Adobe Flash Professional * Publish settings (CS5)

Specify publish settings for SWF files (CS5)
Specify publish settings for HTML wrapper files (CS5)
Specify publish settings for Flash Player detection (CS5)
Specify publish settings for GIF files (CS5)
Specify publish settings for JPEG files (CS5)
Specify publish settings for PNG files (CS5)
Preview the publishing format and settings (CS5)
Using publish profiles (CS5)

Specify publish settings for SWF files (CS5)

Select File > Publish Settings, click the Flash category, and select a Player version from the Player pop-up menu. Not all Adobe® Flash® 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.
Note: In Flash Professional CS5, when you set the Flash Player target to Flash Player 10 in the Publish Settings, the target is actually Flash Player 10.1.
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 default directory path set in Preferences.
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.
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.
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 Professional scans all streaming 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.
To export sounds suitable for mobile devices, instead of the original library sound, select Export Device Sounds. Click OK.
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.
To use advanced settings or enable debugging of the published Flash Professional SWF file, select any of the following options:
Generate Size Report

Generates a report listing the amount of data in the final Flash Professional 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 Professional SWF file.
Omit Trace Actions

Causes Flash Professional 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 Professional SWF file. Lets you use password protection with your SWF file.
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.
Select the Flash Professional 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.
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.
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.

Specify publish settings for HTML wrapper files (CS5)

Playing Flash Professional content in a web browser requires an HTML document that activates the SWF file and specifies browser settings. The Publish command automatically generates this document from HTML parameters in a template document.

The template document can be any text file that contains the appropriate template variables—including a plain HTML file, a file that includes code for special interpreters such as ColdFusion® or Active Server Pages (ASP), or a template included with Flash Professional.

To manually enter HTML parameters for Flash Professional or customize a built‑in template, use an HTML editor.

HTML parameters determine where the content appears in the window, the background color, the size of the SWF file, and so on, and set attributes for the object and embed tags. Change these and other settings in the HTML panel of the Publish Settings dialog box. Changing these settings overrides options you’ve set in the SWF file.

Specify the settings

Select File > Publish Settings and click Formats. The HTML file type is selected by default.
Use the default filename, which matches the name of your document, or enter a unique name, including the .html extension.
To show HTML settings and select an installed template to use, from the Template pop‑up menu, click HTML. To show a description of the selected template, click Info. The default selection is Flash Only.
If you selected an HTML template other than Image Map or QuickTime, and on the Flash tab you set the Version to Flash Player 4 or later, select Flash Version Detection.
Note: Flash Version Detection configures your document to detect the version of Flash Player that the user has and sends the user to an alternative HTML page if the user does not have the targeted player.
Select a Dimensions option to set the values of the width and height attributes in the object and embed tags:
Match Movie

(Default) Uses the size of the SWF file.
Pixels

Enters the number of pixels for the width and height.
Percent

Specifies the percentage of the browser window that the SWF file occupies.
To control the SWF file’s playback and features, select Playback options:
Paused At Start

Pauses the SWF file until a user clicks a button or selects Play from the shortcut menu. (Default) The option is deselected and the content begins to play as soon as it is loaded (the PLAY parameter is set to true).
Loop

Repeats the content when it reaches the last frame. Deselect this option to stop the content when it reaches the last frame. (Default) The LOOP parameter is on.
Display Menu

Shows a shortcut menu when users right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the SWF file. To show only About Flash in the shortcut menu, deselect this option. By default, this option is selected (the MENU parameter is set to true).
Device Font

(Windows only) Substitutes anti-aliased (smooth-edged) system fonts for fonts not installed on the user’s system. Using device fonts increases the legibility of type at small sizes and can decrease the SWF file’s size. This option affects only SWF files that contain static text (text that you create when authoring a SWF file and that does not change when the content appears) set to display with device fonts.
To determine the trade-off between processing time and appearance, as described in the following list, select Quality options. These options set the QUALITY parameter’s value in the object and embed tags.
Low

Favors playback speed over appearance and does not use anti-aliasing.
Auto Low

Emphasizes speed at first but improves appearance whenever possible. Playback begins with anti-aliasing turned off. If Flash Player detects that the processor can handle it, anti-aliasing is automatically turned on.
Auto High

Emphasizes playback speed and appearance equally at first but sacrifices appearance for playback speed if necessary. Playback begins with anti-aliasing turned on. If the actual frame rate drops below the specified frame rate, anti-aliasing is turned off to improve playback speed. To emulate the View > Antialias setting, use this setting.
Medium

Applies some anti-aliasing but does not smooth bitmaps. Medium produces a better quality than the Low setting but lower quality than the High setting.
High

(Default) Favors appearance over playback speed and always uses anti-aliasing. If the SWF file does not contain animation, bitmaps are smoothed; if the SWF file contains animation, bitmaps are not smoothed.
Best

Provides the best display quality and does not consider playback speed. All output is anti-aliased and bitmaps are always smoothed.
Select a Window Mode option, which controls the HTML wmode attribute in the object and embed tags. The window mode modifies the relationship of the content bounding box or virtual window with content in the HTML page as described in the following list:
Window

(Default) Does not embed any window-related attributes in the object and embed tags. The background of the content is opaque and uses the HTML background color. The HTML code cannot render above or below the Flash Professional content.
Opaque Windowless

Sets the background of the Flash Professional content to opaque, obscuring anything under the content. Lets HTML content appear above or on top of content.
Transparent Windowless

Sets the background of the Flash Professional content to transparent, allowing the HTML content to appear above and below the content. For browsers that support windowless modes, see Parameters and attributes for object and embed tags.
If you turn on Hardware Acceleration in the Flash tab of the Publish Settings dialog box, the Window Mode you select is ignored and defaults to Window.

For a demonstration of setting the Window Mode, see the TechNote titled How to make a Flash movie with a transparent background.

Note: In some instances, complex rendering in Transparent Windowless mode can result in slower animation when the HTML images are also complex.
To position the SWF file window in the browser window, select one of the following HTML Alignment options:
Default

Centers the content in the browser window and crops edges if the browser window is smaller than the application.
Left, Right, or Top

Align SWF files along the corresponding edge of the browser window and crop the remaining three sides as needed.
To place the content within specified boundaries if you’ve changed the document’s original width and height, select a Scale option. The Scale option sets the SCALE parameter in the object and embed tags.
Default (Show All)

Shows the entire document in the specified area without distortion while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the SWF files. Borders can appear on two sides of the application.
No Border

Scales the document to fill the specified area and keeps the SWF file’s original aspect ratio without distortion, cropping the SWF file if needed.
Exact Fit

Shows the entire document in the specified area without preserving the original aspect ratio, which can cause distortion.
No Scale

Prevents the document from scaling when the Flash Player window is resized.
To set how the content is placed within the application window and how it is cropped, select the Flash Alignment option. This option sets the SALIGN parameter of the object and embed tags.
To show error messages if tag settings conflict—for example, if a template has code referring to an alternative image that was not specified—select Show Warning Messages.
To save the settings with the current file, click OK.

Parameters and attributes for object and embed tags

The following tag attributes and parameters describe the HTML code that the Publish command creates. Refer to this list as you write custom HTML to show Flash Professional content. Unless noted, all items apply to both the object and embed tags. Optional entries are noted. Internet Explorer recognizes parameters used with the object tag; Netscape recognizes the embed tag. Attributes are used with both the object and embed tags. When you customize a template, you can substitute a template variable (identified in the Value section for each parameter in the following list) for the value.

Note: The attributes and parameters listed in this section are shown in lowercase to comply with the XHTML standard.

devicefont attribute/parameter

(Optional) Specifies whether static text objects are rendered in device fonts, even if the Device Font option is not selected. This attribute applies when the necessary fonts are available from the operating system.

Value: true | false

Template variable: $DE

src attribute

Specifies the name of the SWF file to be loaded. Applies to the embed tag only.

Value: movieName.swf

Template variable: $MO

movie parameter

Specifies the name of the SWF file to be loaded. Applies to the object tag only.

Value: movieName.swf

Template variable: $MO

classid attribute

Identifies the ActiveX control for the browser. The value must be entered exactly as shown. Applies to the object tag only.

Value: clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000

width attribute

Specifies the width of the application either in pixels or as a percentage of the browser window.

Value: n or n%

Template variable: $WI

height attribute

Specifies the height of the application either in pixels or as a percentage of the browser window.

Note: Because Flash Professional applications are scalable, quality doesn’t degrade at different sizes if the aspect ratio is maintained. (For example, the following sizes all have a 4:3 aspect ratio: 640 x 480 pixels, 320 x 240 pixels, and 240 x 180 pixels.)

Value: n or n%

Template variable: $HE

codebase attribute

Identifies the location of the Flash Player ActiveX control so that the browser can automatically download it if it is not already installed. The value must be entered exactly as shown. Applies to the object tag only.

Value: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0

pluginspage attribute

Identifies the location of the Flash Player plug‑in so that the user can download it if it is not already installed. The value must be entered exactly as shown. Applies to the embed tag only.

Value: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

swliveconnect attribute

(Optional) Specifies whether the browser should start Java™ when loading Flash Player for the first time. The default value is false if this attribute is omitted. If you use JavaScript and Flash Professional on the same page, Java must be running for the fscommand() function to work. However, if you use JavaScript only for browser detection or another purpose unrelated to fscommand() actions, you can prevent Java from starting by setting SWLIVECONNECT to false. To force Java to start when you are not using JavaScript, explicitly set the SWLIVECONNECT attribute to true. Starting Java substantially increases the startup time for a SWF file; set this tag to true only when necessary. Applies to the embed tag only.

Use the fscommand() action to start Java from a stand-alone projector file.

Value: true | false

play attribute/parameter

(Optional) Specifies whether the application begins playing immediately on loading in the web browser. If your Flash Professional application is interactive, let the user initiate play by clicking a button or performing another task. In this case, set the play attribute to false to prevent the application from starting automatically. The default value is true if this attribute is omitted.

Value: true | false

Template variable: $PL

loop attribute/parameter

(Optional) Specifies whether the content repeats indefinitely or stops when it reaches the last frame. The default value is true if this attribute is omitted.

Value: true | false

Template variable: $LO

quality attribute/parameter

(Optional) Specifies the level of anti-aliasing to be used. Because anti-aliasing requires a faster processor to smooth each frame of the SWF file before it is rendered on the viewer’s screen, select one of the following values based on whether your priority is speed or appearance:

Low: Favors playback speed over appearance and never uses anti-aliasing.
Autolow: Emphasizes speed at first but improves appearance whenever possible. Playback begins with anti-aliasing turned off. If Flash Player detects that the processor can handle it, anti-aliasing is turned on. Note: SWF files authored using ActionScript 3.0 do not recognize the autolow value.
Autohigh: Initially emphasizes playback speed and appearance equally, but sacrifices appearance for playback speed if necessary. Playback begins with anti-aliasing turned on. If the frame rate drops below the specified frame rate, anti-aliasing is turned off to improve playback speed. Use this setting to emulate the Antialias command (View > Preview Mode > Antialias).
Medium: Applies some anti-aliasing and does not smooth bitmaps. It produces a better quality than the Low setting but a lower quality than the High setting.
High: Favors appearance over playback speed and always applies anti-aliasing. If the SWF file does not contain animation, bitmaps are smoothed; if the SWF file has animation, bitmaps are not smoothed.
Best: Provides the best display quality and does not consider playback speed. All output is anti‑aliased, and all bitmaps are smoothed.
The default value for quality is high if this attribute is omitted.

Template variable: $QU

bgcolor attribute/parameter

(Optional) Specifies the background color of the application. Use this attribute to override the background color setting that the SWF file specifies. This attribute does not affect the background color of the HTML page.

Value: #RRGGBB (hexadecimal RGB value)

Template variable: $BG

scale attribute/parameter

(Optional) Defines how the application is placed in the browser window when width and height values are percentages.

Showall (Default): Makes the entire content visible in the specified area without distortion while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the application. Borders can appear on two sides of the application.
Noborder: Scales the content to fill the specified area, without distortion but possibly with some cropping, while maintaining the original aspect ratio of the application.
Exactfit: Makes the entire content visible in the specified area without trying to preserve the original aspect ratio. Distortion can occur.
The default value is showall if this attribute is omitted (and width and height values are percentages).

Value: showall | noborder | exactfit

Template variable: $SC

align attribute

Specifies the align value for the object, embed, and img tags and determines how the SWF file is positioned within the browser window.

Default: Centers the application in the browser window and crops edges if the browser window is smaller than the application.
L, R, and T: Align the application along the left, right, or top edge, respectively, of the browser window and crop the remaining three sides as needed.

Value: Default | L | R | T

Template variable: $HA

salign parameter

(Optional) Specifies where a scaled SWF file is positioned in the area that the width and height settings define.

L, R, and T: Align the application along the left, right, or top edge, respectively, of the browser window and crop the remaining three sides as needed.
TL and TR: Align the application to the top-left and top-right corner, respectively, of the browser window and crop the bottom and remaining right or left side as needed.

If this attribute is omitted, the content is centered in the browser window.

Value: L | R | T | B | TL | TR

Template variable: $SA

base attribute

(Optional) Specifies the base directory or URL used to resolve all relative path statements in the SWF file. This attribute is helpful when you keep SWF files in a different folder from your other files.

Value: base directory or URL

menu attribute or parameter

(Optional) Specifies what type of menu appears when the viewer right-clicks (Windows) or Command-clicks (Macintosh) the application area in the browser.

true: shows the full menu, which gives the user several options to enhance or control playback.
false: shows a menu that contains only the About Adobe Flash Player 6 option and the Settings option.
The default value is true if this attribute is omitted.

Value: true | false

Template variable: $ME

wmode attribute or parameter

(Optional) Lets you use the transparent Flash Professional content, absolute positioning, and layering capabilities available in Internet Explorer 4.0. For a list of browsers this attribute/parameter supports, see Publishing Flash documents. The wmode paramater is also used for hardware acceleration in Flash Player 9 and later.

Window: Plays the application in its own rectangular window on a web page. Window indicates that the Flash Professional application has no interaction with HTML layers and is always the top-most item.
Opaque: Makes the application hide everything behind it on the page.
Transparent: Makes the background of the HTML page show through all the transparent portions of the application and can slow animation performance.
Opaque windowless and Transparent windowless: Both interact with HTML layers, letting layers above the SWF file block out the application. Transparent allows transparency so that HTML layers below the SWF file can be seen through the background of the SWF file; opaque does not.
Direct: Level 1 - Direct mode hardware acceleration is turned on. The other window mode settings apply only when hardware acceleration is turned off.
GPU: Level 2 - GPU mode hardware acceleration is turned on. The other window mode settings apply only when hardware acceleration is turned off.

For more information about hardware acceleration, see Specify publish settings for SWF files (CS5).

The default value is Window if this attribute is omitted. Applies to object only.

Value: Window | Opaque | Transparent | Direct | GPU

Template variable: $WM

allowscriptaccess attribute or parameter

Use allowscriptaccess to let your Flash Professional application communicate with the HTML page hosting it. The fscommand() and getURL() operations can cause JavaScript to use the permissions of the HTML page, which can be different from the permissions of your Flash Professional application. This has important implications for cross-domain security.

always: Permits scripting operations at all times.
never: Forbids all scripting operations.
samedomain: Permits scripting operations only if the Flash Professional application is from the same domain as the HTML page.
The default value that all HTML publish templates use is samedomain.

Value: always | never | samedomain

SeamlessTabbing parameter

(Optional) Lets you set the ActiveX control to perform seamless tabbing, so that the user can tab out of a Flash Professional application. This parameter works only in Windows with the Flash Player ActiveX control, version 7 and higher.

true: (or omitted) Sets the ActiveX control to perform seamless tabbing: After users tab through the Flash Professional application, the next tab keypress moves the focus out of the Flash Professional application and into the surrounding HTML content or to the browser status bar if nothing can have focus in the HTML following the Flash Professional application.
false: Sets the ActiveX control to behave as it did in version 6 and earlier: After users tab through the Flash Professional application, the next tab keypress wraps the focus around to the beginning of the Flash Professional application. In this mode, you cannot use the tab key to advance the focus past the Flash Professional application.

Value: true | false

Examples using object and embed tags

For object, four settings (height, width, classid, and codebase) are attributes that appear in the object tag; all others are parameters that appear in separate, named param tags, as shown in the following example:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="100" 
height="100" codebase="http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0"> 
<param name="movie" value="moviename.swf"> 
<param name="play" value="true"> 
<param name="loop" value="true"> 
<param name="quality" value="high"> 
</object>

For the embed tag, all settings (such as height, width, quality, and loop) are attributes that appear between the angle brackets of the opening embed tag, as shown in the following example:

<embed src="moviename.swf" width="100" height="100" play="true" 
loop="true" quality="high" 
pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"> 
</embed>

To use both tags, position the embed tag before the closing object tag, as shown in the following example:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="100" 
height="100" codebase="http://fpdownload.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0"> 
<param name="movie" value="moviename.swf"> 
<param name="play" value="true"> 
<param name="loop" value="true"> 
<param name="quality" value="high"> 
<embed src="moviename.swf" width="100" height="100" play="true" 
loop="true" quality="high" 
pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"> 
</embed> 
</object>

Note: If you use the object and embed tags, use identical values for each attribute or parameter to ensure consistent playback across browsers. The swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0 parameter is optional; only omit this parameter if you don’t want to check for the version number.

Browsers that support windowless modes

For detailed information about web browser support for the WMODE attribute, see the table in TechNote 12701: Flash OBJECT Tag Attributes.

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Specify publish settings for Flash Player detection (CS5)

Flash Version Detection configures your document to detect the version of Flash Player that the user has and sends the user to an alternative HTML page if the user does not have the targeted player. The alternative HTML page contains a link to download the latest version of Flash Player

Flash Player detection is available only for publish settings set to Flash Player 4 or later (CS5) or Flash Player 5 or later (CS5.5), and for SWF files embedded in the Flash Only or Flash HTTPS templates.

Note: Flash Player 5 and later are installed on 98% of Internet-connected computers, making Flash Player detection a reasonable method to ensure that end users have the correct version of Flash Professional installed to view your content.

The following HTML templates do not support Flash Player detection because the JavaScript in these templates conflicts with the JavaScript used to detect the Flash Player:

Flash Professional for PocketPC 2003
Flash Professional with AICC Tracking
Flash Professional with FSCommand
Flash Professional with Named Anchors
Flash Professional with SCORM Tracking

Note: Image Map HTML template does not support Player detection because it does not embed the Flash Player.

Select File > Publish Settings, and click HTML.
Select either the Flash Only or Flash HTTPS template from the Template pop‑up menu. These templates support the single-page HTML detection kit. Either of these templates enables the Detect Flash Version check box and the version number text fields.
Select the Detect Flash Version check box. Your SWF file is embedded in a web page that includes Flash Player detection code. If the detection code finds an acceptable version of Flash Player installed on the end user’s computer, the SWF file plays as designed.
(Optional) To specify precise revisions of Flash Player, use the Major Revision and Minor Revision text fields. For example, specify Flash Player version 7.0.2 if it provides a feature specific to displaying your SWF file.
When you publish your SWF file, Flash Professional creates a single HTML page in which to embed the SWF file and the Flash Player detection code. If an end user does not have the version of Flash Professional you’ve specified to view the SWF file, an HTML page appears with a link to download the latest version of Flash Player.

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Specify publish settings for GIF files (CS5)

Use GIF files to export drawings and simple animations for use in web pages. Standard GIF files are compressed bitmaps.

An animated GIF file (sometimes referred to as a GIF89a) offers a simple way to export short animation sequences. Flash Professional optimizes an animated GIF file, storing only frame-to-frame changes.

Flash Professional exports the first frame in the SWF file as a GIF file, unless you mark a different keyframe for export by entering the #Static frame label in the Property inspector. Flash Professional exports all the frames in the current SWF file to an animated GIF file unless you specify a range of frames for export by entering the #First and #Last frame labels in the appropriate keyframes.

Flash Professional can generate an image map for a GIF file to maintain URL links for buttons in the original document. Use the Property inspector to place the frame label #Map in the keyframe in which to create the image map. If you don’t create a frame label, Flash Professional creates an image map using the buttons in the last frame of the SWF file. Create an image map only if the $IM template variable is present in the template you select.

Select File > Publish Settings, click Formats, and select GIF Image.
For the GIF filename, use the default filename or enter a new filename with the .gif extension.
Click GIF.
Dimensions

Enter values for width and height in pixels for the exported bitmap image, or select Match Movie to make the GIF the same size as the SWF file and maintain the aspect ratio of your original image.
Playback

Determines whether Flash Professional creates a still (Static) image or an animated GIF (Animation). If you select Animation, select Loop Continuously or enter the number of repetitions.
To specify a range of appearance settings for the exported GIF file, select one of the following options:
Optimize Colors

Removes any unused colors from a GIF file’s color table. This option reduces the file size without affecting image quality, but slightly increases the memory requirements. This option has no effect on an adaptive palette. (An adaptive palette analyzes the colors in the image and creates a unique color table for the selected GIF file.)
Interlace

Incrementally shows the exported GIF file in a browser as it downloads. Lets the user see basic graphic content before the file completely downloads and can download the file faster over a slow network connection. Do not interlace an animated GIF image.
Smooth

Applies anti-aliasing to an exported bitmap to produce a higher-quality bitmap image and improve text display quality. However, smoothing might cause a halo of gray pixels to appear around an anti-aliased image placed on a colored background, and it increases the GIF file size. Export an image without smoothing if a halo appears or if you’re placing a GIF transparency on a multicolored background.
Dither Solids

Applies dithering to solid colors as well as gradients.
Remove Gradients

(Default is off) Converts all gradient fills in the SWF file to solid colors using the first color in the gradient. Gradients increase the size of a GIF file and are often poor quality. To prevent unexpected results, select the first color of your gradients carefully if you use this option.
To determine the transparency of the application’s background and the way alpha settings are converted to GIF, select one of the following Transparent options:
Opaque

Makes the background a solid color.
Transparent

Makes the background transparent.
Alpha

Sets partial transparency. Enter a Threshold value between 0 and 255. A lower value results in greater transparency. A value of 128 corresponds to 50% transparency.
To specify how pixels of available colors are combined to simulate colors not available in the current palette, select a Dither option. Dithering can improve color quality, but it increases the file size.
None

Turns off dithering and replaces colors not in the basic color table with the solid color from the table that most closely approximates the specified color. Turning dithering off can result in smaller files but unsatisfactory colors.
Ordered

Provides good-quality dithering with the smallest increase in file size.
Diffusion

Provides the best-quality dithering but increases file size and processing time. Works only with the web 216-color palette selected.
To define the image’s color palette, select one of the following Palette types:
Web 216

Uses the standard 216‑color, web‑safe palette to create the GIF image, for good image quality and the fastest processing on the server.
Adaptive

Analyzes the colors in the image and creates a unique color table for the selected GIF file. Best for systems displaying thousands or millions of colors; it creates the most accurate color for the image but increases file size. To reduce the size of a GIF file with an adaptive palette, use the Max Colors option to decrease the number of colors in the palette.
Web Snap Adaptive

Is the same as the Adaptive palette option except it converts similar colors to the web 216-color palette. The resulting color palette is optimized for the image, but when possible Flash Professional uses colors from the web 216-color palette. This produces better colors for the image when the web 216-color palette is active on a 256‑color system.
Custom

Specifies a palette that you optimized for the selected image. The custom palette is processed at the same speed as the web 216-color palette. To use this option, know how to create and use custom palettes. To select a custom palette, click the Palette folder icon (the folder icon that appears at the end of the Palette text field), and select a palette file. Flash Professional supports palettes saved in the ACT format that some graphics applications export.
To set the number of colors used in the GIF image, if you selected the Adaptive or Web Snap Adaptive palette, enter a value for Max Colors. A smaller number of colors can produce a smaller file but can degrade the colors in the image.
Click OK.

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Specify publish settings for JPEG files (CS5)

The JPEG format lets you save an image as a highly compressed, 24‑bit bitmap. Generally, GIF format is better for exporting line art, and JPEG format is better for images with continuous tones, such as photographs, gradients, or embedded bitmaps.

Flash Professional exports the first frame in the SWF file as a JPEG, unless you mark a different keyframe for export by entering the #Static frame label.

Select File > Publish Settings, click Formats, and select JPEG Image.
For the JPEG filename, either use the default filename, or enter a new filename with the .jpg extension.
Click the JPEG tab.
Dimensions

Enter values for width and height in pixels for the exported bitmap image, or select Match Movie to make the JPEG image the same size as the Stage and maintain the aspect ratio of your original image.
Quality

Drag the slider or enter a value to control the amount of JPEG file compression. The lower the image quality, the smaller the file size, and the reverse. To determine the best compromise between size and quality, try different settings.
Note: To change the object’s compression setting, use the Bitmap Properties dialog box to set the bitmap export quality per object. The default compression option in the Bitmap Properties dialog box applies the Publish Settings JPEG Quality option.

Progressive

Show Progressive JPEG images incrementally in a web browser, which makes images appear faster when loading with a slow network connection. Similar to interlacing in GIF and PNG images.
Click OK.

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Specify publish settings for PNG files (CS5)

PNG is the only cross-platform bitmap format that supports transparency (an alpha channel). It is also the native file format for Adobe® Fireworks®.

Flash Professional exports the first frame in the SWF file as a PNG file, unless you mark a different keyframe for export by entering the #Static frame label.

Select File > Publish Settings, click Formats, and select PNG Image.
For the PNG filename, either use the default filename, or enter a new filename with the .png extension.
Click PNG.
Dimensions

Enter values for width and height in pixels for the exported bitmap image, or select Match Movie to make the PNG image the same size as the SWF file and maintain the aspect ratio of your original image.
Bit depth
Set the number of bits per pixel and colors to use in creating the image. The higher the bit depth, the larger the file.
- 8-bits per channel (bpc) for a 256-color image
- 24‑bpc for thousands of colors
- 24‑bpc with Alpha for thousands of colors with transparency (32 bpc)
To specify appearance settings for the exported PNG, select from the following options:
Optimize Colors

Removes any unused colors from a PNG file’s color table, reducing the file size by 1000 to 1500 bytes without affecting image quality but increasing the memory requirements slightly. Has no effect on an adaptive palette.
Interlace

Incrementally shows the exported PNG in a browser as it downloads. Lets the user see basic graphic content before the file completely downloads and might download the file faster over a slow network connection. Do not interlace an animated PNG file.
Smooth

Applies anti-aliasing to an exported bitmap to produce a higher-quality bitmap image and improve text display quality. However, smoothing might cause a halo of gray pixels to appear around an anti-aliased image placed on a colored background, and it increases the PNG file size. Export an image without smoothing if a halo appears or if you’re placing a PNG transparency on a multicolored background.
Dither Solids

Applies dithering to solid colors and gradients.
Remove Gradients

(Default is off) Converts all gradient fills in the application to solid colors using the first color in the gradient. Gradients increase the size of a PNG and are often poor quality. To prevent unexpected results, select the first color of your gradients carefully if you use this option.
If you selected 8‑bpc for Bit Depth, select a Dither option to specify how pixels of available colors are mixed to simulate colors not available in the current palette. Dithering can improve color quality, but it increases file size. Select from the following options:
None

Turns off dithering and replaces colors not in the basic color table with the solid color from the table that most closely approximates the specified color. Turning dithering off can produce smaller files but unsatisfactory colors.
Ordered

Provides good-quality dithering with the smallest increase in file size.
Diffusion

Provides the best-quality dithering but increases file size and processing time. It also works only with the Web 216-color palette selected.
Select one of the following Palette Types to define the color palette for the PNG image:
Web 216

Uses the standard 216‑color, web-safe palette to create the PNG image, for good image quality and the fastest processing on the server.
Adaptive

Analyzes the colors in the image and creates a unique color table for the selected PNG file. Best for systems showing thousands or millions of colors; it creates the most accurate color for the image but results in a file size larger than a PNG created with the web-safe 216-color palette.
Web Snap Adaptive

Is the same as the Adaptive palette option except that it converts colors similar to the web-safe 216-color palette. The resulting color palette is optimized for the image, but when possible, Flash Professional uses colors from the web-safe 216-color palette. This produces better colors for the image when the web-safe 216-color palette is active on a 256‑color system. To reduce the size of a PNG file with an adaptive palette, use the Max Colors option to decrease the number of palette colors.
Custom

Specifies a palette that you optimized for the selected image. The custom palette is processed at the same speed as the web-safe 216-color palette. To use this option, know how to create and use custom palettes. To select a custom palette, click the Palette folder icon (the folder icon that appears at the end of the Palette text field), and select a palette file. Flash Professional supports palettes saved in the ACT format that leading graphics applications export.
If you selected the Adaptive or Web Snap Adaptive palette, enter a value for Max Colors to set the number of colors used in the PNG image. A smaller number of colors can produce a smaller file but might degrade the colors in the image.
To select a line-by-line filtering method to make the PNG file more compressible and experiment with the different options for a particular image, select one of the following Filter options:
None

Turns off filtering.
Sub

Transmits the difference between each byte and the value of the corresponding byte of the previous pixel.
Up

Transmits the difference between each byte and the value of the corresponding byte of the pixel immediately above.
Average

Uses the average of the two neighboring pixels (left and above) to predict the value of a pixel.
Path

Computes a simple linear function of the three neighboring pixels (left, above, upper left), and selects the neighboring pixel closest to the computed value as a predictor of the color.
Adaptive

Analyzes the colors in the image and creates a unique color table for the selected PNG file. Best for systems showing thousands or millions of colors; it creates the most accurate color for the image but results in a file size larger than a PNG created with the web 216-color palette. Reduce the size of a PNG created with an adaptive palette by decreasing the number of colors in the palette.
Click OK.

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Preview the publishing format and settings (CS5)

The Publish Preview command exports the file and opens the preview in the default browser. If you preview a QuickTime video, Publish Preview starts the QuickTime video Player. If you preview a projector, Flash Professional starts the projector.

Select File > Publish Preview, and select the file format to preview.

Using the current Publish Settings values, Flash Professional creates a file of the specified type in the same location as the FLA file. This file remains in this location until you overwrite or delete it.

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Using publish profiles (CS5)

Publish profiles let you:

Save a publish settings configuration, export it, and import the publish profile to other documents or for others to use.
Import publish profiles to use in your document.
Create profiles to publish in several media formats.
Create a publish profile for in-house use that differs from the way you’d publish the files for a client.
Create a standard publish profile for your company to ensure files are published uniformly.

Publish profiles are saved at the document rather than application level.

Create a publish profile

In the Publish Settings dialog box, click the Create New Profile button .
Name the publish profile, and click OK.
Specify the publish settings for your document, and click OK.

Duplicate, modify, or delete a publish profile

From the Current Profile pop‑up menu (File > Publish Settings), select the publish profile to use:

To create a duplicate profile, click the Duplicate Profile button . Enter the profile name in the Duplicate Name text field, and click OK.
To modify a publish profile, specify the new publish settings for your document, and click OK.
To delete a publish profile, click the Delete Profile button , and click OK.

Export a publish profile

From the Current Profile pop‑up menu (File > Publish Settings), select the publish profile to export.
Click the Import/Export Profile button , and select Export. Export a publish profile as an XML file for import into other documents.
Either accept the default location in which to save the publish profile or browse to a new location, and click Save.

Import a publish profile

Other users can create and export publish profiles, which you can import and select as a publish settings option.

Select File > Publish Settings, click Import/Export Profile , and select Import.
Browse to the publish profile XML file, and click Open.