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• Index• ExamplesAnimation and Effects with Macromedia® Flash™ MX 2004By
Jen deHaan Publisher: Peachpit PressPub Date: November 15, 2004ISBN: 0-321-30344-XPages: 472
Working with Flash Player
Flash Player is the software your visitors use to view the SWF files that you build, so it's helpful to understand the software to some extent. It might be a standalone player if you play the SWF file on their hard drives, such as when you create an executable file for a CD-ROM. There are different versions of Flash Player that have released to the public, and have been installed by the masses over the years. The different versions of Flash Player have different capabilities that coincide with the version of Flash that was current at the time. For example, you could not dynamically load JPEG images until Flash Player 6. Any Flash Player installs released prior to that version do not support that functionality, so your visitors must have Flash Player 6 or greater installed on the system.When you publish a SWF file, you should test it on as many computers as possible. For example, if you expect many of your visitors to view the content on a Macintosh, you should test the SWF on a Mac. Or, if you expect your audience to have old computers, you should have the SWF tested on old machines. The SWF might play differently on different processors or computers with less RAM, so you should test for potential problems and remedy them before releasing your work to the public.Memory management is another concern with Flash Player. If you load a lot of intensive content (such as video and sound), you should test the SWF file thoroughly. If you load a lot of video, you might find out that your SWF file crashes or runs very slowly. This might happen if your visitor clicks buttons to load the video in close succession, or if you don't unload your content before loading new content in. Make sure that you load and unload your content appropriately or in succession to avoid potential memory problems.
Publishing alternative files
Just as you can import a variety of formats into the Flash authoring environment, you can export several different file formats from it as well. This can be useful when you want to combine your Flash content in another medium, such as exporting Flash for broadcast media (video), or as a static or animated GIF to display as a banner. To select the formats you want to publish, select File > Publish Settings and then check the formats in the Formats tab. After you select a format to publish, a new tab usually opens, on which you can make settings that specify how you want to export the file.Formats (other than SW103) that you can publish to are as follows:GIF:
Lets you publish static or animated GIFs, or a GIF image map. If you publish an animated GIF, all or specified frames in your FLA file export as the animation. The GIF tab contains the following options:Dimensions:
Set the height and width of the image.Playback:
Set whether you want the image to be static or animated. If you select animated, you can choose if you want the file to loop.Appearance settings (Windows), Options (Macintosh):
Select how you want to compress the image (affects quality).Transparency settings:
Select whether you want the image to have transparent regions (such as the background area).Dither options:
Select a format for dithering (the way available colors combine to create the appearance of an unavailable color).Palette type:
Select a color palette for the image, or a custom ACT palette from your hard drive.JPEG:
Lets you publish a static JPEG image. Exports the first frame of your FLA file as a JPEG unless you specify otherwise.Dimensions:
Set the height and width of the image.Quality:
Use the slider to set the quality of the image (a low setting means low quality and a smaller file size).Progressive:
Check this option to export a progressive JPEG image. This means the image incrementally displays as it loads into a browser window. Some programs do not support progressive JPEG files. For example, Flash does not support loading progressive images at runtime.PNG:
Lets you export a PNG image, which is a bitmap file format that supports transparency. Exports the first frame of your FLA file as a PNG unless you specify otherwise.Dimensions:
Set the height and width of the image.Bit depth:
Sets the number of colors to use by number of bits per pixel.Appearance settings (Windows), Options (Macintosh):
Select how you want to compress the image (affects quality).Dither options:
Select a format for dithering (how available colors combine to create the appearance of an unavailable color).Palette type:
Select a color palette for the image, or a custom ACT palette from your hard drive.Filter:
Lets you select a filter method that makes the exported PNG file increasingly compressible.Windows or Macintosh Projector:
Publishes a standalone projector file (EXE or HQX). This executable includes Flash Player, so your end user does not need to have Flash Player installed on the computer. Useful for kiosks and CD-ROMs.QuickTime:
Exports a video in the QuickTime MOV format if you have QuickTime installed on your computer. The QuickTime player must support the features in your FLA file for them to work. QuickTime usually supports an earlier version of Flash Player (such as Flash Player 5), so you must publish to that version of Flash or you see an error. If you see an error, change your Flash Player publish settings under the Flash tab.Dimensions:
Set the height and width of the image.Transparency settings:
Select whether you want the image to have transparent regions (such as the background area).Layer options:
Let you choose where you want the flash track to layer in the MOV file (in front of or behind other tracks).Streaming sound:
Lets you choose to export streaming sounds as an audio track in the MOV file.Controller:
Specifies the kind of controller you want the MOV file to use.Playback:
Sets whether you want the MOV file to continually loop (or not).
If you publish to GIF, JPEG, PNG, or MOV and select the option to publish a111 page as well, th102 contains the code you need to display that format on a web page. This is particularly useful to show visitors who might not have Flash Player installed.You also can publish detection files, which detect whether the visitor has Flash Player on the computer system and takes action based on the results of the detection process. Refer to the following section for more details.
To learn how to detect for Flash Player on your visitor's computer, refer to the following section, "Detecting Flash Player."Detecting Flash Player
You can easily add Flash Player detection using the Publish Settings dialog box. For some situations, it's a good idea to use Flash Player detection on your website. Detection is important if you think that some of your visitors might not even have Flash Player installed. If Flash Player is not present, you can direct the visitors to another web page that might be th102 version of your website or to a111 page that asks them to download Flash Player. You can detect for Flash Player 4 and greater, which is present on most computers. If Flash Player that's earlier than version 3 is presentor if no Flash Player is present at allthe visitor is redirected to th102 page.
It's not always possible to detect Flash Player. It's impossible to account for every single browser or operating system setup. Just try to account for as many different computer setups as possible.The easiest way to create a Flash Player detection system is to use the functionality that's built into Flash. Follow these steps to create a Flash Player detection system:1. Open one of the FLA projects you built for this book or use one of your own.2. Select File > Publish Settings to open the Publish Setting dialog box. Make sure tha117 is selected on the Formats tab, and then click th102 tab.3. Make sure that you select the Detect Flash Version check box.
Figure A.1. Select Detect Flash Version to generate Flash Player detection files.
Figure A.2. Set the minor version of Flash Player to detect for and modify filenames if necessary.
sit102:
This is the page that your visitors go to when they enter your site. You would link to this page. This page detects if the visitor has the minimum requirements to see your website.
site_conten117:
This page contains the site.swf file (the FLA file you are exporting).
site_alternat102:
If your visitor does not have the proper Flash Player, they redirect to this page. You might want to provide a link to download Flash Player or put a111 version of your site here. If you have an existin104 file for this location, click the Use Existing radio button below this text field and browse to that file on your hard drive.If you want to choose different filenames for the detection system, you can modify them in this dialog box. Click OK when you're done.5. Now you can click Publish to export the files. You need to upload all the files that generate from this process (including a special detection SWF file) to your website.
Creating a Publish profile
When you make settings in the Publish Settings dialog box, these settings save with the FLA file. You can also create a Publish profile that saves your settings in an external file, export it, and then import the profile into other FLA documents. Using Publish profiles helps you remain consistent in the way you publish certain documents, or streamlines your workflow if you need to routinely publish to different formats. Follow these steps to create a Publish profile:
1. Open one of the FLA projects you built for this book or use one of your own. Select File > Publish Settings to open the Publish Setting dialog box.2. Click the Create New Profile button, as shown in Figure A.3.
Figure A.3. Click the Create New Profile button.
Figure A.4. Import or export a profile using this menu.
