In this section, youll learn how to detect the Flash player, publish your Flash movie to the Internet, and make sure the movie resizes to the correct proportions. This is the big time stuff!

Understanding Flash File Types

Flash makes two totally different file types.

1. .fla (pronounced "fla") is Flashs normal working file.
   A .fla icon looks like:
   
   Youll never download a .fla file to view over the Internet. Its just too big. Browsers cant read .fla files, anyway.
   
   
2. .swf (pronounced "swiff") is the final compressed file version of your working Flash file.
   Its icon looks like:
   
   .swf is the file that you will publish to the Internet. This is a really important point.
   
   To make the .swf, Flash compresses all artwork and sounds, flattens layers, removes extraneous editing information, and prepares the file for streaming. You cannot edit a .swf file.
   
   Every time you hit F12 to test your movie, Flash creates a temporary .swf for you to view.

When youre ready to upload to the Internet, youll publish your final version as a swf. Remember to name your file index if its the home page.

Flash Is Kept in HTML

Just like an image is referenced in HTML, so is Flash. Every Flash Movie needs a corresponding HTML page. When linking to the Flash movie, you actually link to the HTML page. A tag in the HTML page references the Flash movie, and the movie is opened.

If youre building a full Flash page, Flash will make the HTML page for you. How nice of it.

You may need to know the actual HTML tag if youre inserting a Flash banner or a Flash window into another page.

The Tag Used to Embed an Flash in an HTML page is:

<EMBED src="Movie1.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="FFFFFF" WIDTH="760" HEIGHT="420"> </EMBED>

The yellow areas are changeable.

There are other modifiers you can add to the Flash Tag. If youre interested, you can learn the extra modifiers tags by looking at the source code of the HTML page that Flash makes automatically.

To Publish a Flash Movie as .swf

You must save your movie in the correct place inside your root folder before you publish it. Flash will create the .swf file in the same folder that you save your movie to.

Establishing Your Publish Settings

You will have to tell Flash how you would like your movie saved.

1. Click FILE-> PUBLISH SETTINGS

2. For each checkbox, Flash will add another tab

Flash (.swf): Saves in .swf format. Remember that .swf is the final Internet version of the Flash Movie. Publishing a .swf does not replace your normal .fla file.

Generator Template: Generator is a program that helps Flash to deal with databases. Your database professional will configure any necessary changes here. You dont have to worry too much about it.

HTML: Creates an HTML page to house your Flash movie. The HTML page is kept in the same folder that your Flash movie is saved to.
Youll use the HTML tab to set, among other things, the height and width of the movie.

You can set the movie to fill the whole screen here, but the movie will not stay proportional when resizing. In a bit Ill show you a Java Script that youll use in your HTML page to resize proportionally.

GIF: Flash will build an animated gif. Each frame in the Flash Movie becomes a frame of the animated GIF. Youre better off building GIFs in Fireworks.

JPEG: With this option selected, Flash makes a .jpg from the first frame in your movie.

PNG: With this option selected, Flash makes a PNG from the first frame in your movie.

WINDOWS/MACINTOSH PROJECTOR: This option creates a stand alone Flash projector that runs without the help of a browser or plug-in. Great for presentations!
Placing a FS Command frame action on the first frame of the movie can control the projector. You can scale to full screen or allow a user to scale the movie themselves.

Quicktime/Realplayer: Flash movies can be exported as a popular streaming media type, although they lose any interactivity. Good for online presentations if people dont have the Flash plug-in.

Flash HTML

Flash movies are contained in HTML pages. Flash will make you the necessary HTML page when publishing, but theres one problem. If youve set your Flash movie to take up the whole screen, it will do so regardless of the screen proportions. If a user has their browser tall and skinny, your Flash movie will scale tall and skinny. It wont look right.

Instead of housing your full Flash movie in the automatically created page, Ive provided you with a special page that you can use to make sure your Flash movies scale correctly.

Youll need to modify the page a bit. Open the file and follow the enclosed directions. To make it easier to modify, the downloadable file is in ".txt" format. When you save the file, you'll need to add on a ".htm"

Plug-In Detection

Some sites have an awful "Click Here for Flash Site" button. Ugh. If youre spending all this time building a great site, send users there automatically. Youll have to make sure that they have the correct plug-in, though. The Plug-in detection that comes with Flash and Dreamweaver is pretty junky. It doesnt work on different browsers, and doesnt give you the chance to send users to a specific page if they dont have the plug-in they need.

Ive made a the same plug-in detector used for the web design course main page available for you.

The above file is a jump page. It checks to see if the user has Flash, and sends them to the correct page depending on their set-up.

The jump page will need editing. Youll need to tell it what version of Flash youre checking for, and where it should jump if you have/dont have it. Open the file and follow the enclosed directions. It's easy. You'll want to save the detector as the first page your users will see before they reach your Flash site. To make it easier to modify, the downloadable file is in ".txt" format. Make sure you add an ".htm" when you save.

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