# Newbie Flash questions

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/newbie-flash-questions/277343>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 10, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/newbie-flash-questions/277343 "2008-12-10T23:19:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Superion\_unit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@Superion\_unit](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Superion_unit)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/newbie-flash-questions/277343/1 "2008-12-10T23:19:46Z")

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Hello everyone…and let me apologize in advance, because I’m a newbie and I have several questions. But first, some background. I’m a teacher, and instead of writing my class notes/material up on the whiteboard, I use MS Powerpoint (PPt) to make things a little more interesting. I’ve always liked the “Terminator” visual special effects style, so I use the color typewriter effect in PPt (along with a few others) to imitate that feel.

The problem is, PPt regularly suffers from lag/slowdown. I don’t know if it’s what I’m trying to do with it (it doesn’t seem that complex), or if it’s the computer hardware (although these are work/class computers, and should be fairly high-end). In any case, I have been thinking about trying to switch to Flash for this…but here’s where my first question comes in: Has anyone else experienced the slowdown that I’ve mentioned with PPt? Would Flash be prone to the same drawback, particularly with complex text elements?

Next: I’m simply trying to re-create the very quick one-letter-at-a-time effect that you see in terminator-style text graphics…but I’m having major trouble doing this in flash. I thought of just putting text up, covering it with a rectangle the same color as the background (black), and motion-tweening it out of the way. The problem is, for some crazy reason, I can’t overlay the rectangle over the text…even when I try to use Arrange - Send to Front (and Send to Back for the text). What in the world am I doing wrong?

Last: Is there any place on the web that might have some of the flash elements I would want to use? It seems that everyone wants to sell what they’ve made, rather than sharing (which I can understand somewhat…but whatever happened to making something for bragging rights?)

THANKS!