Digital Workshop

Hi,

I am in the process of building a web site for a friend and would appreciate some input.

The site can be found here.

A couple of things about Flex:

Despite all I do I cannot get rid of the annoying "white flash" as each Flex screen opens. I have tried changing the BG colour, having no BG colour, changing the border all to no avail. Any ideas anyone?

I have a "Contact" page, again a Flex. It uses the Post Web Data action (I'm chuffed with, first time I used it and it works well). However, the message area is set to accept any characters, multi line. Try typing and see what happens - words jump to the line below until the space bar is pressed - very strange. Again, any ideas?

Finally, does anyone else have issues with Flex publications (i.e. creating them in Opus) on certain machines? The introductory page will open, run in preview and compile perfectly well on my laptop but causes mayhem on my PC (PC crashes or the file doesn't open or compile) - I have a feeling it is something to do with the graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 5700LE) or perhaps Directx. Thoughts

Cheers

David

Hi David
Not a bad website at all. Should look great when you finish it.
I see what you mean about the 'white flash'. I really don't have any flex experience but I don't think it looks too bad.
Also you'll be pleased to know your publication is stable on my notebook. No crashing issues whatsoever.
Keep up the good work David! And happy sailing!!
Cheers
Graham
PS. Have sent you a test message using your web form.

Hi Graham,

Thanks for the reply and kind words - yes it is a work in progress.

I probably didn't make myself clear in the first posting. Once compiled, I have found no issues with Flex on any machine - it just runs as a flash file. I have issues when using Opus (Pro05XE) to create Flex publications, particularly when using flash files (created in Presto) as part of the Flex file. The PC just goes bonkers, but no issues on my laptop creating the same Flex pub. and using the same techniques

Love anything to do with boats so I may be biased.

I especially liked the photo gallery - is this all done in Opus?

The 'flash' is not overtly a problem, most people would not notice it anyway.

You may have noticed that the fades on the first page are not very smooth as compared to other Flash programs. DW need to perhaps work on this.

Wind in your sails

Clive Cartmel

There is a solution for the flash. I think I posted it in the old forum and it is not searching back far enough. I think it had something to do with backgrounds. I think you have to leave off using a background somewhere. I think it is leaving off a chapter background, or a publication backgrond, only use a page background. I know it could be done.

This is purely a function of the frame rate - a higher frame rate will result in smoother fades.

Whilst I would love to take credit for the photo gallery - this is actually one of the applications provided by the hosting company. However, I am sure that something very similar could be produced in Opus.

As Duncan has pointed out - I reduced the frame rate of the opening sequence to 14fps from the default of 20fps.

Cheers

David

Hi,

Thanks for this, I will give that a go.

David