Software Advice

[Gismo]

In the background i'm working on a wee website revamp, sorry, it aint' gonna be massively professional, but, it will be all my own work

Anyways, i'm keen to learn some aspects of some of the more snazzy stuff.

If you look at the home page there is a revolving banner of the sponsors, except Chris Knott insurance which i'm hoping to add.

I have all the animated gif files for each sponsr and simply want to create one file with all of them with the ability to add or remove a sponsor if required.
The file needs to be the same as the current one, ie a rolling banner showing each sponsor's banner.

So my question, which relatively cheap software package can i buy to allow me to do what i've said above and how easy is it to do for a complete flash??? novice?

[bazzaric]

I've never realised there was a front page!

Depends how 'snazzy' you wan't it to be. Basically, at the moment it's an animated Gif. You can create these really easily with free software such as http://picasion.com/ or something.

you can use javascript to give you a similar impression, but if you want to get really snazzy you should be embedding flash. This will look the business and allow you to make decent banners etc, but the two considerations are the cost of the software (unless your a pirate ) and the size of the file. This will impact those on dial up or gprs type services. A small banner wouldn't be too much of an issue. If you want me to give you a demo on Flash, give me a shout.

There are some other good features you can add with flash, like when someone puts the mouseover it can expand or stop the 'slideshow'. It means you can also make each of the images a clicky to direct them to a different website.

EDIT: Just realised it's already done in 'flash' (banner_images/front_banner.swf)

[bazzaric]

Just also noted there are sites like: http://www.123-banner.com/creator.php?ba=p

Who say they can do all the hard work for you for free. Not sure how that works though, I'm guessing it's a clicky to their site or something

[Gismo]

Thanks for the tips, i'm looking at using Swish to create the banner.
What i really wanna know is can i take what i've already got and add the Chris Knott animated gif to it, or, take all the animated gif's and make one rolling flash banner.
Swish ain't cheap and i don't want to buy it and it can't do what i want it to do
And me, a pirate never, honest as the day i was born

[AndyP & Lenore]

Emailed you re this.

You can add in each individual gif file and Swish will create a single flash animation for you.

A.

[bazzaric]

not sure on swish, but you could check the timings of the rolling gif and just make the new one last for a quarter of the rest if that makes sense?

[bazzaric]

Sorry, i'm being stupid. you obviously still have each of the images individually, so just use swish with the 5(?) images

[Gismo]

Sorry, i'm being stupid. you obviously still have each of the images individually, so just use swish with the 5(?) images

Easy when you say it like that i'll have to try it out and see if i can make it work.
It seems that Swish is more than just a flash programme, i already have a web site builder programme

[bazzaric]

I could maybe sort something out for you this evening if you wish, just the 5 images from the sponsor forums?

What size?

[Gismo]

I could maybe sort something out for you this evening if you wish, just the 5 images from the sponsor forums?

What size?

Well i'd really like to know how to do it, but, in order for me to carry on with the site i would appreciate it, yes, all 5, max size = 468 x 60 pixels