The proper use of Flash has been a hotly debated topic between rich media evangelists and usability

experts. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen threw down the gauntlet with an article titled, "Flash: 99 Bad." Since then Macromedia has added resources relating to usability and accessibility. Flash evangelists maintain that bad designers should be blamed for excesses, not the technology. Flash can be used to create entire "Flash sites" or to add interactive elements to standard HTML sites. Some Flash-only sites are accompanied by non-Flash sites in an effort to cater to a wider audience. Flash technology can also be used in interactive banner & button advertisements. The use of large-format rich media ads at CNET has attracted much attention, plus a little controversy, and may signal a trend towards large, rich ads by publishers looking to add premium CPM placements

Flash MX 2004 presents with the most handy and intuitive environment or working interface. It makes easier to assuming Flash ,and speed its management and control. Before ,we begin to create animations in flash, we need to become familiar with the document window that shows the following elements :Timeline ,stage, information bar, tool bar and panels.

Stage
The Stage is the rectangular area where you place graphic content when creating Flash Professional documents. The Stage in the authoring environment represents the rectangular space in Flash Player or in a web browser window where your document appears during playback. To change the view of the Stage as you work, zoom in and out. To help you position items on the Stage, you can use the grid, guides, and rulers.

Timeline
The timeline is an important part of the program, and can be used to animate either by hand and/or with Action Script. The timeline represents all frames of an animation; more frames means a longer animation, less frames means a shorter animation. A timeline repeats itself by default; as soon as the last frame is shown, the animation jumps back to its first frame and begins again.

Frame
Frame view is a drop down menu that controls the appearance of the timeline. They are limited by verticle linres (forming rectangle). While the numbers of frames allows us to know the assigned number of each frame , its duration, and when it will appear in the movie.

Key frame
A keyframe is a special type of frame, indicated on the timeline, where you define changes in animation. When you create frameby-frame animation, every frame is a Keyframe.

Layers
Layers help you organize the artwork in your document. You can draw and edit objects on one layer without affecting objects on another layer. In areas of the Stage with nothing on a layer, you can see through it to the layers below.

Panels
Panels are command sets grouped according to their functions. Its mission is to simplify and facilitate the command use. There are following types of panels listed the menu bar :-- 1. Color mixer 2. Transform 3. Movie explorer

Like any other software, Flash has its own set of tools,which are divided into four sections. 1. Tool section 2. View section 3. Color section 4. Option section

TOOLS
:The Arrow tool (shortcut V) is the primary selection tool in Flash and it also can be used to modify lines and shapes. There is another arrow-shaped tool that's white beside it in the Toolbox. This is the Subselect tool and it has a completely different function that will be discussed later on.

Using the Subselection tool in Adobe Flash Professional you can reshape a motion path by exposing the control points and Bzier handles on the path that correspond to each position property keyframe. You can use these handles to reshape the path around the property keyframe points to adjust the animation.

When you want to draw a single straight line segment at a time in Adobe Flash Professional, use the Line tool.

The Lasso tool in Adobe Flash Professional enables you to select objects on the Stage by encircling them with a marquee. There are two options when using the Lasso tool: freehand (the default setting), Polygon Mode, and Magic Wand

Specify preferences for the appearance of the Pen tool pointer, for previewing line segments as you draw, and for the appearance of selected anchor points. Selected line segments and anchor points use the outline color of the layer on which the lines and points appear.

It is used to place text blocks on the stage.

The oval tool is used to make circular object.

The rectangle tool is used to make rectangular object.

The pencil tool is used in much the same way that you would use a real pencil to draw.

It is used to freely transform object, group, instances or text block.

It is used to transform a gardient or bitmap fill by adjusting the size ,direction, or center of the fill.

Using the Brush tool, you can paint fills (only fills, not lines/stroke) onto the canvas without having to first draw any outlines. This affords a great deal of freedom when creating shapes and artwork in Flash, especially when you fine-tune the Brush tool by setting various options.

The ink bottle tool lets you change the stroke color, line width, and style of lines or shape outlines.

The paint bucket tool fills enclosed areas with colour.

You can use the eye dropper tool to copy fill and stroke attributes from objects.

The erase tool works similar to a classic eraser.

The tool is used by clicking and dragging, while holding the mouse in the direction you want to move the screen.

The tool is similar to various zoom tools you see in other programs. It has two options: ZOOM IN and ZOOM OUT.

 FLA Flash File: This is the master document file for a flash project , i.e the source file you work within the flash authoring program. These files can only be opened with flash- not the flash player. FLV Flash Video: Supported from version 7, FLV files are the preferred format for delivering video clips via flash. SWF Flash Delivery File: It is the file that end users see. This is a compressed version of the FLA file which is optimized for viewing in a web browser, the standalone flash player. This file type can not be edited in flash. SWT Flash Template: This allows you to edit and replace information in a flash movie file. For eg. A flash button in which you can replace the text, links, etc. SWC Flash Element: These files have customisable parameters which allow you to perform various application functions.