Tutorial #16

Publishing a Flash Movie

To set publishing options for a Flash movie's files:

1. Specify where you will publish the Flash movie files:
   
   Create the folder where you want to save the published files, and save your Flash movie file.
   
   
2. Choose FILE / PUBLISH SETTINGS.
   
   
   
3. Select the option for each file format you want to create.
   
   The HTML format is selected automatically, because an HTML file is required to display your Flash movie in a browser. In addition, if the selected format has settings, a corresponding tab appears above the current panel in the dialog box. Choosing an image format such as GIF, JPEG, or PNG automatically adds the required HTML code to display the image if the Flash Player is not available.
   For more information on publishing settings for individual file formats, see the sections that follow.
   
   
   
4. For Filename, choose from the following options:
   
   Use the default file names.
   
   Deselect Use Default Name. Then enter your own file name.
   
   You can browse to where you will publish the files and publish each file in a different location (for example, if you want to save the SWF file in one location and the HTML file in another location). For a relative path, use ..\to indicate the path to the hard drive; for an absolute path, specify the drive name.
   
   For example, specify an absolute path as C:\Folder\filename.swf where C: is the drive name, \Folder specifies the folder name, and filename.swf is the name of the file.
   
   
   
5. To create a projector, select Windows Projector or Macintosh Projector.
   Although you can create a Macintosh projector using the Windows versions of Flash, you must also use a file translator such as BinHex to make the resulting file appear as an application file in the Macintosh Finder. The Windows version of Flash names a Macintosh projector file with the .hqx extension.
   
   
   
6. Enter a unique name for Filename, or select Use Default Name to create each file using the Flash file's name with the extension appropriate for that format.
   
   
7. Click the tab for the format options you want to change. Specify publish settings for each format, as described in the following sections.
   
   
8. When you have finished setting options, do one of the following:
   To generate all the specified files, click Publish to generate all the specified files, or click OK.
   To save the settings with your file and close the dialog box without publishing, click OK.
   

To publish a Flash movie:

1. If necessary, set the publishing options for the files, as described in the previous procedure.
   
   
2. Choose FILE / PUBLISH to create the files in the formats and location specified in the Publish Settings dialog box.

To alter or update a Flash Player movie created with the Publish command, you must edit the original Flash movie and then use the Publish command again to avoid discarding any authoring information. Importing a Flash Player movie into Flash strips some of the authoring information.