Publishing a Flash Movie

There is no point in being able to create great Flash movies if you cannot Publish the movie to the web! This tutorial looks at the group of files that is created as Part of the Publishing process and goes through the steps that you need to know in order to get your Flash movie onto a web page or into other formats.

Publishing Files

A completed Flash movie usually has several parts:

The first is the Flash Movie that you create in Flash. This is the file that you create, edit and save:

The Flash file: myMovie.fla

The second part is the Shockwave file which you upload to the Internet and that the viewer looks at. This is much smaller than the Flash file and cannot be edited only viewed.

The Shockwave file: myMovie.swf

Normally there is also a web page in which the Shockwave file is placed. This is normally a standard HTML web page.

The web page: myMovie.html

Another useful part of a publication is a text file which contains a size report:

The Report: myMovie Report.txt

Note: There are also many other files which can make up the publication group. The above are the most often used.

File Extensions

To be able to tell the files apart look at the file extensions (the code at the end of the file name). On many computers you cannot see this. When you are using Flash it is much better to change the system settings for the computer so that the file extension are visible:

PC's:

1. On a PC you can switch the file extension on by going to: My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View
   (Win 95/98: My Computer > View > Folder Options > View )
2. Scroll down and remove the tick from: Hide extensions for known file types
3. Click: ok

MAC's:

Switch to Finder > Preferences > Advanced > Tick: Show all File Extentions

Icons

Even if you cannot see the file extension the Icons look different:

How to Publish your Flash files

Go to: File > Publish

This will create a group of files. Exactly which files this will create, what they are called and where they are located will depend on the Publish Settings.

To look at the settings go to: File > Publish Settings

Publish Settings

Default Names and Location   

If you have: Use Default Names selected Flash will create all the files in the publication group with the same name and in the same location on your computer as the original Flash file. Although they all have the same name they will each have a different file extension. If you deselect this you can type individual file names and locations for each of the files in the group.

Location Folders

The folder where you wish to save your file must already exist. So you must use My Computer or some other file management program to create the folder before you publish the group of files. So if I type:

images/myShockwave.swf

The file will go into a sub-folder called: images

The file will be called: myShockwave.swf

Naming

Names for files and folders must conform to standard Internet conventions:

•  You cannot use spaces.
•  You cannot use punctuation except for hyphen - and underscore_
•  Remember that the Internet is case sensitive.

Flash (.swf) Shockwave file   

This is the absolute minimum that you need to publish. It is the file that you need to upload to the web. If you are not publishing to the web but using the Flash file on a CD or in an email this is still the file that you need.

HTML (.html) Web Page   

This will create a web page with the Shockwave file already embedded and ready to upload to the net.

OK

It is important to realize that the OK button does not Publish any files. It just resets the default Publishing Settings for the Flash file that is open. Any new settings will be activated next time you press the Publish button.

Individual Flash files can all have different default Publishing Settings.

Publish

What publish does is create all of the files that have been selected under Publish Setting. They will be created in accordance with the names and location as specified in the File Name section and any option selected under the individual tabs (which I will look at in a moment).

If you make changes under Publish Settings, to Publish those changes you must click:

1. File > Publish Settings
2. Publish then...
3. OK

If you do not wish to make changes to the Publish Settings you may do the following:

1. Or goto: File > Publish

Both systems of Publishing are the same.

Publishing Options: Flash

Click On the Flash Tab to access the options:

Version
If possible go back a version to Flash 5. If you do this the Plug in that the viewer needs does not need to be the latest. If it is not possible to go back to an earlier version Flash will come up with an error message when you try to Publish:

Loading Order

Which layer will load first from the bottom up or visa versa.

Generate Size Report

If this is selected you will get a size report as mentioned above:

I look at the Size Report in detail in the next tutorial:

Cross Ref: Optimizing a Flash Movie

Protect from Import

Makes it impossible to turn the Shockwave file back into a Flash file.

Omit Trace actions

Turns trace actions off. If you don't know what a Trace is - don't worry as you won't have any!!

Debugging Permitted

Allows you to test a movie while it is live on-line.

Compress Movie

Makes the Shockwave smaller so that it will download faster.

Password

This is really a sub option of Debugging permitted. If you intend to use debugging always use a password otherwise others may be able to access the debug info.

Jpeg Quality

If you have any Jpegs in your Flash movie this will compress them further. Note that the Jpeg may not look as good if you compress it too much.

Audio Stream/ Event

Compresses your sounds. It may affect the quality of your sound in play back.

Override sound settings

Overrides the individual settings for sound files used within the Flash Movie.

Help

Gives you an explanation of all the settings in that section. Depending on which tab is selected at the top will effect which help menu you get.

Publishing Options: HTML

I am not going to go through all the option here as this section is all standard HTML. You can set all these options in your web editor such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage and there are some serious disadvantages in using Flash to create the web page (see warning below).

You do not need to create an HTML page from Flash at all. Normally you would create your web page in a web editor not Flash. After all that is what web editors are good at.

If you use a program like Dreamweaver you can save the shockwave file (swf) directly into the folder group that the site uses. Then once you are in Dreamweaver you simply open the Site window (Window > Site) and drag the Shockwave (swf) file onto a the web page. You can then set any HTML settings that you may want, such as size (if you want a different size to the original movie) alignment etc in the Property Inspector.

HTML options in Flash.

If you want info on any of the options click on the help button in the bottom right hand corner.

Warning:

If you use the HTML option and let Flash create the web page for you - beware. Ordinarily once you have placed your Shockwave file (swf) on the web page you will then add other standard HTML features such as text , pictures or links to the web page. This you can do using any HTML editor such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage or code it by hand in a text editor.

Once you have done that you may wish to return to Flash and make alterations to your Flash movie. For the changes to take effect you must re-publish your movie. When you do this Flash automatically generates a new web page (if HTML is selected in the Publish Settings). This over-writes any previous web page including any alterations that you may have done in your web editor.

Flash gives you NO warning that it is about to over-write a pre-existing file.

It simply over-writes the old file, any additions, alterations or changes that you may have made to the web page are permanently lost !!

If you do use Flash to create web pages for you - Take Note: Once you have created the web page go back into Publish Settings and remove the selection tick from:

Once the tick has gone, next time you Publish, Flash will not re-create the web page.

After all once you have an HTML file you do not need to re-create it, though if you make changes to your Flash movie you need to re-publish.

Publishing Options: Other File formats

You may have noticed that in the Publish Settings you can also create an array of other files:

GIF, JPEG, PNG, Windows Projector, Macintosh Projector and Quick Time movies.

This makes Flash extremely versatile and if you wish to try any of these simply use the selection tick box in the Publish Settings. A tab will appear in the top of the Publish Settings dialogue box. Click on the Tab to see the options. The help button will then give you detailed info about each of the options. When you click on Publish your chosen files will be created.

Uploading

Once you have Published and before you upload, it is a good idea to check the file size of the Shockwave (swf). You can do this by using My Computer or any other File management program. If the file is large or bigger that you think it should be, you may wish to Optimize the Flash movie before you upload.

Cross Ref: To learn more about optimizing see tutorial: Optimizing a Flash Movie

You upload your files just like you would for any other web page. You will need to upload both the web page (HTML file) and the Shockwave (swf) file. You can use any standard FTP program to do this or you can do it straight from most web editors such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage. If you do not know how to upload you need to contact your Internet Provider or look on their web site for details.