This Flash applet is a image scroller and two level menu in one. It uses images as the top items which display the text sub items when you move the mouse pointer across one image. As a nice touch, you can also let sparks dance around the mouse pointer.

The menu colors

You can set a variety of colors in this menu. You have two background colors, one is for the applet (this setting will be overriden if you use the background image instead), the other is for the image holder. You can also specify the sub items color and the color for their border. The images will flash briefly to a color that you specify in the menu selection color.

Subitem font

You can set the font and size for the sub items. This applet support fft files.

Adding menu items and URLs

It is very important that you read the section Working With Tree Fields in the VAC manual. This section tells you how to include the menu items and how to use the tree field. Make sure that you have the same number of main items as you have images (see below).

Selecting images

Here, you must have the same amount of images that you have main items. Image 0 will correspond to main item 0, image 1 corresponds to item 1 and so on. The image dimensions will be automatically adjusted to fit with the other images.

Sparks

This menu has an additional touch that the developer wished to implement. You can have sparks dancing around the mouse pointer. In this tab you can set the color, size, minimum and maximum movement radius, the speed of the spark movement and the total amount. If you do not wish to have any sparks, set the size to 0.

Main bar zoom

The main bar is the area where the images are. You can set it's maximum and minimum zoom values. The zoom border is actually the amount of zoom applied to each individual images. You can also set the zoom speed.

Subitems offset and spacing

The subitems offset will set the gap between the subitems and the main bar. Adjust the spacing to let the subitems fit in the border properly. This setting has to be adjusted taking into account the font size and font type. Experimenting with this setting is the only way.

Border settings

With the horizontal and vertical picture borders you can set the horizontal and vertical gap between the images and the with the main bar.

Setting Images

You can specify a logo image and a background image for the applet. The background image will override the background color setting. The logo image will be placed behind the sub items.

Limitations

Due to a bug in Flash Player 5.0, you can have a maximum of 200 images in the Flash applet. More than that, and the applet will not work.

Other settings

There are other settings that are discussed on the following topics from the Advanced Effect Maker documentation:

Working With Tree Fields
The Flash Applet Size Parameters
URL Links and Frame Targets
Working With File Fields And File Lists
Working With Color Buttons
Working with Check Boxes
Compression Ratios for images
Working with fonts

Anibal Wainstein