Unit 16. Generating and Publishing Movies (II)

Distribution for Web Pages

  This is an important part, since normally Flash movies are already oriented to the published via Web.

     In order to publish a Flash movie in the Internet we’ll have to insert it in HTML page. For that we must pay attention to the publishing HTML options that Flash provides us, and that will help us to show our movie as we really want.

     The options of this type of publishing are in File → Publish Settings... (HTML Tab).

Template: In order to embed a Flash movie in an HTML document, it is necessary to write a series of program codes that are rather difficult and laborious to do manually.

    In order to make this task easier Flash does this automatically, but given that each Web is different and our necessities are going to be very different, the codes also will be numerous and different, because of this Flash includes Templates, that automatically create this code according to the type of publishing we want:

In the button "Info..." which it is at the right of the Template option you will find very useful information on each type of template. These are the most common templates:

Flash Only: This is the default option and uses the Flash 8 player.

Flash with FSCommand: That's essential when FSCommands are used.

Image Map: If we've included a Image Map (images that execute different actions according to the coordinate that is clicked) we must activate this option.

Pocket PC 2003: It is specially designed for Pocket Internet Explorer in Pocket PC 2003.

QuickTime: It allows to include a QuickTime movie.

Detect Flash Version: From here we can select if we want that our movie detects the existence of the Flash plugin in the user's computer.

Dimension: It specifies the units in which we'll measure the dimensions of the Document.

            Width X Height: Here we'll introduce the width and height, taking into account that sometimes an object greater than these dimensions will cause a change in them.

Play: It allows to make certain changes in respect to the movie reproduction:

            Paused at Start: It pauses th movie until the user makes it to start.

            Loop: When the movie finishes, it will be repeated from the start, and will do this infinitely.

            Display Menu: It shows a shortcut menu with the options by default when the user right-clicks the movie. If we deselect it the option "About Flash" will appear only.

            Device Font: It replaces the fonts used in static texts of the movie by the default fonts of the device which reproduces it.

   Quality: Here we can modify the quality of our movie. The options are:

            Low: There is no smoothing. The Maximal speed determines the playback time.

            Autolow: The player detects whether the device supports at every moment a light smoothing, if it supports it, it applies the smoothing. The speed continues being very fast.

            Autohigh: It emphasizes the time and the smoothing equally, but if there is some limitation, it will always give preference to the playback speed.

            Medium: It applies intermediate values of playback speed and smoothing. It does not smooth bitmaps.

            High: It always applies the smoothing, the bitmaps are smoothed only if there is no animation. It favors the good appearance over speed.

            Best: All is smoothed, including the bitmaps everywhere. The appearance is favored totally over the playback speed.   

   Window Mode: Options are applied for the playback inside of the windows of Windows:

            Window: The movie is played in the Web window where it is inserted.

            Opaque Windowless: It does that the objects located in layers at the behind of the movie are not seen (in DHTML pages).

            Transparent Windowless: It is opposed to the previous. It allows one to see the objects undernearth the Flash content.

   HTML Alignment: It is the relative position of the movie inside of the Web HTML page. We have several options:

            Default: It centers the movie in the page and crops the ends, if it does not fit.

            Left: It aligns the movie to the left and also crops the edges if they do not fit.

            Right: Alignment to the right.

            Top: Alignment along the top edge of the page.

            Bottom: Alignment along the bottom edge of the page.

   Scale: If we have specified the size in pixels or in percentage, we can indicate to Flash how to distribute the movie in the rectangle that contains it according to our decision:

            Default: It shows the entire movie while keeping the original proportions.

            No Border: It crops the SWF file (if the movie is larger than the rectangle) with the aim of maintaining the proportions.

            Exact Fit: It distorts the proportions if it is necessary to obtain a movie that fits the entire rectangle.

   Flash Alignment: It becomes necessary to align the movie when this does not have the same dimensions as the specified rectangle. The options are:

            Horizontal Alignment: We can choose between Center, Left or Right.

            Vertical Alignment: We can choose between Center, Top or Bottom.

   Show warning Messages: It allows the possible error messages of Action Script code to be shown.

    Here we can see an example of publishing a Flash movie for the Web.

  Exercises of Unit 16

  Unit 16 Test.