Dreamweaver 4 Flash Buttons

Dreamweaver comes with a great feature enabling you to create Flash buttons for your Web page, and you can use it even if you don't know the first thing about Flash! In this tutorial we will take a look at using Flash buttons from Dreamweaver's built in library.

1. Create a new folder and name it "button test" or something similar.

Open Dreamweaver MX, create a new page and save it in the above folder. In the "Media" panel click on the "Flash Button" icon

2. The "Insert Flash Button" dialogue box will appear.

The "Sample" box shows the button that is currently selected in the "Style" box. You can download more styles from Macromedia's support site by clicking on the "Get More Styles" button (don't hold your breath though, last time I looked there were not too many there).

The "Button Text" box enables you to enter your own text for the button.You can also choose a font and font size to suit.

The "Link" box is where you enter the URL of the page you want to go to when the button is clicked.

The "Target" box works in the same way as those in the standard "Properties" panel. Here you can specify which frame the new page should open in if you are using frames.

"BG Color" sets the background colour that will be displayed whilst the button is loading. Set it to match the background colour of your page.

"Save As" enables you to save the button with a specific name.

Once you have configured your button click on "Apply" and "OK"

3. One Last Trick

Once you have inserted you button into your page, clicking on it will bring up the following Properties window..

Click to enlarge

Clicking on "Play" enables you to test the operation of your button without leaving the Dreamweaver environment.To edit your button,double click on the finished button to bring up the "Insert Flash Button" box again.