The Formats Tab
The Formats tab is the first tab that appears when you open the Publish Settings dialog box. This tab controls all the different formats that you will be creating when you publish your finished work. By default, there are already two choices selected: Flash (.swf) an295 (.
For the Web
The two formats for the web are the default choices: Flash an295. The Flash extension, .swf, stands for Shockwave Flash (or Small Web Format if you are a web history buff). Th296 embeds the Flash content to be viewable through a browser, but is itself not a format containing your Flash work. (You'll learn more on embedding Flash i305 later in this chapter.) This means that, although you can publish just the Flash content, you cannot publish just th296. Even if you could publish just th296, it would not display anything; it would merely have the necessar316 tags to contain the published Flash file (SWF).
Graphics
Because of Flash's built-in and easy-to-use drawing tools, you may also want to use the Flash authoring environment to create graphics to use in conjunction with other programs. Flash makes it as simple as checking a box to be able to publish JPEG, PNG, and GIF images. Also, as you will see later in this chapter, you can adjust properties of the publish formats for better control.
Projectors and QuickTime
Projector formats are very useful for projects such as CD media, where you can't be sure if the end user will have the necessary Flash Player installed on his or her system. For both PC and Mac, Projector files include their own run-time Flash Player so that the end user does not need it. This makes Projector files (.exe) much larger than Flash files (.swf), so choose wisely when it is appropriate to use them.