A Flash Image In My PageBuilder ScrapBook

This is a Flash image from SLAN, aka SPACEBEAGLE@webtv.net, who posted it in Beth Candy's PageBuilder Public Club NG, on Tue. Feb. 6, 2001. SLAN used an online imager to rename the image from ".swf" to ".gif", then uploaded it to his PageBuilder ScrapBook and published it on a PageBuilder webpage. But, this is little more than an animated gif, because the image does not contain background sound or synchronized sound which is the purpose of using Flash images! This same image could have been made as a simple animated gif image!

A True Flash Image in My Scrapbook

This "true" Flash image was posted in the news:alt.pagebuilder.help NG by OptiMod@webtv.net on Thur, Jul 12, 2001.

OptiMod was the first to post a "true" converted flash file, containing a sound track synchronized with the flash image, uploaded to a WebTV PageBuilder scrapbook. SLAN's flash image above did not include a sound file – it was basically, and could have been replaced by, an animated .gif file.

Why use a Flash image (.swf file) if you aren't going to add both background and synchronized sound to the image – that's the purpose of the Flash image editor.

Good work, OptiMod, there's great possibilities here and PageBuilders will have to experiment with Flash images in our scrapbooks and webpages. Flash files use vector graphics and are much smaller than .gif and .jpg, even with sound; and eat up smaller chunks of our PageBuilder memory per image.

Many of our expert PageBuilders have computers with the very expensive Macromedia Flash and Shockwave software installed! Look for PageBuilders to have many great flash images available for our scrapbooks in the future. Some of our fellow PageBuilders are making Flash images for all who ask!

WebTV JS Bug Flash Alerts by ~little Guy ~ These following flash bug alerts were made by one of our resident PageBuilder experts, ~Little Guy~, aka lil_lad@webtv.net, for all his PageBuilder friends to use (I had to steal 'em, hmmm ... ?).Thanks ~Little Guy~, nice work! I'm sure you are really enjoying your investment in the Flash software - it's really fun to create flash images! But, my dear friend, you have neglected one of the primary advantasges, other than vector graphics and small files that load fast, of using flash images: the ability to add terrific synchronized sound effects to images! My friend you wasted a good flash image – without a flashy synchronized sound beat, you just have basically an animated image, albeit a much smaller file size than a regular animated .gif! Put some sound in those flash bug alerts, Guy! Hey, you got a mike input on your sound card – say something alerting and funky, or capture a good sound beat from a CD to synchronize with the flash image! If you want to hear a flash image with sound, scroll up and check out OptiMod's flash image. OptiMod added a very effective synchrnized sound effect that really enhances the flash image effect. SpaceBeagle was the first to show us how to store a flash image in our PB scrapbooks! I have Space Beagle's original flash image published above OptiMod's image; unfortunately, it was also published without sound! Also, my friend; I suggest you start using MSN-TV in your bug flash images! We are now part of the Microsoft Network Inc. and damned proud of it; right, Folks? (Wheeuuw ... I'm glad I can't hear the comments of viewers here!) Add any of these images to your webpages. Just put the HTML link code format shown below at the top of your PageBuilder documents. Use the bug alerts on each page of a mulipage document. Use the following HTML syntax as an example for your WTV JS bug warning flash images: <noframes> <embed src=" http://www.wtv-zone.com/lillad/flash/bug4.swf" width="400" height="300"> </noframes> Add the code to the PageBuilder image editing title or comments boxes, as desired. If you store the images in your PB scrapbooks, as suggested here, you must publish the images on a PB images webpage so you can link to the images inside the noframes tags as shown above! The published images you see here, are for linking the images to my other PB webpages where desired. Grab the images here for your scrapbooks if you want 'em; it'll save you the trouble of converting them! I suggest that all PageBuilders upload their desired images to their PageBuilder scrapbooks and publish on an image page for linking to PB webpages – the images usually load faster because our PB scrapbooks and webpages are on the same webservers – except during the "high-traffic" evening hours! To upload these images to my scrapbook, I just used both my File Manager at Geocities to change the file name extension from ".swf" to ".gif" so I could upload, store, and link to the images in my PB scrapbook. As an example; at Geocities, I downloaded the red flash image and changed the file name from "bug4.swf" to "wtvjsbug.gif", so I could upload and store the flash file in my PB scrapbook. You can change only the file extension, or rename the image as I show here. The PageBuilder image handling software recognizes and accepts the flash image as a ".gif" file when the file extension is changed from ".swf" to ".gif", even when the flash contains sound – how, I don't have a clue; because the "gif" image file is a compressed "bit-mapped" while the ".swf" file is a small vector graphics file – it's amazing to me? I uploaded the newly named ".gif" image to my PB scrapbook, using my regular PB Scrapbook Uploader, and published it on this "SWF" webpage that I use for web image storage and linking. And, here's something else that's puzzling: even though the flash file has a ".gif" file extension, our "Info" panels show the Macromedia (Flash) logo in the lower right corner of the info panel, when viewing this webpage? To use my Geocities account, I used my favorite "transloader" to transload the flash images to my Geocities File Manager image file; and then changed the file extensions from ".swf" to ".gif", so I could upload the images to my scrapbook using the WebScissors Uploader. Note: do not try to change the file extensions to "gif" and transload at the same time with transloaders - you'll get an error! Transload the flash images to your Geocities File Manager and THEN change the file extensions there! Even rename the file if you like, as I show above. For you PageBuilders who don't yet have webhosts with Advanced Editors to edit the flash file names, I suggest you go to an online image tool that will handle Flash files, load the flash image you like, and change it's file extension to ".gif"; then, get the URL of the temporary file and upload it to your PB scrapbook using the WebScissors Scrapbook Uploader. Incidently, you cannot view Flash images with Webscissors, because they are ".swf" files; but, after you transload the images to your remote webpage File Manager, you can change the image file extension from ".swf" to ".gif"; and then you can use Webscissors to view and upload the images to your PageBuilder scrapbook! Sorry, folks; you cannot use Image Magick to change your flash images in this manner – the Net4TV Image Magick Studio does not support the flash (".swf") file format at the present time! If you want the images I have above, go to www.WebScissors.com and enter: http://community-2.webtv.net/jaxred/swf/ and the images on this webpage will appear shortly. Click the image you want, and then click "OK" in the alert panel to view andverify that the image was saved in your scrapbook. Then publish the image on a PB webpage, and get the URL so you can link to the image for your other webpages. Or go to this image page, THEN go to www.WebScissors.com and click on "Show Last URL", and click on the images you want to add to your PageBuilder scrapbook. Note for PC users: PC's will not display a flash image with the file (type) extension changed from ".swf" to ".gif" - sorry! PC's will display a small square with an "x" inside. Right-click the "x" and click "Show picture" and nothing happens. Right-click the "x" and select "Properties" and you get the properties panel with "Type: Not Available" – so PC's don't know what format to display the image in! Click on the image links and you get a white screen with an "X' in a small square; then click on the "x" and you get a "white" screen with another small square with an "x" inside. Contrary to what the naysayers say; converted flash images will not harm PC's, they just will not be displayed! Webbers can continue to use converted flash images in their webpages and email signature boxes – the fact that PC's can't see the images, is just tough, don't worry about it. But, be aware of the possiblity that the next MSN-TV upgrade will "tighten-up" our image display programming and we may not be able to see our converted flash images; ie: our browsers will not recognize the flash image file with the ".gif" extension like computers do now, unless we stay with a lower level upgrade in our browsers. I do suggest this remedy for at least telling PC users what's going on. Whenever you use an <img> tag to embed a converted flash image in your webpage or signature box, use the: alt="You cannot see my conveted flash image here" attribute in your image tag to display that message instead of the small "x-box"!