Operation Manual

Images, Animation, and Multimedia | 139
To edit the Flash file:
• Select the Flash movie, right-click and choose Edit Flash....
Adding sound and video
WebPlus lets you augment your Web pages with sound and video files in a
variety of standard formats, including both non-streaming and streaming
media. (Non-streaming files must download in entirety to a user's computer
before they begin playing; streaming files require a special player that buffers
incoming data and can start playing before the whole clip has arrived.)
There are actually two sound playback options—background sound, where a
sound loads and plays automatically when a specific page is first displayed in
the visitor's Web browser, and linked sound, triggered by a mouse click (for
example on an icon or hyperlinked object). The supported audio formats are
.AIFF, .AU, MIDI (.mid, .midi), .MP3, RealAudio (.ra, .ram), and .WAV.
Linked video works like linked sound. Supported video formats are .AVI,
QuickTime (.mov, .qt), MPEG (.mpg, .mpeg, .mpe, .mpv), and RealVideo
(.ram, .rv).
With both background and linked sound (or video), you have the option of
embedding the source file in your project file, as opposed to keeping it
separate. Although embedding any file adds to the size of the project, it is the
default option because you'll no longer have to worry about juggling separate
files or the chance of accidentally deleting one of them. When you publish
your site, WebPlus takes care of exporting and copying both embedded and
non-embedded files.
You won't be able to play back or edit sound or video files in WebPlus; you'll
need to use an external media editor. Both types of files tend to take up a lot of
space, more or less depending on the method of compression you've used. The
large file size translates to long download times for non-streaming files. Media
files also tend to be platform-specific: for example, there are different
Windows, Mac, and Unix sound file formats. For these reasons, except for
very short audio clips, one rarely encounters non-streaming media on the
Web. However, if a fast connection is guaranteed, you can get away with
using longer/larger non-streaming files. A technically complex alternative is to
use streaming media such as RealAudio and RealVideo.