The new flash framework for the site is up and running. The complete reworking includes an updated flash page for the main index, new gallery pages, a project page, and this blog site for news and other information. The main enhancement is in the background, and makes for much easier updates and maintenance from a site manager standpoint. All information—including links, text, thumbnails and images—are stored in external XML files. This makes it easy to upload new content without having to edit a flash file every time. Content is then loaded dynamically, making the flash movies smaller as well.

The main index page is for the most part the same, however it has a few enhancements, including dynamically-loading information windows which are also featured in the rest of the site.

The new gallery template is a basic flash page which loads all the information to display from external XML files.

Much of the content has yet to be loaded, however, with the framework up and running site promotion can begin. As any visual artist will tell you, they never finish a project, they are simply forced to stop working on it. In this case, the site will max out at about 80-percent complete, and will be in a constant state of reworking, tweaking, and updating.

The swap image routine has become ubiquitous over the web, thanks to the built-in behaviors available in Dreamweaver for swapping images on rollover. Sometimes, however, it’s desirable to swap out a line of text instead of an image. Not only is the loading time much faster for text than for images, text can be highlighted and copied, making it useful for providing tips and other information.

All this can be accomplished on a website with some very simple lines of code:

Then in your page, make sure to place the following in the region where you’d like to have your text appear:

The following code is an example of how to attach the swap text behavior to an image:

The <div> tags simply define the area to write over, and can be replaced with whatever text you like. This is especially useful for displaying navigation hints or reference information, and will not increase loading time by any appreciable amount, especially as compared to loading image files. It’s best to define a set size for the div, so it won’t cause problems with your page layout. If you’re using an external style sheet, this isn’t a big deal.