1. Chapter 1 Visual Effects

   1. Hacks #1-7

   2. Fake Per-Pixel Transitions

   3. Per-Pixel Text Effects

   4. Simulate Old Film Grain

   5. Create SWFs from Animated GIFs

   6. Animate Photoshop PSD Files with Flash

   7. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

   8. Blowin' in the Wind: Simulate Tree Movement

2. Chapter 2 Color Effects

   1. Hacks #8-13

   2. Video Color Effects

   3. Video Fade to Black and Fade to White

   4. A Custom Color Transform Class

   5. Create and Organize Custom Swatches

   6. Borrow Color Schemes from Nature

   7. Simulate Sepia Effects

3. Chapter 3 Drawing and Masking

   1. Hacks #14-25

   2. Create Filled Circles Quickly at Runtime

   3. Create Synthetic Art

   4. Create Seamless Tiles

   5. Fill Areas with Patterns

   6. Imitate Escher

   7. Fix Alpha Property Inaccuracies

   8. Use Complex Shapes as Masks

   9. Interference Patterns and Ripple Effects

   10. Feather Bitmap Edges

   11. Add a Vector Edge to a Bitmap

   12. Solve the Bitmap-Shift Bug

   13. A Page-Turn Effect (Exploit Symmetry and Masking)

4. Chapter 4 Animation

   1. Hacks #26-34

   2. Smooth Scripted Motion

   3. Time-Controlled Movement

   4. Quick, Bandwidth-Efficient Character Animation

   5. alt-Flash: Motion Graphics Alternatives

   6. Deja New Animations

   7. Hacking The Matrix

   8. Computer-Generated Character Animation

   9. Particle Effects

   10. Shape Tweening Complex Shapes

5. Chapter 5 3D and Physics

   1. Hacks #35-41

   2. Simulate 3D

   3. Panoramic Images

   4. An Optimized 3D Plotter

   5. Use Acceleration to Simulate Gravity and Friction

   6. Simulate a Throw

   7. Detect Multiple Collisions

   8. Turn Toward a Point

6. Chapter 6 Text

   1. Hacks #42-51

   2. Fonts

   3. Keep Text Legible

   4. Autocomplete Text Fields

   5. Store a List of All Input Words

   6. Import Complex Formatting in Flash

   7. HTML and CSS in Flash

   8. Use Accessibility Text as Help Text

   9. Text Effect Framework

   10. Typewriter Effect

   11. Time-Based Text Effects

   12. Timeline Text Effects

7. Chapter 7 Sound

   1. Hacks #52-60

   2. Create a Flash Speech Synthesizer

   3. A Talking, Lip-Synched Avatar

   4. The Ubiquitous Sound-Kicker Hack

   5. Turn Low-Bandwidth Monaural Sounds into Stereo Sounds

   6. Real-Time Sound Effects

   7. Quickly Create UI Sounds

   8. Optimize Sound

   9. Sound Time Codes (Cue Points)

   10. A Custom Sound Transform Class

8. Chapter 8 User Interface Elements

   1. Hacks #61-64

   2. Amit's Dials (Interactive Testing)

   3. Right and Middle Mouse Buttons

   4. Button Movie Clips

   5. Dude, Where's My Scrollbar?

9. Chapter 9 Performance and Optimization

   1. Hacks #65-73

   2. Optimize Filesize and Download Time

   3. Optimize Graphics

   4. Increase Code Performance

   5. Beat Flash File Bloat

   6. Bandwidth Testing for Complex Sites

   7. Hide Low-Quality Settings

   8. Optimize Graphics for Performance

   9. Benchmark Runtime Performance

   10. Adjust the Animation Complexity Dynamically

   11. Performance Budget

   12. Substitute Bitmaps for Vectors

   13. Optimize Component Downloading and Usage

10. Chapter 10 ActionScript

    1. Hacks #74-85

    2. Changes in Flash MX 2004

    3. External Script Editors

    4. Strict Typing and Casual Scripters

    5. Code Hints

    6. Clone an Object

    7. An Idle Timer (Timeout Event)

    8. Fast ActionScript Searches

    9. Lock the actions Layer

    10. Debug with trace( )

    11. Undocumented ActionScript

    12. ASnative( ) Back Door

    13. Obscure Operators

    14. Import ASC Files as XML

11. Chapter 11 Browser Integration

    1. Hacks #86-96

    2. Keep Your Site Browser Friendly

    3. A Universal Flash Plugin Sniffer

    4. Test Multiple Flash Plugins

    5. Preferences and Publishing Defaults

    6. Center Your SWF Without Scaling

    7. CSS-Based Browser Centering

    8. Dynamically Resize Content

    9. Create HTML Links in Flash

    10. Integrate the Back Button with Flash

    11. Give the Flash SWF Keyboard Focus

    12. Add Key Shortcuts to Your Site

12. Chapter 12 Security

    1. Hacks #97-100

    2. Privacy Settings

    3. Cross-Domain Policy

    4. Handling Local Executables

    5. Recover Content from a SWF

    6. Protect and Obfuscate Your Flash Files

    7. Make Your SWF Phone Home

    8. Review Compiled ActionScript

1. Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The tool on the cover of Flash Hacks is a spotlight. The modern spotlight descends from an invention at the beginning of the nineteenth century by British army officer Thomas Drummond. Drummond produced "limelight" by burning a cylinder of calcium oxide (lime) in an oxyhydrogen flame. As the lime was oxidized by the flame, it produced a brilliant light that could be directed into a beam by a glass lens. Although its original use was to make survey stations more visible at night, limelight quickly became a part of stage lighting; its first appearances were in the Paris opera houses, and it was used widely throughout Europe and the United States until the 1890s.

The etymology of the expression "in the limelight"--being at the center of attention--comes from this beam of light, which was used to direct the audience's attention to an important person or event on stage.

As technology improved, limelight became less popular as a means to light theatres because it produced intense heat, started fires, emitted a noxious gas-like odor, and cast a greenish tint. Its brief successor was the carbon arc lamp, which was quickly replaced in the 1920s by the newer and safer incandescent spotlight that used a modern 1000-watt lamp. Of course, that lamp was possible because Thomas Edison continued to make advances in electrical technology that led, in 1911, to the introduction of the "concentrated filament" lamp designed for use in a lens hood. Thus, the modern spotlight was born. Marlowe Shaeffer was the production editor and proofreader for Flash Hacks. Norma Emory was the copyeditor. Reg Aubry and Darren Kelly provided quality control. John Bickelhaupt wrote the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a photograph taken from the Classic PIO Entertainment CD. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with Quark-XPress 4.1 using Adobe's Helvetica Neue and ITC Garamond fonts.

Melanie Wang designed the interior layout, based on a series design by David Futato. This book was converted by Andrew Savikas to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. This colophon was written by Marlowe Shaeffer.