CSS Style and Flash Plug-Ins: something really cool when designing our website

    My job in my group is to create the main page. It is a tough job because the main page is what leaves the first impression on the visitors. What I'm trying to achieve is that it should be as simple as possible, easy to guide, easy to see what the site is intended for and easy to get info within just one click.
    The most direct way for navigating on index page is using the shockwave flash (swf) plug-ins. It can integrate multiple pictures into a flash video and display them like a slide show. What's more, each picture is clickable and will lead to an internal link. The pictures I chose to put in the flash are the top-5 places our group recommended for college students. The other links are available through a navigation-bar placed above the flash plug-in.
    I'd say creating such a plug-in isn't so simple for a beginner, it's not as easy as many of you may think, putting picture together and add transitional effects just like what we did in visual essay presentation. Actually, I learned some coding on flash scripts in order to keep the video running; and really spent a lot of time on configuring the buttons. Flash has many cool functions, also making it very pro-oriented and inappropriate for an amateur like me. Anyway I overcame most of the difficulties and get the whole thing running smooth and pretty.
    Another thing is the CSS style, which we did not learn on class. Well, HTML design is just so universal: all texts have the same layout, same font size and same color. The CSS solves most of the problem, I can edit the properties of certain text easily. Still, the texts within the same functional area, such as table and menu bar cannot be edited. This time I had to use CSS coding in edit mode and found out in order edit the text individually, a CSS description-specifically intended for selected text-is needed.
    All these compicated steps made me frustrated at first, because what I saw is things weren't running in the way I expected. But the process of exploration, trials and errors is what makes me really dedicated to it. Adobe makes great software with the highest standard in the industry, intended for highly-skilled professionals. If not so, I won't be able to put these cool stuff on our main-page, and what leaves is nothing but plain texts and pictures.