Break it down.

[Eraser Nubbin]

Hey guys.
Have put together the first section of an online training module in Flash (thanks in part to the good folks of this forum) and was wondering if you would mind perusing it, picking it apart, pointing out all the spots where I used theres instead of there's.

Thanks in advance.

The current section that works is "Staging" and the content/sections are about 95% done, there are still a few spots that need to be updated.

http://www.hbxcontrols.com/index_training.htm

[urstwile]

I'm not a Flash basher like some, but I'm not sure why the menu item link targets had to load as Flash. It seems a little cumbersome.

The type is a little hard to read on the background, feels just a tad too small and the weight is kind of thin for the background color. If you are going to use Flash for the menu link targets, then you might want to consider a different weight of type.

Also, and I'm not sure what this manual is a manual for, but there should probably be some type of print functionality available.

[Eraser Nubbin]

Thanks for the input.
I totally overlooked some kind of print option, must have something like that.
As far as the navigation goes I must admit that flash/web design are not my strengths, getting this thing to this point has been a major struggle.

You are suggesting that the menu bar for all of the lessons would be done in HTML? If so would I need to use some sort of javascripting to get the drop down effect? At certain points there will be 4 levels in the button navigation hierarchy.

[prewe]

when the left menu is empty, you should concider disabling the hand-cursor when you roll over it. just a thought. don't have time to look into it more right now, will probably check it out later.

[Eraser Nubbin]

Another good point, thanks.

[ecsyle]

Couldnt you have achieved this exact thing without flash? Seems like flash was only used because it's flash and not because it added anything of value to the program. What purpose does making it flash have? I see no video, hear no audio, see no visual effects like menus sliding, or simple rollovers, no smooth transitions between sections.

[Eraser Nubbin]

In all honesty I would have rather not used Flash... just assumed Flash was the way to go for an interactive web training application. I assumed doing each one of those screens as a seperate HTML file would have been majorly time consuming and probably have gross file sizes. As far as the sound goes I agree, that is scheduled for somewhere down the line.

[urstwile]

You can do the whole thing as HTML. Yes, javascripting for the drop-down menus, and the target links would just be HTML pages also.

If you're not sure how to do this, a google search on drop-down menus brought up a whole bunch of different links to tutorials and such, some with copy and pasteable code that you could modify.

Like this one: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/linking/linking_famsupp_114.html

[ecsyle]

There is no interactivity for this training application though...

Unless it is in Alpha, and isn't ready for the public yet.

[Eraser Nubbin]

Those flashing red buttons are interactive, they are meant to mimic the buttons on this actual control device which is what the training is based on.

Thanks for the input.