Flash :: Need Basics For Flash Website

Basics Of Building A Website In Flash
I have been trying to find site templates to get an idea on how Navigation and Site structure inside of flash looks like, but all i've been able to find are AS1 and 2 templates, does anyone here mind sharing their file of a fully built website, or can guide me to where I can find something like that?

Thanks

Flash Basics ....
hellow to everyone on this forum.
I'm new to Flash 8 .... actually I'm new to flash period...
I could really use some help about how to make an normal "flash website" .... just how to relate links to pages, how to include javascripts to flash if this is possible ..... stuff like this, mainly simple stuff that new commers like me don't know yet.
I saw some cool flash sites and would be really interested in how to put an 3d object in a flash page and how to make it spin, toggle and "jump around" in surtain situations.... but that's for me to find out after I learn the basics ( I have an .pdf but it's 900 pages long and .... I don't have that kind of time :( )

Thank you :)

Please Please Help Me Out Here. XML And Flash Basics...
Hi all I could really use a big hand if anyone can spare some time.

Basically I now understand and have implimented the photo and text description xml and flash connectivity, except now a suitable transition is required to spice up the effect. But becuase it's all being done dynamically I am a little confused as to going about such a task.

If you look at the quick example I have posted up you will see that the brackets open. Introducing the first node of the XML. however what would be cool would be to open, display text, close and open to display the next bit of text, but how can i add this animation into the xml code for it to work.

Any help for this would be amazing as currently it is really boring and just a simple show of items.

Please any help urgently required.

Thanks all

T

Flash Basics
Hi

A real basic question. in html i creat anew html page for each page i want to design...in flash do i create a new scene for every new 'page'.

Also, i regularly use html templates to keep nav etc consistent across all pages...is there a simple way of doing this in flash...i knowyou can use library items but is there anyway of controlling their positioning so if i change one, then all scenes change.

am i barking up the wrong tree here?

thanks

gav

Flash Basics Help
Hi there,
I am new to web disigning or multimedia development. would any one of you please tell me how to develop a small animation in macromedia flash. for example i want a small text revolving around globe. globe remains stable and text should be revolving the globe.
Thanks in advance
murali

Flash Xml Basics
Hi,
I've just practiced Lee's xml basic sldeshow tutorial, now i have a problem.
I am getting this warning:
Error opening URL 'file:///G|/test/undefined'
I did put the fla +xml+jpg in the same directory.(test)

my AC

Code:

var x:XML = new XML();
x.ignoreWhite = true;

var urls:Array = new Array();
var captions:Array = new Array();
var whoIsOn:Number;

x.onLoad= function(){
var photos:Array = this.firstChild.childNodes;
for (i=o;i<photos.length;i++) {
   urls.push(photos [i].attributes.url);
   captions.push(photos [i].attributes.caption);
}
holder.loadMovie (urls[0]);
caption.text= captions [0];
whoIsOn = 0;
}

x.load("martijnfotoindex1.xml");

previous.onRelease = function () {
if(whoIsOn > 0) {
   whoIsOn--;
   holder.loadMovie(urls[whoIsOn]);
   caption.text = captions[whoIsOn];
}
}

next.onRelease = function () {
if(whoIsOn < urls.length-1) {
   whoIsOn++;
   holder.loadMovie(urls[whoIsOn]);
   caption.text = captions[whoIsOn];
}
}

and my xml (martijnfotoindex1.xml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
- <slideshow>
<photo url="Sri Lanka3.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
<photo url="Sri Lanka2.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
<photo url="Sjanghai1.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
<photo url="Mongolie3.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
<photo url="Mongolie2.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
<photo url="Mongolie1.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
<photo url="Istanbul1.jpg" caption="Verhaal bij Londen foto." />
</slideshow>

Thanks???

Basics In Flash?
Hey everybody,

Is there any site where I can learn like the basics of Flash, like what buttons do what and how to make simple things. I think I should first do that before I start making flash websites!

Flash MX + MySQL ... The Basics
Hello!

I want my Flash MX application to communicate with a MySQL database.

Does this require a script (for instance php)? Can I query directly from Actionscript? Can I use the loadVars object of Flash to send data to the database?

Or must I have "Flash remoting" installed?

And how do I "catch" information sent back from the queries?

Any suggestions??

Flash Actionscripting Basics Help
Hi i am a designer learning scripting. can u give me some flash links where i can learn the basics of scripting ans get started.
Thanks In advance

Flash 5 - Help With Program Basics
Hey all

I'm just starting with all this Flash fun, and I'm finding a few basic things frustrating and confusing.

First up, this is Flash 5. I have the option to use MX at home, but at work - 5 it is.

I'm pretty good with fairly advanced Photoshop and Illustrator - so, imagine my frustration at not being able to perform the basics in Flash. (It's all art, right? lol j/k) I've done quite a few hours of the video tutorials at Lynda.com, but now I'm just having functionality issues.

To the point:

* Alpha & Movies - I have a movie clip w/ one band of alpha @ 50% (or so). When I put the MC in my scene, there's no opaque effect, anything set behind it (on another layer) is covered. ie.. image under a movie clip = covered by movie clip, no transparency.

* Tweening alpha - I also have some lovely little boxes I'm trying to tween the alpha from 0 to 100%. I've made the boxes as a single graphic object. Drug out about 5, only one does the transparency effect on the layer. The rest just sit there at 0% alpha and suddenly pop to 100%. So I tried grouping them - nothing, nothing then pop - same thing.

These things seem very basic and yet I'm almost shaking mad because I can't figure them out, and feel beyond stupid.

Thanks for the help.

Learning Flash Basics
Where offers the simplest step by step guide to making a simple flash animation? I'm sure when I got the hang of that I'd zoom off and find the rest easy, but I have no books or anything, I tried once to follow a tutorial and gave up.

If it helps, I have Flash MX

Basics Of Sound In Flash
I wasn`t sure where to put this thread, so it lands in here. Ok, my question is how to arrange/ set sounds and bg music in a flash site? I`m asking because there are few possibilities of building a site ( by making scenes, / loading ext swf files in some places over the layout etc.../ making one timeline and use gotoandplay command for every part of the site ) , so i tried to use the last way and ended up with bg sound coming over the playing bg sound after pressing the button leading to the main content of the page even though the sound is put in mc in the 1st frame and all the site is begining from the seconsd frame. why this happens?? the sound_mc is looping but since it is a clip it has its own timeline, right?? or probably Im getting it all wrong. help!!!! hilfe s.o.s. ........mayday .........

Flash XML Basics Tutorial
I followed this tutorial to the T. I have everything exactly as the tutorial says. My problem is that the next and previous buttons don't work. I am able to get the first pic and caption to load ok but nothing else...if I edit the code:

Code:

x.onLoad = function() {
var photos:Array = this.firstChild.childNodes;
for(i=0;i<photos.length;i++) {
   urls.push(photos[i].attributes.url);
   captions.push(photos[i].attributes.caption);
}
holder.loadMovie(urls[0]);
caption.text = captions[0];
whoIsOn = 0;
}

and change:

Code:

holder.loadMovie(urls[1]);
caption.text = captions[1];

then the next pic will load as the initial page. so that part is working. however the following isn't:

Code:

previous.OnRelease = function() {
if(whoIsOn > 0) {
   whoIsOn--;
   holder.loadMovie(urls[whoIsOn]);
   caption.text = captions[whoIsOn];
}
}
next.OnRelease = function() {
if(whoIsOn < urls.length-1) {
   whoIsOn++;
   holder.loadMovie(urls[whoIsOn]);
   caption.text = captions[whoIsOn];
}
}

I'm using flash 8...can someone lend me a hand?

[Edited by Mod - Please use CODE tags to display code blocks]

Lee's FLASH XML Basics Tut Problem
Ok,I'm trying Lee's tutorial & I have a feeling it's not reading my xml file.
What is the proper way to save an xml file in notepad++? I have followed
all the action script Lee writes in the tut. But when I test it,I get the following:

Code:

Error opening URL "file:///C|/DOCUME%7E1/Owner/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/sigs.xml"
Error opening URL "file:///C|/DOCUME%7E1/Owner/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/undefined"

Not sure what it means,but I get the feeling it has to do with my xml file
correct? Here is my notepad++ coding:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<slideshow>
<photo url="troopquy2.jpg"></photo>
<photo url="kidquy2.jpg"></photo>
<photo url="jadebsgfxblur.jpg"></photo>
<photo url="decon7quy.jpg"></photo>
<photo url="crysisquy7.jpg"></photo>
</slideshow>

as you can see,I did away with the "captions". In Lee's tutorial he added
a caption for each image. I decided not to. So what am I doing wrong?
Everytime I test it,it gives me that error message. Any help?

Main questions:

"How do you properly create & save an xml file?"

"Is there anything wrong with the coding in notepad++ & the action script?

Flash XML Basics Tutorial
Hi

I've followed the tutorial and have a question:
How can I make the slideshow start over when I press 'next' on the last photo in it? Thanks in advance..

-Askholm

Flash Banner Basics
Hi,

I'm starting to handle premade Flash ads (banners) for a Web site, know little about Flash, have some basic questions:

1. Best way to spec ad size: by dimensions (468x60, etc) and max file size, same as for image files? Anything else?

2. Is there a Flash format to specify: I got one .swf banner that's 249K, but serves quickly, and others that are under 10-15K. What's the diff, is it content, more photos, etc, or are there different encodes under .swf? Compression?

3. Do destination links have to be embedded? (My ad server software auto-detects Flash links and converts 'em to be tracked - is this usual?)

4. I tried opening an ad and it says "author protected". Does this mean it's permanently read-only, or is there some sort of password or way to get at it?

(I've started to do the reading, but a jump-off point like this would be excellent!)

Thanks!

Returning Flash Guy Back To Basics
Ok I am not so much new just as out of the loop a long time
so I have a movie SWF file I am working on
just to remeber how it all works and such and having a few problems I was wondering if there was any one out there that would be willing to help at all to healp me clean it up and get me working out how I used to do all this stuff

Just simple things like link movie and button issues

Flash Based Webpage Basics?
I haven't touched flash in quite a while, but I'd like to create a webpage based soley on it. I've managed to figure out some of the basics parts I want, except how to click on a button and have it change "pages" within the flash movie. I was trying to make it show a new movie clip which contains the new page, but I couldn't get it to work. It'd be great if someone knew of a tutorial that covers this, or even better if it covered more aspects of creating an flash based page. I'm using Flash MX.

Flash Component Basics - In Over My Head
I apologize in advance if this has been addressed before.

I need to make a component that is a sliding scale and the value can be read from. I found the Dial Example that comes with Flash 8 and completed that exercise. I then proceded to make my own movie clips to get the appearance that I desired. I then constructed the component following the same steps as the Dial example. After compiling, my new component does not have a visual aspect to it. In the dial example, I added the "DialFinal" movie clip to Frame 2. I created a SlidingScaleFinal that is the combination of my Scale and Slider and added it to Frame 2 of my new project. After compiling the Dial SWF, and dragging the symbol to the stage, you could see the visuals. When doing the same with my sliding scale, I don't see anything but the bounding box outline.

Help! What am I missing?

Basics Of Forum Messageboard In Flash
hey..
im about to try to make a message board
going to make it with flash php and mysql..
the php and mysql parts i can manage just fine..
but when it comes to the flash im hoping one of yall can help me

my php output will look something like this..

user=someone&titel=hello&message=hello world&date=today bla bla bal&

now im gonna loop that out on the page for as many entries as there are..

now for the flash part..
i want to read all the information into arrays...
question 1) how do i read the 4 variables into 4 different arrays..
and what is the command for getting how many entries in an array ( so i know how many times to loop arrays onut onto flash text box)
the output on the page will be something like

posted by:someone
title:hello
message:
blalbalbalblalba
date posted :today bla bla

posted by:someone1
title:hello1
message:
blalbalbalblalba1
date posted :today bla bla1

i want to put all these messages in the same text box ( thinking that would be the best)..
all the help i really need here is
question 2) how do i get flash to jump down a line
thought it was /n but that dont work ... and putting html format on and using <br> dont work eitrher

question 3)
and i want the title to be in bold. now im wondering if you can format just one word to be bold
ex
boldword=(whatever code is needed to make text string 'big' bold)
word1='i like'
word2='butts'
done=(word1+" "+boldword+" "+word2);
so done if placed in a text box would look lie
i like big butts

thanks

//VoS

Multiplayer Flash Game Basics
What language do you need to make an online multiplayer Flash game?

Basics Of Chroma Keying In Flash
OK. I just spent good money on a green screen and can't get it working properly in Flash 8. I took a picture in front of the green screen then put that into Vegas movie studio 6. There I added the chroma key effect. The chroma key works fine there. Next I render the movie in quick time 6 format and bring it into the flash video encoder. I set it to encode the movie's alpha channel. I finally bring the movie into flash as an embeded SWF and all i see is a transparent white surface. What am I doining wrong.

Flash Remoting? The Basics For A Noob Please
Hi , I'm trying to get my head round Remoting for Flash 8 using ASP.net in VB code. I have searched the entired internet, and 99% of tutorials are for Flash MX and AS 1, and converting them to Flash 8 AS 2 is a nightmare for me! The updated documentation from Macromedia on the subject is confusing and I have spent the past 3 days trying to fathom it out, i'm going bald!

Has anyone manged to set up just a simple click a button in a flash movie and have it pass a variable to your ASP.net page??

Flash Video Basics Doubt
Hi everyone!

I'm using the "Flash Video Basics" example in a project and it works really well. However I'd like to have the same result with .mp3 files. I tried to use the same file with a different .xml list (containing mp3 files), but it didn't work out.
Could anyone help me?
I know it's a quite dumb question but I haven't been able to solve this problem so far.
Thanks a bunch!

Lynda.com Flash Professional 8 Beyond The Basics
Sup'

I have downloaded the "Lynda.com Flash Professional 8 Beyond the Basics" in pieces (rar format) and when I unzip it it gives me 4 files with extensions of .bin .cue and 2 more

But I can see no vid

Anny help???

Any Cool Info Neededim New To Flash I Know The Basics
plz give me any info that is hard to do and that is cool!!!!!plzzzzzzzz

Question About The Flash Video Basics Tutorial
I followed the flash video basics up to tutorial 3. It all works great but I need the video to be stopped on the first frame which then needs the user to click the play button (Or even better a big play button in the middle of the screen )

No idea where to start tho! I've attached the file.

Hope someone can help, this is quite urgent!

Many thanks

What Are The Basics For Search Engine Optimization On A Flash Site?
I have a flash site, but my client would like to maximize the search engine placement....

How do I do this? How do I insert keywords? What techniques can I use?

Thanks..

Flash Audio/video Chat And Whiteboard-basics
1. How can we build a audio/video chat and a white board in flash?
2. Do we need a streaming server for this? ( ie., Do we need to buy a separate space in
a web server for that purpose? If so list them ..)
3. What is streaming server?
4. What is rtmp?
5. What is flash media server?
6. What is flash communication server?
7. What is Red 5 ?
8. How can we integrate those technologies with flash ?
9. Is there any examples and resources available in web?
10. If so what are they?

- Manikk

Problem With "Flash Video Basics 1"
Hello,

i was trying to follow all the instructions, but when i wanted to test the movie i got this error msg: "1061: Call to a possibly undefined method attachVideo through a reference with static type flash.media:Video." i am using flash cs3 prof as trial. can anybody help me?

best regards,
dominik reisig

Question To Tutorial: "flash Xml Basics"
hi
I'm new to this forum. thanks for the really good tutorials - very helpfull
I did the tutorial "flash xml basics" - all is fine except one thing:
in the xml file there are 4 jpeg: lost1.jpeg up to lost4.jpeg.
in flash I could only see lost2.jpeg - lost3.jpeg - lost4.jpeg NOT the first one
What am I doing wrong ?
thanks and greetings from munich

Flash Video Basics (Stop Video At End)
I recently watched the tutorials on Flash Video Basics. I tried it myself and it worked great. I was wondering if any one would know an easy way to make the video stop at the end, instead of replaying over and over. Also wondering if there would ever be more parts to the tutorial down the road, like displaying how long the video is and where it is in seconds now.

Thanks In Advance,
Dave

Help With Basics
I am trying to make a scrollable window where I can display pic thumbnails. I want users to be able to scroll through a vertical box that displays pic thumbnails. and when the click them the large version of the pic will appear to the right. EX:
---------
| _____ |S -------------------------
| | | |C | |
| | | |R | |
| |_____| |O | |
| _____ |L | |
| | | |L | |
| | | |A | |
| |_____| |B | |
| |L -------------------------
--------- E

Need The Basics Of The Basics
I can't find any tutorials that tell how to get started in Flash. They all seem to assume that a person already knows the concept of Flash and I don't. Do I need a special program in my computer to download Flash scripts and get them on my website? I tried downloading one, and when I opened it, all I got was a bunch of squares and stuff. I couldn't read it. Does anyone know of a VERY BASIC tutorial that tells what a person needs to do to get started in Flash? I haven't had any trouble with Javascript or anything else, but Flash is just frustrating me! Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Basics...
I have a movie clip that runs on my main timeline with 4 audio clips. I would like to be able to stop and play the entire movie including the sound. I am using:

on (release) {
stop();
}

and

on (release) {
play();
}

these will stop the movie - but not the sound clip until the end. Does anyone have any suggestions - either a tutorial I can look at or suggestions on code that I could try.

Thanks for any help in advance! I appriciate any help I can get!

(/) .:the Basics:. (/)
------Beginning Help--------

For Play Buttons:

--Make your button graphix
--Make it a symbol...a button to be exact
--Name it whatever you want
--Click on it and press F9. This will bring up your actionscript panel.
--In Expert mode, type in the panel:

on(release){
play();
}

--Assuming the play button is in the first frame of your movie, click on Frame 1 in the timeline. Go to your actionscript panel and type

stop();

--You're done.

Preloaders:
-Flash has a great option to make easy preloaders. On frame 1 of a preloader scene put:

ifFrameLoaded("Scene 5", 50){
gotoAndPlay("Scene 2, 1);
}

In this case, Scene 5, frame 50 is the end of your movie. Its an example. It doesn't have to be.

Once flash detects that the entire movie has been loaded, it will "gotoAndPlay" Scene 2, frame 1, the beginning of the movie in this example. More advanced preloaders have a bar that progressively fills. I am still trying to figure that one out, so don't ask. I do know, however, how to do percentages. This one is a bit trickier:

In the area that you want to have the percent, make a dynamic text box. At the bottom, make the Variable Name "percent_loaded".

Add the code:

percent = Math.floor(getBytesLoaded()/getBytesTotal()*100);
percent_loaded.text = percent + "% is loaded";

This may look confusing, but it won't be later on down the road.
BE SURE TO PUT THIS IN THE FIRST FRAME. On the second frame, put:

if (percent == 100){
gotoAndStop(3);
}else{
gotoAndPlay(1);
}

Where it says:

gotoAndStop(3);

This can be changed to:
("Scene 2", 1);
If that is where your movie starts.

If it doesn't work...let me know. Someone else may fix it as well.

(/)

The Basics
I just got back into the wide world of flash and I can't remember the html code to insert into my page to call the swf. Also last version I had was mucho differento, I can't figure out how to make a button direct to a url. --Flash MX 7.2

Basics
hey

could you tell me what needs to be learnt to create a website like this.
and how hard it would be for a complete novice.

here

thanks

The Basics
I've been wanting to learn Flash for a long time but haven't been able to find a tutorial simple enough. Can anyone share the basics with me?

What kind of file is flash saved as?
Is flash straight forward text coding or does it require a program?
How can I make a simple flash?
Etc. Etc. Etc.

Any you can tell me would be helpful.

Please Help With The Basics
I know this seems elementary, but I really just want to know the best way to build a website. Do I design it in flash, and import into Dreamweaver? (I have CS3 Web Premium). Do I publish it straight from Flash? I've done all these tutorials which teaches me little things about the website details, but all I want is to design a simple, clean website. Is there an easy way?

[F8] Oop Basics
I'm good at actionscript and am now trying to learn oop.

I'm having trouble duplicating an object on the stage as an object with class attached. I want to avoid exporting library items on first frame.

If I have an instance of "ball" on the stage named "ball_x" and a class named "Ball", how would I get the class to create a duplicate of "ball_x" with the class attached?

Thanks!

Basics
very basic question: i am inserting a flash file into dreamweaver and everytime i preview it (in dreamweaver) it is showing up blank.

But everytime i preview it in flash it is showing up fine and you can see the entire animation.

please any help will help.

I am assuming the file is not properly created in flash. but i used a template so idk why.

thanks

The Very Basics Of OOP...
Hi guys,
Now that I'm starting to do everything the object-oriented way, I basically need some help (I'm a massive beginner at all this class design stuff!)

Ok, so when I create a variable in a class, what is the BEST way to use that data in another class? Surely just extending the class all the time can't be good. Should I be generating all content in just ONE class and then doing...

siteData = new siteData();

In every class that needs to access it?
Also, can someone please explain delegation and the delegate class a bit more to me please!??

Thanks,
Dave

LoadMovie Basics?
Hi,

I've got a load of flash experiments. I want to create a flash movie into which I can load and unload these movies, so I can create a gallery.

Can anyone provide a few basic tips, such as controlling the dimensions of the movies which are loaded into the main swf, and also, how to unload a movie. I want to have a list of flash experiments, when I click on each one it'll unload whatever is loaded, and load in the new one. Is there some generic way to say, for example, onPress, unload everything, and then load this?

Sorry for being so vague, these are early days!

Cheers

Jim

Jesus, Help Me With Some Basics -
i have a small movie which for the life of me - will not obey simple stop actions and on release go to commands - its like the movie just skips over all the stop actions (2 of em) untill it reachs the end where - one of the 3 stop actions does its job. then i have buttons which will go to the frame (im watching it in the control mode) then stop for a fraction of a second and then bounce back to its frame. completly weird experience - im sick of this!!! i mean whatever happen to a simple href tag!!! - any help?

i can make buttons allright but where on flash kit can i find the dos and donts of basic button / navagtion?

FLASHtyper Basics
I started looking at flash typer today ( v nice but i don't seem to be able to do anything with resultant swf or html files.... i have tried importing the swf into flash and it just seems to give me 50 blank frames but no sign of the text, i know its there somewhere as it shows when i play the swf as a movie. I have read the tute on it about scripting (which im new to) but im not sure if thats the prob or not... Ive tried to follow it but im not sure if i can't see anything cos of my dodgey action scripting or something else....

When i try to open the html file it says:

'This page shows your Text effect and the code to use if you wish to use it directly in your HTML page. If you wish to use it as part of a Flash movie then read our comprehensive tutorials here! '

but nothing else actually shows on the page, it seems to be trying to load something and i have left it for some time but to no avail

Im sure it must be a basic problem but being the ludite i am its still beyond me :P

thanking you in advance
Lev

FLASHtyper Basics Again
I started looking at flash typer today ( v nice but i don't seem to be able to do anything with resultant swf or html files.... i have tried importing the swf into flash and it just seems to give me 50 blank frames but no sign of the text, i know its there somewhere as it shows when i play the swf as a movie. I have read the tute on it about scripting (which im new to) but im not sure if thats the prob or not... Ive tried to follow it but im not sure if i can't see anything cos of my dodgey action scripting or something else....

When i try to open the html file it says:

'This page shows your Text effect and the code to use if you wish to use it directly in your HTML page. If you wish to use it as part of a Flash movie then read our comprehensive tutorials here! '

but nothing else actually shows on the page, it seems to be trying to load something and i have left it for some time but to no avail

Im sure it must be a basic problem but being the ludite i am its still beyond me :P

I was told to use loadMovie and load my flashtyper .swf's into an empty movie clip. i have imported the swf and my action script for my 1st frame is:

loadMovieNum ("C:\Windows\Desktop\3c72a70d3da90062\vatu.swf ", 1);

with that being the location of the file i got from typer. i play it and its just a load of blank frames.. what am i doing wrong?

thanking you in advance
Lev

Help With Animation Basics?
Hi folks. Flash ultra-newbie here trying to grasp the basics. Here's what's happening:

I draw a circle and a square. I highlight each individually, and convert them each to graphic-type symbols. I click on frame 10 and "insert keyframe". Then I move only the rectangle across the screen. I right-click in the timeline and insert motion tween. This should show an animation of the rectangle moving and the oval staying, right? Instead it moves them together. I didn't move the oval at all! Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

PS. I realize this is super basic, but I can't find the answer on Macromedia's site, or in the tutorials. Is there a more comprehensive newbie guide I should know about? (I haven't bought the manual yet.)

Thanks in advance!