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Book VII
Chapter 1
Getting Started
with Flash 9
Publishing Your Final Movie
633
Publishing Your Final Movie
The final step in getting your movie ready to be posted on the Web, distrib-
uted on a CD-ROM, or sent through e-mail is the publishing process. The pub-
lishing process handles two important tasks: Exporting the final SWF file
playable by the Flash Player, and creating any additional files (such as Web
pages) necessary to display your movie. The File menu’s Publish Settings
and Publish options handle the setup and publishing of your movie so that
you can show the world your new creation.
Flash can create any and all of the following file types at Publish time:
✦ SWF files
✦ JPG, GIF, or PNG bitmap files
✦ Projector files
If you want to distribute your movie as a standalone file, you can create
a Mac or PC compatible projector that includes the Flash player.
✦ HTML files
To display your movies on the Web, you’ll need to contain it within a
Web page, or HTML file. Flash takes care of creating this page for you.
✦ QuickTime movies
Chapter 2 of this minibook explores publishing in more detail.
FLA and SWF files
The life of a Flash project involves at least two
different types of files: your authoring file (FLA)
in which all your work is created, and the final
product: your compressed movie or SWF file.
FLA files work only within the Flash CS3 appli-
cation (the authoring environment). When
you’re ready to distribute your finished movie,
you’ll need to publish an SWF file that can be
played back by the Flash Player.
These SWF files can be created from the
Publish or Export menu options and are
compressed movie files (typically smaller than
their .FLA counterparts) that contain all the
graphics and information necessary to display
your movie.
The Flash Player can’t read FLA files, and SWF
files can’t be deconstructed into usable FLA
files. Changes to your Flash movie are always
done in the original FLA file and must be re-
exported to a new SWF file if you want to view
them in the Flash Player.
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