [FREE]
Many people have a difficult time trying to generate icons and other common shapes and spend a great deal of time and energy searching for free clip art that contains the images they need—without ever realizing that they already have access to an entire library of icons right on their computers.
Common Coding Problems with HTML and CSS - Part Two
Last time, the 'gotchas' were general web coding problems but now we turn to some headaches directly related to CSS and positioning. Don't be scared! These beasties are pushovers if you know their weaknesses. Ready to kick some bug backside? Let's roll!
Color Correction: Part 3
This is the third installment in this series. It reviews adjusting brightness and Contrast and applying Unsharp masking to an image. The article ends with an in depth explanation of the more important concepts reviewed in this series.
Renaming Uploaded Files with ASP.NET
How to rename uploaded files in ASP.NET using the HtmlInputFile server control.
Using the Log In Server Behavior [FREE]
In this tutorial we will be learning about the standard Log In Server Behavior that ships with Dreamweaver. We will be looking at this Server Behavior in it's basic form, in a language independent way. This tutorial is aimed at beginners who are new to Server side development and looking to to be able to show unique content on a user group by user group basis.
Using the Stored Procedure Server Behavior on ASP.NET Pages
It's well known that using stored procedures is better practice over using embedded SELECT statements in your code. Dreamweaver has a built-in server behavior called Stored Procedure that makes this process much easier on ASP.NET pages. Read on to learn how.
Handling Email Blasts with ColdFusion: Part 1
ColdFusion has built-in functionality that makes it easy to create an email blast for a newsletter, order confirmation, or other type of dynamic email generation. The article describes the many aspects of dynamic emails, including admin mail settings, bounced emails, different types of data used in emails, looping within emails, and other things you'll need to know when sending a dynamic email.
Setting Up A Testing Server For The PHP Server Model
Once you have created your site in Dreamweaver MX 2004, you have the option of testing it locally for any bugs, errors or to make changes to the way your pages display in the browser. This is usually done before the site is uploaded to the server. However, in order to test your site locally before uploading, you need to set up a testing server. This article will show you in detail how to setup a testing server in Dreamweaver MX 2004 for the PHP server model.
The 12 Geeks of Christmas [FREE]
CMX obtained a beta copy of Santa's list, and it turns out a lot of geeks were very good this year (you know who you are). Merry Christmas to you and yours from the folks at Community MX.
Creating a Christmas Tree with Fireworks [FREE]
"On the first day of Christmas . . ." Well, I don't know about you, but before the first day of Christmas, I want my tree up! In case you're short on space in your home, I've come up with a quick and easy Christmas tree that you can build and set up right inside Fireworks. No need to water it, and it comes down in a snap!
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!
This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is brought to you by CMX Partner Laurie Casolino.
See Your Fonts in Fireworks
So you'd like to see your fonts in Fireworks so you can choose the perfect one? Fireworks contains an editor that will show you just that!
- Drop a text box on your canvas and type your text.
- Right-click and choose Editor (or select to Text > Editor).
- When the Text Editor dialog box appears highlight your text, click in the font dropdown so that both your text and the font are now highlighted. Make sure the editor window is positioned so you can see the text on your canvas.
- Use the arrow buttons on your keyboard to scroll through the list of fonts. As they change, the text on your canvas will change at the same time.
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!
Don't Miss TODCON
- Make this your New Year's Resolution: TODCON for 2004! This year there will be three tracks: Tools, Media and Servers. View the Session Schedule for more information.
You can still sign up at a reduced rate along with the convenient payment plan!
Learn More...
Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic
- Be sure to grab the newest book from New Riders' Magic series. Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic contains 12 enriching Dreamweaver projects and includes contributions from four CMX authors:
Kim Cavanaugh
Danilo Celic
Joel Martinez
Stephanie Sullivan
Learn more...
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