Publishing Your Flash Movie

Finally, after you’ve made all appropriate change to the flash animated header of your web design template, you should publish and update it.

Maybe you’ll want to modify publish settings to reduce download time or increase image quality. To do that choose File/Publish Settings… from top menu. In Publish Settings window choose Flash tab. Main options that have significant influence on published SWF movie file size are Jpeg Quality, Audio Stream and Audio Event.

Fig 9.10 Publish Settings

To change jpeg image compression ratio move Jpeg Quality slider or type it in the input box at the right of it. Low quality (high compression) extremely reduces download time by flash looses its professional look. Try to experiment with quality to get optimal size/quality balance.

Another way to affect movie size is to change Audio Stream and Event options. Press Set button at the right to change music quality options.

Actually you can publish your movie directly from Publish Settings window, see Publish button at the bottom. Or you can publish it from every point of Macromedia Flash by pressing “Shift+F12” hotkey.

Published SWF file will appear in the folder were corresponding FLA file located.

Note: If some fonts in your published SWF file differ from original it means that you have not installed all appropriate fonts. For instructions about it read Font Installation section.

Replace old SWF file in HTML/Flash folder with a new one. Now it’s time to check modifications you’ve made. Go to the HTML folder of your web design template and launch HTML file to see changes.