By Wayne Cunningham (1/5/99)

Macromedia's Flash has just about become a standard for multimedia animation on the Web. Most browsers now come with the Flash plug-in preloaded, so unlike other plug-in technologies, you won't have to worry too much about whether your audience will be able to view your creations.

But why use animation at all? Studies on Internet advertising have found that people click animated banner ads more than twice as often as they click static ads. Movement catches the eye--it's more exciting than an image that sits still, and much more exciting than just a word sitting on a page.

Flash 3.0 is a very sophisticated animation authoring tool, and the movies it produces are amazingly small in file size. But there are some quirks in Flash that you'll have to get used to, and Flash terminology also requires some adjustment. These 14 tips will help you use Flash more productively and avoid or work around certain problems. You will also find explanations of aspects of Flash not covered in the documentation. To get the most out of these tips, you will need a Flash-capable browser to view the demo files.

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