ptg Publishing a Movie Introduction When you design a Flash movie, you're actually working with two documents: a source document FLA, and a publish docu- ment SWF. The source document is the working document that the Flash application uses to edit the movie data. The published document is the compressed player document that, once created, can be inserted into an HTML document, burned onto a CD, DVD, or DVS, or played directly from your hard drive, external drive, or network drive. You can publish a Flash document in one step, by clicking the File menu, and then clicking Publish. However, before publishing, it's a good idea to first check the publish settings by clicking the File menu, and then clicking Publish Settings. Using the Publish Settings dialog box, you can easily change the way your file is published. For example, the default set- tings for publishing a Flash document are to publish using the latest Flash plug-in, and to create an HTML container doc- ument to hold and play the published movie. Additional options include the ability to generate a JPEG, GIF, or PNG image of a selected frame in the Flash source document. You can even create a self-running player document for Macintosh or Windows. Publishing is not only necessary to create a Flash movie; it can be used to test the movie using different settings. Once the correct publish settings are found, you can export the settings into a separate file, and then use them on new Flash documents. This not only makes the publishing process fast, it gives you consistency between documents. 20 20 What You’ll Do Publish Considerations Modify Publish Settings Specify Flash Options Specify Adobe AIR Options Insert File Information Specify HTML Options Specify GIF Options Specify PNG Options Specify JPEG Options Create a Projector Create a Publishing Profile Edit Profile Properties Export and Import a Profile Duplicate a Profile Preview or Test a Movie Use the Bandwidth Profiler Export a Movie to Different Formats Print from the Flash Player 477 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 478 Chapter 20 Publishing a Flash movie is the last step in a long journey from inception to the final product. Along the publishing road, you’ll encounter detours, and stoplights and even get lost once in awhile. However, if you've had the foresight to plan your project, then the journey becomes one more of pleasure than pain. Planning a project requires knowledge of where the final published document is headed. You might be designing a Flash movie, where the intended audience is the Web, or it could be a project where the final destination is a CD or DVD. It could be an interactive form, or an animated cartoon. It's even possible that your goals for this project involve more than one destination. Called Multi-purposing, Flash will help you design a project version that is small enough to run efficiently, as well as a higher-quality version, intended to run directly off the hard drive. It really doesn't matter where the proj- ect is headed, because Flash's advanced pub- lishing options will effortlessly guide you through the process. Before you ever open Flash, create your first graphic, or write your first piece of text, always remember to plan the project. In other words, begin the project with the end in mind. That's not new, but it bears remembering. If you plan for the end of a project, you will cre- ate a road map that will accurately guide you to your final destination. When you are ready to publish a Flash movie, you can use Flash publishing settings and tools in this chapter to make the job eas- ier. You can also use the Adobe Flash deploy- ment kit to post Flash Player SWF files to your Web site and control the experience of visi- tors who do not have the Flash Player installed in their browser. Flash standardizes the method used for detection of the plug-in on the client-side, reducing the amount of code that must be written to implement the detection option. If you're interested in work- ing with the Flash Development Kit, simply point your browser to http://www.adobe.com/ devnet/devices/development_kits.html . Since Flash is always creating new ways for us to design great Flash documents, this site is con- stantly changing to reflect the latest technolo- gies. Publishing Considerations From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 20 Publishing a Movie 479 Once you've determined how your project will be published, it's time to let Flash assist you with all the details of getting your project from con- ception to an output file suited to your needs. Flash's publishing set- tings go far beyond converting a Flash source file FLA into a published movie SWF; they give you the ability to adjust the output to a specific version of the Flash player, incorporate specific Flash compression fea- tures, and even save screen shots of the source file's frames in several different formats. And, if a Flash movie is not what you're after, you can even publish a Flash source file in other formats, including GIF, JPEG, PNG, and Windows or Macintosh Projector. In addition, you can also export a Flash source file in a variety of file formats, including a QuickTime movie MOV. Modifying Publish Settings Modify Publish Settings Open a Flash source document. Generic publish settings are initially linked to a specific Flash file. Click the File menu, and then click Publish Settings. Select or clear the option check boxes to enable or disable the Publish Settings. Enter a name for the individual options in the File name input box. To revert the names to default, click the Use Default Names button. The default name refers to the name of the source document. Click OK to save the changes. IMPORTANT When you publish a Flash movie, the changes only affect the published .swf document, never the .fla source document. If you delete or misplace the .fla source document, you will never be able to re-edit, or republish the movie. 6 5 4 3 2 1 3 4 5 6 Publish Settings dialog box From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 480 Chapter 20 A Flash document is like a fingerprint: no two Flash movies are the same. So it stands to reason that different Flash documents would require different publish settings. Flash gives you the ability to conform a Flash document using specific output settings. Everything from the version of the Flash player plug-in and ActionScript to the movie com- pression and quality of embedded JPEG images are available options in the Publish Setting dialog box. Specifying Flash Options Specify Flash Options Click the File menu, and then click Publish Settings. Select the Flash check box, and then click the Flash tab. Click the Player list arrow, and then select the version of the player to publish the Flash document. Click the Script list arrow, and then select the version to publish the Flash document. Drag the JPEG Quality slider to increase or decrease the amount of compression applied to the image. The lower the value, the more information is removed from the image. Select the Enable JPEG deblocking check box to reduce the appearance of common artifacts found in highly compressed JPEG files. Select from the following options: ◆ Click Set to modify the Audio Stream settings for the active Flash document. ◆ Click Set to modify the Audio Event settings for the active Flash document. ◆ Select the Override Sound Settings check box to override any sound settings applied to the individual sound files within the active Flash document. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 5 7 4 6 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 20 Publishing a Movie 481 Select from the following options: ◆ Compress Movie. Compresses the movie (only for movies played with Flash 7 player). ◆ Include Hidden Layers. Includes hidden layers in the Flash document. ◆ Include XMP metadata. Includes XMP data. Click File Info to view the data. ◆ Export SWC. Exports a .swc file, which is used for distributing components made up of ActionScript code. ◆ Generate Size Report. Creates a frame-by-frame size report for the active document. ◆ Protect From Import. Prevents the published Flash document from being reopened in the Flash application. ◆ Omit Trace Actions. Prevents trace actions from being carried over to the published document. ◆ Permit Debugging. Permits debugging of the Flash movie. Enter a password for the Flash document (2.0). This option is available if Protect From Import or Permit Debugging are selected in step 10. Click the Local Playback Security list arrow, and then select the local only or network only option. Click the Hardware Acceleration list arrow, and then select an option to take advantage of available hardware for better playback performance. Click OK to save the settings. 12 11 10 9 8 10 11 9 12 Security Options The Flash Player 8 and later incorporates a security option that allows you to determine the local and network playback security for published SWF files. SWF files have read access to local files and networks by default, but they cannot communicate with the network. In the Flash tab on the Publish Settings dialog box, you can select a Local Playback Security option to access network resources, which allows the SWF file to send and receive information. If you select the option to access network resources, local access is disabled for security reasons. Flash also provides buffer overrun protection, which prevents misuse of external files, such as a virus. The player also pro- vides stricter security; SWF files with nonsecure protocols (HTTP) cannot access content loaded using secure protocols (HTTPS). For Your Information 8 From the Library of Wow! eBook . Specifying Flash Options Specify Flash Options Click the File menu, and then click Publish Settings. Select the Flash check box, and then click the Flash tab publish a Flash movie, you can use Flash publishing settings and tools in this chapter to make the job eas- ier. You can also use the Adobe Flash deploy-