I haven’t been writing much lately because I have been busy fooling around with a Flash site builder. I don’t want to give you the URL of my site yet because it still has some gaping holes in it, but generally I am finding it a lot of fun. I have used online site builders for a number of years and am generally pretty happy with them. They are easy and reliable and can do just about anything that a site built from scratch could do. But HTML sites done with online builders usually lack the pizzazz that people expect these days. Pizzazz is important, even when building sites for student use. I can provide the incentive of grades to force them to read the material on a site, but the material seems to sink in better if there are visual reinforcements and a mixture of the media used to convey the information. Hmmm - probably has to do with learning styles or something. So I turned to Flash.

The online Flash website builder I chose has pricing in Canadian dollars, so I decided this would potentially spare me from the currency fluctuation I sometimes face when I have purchased online with American dollars. Our dollar is fairly low right now, somehow tied to oil prices. So I am paying a lot more for anything in US dollars. If Americans buy in Canadian dollars, they can realize some savings. Anyways, I digress.

The thing I liked immediately about the online Flash website builder was how easy it was to add videos. They can be embedded in HTML of course, but the Flash site organizes them and displays them better than anything I have used before. Similarly photos are very easy to display in Flash, using slide shows and galleries. A feature that I have not tried yet is to record on my webcam and display on the site immediately, without any editing. I am a little reluctant to display my mug to the whole world, but this definitely could have some applications for communicating with students.

Of course, Flash also offers eye catching templates, music, animation, fancy introductions, fast loading - all the things that give a site pizzazz. Also, there are lot’s of ecommerce options that I don’t plan to use, but if I’m not using them, I don’t have to pay for them. Another neat feature is the link to my mobile. If someone submits the contact form on the site, the site sends me a text message. There are probably other features that I just haven’t got around to yet. So far, I have found it very easy to use and if I get stuck, I can talk to a real person for help. I like that.

There are some drawbacks that I am finding with Flash compared to HTML. I can’t attach documents like .PDF files, add javascript or other coded stuff, links on images, and a few other things that are sometimes annoying. So if I were using the site to deliver information on documents that people could download, well, I just can’t with this type of site. Also, as far as I can figure out, there is no way to password protect pages. So I still need an HTML site for these purposes. I have also read that Flash is more difficult to optimize for search engines (SEO). But it seems like there are many Flash sites listed whenever I search for something. So there must be a way to doing it.

Given the low price, it’s seems to me to be worth it to have something that I can deliver information using the more dynamic format. Maybe more will stick.

So bottom line – would I recommend an online Flash website builder? My answer would be, it depends. The Flash definitely has some advantages and neat features. But it also has some limitations. Depends on the reason you need the site.