Specify publish settings for SWF files

  1. Select File > Publish Settings, click the Flash tab, and select a Player version from the Player pop-up menu. Not all Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional features work in published SWF files that target Flash Player versions earlier than Flash Player 10. To specify Flash Player detection, click the HTML tab and select Detect Flash Version and enter Flash Player version to detect.
  2. Select the ActionScript® version from the Script pop‑up menu. If you select ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0 and you’ve created classes, click Settings to set the relative classpath to class files that differ from the path to default directories set in Preferences.
  3. To control bitmap compression, adjust the JPEG Quality slider or enter a value. Lower image quality produces smaller files; higher image quality produces larger files. Try different settings to determine the best trade-off between size and quality; 100 provides the highest quality and least compression.

    To make highly compressed JPEG images look smoother, select Enable JPEG Deblocking. This option reduces typical artifacts resulting from JPEG compression, such as the common appearance of 8x8-pixel blocking of the image. Some JPEG images may lose a small amount of detail when this option is selected.

  4. To set the sample rate and compression for all streaming sounds or event sounds in the SWF file, click Set next to Audio Stream or Audio Event and select options as needed.
    Note: A streaming sound plays as soon as enough data for the first few frames downloads; it is synchronized to the Timeline. An event sound does not play until it downloads completely, and it continues to play until explicitly stopped.
  5. To override settings for individual sounds specified in the Sound section of the Property inspector, select Override Sound Settings. To create a smaller, low-fidelity version of a SWF file, select this option.
    Note: If the Select Override Sound Settings option is deselected, Flash scans all stream sounds in the document (including sounds in imported video) and publishes all stream sounds at the highest individual setting. This can increase file size if one or more stream sounds has a high export setting.
  6. To export sounds suitable for devices, including mobile devices, instead of the original library sound, select Export Device Sounds. Click OK.
  7. To set SWF settings, select any of the following options:
    Compress Movie
    (Default) Compresses the SWF file to reduce file size and download time. Most beneficial when a file is text- or ActionScript-intensive. A compressed file plays only in Flash Player 6 or later.

    Include Hidden Layers
    (Default) Exports all hidden layers in the Flash document. Deselecting Export Hidden Layers prevents all layers (including layers nested inside movie clips) marked as hidden from being exported in the resulting SWF. This lets you easily test different versions of Flash documents by making layers invisible.

    Include XMP metadata
    (Default) Exports all metadata entered in the File Info dialog box. Click the File Info button to open the dialog box. You can also open the File Info dialog box by choosing File > File Info. The metadata is viewable when the SWF file is selected in Adobe® Bridge.

    Export SWC
    Exports a .swc file, which is used for distributing components. The .swc file contains a compiled clip, the component's ActionScript class file, and other files that describe the component.

  8. To use advanced settings or enable debugging of the published Flash SWF file, select any of the following options:
    Generate Size Report
    Generates a report listing the amount of data in the final Flash content by file.

    Protect From Import
    Prevents others from importing a SWF file and converting it back into a FLA document. Lets you use password protection with your Flash SWF file.

    Omit Trace Actions
    Causes Flash to ignore ActionScript trace statements in the current SWF file. When you select this option, information from trace statements does not appear in the Output panel. For more information, see Output panel overview.

    Permit Debugging
    Activates the Debugger and allows remote debugging of a Flash SWF file. Lets you use password protection with your SWF file.

  9. If you are using ActionScript 2.0, and selected either Permit Debugging or Protect From Import, enter a password in the Password text field. If you add a password, other users must enter the password before they can debug or import the SWF file. To remove the password, clear the Password text field. For more information on the Debugger, see Debugging ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0. If you are using ActionScript 3.0, see Debugging ActionScript 3.0.
  10. Select the Flash security model to use from the Local Playback Security pop‑up menu. Specify whether to grant your published SWF file local or network security access. Local Access Only lets the published SWF file interact with files and resources on the local system but not on the network. Access Network Only lets the published SWF file interact with files and resources on the network but not on the local system.
  11. To enable the SWF file to use hardware acceleration, select one of the following options from the Hardware Acceleration menu:
    Level 1 - Direct
    Direct mode improves playback performance by allowing Flash Player to draw directly on the screen instead of letting the browser do the drawing.

    Level 2 - GPU
    In GPU mode, Flash Player utilizes the available computing power of the graphics card to perform video playback and compositing of layered graphics. This provides another level of performance benefit depending on the user's graphics hardware. Use this option when you expect that your audience will have high-end graphics cards.

    If the playback system does not have sufficient hardware to enable acceleration, Flash Player reverts to normal drawing mode automatically. For best performance on web pages containing multiple SWF files, enable hardware acceleration for only one of the SWF files. Hardware acceleration is not used in Test Movie mode.

    When you publish your SWF file, the HTML file that embeds it contains a wmode HTML parameter. Choosing Level 1 or Level 2 hardware acceleration sets the wmode HTML parameter to "direct" or "gpu" respectively. Turning on hardware acceleration overrides the Window Mode setting you may have chosen in the HTML tab of the Publish Settings dialog box, because it is also stored in the wmode parameter in the HTML file.

  12. To set a maximum time that scripts can take to execute in the SWF file, enter a value for the Script Time Limit. Flash Player cancels execution of any scripts that exceed the limit.