Giving Your Title Some Oomph!!!

You can create a title in Fireworks or Flash. The instructions on this page are for creating a title in Flash. You will also create titles for your six additional pages.

Open Flash from your program files. Follow the steps below to create a title similar to the one below:

• Click the text button to open the text box. Select font size, color, and face. Click on your canvas and type your company name. If you don't like the font style, size, or color, while holding down your left mouse button, drag over the text to select it. Experiment with the three options until you get the look you want.
• Click the arrow key and select the text. A border will appear around your title. To create an abstract look, you must first break your image apart.
  • With your title selected, click on modify on your standard toolbar, then select break apart. The letters should now appear gray.
• Click on the canvas to deselect your title.
• Place your arrow on the first letter of the first word and move it around until you see a right angle symbol that will appear behind your cursor. While holding down your left mouse button, pull the edge of your J away from the text. Notice that it will begin to stretch. Continue until you get the look you want. Continue with the rest of the letters to create a unique look.
• To create a colored outline:
  
  • Select the ink tool , then select a color, size and line style at the Stroke Panel (Window>Panels>Stroke).
    
  • Click on the outside and inside portion of the letters. I used a size 2, solid dark green line.
• Add a layer and import the graphic file you want to use as a fill. I used a background image found on one the many free web graphic sites.
  • Click Insert>Layer.
  • You will now see Layer 2 above Layer 1 which contains your text.
  • Rename the layers by double clicking the text Layer 1 and typing "text." Double click on Layer 2 and type "background." You will delete the background layer later in the activity.
• Import the background image into Flash:
  • Make sure you are on layer 2 in Flash. You need to click in Frame 1 in layer two like shown below:

  

  • Once you have your image in your student folder, click File>Import.
    
• When the image is in Flash, select it, press Ctrl+B to break it apart, and then select the entire image using the Eydropper tool from the Toolbox. You will see the fill color well on the Toolbox change to the image you just selected.
  
• Before you do anything else, select the layer with the imported image, and then click on the trash can icon below the layer column to delete the layer.
  
• Making sure the bitmap image is still in the fill color well, select the Paint Bucket tool and click on each of the graphic letters you want to fill with the bitmap.
  
• Export the image which converts the flash image into gif format following the directions below:
  • File>Export Image.
  • In the Save as type: Choose GIF Image.
  • In the File name, assign it a name.
    

• Save it and view it in your browser. If your page looks different, make sure that you used the paragraph tag to embed your centered title image.

The next step is to create a title for each of your six category pages. You can choose to create the graphics in either flash or fireworks. Replace the H2 heading in your table header with the graphics.