Flash Journalism

	Appendix A
	Preloaders

When you design a Flash movie that makes the user wait, you want the user to realize that something’s coming. Ideally, you will give the user an idea of how long the wait will be. That’s what a typical preloader does. Most preloaders use dynamic text to show what percentage of the movie has loaded. If the percentage is rising quickly enough, most users will hang in there. Many preloaders also use a graphic, such as a bar, to illustrate how much has loaded and how much remains.

Here you’ll see how to create a basic preloader with dynamic text and a loading bar. This one looks at the complete SWF and tracks it until it is 100 percent loaded; the SWF then begins to play. Other preloaders might track the movie up to 50 ...