Charles E. Brown
By Charles E. Brown  A recently received a letter from a reader asking if I knew of any plug-in programs to create text effects in Fireworks MX. The reader seemed a bit surprised when I wrote back and told them that Fireworks already had the tools to get the job done. 'Where is the button?' they asked. Man... Nov. 8, 2005 04:45 PM Reads: 21,079 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown  Contribute 3 provides powerful control for professional Web designers and developers, allowing them to maintain, distribute, and control Web site content while empowering content owners to participate in the Web editing process. Contribute keeps content fresh by enabling content owners... Aug. 19, 2005 03:00 PM Reads: 15,231 |
By Charles E. Brown  Since the introduction of Macromedia Studio in 2001, websites and applications have grown continuously in sophistication and importance, from communicating corporate brands to delivering mission-critical data and transactions. Technical, communication, and marketing requirements for we... Aug. 19, 2005 02:00 PM Reads: 25,076 |
By Charles E. Brown Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go! Ok, let me give you a chance to restore your heart rhythms. Each year I see a recurring situation. Software Company... Aug. 3, 2005 12:00 PM Reads: 16,883 Replies: 2 |
By Charles E. Brown  Let me paint a hypothetical situation. There will never be another update of any software package again! All software companies feel they have gone as far as they can go! Jun. 27, 2005 03:00 PM Reads: 12,262 |
By Charles E. Brown  As many of you know, I do Macromedia seminars around the world. A fair number of participants are independent contractors. The number one question I get asked isn't about the latest programming techniques in Flash or how to develop dynamic pages in Dreamweaver. The number one question ... Jun. 15, 2005 10:00 AM Reads: 15,345 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown Business guru Tom Peters once wrote 'we need to embrace change; to welcome it; to transplant ourselves periodically.' Through change, we grow and avoid complacency or staleness. With change, we start on the proverbial Spring cleaning and make way for the new and exciting. May. 18, 2005 09:00 AM Reads: 29,403 |
By Charles E. Brown The proposed acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe is not a done deal. Both companies are under the scrutiny of the SEC, and it must also be approved by stockholders. While Macromedia/Adobe gives this process three to nine months, some industry analysts feel that is being overly optimis... Apr. 19, 2005 07:00 AM Reads: 21,436 |
By Charles E. Brown When I took over this publication last September, I stated that I wanted to eventually change the tone of the publication so that the articles did not seem like 'textbook' exercises. Instead, I wanted to take on a more pragmatic approach by showing how many businesses are using the Mac... Mar. 31, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 14,560 |
By Charles E. Brown As we go to print, we are finally seeing the realization of what must have been the worst kept secret beta in history: 'Blackstone.' As a matter of fact, at the New Orleans conference in November, Macromedia finally threw in the towel and gave everyone a beta copy of it. Mar. 15, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 14,713 |
By Charles E. Brown In Part 1 I introduced you to very basic concepts of ActionScript 2.0. We looked at some simple programs such as setting a variable, basic object-oriented concepts, and some basic interaction with the Flash MX 2004 Interface. Mar. 15, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 11,567 |
By Charles E. Brown  'The new version of ColdFusion extends the Internet to mobile devices and delivers groundbreaking rich forms support, reporting, and printing solutions,' says Gruber, ColdFusion product manager at Macromedia on his SYS-CON.TV interview today with MX Developer's Journal chief-editor Cha... Feb. 7, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 34,153 Replies: 3 |
By Charles E. Brown It is the New Year, a time when we make resolutions and change (alright, I promise I won't talk about diets). It is also a time when we look back on the previous year. Publishing this journal is certainly no different. Jan. 21, 2005 12:00 AM Reads: 15,513 |
By Charles E. Brown I am writing this editorial the day after returning from the MAX 2004 Macromedia Conference in New Orleans, LA. As a veteran (or survivor) of many conferences, I can honestly say that this was one of the finest events I have ever attended. Dec. 21, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 15,355 |
By Charles E. Brown Flash ActionScript has come a long way since Flash 5. However, never has the leap been as great as with the release of Flash MX 2004. Dec. 21, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 13,355 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown One thing was abundantly clear at the 2004 MAX conference in New Orleans: the third-party Flash market is growing rapidly. This is due to Macromedia's decision to provide APIs and open standards. The result of this decision is that the Flash developer will now have a virtual cornucopia... Dec. 21, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 21,335 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown In the October issue of this journal, we had a small error; John Bland's fine article entitled 'A Little OOP, CF Style' ended up with the classification of Flash ActionScript. Unfortunately it was not caught until the edition was in print. However, when I reviewed the article, I was st... Nov. 18, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 16,764 Replies: 5 |
By Charles E. Brown Recently, while doing some consulting, I observed a programmer hand-coding a query and database fields onto a Web page. Here is the scary part: they were using Dreamweaver MX 2004. The following week I delivered a seminar and spoke about dynamic technology. I was amazed how many did no... Nov. 18, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 22,595 Replies: 3 |
By Charles E. Brown As a Web developer, trainer, and conference speaker, the question I am asked most frequently is, 'Where is this industry going?' My answer is one simple word: Flash!!! Oct. 18, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 19,481 Replies: 14 |
By Charles E. Brown There is a little bit of irony going on here: this is an article about a software package that will go a long way toward rendering printed technical media, such as this journal, obsolete. Last year Macromedia purchased the company eHelp and, as a result, acquired RoboHelp, RoboInfo, Ro... Jun. 17, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 17,248 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown I have to begin this month's article with a confession. Each year, because of my articles and books, software publishers send me piles of free software with the hope that I will do an article about their product. I use the software and then, at some point, start feeling guilty. So, in ... Jun. 17, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 15,909 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown The value of any piece of software is in how much time and effort it can save you. What good is the software if it is not going to increase productivity and efficiency? In several of my past articles, I have examined ways of automating common or repetitive processes. To that end, I am ... May. 19, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 14,036 |
By Charles E. Brown Approximately 10 years ago a new word started to appear in programming circles: objects. The theory was that little bits of code, doing a specialized job, could be prewritten and plugged into existing code as needed. Apr. 7, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 14,892 |
By Charles E. Brown I often receive photographs from readers asking me what went wrong. The picture files are too large or of poor quality. This month, we're going to look at some ways of improving your quality both within, and outside of, Fireworks MX. Mar. 2, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 17,024 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown OK, Fireworks class, let's see a show of hands: How many people understand how to really use the color tools in Fireworks MX? About 80% of you! Now, how many people understand the hexadecimal code behind colors? Hmmm....about 50%! Now, how many understand the mathematics behind blend m... Feb. 2, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 18,624 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown I recently received a letter from a reader asking if I knew of any plug-in programs to create text effects in Fireworks MX. The reader seemed a bit surprised when I wrote back and told them that Fireworks already had the tools to get the job done. Jan. 5, 2004 12:00 AM Reads: 26,349 Replies: 1 |
By Charles E. Brown In this tutorial, we're going to examine some aspects of creating a navigation bar in Fireworks MX. We will create three buttons for our small navigation bar, and then we will instruct Fireworks to write the JavaScript code necessary to create rollover effects for the buttons. In the e... Nov. 17, 2003 12:00 AM Reads: 18,093 Replies: 1 |
About Newsfeeds / Video Feeds
Charles E. Brown is the former editor-in-chief of MX Developer's Journal. He is the author of Fireworks MX from Zero to Hero and Beginning Dreamweaver MX. He also contributed to The Macromedia Studio MX Bible. Charles is a senior trainer for FMC on the MX product family. 
I might have skipped some of the new features of Flash Player 10, but you can always refer to the official FAQ page. Visit Plash Players 10 page on Adobe Labs to dow...