ShadeMessage is a freeware applet which will let your messages puff like cornflakes.

Colors and background image

The background image will be used instead of the background color. Leave this field blank if you want to use the background color setting instead. Use the compression setting to decrease the SWF file size. If you do not have a background image, then the effect will still work just fine. Use the shade color to set the shade of the text "puffs".

Entering messages and URLs

Make sure you have the same amount of URLs as you have messages. Enter each message in it's own line. See the section Entering Text Or Files for more information.

Fonts

Here you can here specify the text size (in pixels) and the font. This applet supports FFT files.

Movement, number and Start and End points of shades

The start and end points of the shades will be used to disperse the puffing shades. The Speed setting will set the speed of the shades and the Shades setting set the number of shades per character. Maximum 5 shades per character are recommended.

Movement settings

The animation speed will increase the speed of each letter's appearance. Don't let it be too large, values about 2-4 are good.

Message pause

This is the pause before a new message appear (in 83 ms units).

Limitations

Due to a limitation in Flash Player 5.0, you can have a maximum of only 200 messages 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:

The Flash Applet Size Parameters
Working With Text Fields
Entering Text Or Files
Working with fonts
Working With File Fields And File Lists
Working With Time Delays and Pauses
Working With Color Buttons
Compression Ratios for images

Anibal Wainstein