TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I sent the question along to my in-house web dev maestro, here's
the reply. It sounds like your chosen developer could get it all
done w/HTML + javascript. Want mustard? :)
--Ned
-----------------
All of these things are as easy as pie.
Moving words and shapes around only requires simple animation.
Even plain Dreamweaver lets me create animation like that.
You could change the text of the animated layer with a simple
javascript program but then again it's fearfully easy to go into
a .js file
and change the words in an array. Same with text fonts and size.
If you
can type Arial, that is.
Flash is the obvious way to go, along with some fairly
straightforward javascript. Flash has been able to handle this
kind animation
since it started. In fact, a good javascript programmer wouldn't
even
bother with Flash for this kind of thing unless other unseen
requirements
existed.
Take a look at this webpage a friend of mine (from the Adobe
design project, admittedly) built in Flash. http://www.otis.edu/fileadmin/homepage/index.html. What your
friend is describing is falling off logs.
Jane
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dick Margulis" <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 3:36 AM
Subject: Web animation technology question
>
> Folks,
>
> I've lost the battle. We are going to have a small, brief,
animation on
> our home page. My goal is to make it as painless and
unobtrusive as
> possible. In terms of the design, we're pretty well set on what
it's
> going to be; and it involves moving words and geometric shapes
(How
> original!).
>
> I'm going to farm out the execution to a freelance, but I want
to ensure
> that I am asking for the right thing.
>
> Mr requirements are:
>
> 1. This must be compatible with the vast majority of browsers,
as
> delivered with new computers (that is, without the _user_
having had to
> download any fancy plugins). Our target audience--the only
people we
> care about, really--consists of senior executives of major
corporations.
> So they are likely have the latest laptops with lots of bells
and
> whistles and are using IE 6. I just don't know what plugins
ship by
> default with such computers these days.
>
> 2. If the user does not have a compatible plugin, I want to
degrade
> gracefully to static art rather than challenging the user to
download
> the damn plugin. So I probably need some code on the page to
detect that
> condition, but I'd like this code snippet to be part of the
deliverable,
> unless you want to point me to a URL where I can grab it
myself.
>
> 3. If it is technically feasible, I'd like the words that are
animated
> to be pulled from a {file|database table} so we can vary them
over time
> rather than having to go back to the freelance for rework.
>
> 4. If it is technically feasible, I'd like to be able to alter
things
> like font face, size, and color for particular text
strings--again in an
> external text file or database table--and have that information
used
> dynamically by the animation.
>
> Given that wishlist, what technology should I be asking for? I
mean,
> it's probably going to be something that is either Flash or one
of its
> cousins, but which cousin in particular, and what is the
minimum or
> oldest version compatible with those requirements?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dick
>
> PS: I am not soliciting bids on techwr-l. When I get the above
questions
> answered satisfactorily, I'll be posting the project on a bid
site,
> where I anticipate the winning bid will be less than anyone
here would
> do it for.
SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
COMPONENTONE DOC-TO-HELP 7 PROFESSIONAL: From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed documentation. New version offers yearly subscription service, Natural Search, Modular TOC Utility, Image Map Editor, Theme Designer, Context String Editor, plus more. http://www.componentone.com/doctohelp .
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
