
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
CMX Weekly Newsletter News Fun and Freebies Recent CMX Content Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats Check the News! Don't Be Embarrassed If You're a ColdFusion Developer PHP and ASP.NET are sometimes touted as the end-all, be-all of application development. ColdFusion may not be as widely used as either of these technologies, but that doesn't mean it's not a viable tool for web developers. If you're trying to talk a client or your company into developing applications in ColdFusion, you've probably already told them how simple it is to work with and how easy it is to deploy. But if you want to grab their attention, point them to this page at Adobe.com that shows (off) some of the big-name companies that currently use ColdFusion on their websites. With big names like Sprint and Boeing, you can stand tall and proud, knowing that you're using the same technology the "big boys" use. We ColdFusion developers have got to stick together... Security Updates For OS X Mac users are increasingly being warned of bugs, viruses and security holes in Mac OS X. Apple keeps fixing them, but new ones keep popping up. In the newest patch, which you can download from Apples's website, Apple addresses 31 flaws in their OS, but that doesn't even cover all of the latest security problems that have been found in OS X recently. This update is still a biggy though, so you'll want to download it immediately. You can read more on Apple's latest update on their website, or at this article at News.com. Vista's Not Ready For You. Are You Ready For Vista? Once Microsoft finally lets Vista out of their sweaty little hands, will your computer run it? Since Vista will come in even more flavors than its predecessor, Windows XP, you'll need at least a germ of an idea about whether or not your computer will have the processing power required to drive this new OS. MercuryNews.com has a pretty basic rundown for you. Not to get too technical, but here are the footnotes for the article: You buy big OS, you get big computer. You buy small OS, you don't worry. Hmmm... just found another article on Vista requirements that also answers a few other questions you might have. Check out this article at PCWorld.com. The Axis of Spam Evil America, Poland and China are said to generate the majority of the world's spam. That's the bad news. The good news is, they're very good at what they're doing, and getting better all the time. OK, that's bad news too. Spam is currently out of control. According to this article at CNN.com, spam in Britain went from 2.5 billion in June of 2006 to 7 billion during the month of November! Much of this spam is generated by gangs that use computers infected with a virus that allows them to use those computers as virtual zombies, acting as relay systems for spam. Keeping your virus definitions up to date and running a full virus scan every once in a while is becoming more necessary these days. As Smoky The Bear says, "Only you can prevent all of these Viagra ads." Or... something like that. You're Hired! Carolyn Kepcher is known for having helped Donald Trump fire people on The Apprentice television show. Now she's got a new gig, working for Microsoft as one of the judges who will determine the winner of Microsoft's "Ultimate Challenge." The Ultimate Challenge is comprised of judges looking for the best small-business idea in America. The winner will get a nice wad of cash in order to make their idea happen. Kepcher is clearly qualified to be a judge, because like she says, "I've seen some ideas before." Read more about it at CNN.com.
Satisfied Customers Speak Out! "This was a great idea for a tutorial. I've made my own default style sheet and I'm looking forward to making use of it. :-) It's always helpful to know how other designers organize their work. I was just thinking the other day about how I need to learn to make and use my own snippets because I get so tired of typing the same code over and over again. Your tutorial has inspired me to read Bill Horvath's article about the snippet panel. " - Harlene F., CMX Subscriber, commenting on Zoe Gillenwater's article, Modify Dreamweaver to Create a Default Style Sheet. Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!
Great Quotes: "Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you see the world." - George Bernard Shaw Can't Buy Me Love According to the Beatles, money can't buy you love. But if the rumors are true, money might finally buy you Beatles music online. Currently, you cannot download Beatles music from iTunes or any other music download service, but there is talk going on that suggests Apple Computers is forging a deal with Apple Records to get the Beatles songs into iTunes. Apple and Apple have had legal wranglings over the use of the name "Apple" in the past, but there's no doubt that a mutually and monetarily beneficial arrangement could result in both companies burying the axe... or Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Read more on this at TechWeb.com. A Great Way To Freak Out Family And Friends You would think the U.S. government would stop something like this, but guess what? You can be the proud owner of your own "@CIA.com" email address. Go to CIA.com for more information. Imagine sending your buddy an email from "BigTrouble@CIA.com" saying that he's been caught performing some nefarious act or another, and that he might as well start packing his bags, because he's going to have a new home in jail soon. Aliens Love Firefox When the aliens fly overhead, we should make sure they have some interesting and informative things to see. Someone has gone to great lengths to make sure that Firefox is recognized easily. Check out Google Maps. Whether or not these are actual crop marks is up for debate. Our resident cynic, John Gallant, is not convinced at all that this photo is real. Now that we look at the photo again, we tend to agree with John. Now we think that Aliens doctored the photo. Because Your Kids Will Need To Support You Later On Sure, you could give your kids a bicycle or a video game for Christmas, but it will be broken in a week. Best to get them something that invests in their future. Sure, they'll hate and resent you now, but when they get older, they'll be skipping like kids on the way to the bank. CNN.com has a few tips for how to keep your kids out of the red by getting them some smart gifts now. For instance, a Roth IRA could yield your kidlings some good cash by the time they're old enough to appreciate it. We've Said It Before And We'll Say It Again: We Love Bargains Last week we pointed you to Bargainist.com for great holiday deals. Since then, we've found another great bargain hunting website: Boddit.com. We're thinking "Boddit" stands for "Bought it." Of course it could just as well be the word "bonnet" said by someone with a severe head cold. Is Boddit.com any better than Bargainist.com? It could be. We did a search at Bargainist for a Canon Elura 100 MiniDV camcorder, and came up empty. However, we found it at Boddit.com for $299, which is about $80 cheaper than the local, big-name electronics outlet wanted for it.
The Polaroidizer for Fireworks 8 If you had a chance to read my recent article, Create a Polaroid Photograph in Fireworks, you saw how (relatively) easy it is to do this on your own. You can create two simple rectangles, punch the smaller rectangle through a larger rectangle, apply some simple drop-shadows, and Voila! Fairly easy frames that can be applied over the top of a photograph to give the appearance that the picture was snapped with a Polaroid camera. While the techniques described in the earlier tutorial were fairly easy, wouldn't it be even better if you could automate the process? Since you might not remember all the things that need to be done to achieve the effect how about it you could just run a command and have the frames created for you? You could then scale and place your own images and get the final outcome you see above with a minimum of muss and fuss. Now you can. When you download the support files for this article you'll find three commands for Fireworks 8 that will create the Polaroid frames for you. Just unzip the files and save into the Commands folder in your copy of Fireworks 8 and instant Polaroid frames are just a few clicks away. Take a look at this free Fireworks Command by CMX Partner Kim Cavanaugh
Fun and Freebies! How To Get Ugly By Working Out Most video workout videos try to be sexy, but this one is unique. The instructor is either (a) part of a joke we're not a part of, (b) exorcising instead of exercising or (c) tired of being good-looking, and is training for the ugly championship. Find out for yourself at EvilChili.com. At Least It's Not In Klingon Groucho Marx (or possibly Mark Twain... we're not positive) once said something along the lines of "I would never join any club that would have me as a member." That was our initial thought when we saw TrekPassions.com, which plays the match game between lovers of science fiction. While we see the need for specific dating services like this one, we wouldn't want to admit we ever used it. And we haven't... Really. You don't necessarily have to be a trekkie to use this dating service. You can be into Star Wars, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, or the like, and still meet a like-minded partner. OK, I Downloaded It, Now What? Ever wondered if you could download the whole internet? Sure you can. Just go to W3Schools.com and bring a copy of War and Peace, a gazillion servers and a lot of patience.
Working with Shared Libraries - Part 1: Sharing Symbols in Authortime Libraries In this new "Working with" series, you learn how to create and use shared libraries with your Flash movies. Shared libraries can help you optimize your workflow, making it easier to update assets across several Flash movies used for any type of project. I just finished a large DVD-ROM project for UCLA's Center for International Emergency Medicine, and the use of shared fonts dramatically decreased troubleshooting font issues between Mac and Windows versions of Flash 8. This free article by CMX Partner Robert Reinhardt can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing Create a Wax Seal in Freehand Kim Dudley The use of wax seals has been around almost as long as writing itself. In this tutorial we will create the look of a wax seal but avoid the hot wax by creating one using Freehand. We will use some basic Drawing tools along with Freehand's Live Raster Effects to create the wax seal. We will then customize the seal by adding text. When completed the seal can be saved as a Freehand native file or exported for use in many different types of documents. The final artwork will look similar to the following: Avoiding a Common Pitfall with Text-only Buttons David Stiller Buttons come in all shapes and sizes. Some include text and others don't — and then there are buttons that contain nothing but text. Historically in Flash, text-only buttons have been a bit tricky. Without careful attention to the symbol's Hit frame, such buttons can be very difficult to click, which makes for a frustrating experience to the end user. A change in Flash Player 8 improved matters, but not in all cases. Ultimately, it's up to you, the developer, to ensure that text-only buttons are comfortably usable. This tutorial helps steer you clear of the pitfalls. Flex 2 - Part 2: Building a Simple Application Chaz Chumley In our last article we took a look at the Adobe Flex Builder 2.0 IDE. In our last article we took a look at the Adobe Flex Builder 2.0 IDE. We discovered that, built upon the Eclipse platform, most Open Source, Actionscript and ColdFusion developers can now take advantage of using the same integrated development environment to develop most any application. Yet just how easy is it to develop a Flex application within the IDE? We will look at just that as we develop our very first Flex application. You may be pleasantly surprised at just how easy it is. Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 4: HTML Formatting Joseph Balderson Ever tried formatting a text field in flash using ActionScript, only to get all tangled up in a myriad of class properties and methods? Parts 1 & 2 of this series looks at how to create a text field and format it completely with code. Part 3 examines dynamic font embedding, Parts 4 & 5 cover how to use HTML formatting, and Parts 6 & 7 show you how to use CSS stylesheets in Flash. In Parts 1 & 2 of this series we looked at applying the TextFormat object to the TextField by way of the setTextFormat and setNewTextFormat methods. Then in Part 3 we looked at font embedding. In this tutorial we will continue where we left off in Part 2 and take a look at formatting dynamic HTML text. The Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified Series: Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 1: setTextFormat Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 2: setNewTextFormat Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 3: Embedding Fonts Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 4: HTML Formatting Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 5: Stylesheets Coming Soon Generating ATOM feeds with PHP Gordon Mackay Web site content syndication is a very commonly used method of sending new content updates via desktop software that is able to read and make sense of the XML languages used in RSS and ATOM. These XML files are generically known as "feeds". They are prevalent in most blogging applications and some forums, but recently they have started to appear on almost every site that is updated on a regular basis. In this tutorial we will look at generating an RSS feed from a very simple MySQL table using PHP. From Concept to Final Product in After Effects 7: Part 2 [FREE] Tom Green Learn how to add and manipulate a variety of objects and media in an After Effects project destined for Flash playback. This is the second part of Chapter One of From After Effects to Flash: Poetry in Motion Graphics Flash Video: Why the Other Players Don't [FREE] Robert Reinhardt Flash Video has taken over the web video industry. There should be little doubt by now that Flash Video is a major player—in any sense of the word—with online distribution of video. I've personally worked on several high-profile Flash Video deployments, and you can see the evidence of Flash Video on just about every major video-enhanced web site. Multiple Insert/Update in PHP - Part 1 Tom Muck Dreamweaver has some built-in tools for doing database inserts and updates, but they only handle basic inserts/updates of one record. What if you want to insert multiple records at a time, or update multiple records? Dreamweaver is no help in this case, but using PHP the process is simple. This tutorial will show two often-used methods for doing multiple inserts and multiple update. The files testinsert.php and testinsert2.php are included in the download package showing the final code for both methods. Part 1 of this series will show how to do inserts and Part 2 will show how to do a multiple update using these two techniques. Happy Thanksgiving from Community MX! [FREE] The partners of Community MX would like to wish all of our readers a safe and joyous Thanksgiving! So that our partners can enjoy the holiday with their families and friends, we will not be releasing new content Thursday or Friday. However, we will be back Monday with two new articles. Enjoy your holiday, and we'll see you on Monday! Happy Thanksgiving from Community MX! [FREE] The partners of Community MX would like to wish all of our readers a safe and joyous Thanksgiving! So that our partners can enjoy the holiday with their families and friends, we will not be releasing new content Thursday or Friday. However, we will be back Monday with two new articles. Enjoy your holiday, and we'll see you on Monday!
Multiple Insert/Update in PHP - Part 1 Dreamweaver has some built-in tools for doing database inserts and updates, but they only handle basic inserts/updates of one record. What if you want to insert multiple records at a time, or update multiple records? Dreamweaver is no help in this case, but using PHP the process is simple. This tutorial will show two often-used methods for doing multiple inserts and multiple update. The files testinsert.php and testinsert2.php are included in the download package showing the final code for both methods. Part 1 of this series will show how to do inserts and Part 2 will show how to do a multiple update using these two techniques. Check out the Article by CMX Partner Tom Muck
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats! This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Kim Cavanaugh , Community MX Partner Metadata, Meet Megadeath It's a pretty common practice to use a master file and perform a File > Save As when you want to make a new copy of a presentation with a new file name. Unfortunately, when using PowerPoint in conjunction with Breeze Presenter (now called Adobe Presenter), this practice has a big problem. The meta data that Presenter inserts into your first document will be carried over to your new document, causing all sorts of problems when you publish. And even though it appears that you've changed the presentation title and other settings, in fact, when you publish your presentation you'll find that the Breeze server will frequently overwrite existing files. The best way around this is to use PowerPoint master pages, or simply copy and paste a slide from one presentation to another. Formatting of your text and graphics will be carried over by doing so, but you won't bring in the metadata that Presenter uses and you'll avoid those nasty overwriting problems when you publish. Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com. That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!

CMX Weekly Newsletter

News
Fun and Freebies
Recent CMX Content
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats

Check the News!

Don't Be Embarrassed If You're a ColdFusion Developer

PHP and ASP.NET are sometimes touted as the end-all, be-all of application development. ColdFusion may not be as widely used as either of these technologies, but that doesn't mean it's not a viable tool for web developers. If you're trying to talk a client or your company into developing applications in ColdFusion, you've probably already told them how simple it is to work with and how easy it is to deploy. But if you want to grab their attention, point them to this page at Adobe.com that shows (off) some of the big-name companies that currently use ColdFusion on their websites. With big names like Sprint and Boeing, you can stand tall and proud, knowing that you're using the same technology the "big boys" use. We ColdFusion developers have got to stick together...

Security Updates For OS X

Mac users are increasingly being warned of bugs, viruses and security holes in Mac OS X. Apple keeps fixing them, but new ones keep popping up. In the newest patch, which you can download from Apples's website, Apple addresses 31 flaws in their OS, but that doesn't even cover all of the latest security problems that have been found in OS X recently. This update is still a biggy though, so you'll want to download it immediately. You can read more on Apple's latest update on their website, or at this article at News.com.

Vista's Not Ready For You. Are You Ready For Vista?

Once Microsoft finally lets Vista out of their sweaty little hands, will your computer run it? Since Vista will come in even more flavors than its predecessor, Windows XP, you'll need at least a germ of an idea about whether or not your computer will have the processing power required to drive this new OS. MercuryNews.com has a pretty basic rundown for you. Not to get too technical, but here are the footnotes for the article: You buy big OS, you get big computer. You buy small OS, you don't worry. Hmmm... just found another article on Vista requirements that also answers a few other questions you might have. Check out this article at PCWorld.com.

The Axis of Spam Evil

America, Poland and China are said to generate the majority of the world's spam. That's the bad news. The good news is, they're very good at what they're doing, and getting better all the time. OK, that's bad news too. Spam is currently out of control. According to this article at CNN.com, spam in Britain went from 2.5 billion in June of 2006 to 7 billion during the month of November! Much of this spam is generated by gangs that use computers infected with a virus that allows them to use those computers as virtual zombies, acting as relay systems for spam. Keeping your virus definitions up to date and running a full virus scan every once in a while is becoming more necessary these days. As Smoky The Bear says, "Only you can prevent all of these Viagra ads." Or... something like that.

You're Hired!

Carolyn Kepcher is known for having helped Donald Trump fire people on The Apprentice television show. Now she's got a new gig, working for Microsoft as one of the judges who will determine the winner of Microsoft's "Ultimate Challenge." The Ultimate Challenge is comprised of judges looking for the best small-business idea in America. The winner will get a nice wad of cash in order to make their idea happen. Kepcher is clearly qualified to be a judge, because like she says, "I've seen some ideas before." Read more about it at CNN.com.

Satisfied Customers Speak Out!

"This was a great idea for a tutorial. I've made my own default style sheet and I'm looking forward to making use of it. :-) It's always helpful to know how other designers organize their work. I was just thinking the other day about how I need to learn to make and use my own snippets because I get so tired of typing the same code over and over again. Your tutorial has inspired me to read Bill Horvath's article about the snippet panel. "

- Harlene F., CMX Subscriber, commenting on Zoe Gillenwater's article, Modify Dreamweaver to Create a Default Style Sheet.

Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!

Great Quotes:

"Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you see the world." - George Bernard Shaw

Can't Buy Me Love

According to the Beatles, money can't buy you love. But if the rumors are true, money might finally buy you Beatles music online. Currently, you cannot download Beatles music from iTunes or any other music download service, but there is talk going on that suggests Apple Computers is forging a deal with Apple Records to get the Beatles songs into iTunes. Apple and Apple have had legal wranglings over the use of the name "Apple" in the past, but there's no doubt that a mutually and monetarily beneficial arrangement could result in both companies burying the axe... or Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Read more on this at TechWeb.com.

A Great Way To Freak Out Family And Friends

You would think the U.S. government would stop something like this, but guess what? You can be the proud owner of your own "@CIA.com" email address. Go to CIA.com for more information. Imagine sending your buddy an email from "BigTrouble@CIA.com" saying that he's been caught performing some nefarious act or another, and that he might as well start packing his bags, because he's going to have a new home in jail soon.

Aliens Love Firefox

When the aliens fly overhead, we should make sure they have some interesting and informative things to see. Someone has gone to great lengths to make sure that Firefox is recognized easily. Check out Google Maps. Whether or not these are actual crop marks is up for debate. Our resident cynic, John Gallant, is not convinced at all that this photo is real. Now that we look at the photo again, we tend to agree with John. Now we think that Aliens doctored the photo.

Because Your Kids Will Need To Support You Later On

Sure, you could give your kids a bicycle or a video game for Christmas, but it will be broken in a week. Best to get them something that invests in their future. Sure, they'll hate and resent you now, but when they get older, they'll be skipping like kids on the way to the bank. CNN.com has a few tips for how to keep your kids out of the red by getting them some smart gifts now. For instance, a Roth IRA could yield your kidlings some good cash by the time they're old enough to appreciate it.

We've Said It Before And We'll Say It Again: We Love Bargains

Last week we pointed you to Bargainist.com for great holiday deals. Since then, we've found another great bargain hunting website: Boddit.com. We're thinking "Boddit" stands for "Bought it." Of course it could just as well be the word "bonnet" said by someone with a severe head cold. Is Boddit.com any better than Bargainist.com? It could be. We did a search at Bargainist for a Canon Elura 100 MiniDV camcorder, and came up empty. However, we found it at Boddit.com for $299, which is about $80 cheaper than the local, big-name electronics outlet wanted for it.

The Polaroidizer for Fireworks 8

If you had a chance to read my recent article, Create a Polaroid Photograph in Fireworks, you saw how (relatively) easy it is to do this on your own. You can create two simple rectangles, punch the smaller rectangle through a larger rectangle, apply some simple drop-shadows, and Voila! Fairly easy frames that can be applied over the top of a photograph to give the appearance that the picture was snapped with a Polaroid camera. While the techniques described in the earlier tutorial were fairly easy, wouldn't it be even better if you could automate the process? Since you might not remember all the things that need to be done to achieve the effect how about it you could just run a command and have the frames created for you? You could then scale and place your own images and get the final outcome you see above with a minimum of muss and fuss. Now you can. When you download the support files for this article you'll find three commands for Fireworks 8 that will create the Polaroid frames for you. Just unzip the files and save into the Commands folder in your copy of Fireworks 8 and instant Polaroid frames are just a few clicks away.

Take a look at this free Fireworks Command by CMX Partner Kim Cavanaugh

Fun and Freebies!

How To Get Ugly By Working Out

Most video workout videos try to be sexy, but this one is unique. The instructor is either (a) part of a joke we're not a part of, (b) exorcising instead of exercising or (c) tired of being good-looking, and is training for the ugly championship. Find out for yourself at EvilChili.com.

At Least It's Not In Klingon

Groucho Marx (or possibly Mark Twain... we're not positive) once said something along the lines of "I would never join any club that would have me as a member." That was our initial thought when we saw TrekPassions.com, which plays the match game between lovers of science fiction. While we see the need for specific dating services like this one, we wouldn't want to admit we ever used it. And we haven't... Really. You don't necessarily have to be a trekkie to use this dating service. You can be into Star Wars, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, or the like, and still meet a like-minded partner.

OK, I Downloaded It, Now What?

Ever wondered if you could download the whole internet? Sure you can. Just go to W3Schools.com and bring a copy of War and Peace, a gazillion servers and a lot of patience.

Working with Shared Libraries - Part 1: Sharing Symbols in Authortime Libraries

In this new "Working with" series, you learn how to create and use shared libraries with your Flash movies. Shared libraries can help you optimize your workflow, making it easier to update assets across several Flash movies used for any type of project. I just finished a large DVD-ROM project for UCLA's Center for International Emergency Medicine, and the use of shared fonts dramatically decreased troubleshooting font issues between Mac and Windows versions of Flash 8.

This free article by CMX Partner Robert Reinhardt can be found here.

Weekly Content Listing

Create a Wax Seal in Freehand

Kim Dudley

The use of wax seals has been around almost as long as writing itself. In this tutorial we will create the look of a wax seal but avoid the hot wax by creating one using Freehand. We will use some basic Drawing tools along with Freehand's Live Raster Effects to create the wax seal. We will then customize the seal by adding text. When completed the seal can be saved as a Freehand native file or exported for use in many different types of documents. The final artwork will look similar to the following:

Avoiding a Common Pitfall with Text-only Buttons

David Stiller

Buttons come in all shapes and sizes. Some include text and others don't — and then there are buttons that contain nothing but text. Historically in Flash, text-only buttons have been a bit tricky. Without careful attention to the symbol's Hit frame, such buttons can be very difficult to click, which makes for a frustrating experience to the end user. A change in Flash Player 8 improved matters, but not in all cases. Ultimately, it's up to you, the developer, to ensure that text-only buttons are comfortably usable. This tutorial helps steer you clear of the pitfalls.

Flex 2 - Part 2: Building a Simple Application

Chaz Chumley

In our last article we took a look at the Adobe Flex Builder 2.0 IDE. In our last article we took a look at the Adobe Flex Builder 2.0 IDE. We discovered that, built upon the Eclipse platform, most Open Source, Actionscript and ColdFusion developers can now take advantage of using the same integrated development environment to develop most any application. Yet just how easy is it to develop a Flex application within the IDE? We will look at just that as we develop our very first Flex application. You may be pleasantly surprised at just how easy it is.

Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 4: HTML Formatting

Joseph Balderson

Ever tried formatting a text field in flash using ActionScript, only to get all tangled up in a myriad of class properties and methods? Parts 1 & 2 of this series looks at how to create a text field and format it completely with code. Part 3 examines dynamic font embedding, Parts 4 & 5 cover how to use HTML formatting, and Parts 6 & 7 show you how to use CSS stylesheets in Flash.

In Parts 1 & 2 of this series we looked at applying the TextFormat object to the TextField by way of the setTextFormat and setNewTextFormat methods. Then in Part 3 we looked at font embedding. In this tutorial we will continue where we left off in Part 2 and take a look at formatting dynamic HTML text.

The Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified Series:
Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 1: setTextFormat
Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 2: setNewTextFormat
Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 3: Embedding Fonts
Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 4: HTML Formatting
Dynamic Text Formatting Demystified - Part 5: Stylesheets Coming Soon

Generating ATOM feeds with PHP

Gordon Mackay

Web site content syndication is a very commonly used method of sending new content updates via desktop software that is able to read and make sense of the XML languages used in RSS and ATOM. These XML files are generically known as "feeds". They are prevalent in most blogging applications and some forums, but recently they have started to appear on almost every site that is updated on a regular basis.

In this tutorial we will look at generating an RSS feed from a very simple MySQL table using PHP.

From Concept to Final Product in After Effects 7: Part 2 [FREE]

Tom Green

Learn how to add and manipulate a variety of objects and media in an After Effects project destined for Flash playback. This is the second part of Chapter One of From After Effects to Flash: Poetry in Motion Graphics

Flash Video: Why the Other Players Don't [FREE]

Robert Reinhardt

Flash Video has taken over the web video industry. There should be little doubt by now that Flash Video is a major player—in any sense of the word—with online distribution of video. I've personally worked on several high-profile Flash Video deployments, and you can see the evidence of Flash Video on just about every major video-enhanced web site.

Multiple Insert/Update in PHP - Part 1

Tom Muck

Dreamweaver has some built-in tools for doing database inserts and updates, but they only handle basic inserts/updates of one record. What if you want to insert multiple records at a time, or update multiple records? Dreamweaver is no help in this case, but using PHP the process is simple.

This tutorial will show two often-used methods for doing multiple inserts and multiple update. The files testinsert.php and testinsert2.php are included in the download package showing the final code for both methods. Part 1 of this series will show how to do inserts and Part 2 will show how to do a multiple update using these two techniques.

Happy Thanksgiving from Community MX! [FREE]

The partners of Community MX would like to wish all of our readers a safe and joyous Thanksgiving!

So that our partners can enjoy the holiday with their families and friends, we will not be releasing new content Thursday or Friday. However, we will be back Monday with two new articles.

Enjoy your holiday, and we'll see you on Monday!

Happy Thanksgiving from Community MX! [FREE]

Multiple Insert/Update in PHP - Part 1

Dreamweaver has some built-in tools for doing database inserts and updates, but they only handle basic inserts/updates of one record. What if you want to insert multiple records at a time, or update multiple records? Dreamweaver is no help in this case, but using PHP the process is simple. This tutorial will show two often-used methods for doing multiple inserts and multiple update. The files testinsert.php and testinsert2.php are included in the download package showing the final code for both methods. Part 1 of this series will show how to do inserts and Part 2 will show how to do a multiple update using these two techniques.

Check out the Article by CMX Partner Tom Muck

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Kim Cavanaugh , Community MX Partner

Metadata, Meet Megadeath

It's a pretty common practice to use a master file and perform a File > Save As when you want to make a new copy of a presentation with a new file name.

Unfortunately, when using PowerPoint in conjunction with Breeze Presenter (now called Adobe Presenter), this practice has a big problem. The meta data that Presenter inserts into your first document will be carried over to your new document, causing all sorts of problems when you publish. And even though it *appears* that you've changed the presentation title and other settings, in fact, when you publish your presentation you'll find that the Breeze server will frequently overwrite existing files.

The best way around this is to use PowerPoint master pages, or simply copy and paste a slide from one presentation to another. Formatting of your text and graphics will be carried over by doing so, but you won't bring in the metadata that Presenter uses and you'll avoid those nasty overwriting problems when you publish.

Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!