Easy tools to design Flash animations for your website

I have decided I’ll also use this Easy Web Design Blog to post my reviews of easy-to-use software programs. The software applications are user-friendly and inexpensive alternatives to Adobe Flash, but will let anyone make impressive and professional looking Flash animations for their website.

I’m importing the software reviews of third-party Flash tools from my other blog (contentwritermicky) to here, where they just make more sense. Then I’ll focus my Content Writer Micky Blog more on web content writing, copywriting, SEO, article writing etc.

I promise I’ll get organised now and put all posts where they belong!

New Blog about Easy Website Templates

If you want an impressive, professional looking website, there’s no need to spend thousands or even hundreds of dollars. Why reinvent the wheel, so to speak, when there are so many website templates out there that you can buy – often for less than $100 – and customize?

I will be publishing short blog posts here about website templates that I have found and love. Many will specifically target a certain type of business or industry. I’ll make sure to tag each post with the relevant keywords, e.g. restaurant website template, design studio flash template, etc.

A lot of really cool Flash and CSS templates are available, and with search engines now increasingly able to “read” Adobe Flash files, there’s no reason not to go for an incredibly slick looking Flash website from an SEO point of view. You can always also make sure to have an alternative HTML page filled with your keywords and submit that to search engines and directories if you’re worried about SEO.

I’ll try to publish one or two posts a week to start with, so keep an eye out for new Easy Web Design Templates here!

Amara Flash Intro + Banner Builder – Software Review

Web designers who want to create Flash intros, banners, ads or other Flash text animations, but may find Adobe Flash too daunting, should check out Amara Software’s Flash Intro and Banner Builder. It’s a feature-rich but user-friendly and affordable tool that combines professional text effects with the user’s own images, SWF files and even music.

Take a minute to download the free shareware version of Amara Intro and Banner Builder from the Amara Software website and you’re ready to start playing around with the options (PC/Windows only).

You don’t have to get your credit card out until you want to save your creation and put your Flash banner or intro on your website. And even then you only pay US$39.95 for the registered version, which includes free upgrades for two years.

Amara Intro and Banner Builder 3.0 includes some samples to get you going quickly, or you can start building your Flash banner or intro from scratch by clicking ‘New’ and going through the tabs to enter your settings.

Create photo slide shows easily with Amara Flash Slideshow Maker

Amara Software’s Photo Slideshow Builder is one of its most popular Flash tools, and I can easily see why. It’s a very easy-to-use piece of software, it’s inexpensive, and it lets you create really cool and professional looking image slideshows for your website.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an experienced web designer or a newby who doesn’t know anything about Flash or programming, because the Amara Flash Slideshow Builder is simple enough to use but gives you loads of options, settings and controls to personalize your photo slideshow.

All of the Amara Software applications are shareware programs, so you can download a free trial version of the Flash Slideshow Builder and play around with it (it won’t let you save your creation) before deciding to buy. And I dare say that at just US$29.95, it’ll probably take you all of two seconds to make that decision.

Flashkicker – new Flash preloader creation tool (Flash progress bars)

Flashkicker Flash Preloader Software is a great new tool that creates Flash preloaders and adds them to your existing Flash (SWF) files.  

It’s very easy to use and relatively cheap to buy, and it lets you create and customize professional looking preloaders (those bars that show the progress of a Flash file being loaded, with a loading percentage).

Flashkicker Flash Preloader Software - screenshot

Using preloaders for Flash files is generally recommended for any animation that’s over 40kb. But they can be pretty difficult to create in Macromedia Flash. The Flashkicker preloader program makes it very easy.

Flashkicker preloaders show visitors to your website the progress of loading larger Flash movies or animations to ensure your visitors don’t get impatient and leave. You can also add other text for visitors to read while the animation is being loaded.

You can create a great looking and properly coded preloader for your Flash animation in less than a minute with Flashkicker Flash Preloader Software. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or a web design expert, you’ll have no problems creating a professional Flash preloader with Flashkicker thanks to its simple step-by-step user interface.

How to use Flashkicker Flash Preloader Software: