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CHAPTER 4
Building Your First Application
This chapter provides a tutorial that guides you through the process of creating a simple
application using some of the authoring features in Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and
Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004. A Flash application, broadly defined, can be as simple
as content that offers interactivity, or as elaborate as a robust application that interacts with a
variety of data sources.
In this tutorial, after examining an existing Flash document, you’ll begin by creating a new Flash
document and end by publishing the application for web playback. The tutorial should take
approximately 20 minutes to complete.
If you have not already done so, we recommend that before you take this tutorial you read
Chapter 3, “Getting to Know the Workspace,” on page 19.
Workflow for building an application
The tutorial in this chapter follows the order of one possible workflow for creating a
Flash application.
• “Examine a completed application” on page 46 shows you how to work with an application.
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In the process, you become familiar with the Flash workspace.
“Create a new document” on page 48 is the starting point for creating your own
new application.
“Add media content” on page 49 shows you how to quickly add vector artwork, text, bitmap
images, video, sound, buttons, and movie clips to your application.
“Add navigation controls” on page 53 introduces you to the built-in components and
behaviors provided with Flash that let you drag navigation buttons and other user interface
elements to your application.
“Add motion and basic interactivity” on page 55 shows you how to add built-in effects and
behaviors to your application.
“Test the application” on page 56 shows you how to preview your application in the Flash
Player to verify it is working correctly before you publish it.
“Publish and view the application” on page 56 shows you how to get your application ready for
deployment on the web or wherever else you want to publish it.
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