Macromedia Flash Mx tips and tricks

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By maverickmonk

Compacting .fla files

Suppose you have to post an 12MB Flash document to a web server. Although you have a high speed connection, there still has to be a better way, And there is: Open any Flash file in Flash Mx 2004, and choose File > save and compact. This feature can compact the 12MB file to about 3MB. Especially useful for slow connections.


Find and Replace

If you have ever been in the situation where you have to find every instance of something on Flash and replace it with another, you know what a nightmare it can be. If you have not experienced this yer, trust us, you dont want to. There is a simple way to find and replace,

Go to edit> find and replace, to open the find and replace dialog box. From here , you can locate and replace text, fonts , symbols, sounds, video clips, bitmaps, and even colour. yes, even colour can be replace.

Here's an example:

Draw a circle and a box on the 'stage' , and convert them to symbols called ' circle' and 'box' . Leave them both there.

Go to Edit> Find and replace. In the dialog box, choose 'current Scene" from the 'search In' menu.

Choose 'symbol' from the for menu. Choose 'Box' from the 'Name' menu. This command will locate all instances of the box symbol. Choose 'circle' from the "Replace with' menu. Click Replace all.




Lower File sizes

When you are using a lot of bitmap iomages in a Flash movie, file size can add up fast. You can use the 'Publish' settings to set the JEPG quality for the entire movie. but that can lead to inconsistancy, One image may look great. while another, grainy and smudgy.

To customise the 'Publish' setting for individual bitmap images, right-click on the image's name in the Library and choose 'Properties'. In the "Bimap Properties ' dialog box, deselect 'Use document default quality' and change the number in the 'Quality' field. A higher number yields higher-quality images with a larger file size and vice-versa.

Once you have set the number, click the number, Click "Test". The dialog box reports the starting filse size and th new file size for the image. Typically, setting the quality to 50 can make a 700KB image publish at less than 20KB.

You can also use the movise to drag the image around in the preview pane of the dialog box to see how it would look. If it's grainy, increase the number in the 'Quality' field

Erase your Mistakes

you have filled up your stage with what you thought was creative. Unfortunately the layout is all wrong.the custom all wrong, the custom scrollbar is the worst ever. and the text seems to have been written by a three-year-old. It's clean up time!

To erase everything on stage, double-click ther 'Eraser'tool in the toolbar. Problem solved! Note, However, that this works only one frame at a time.

When the playhead is at frame 10, you can rease everything on the stage at frame 10, but nothing else.

To erase other frames, you have to move the playhead to those frames manually before you can go ahead with erasing.


Flash Text and Search Engines.

When you create text in Flash MX2004. You need to remember that unlike HTML, Flash MX 2004 text will not be picked up by serch engine bots. So, you need to add Meta Tags to the HTML document that the SWF file will reside in.


Static Text And Device Fonts.

Static text is display text that doesn't change onscreen. Such as the information displayed in an interface, of for button lables. forms and navigation.

when you add static text to your movie. by default, FLash MX2004 will embed th font outlines in th SWF file for the font your are using. Depending on the font you choose, and how much text you use, this can add considerably to the overall file size.

If you want smaller file sizes, use a device font. A device font is a font that won't be embedded in the SWF file. Instead, you choose a device font for the end user's machines to display _serif, _sans, or _typewriter- and the end users machines will display that device font for the static text.

This will help keep your file size small.


Small type and Alias Text

When working with small type (10 points or smaller). the text might become difficult to read because of the anti-aliasing that is automatically applied to vector shapes in Flash MX 2004. Anti-aliasing is a blurring, or 'smoothening', of the edges of vector shapes the edges of vector shapes and text. Ofen, anti-aliasing adds to the quality of the shape, but small text may become unreadable.

In Flash MX2004, Macromedia has added a new 'Alias Text' button that allows you to alias blocks of there by increasing readability.

The alias text feature can be applied to static, Dynamic, and Input text fields, However, If ya visitor to your website does not have versio 7(or higher) of the Flash Plug-in, they will only see aliased Static text. If you are using any Dynamic or input text fields with the Alias text feature. Viewers with older versions of the Flash plug-in will still see that text as anti-aliased.

Improve Bitmap Quality.

To improve the image quality of bitmaps before and after importing them in flash

Don't scale imported bitmaps within Flash, This greatly reduces image quality. Instead, use an external image editor such as macromedia fireworks ro scale the image to the desired pixel dimensions before import.

After importing an image into Flash, break it apart and convert it to a graphic symbol. To do this, first, select the image and go to Modify>Break Apart. Now with the image still selected. go to insert

> Convert to symbol and select the Graphic option for the behaviour.

In the HTML tab of the publish settings ( File > Publish settings > HTML) set the 'Quality' to 'Best'. Disable the 'Allow smoothing' in the 'Properties' dialog and click 'OK'

use lossless compression for the bitmap. In the 'Library'Window, right-click on the bitmap and select 'Propertie', Choose 'Lossless' from the "compression' pop-up menu and click 'ok'. This wil cause Flash to render the image at the original imported quality, but will probably cause the .SWF file size to increase considerably.


Matching th size of objects

To fit the backfround/stage to the selected obejct, Place the object on the top left hand side corner of the stage. Now,go to modify> Document properies> Match > Contents. Remembe, this will work only if the object is placed on the top left hand corner of the stage.

_root.goto!

Here's the code for a button plaxed inside a movie clip, Which will give the instruction 'Go to and play' a certain frame in ther root movie, and not the clip the button resides in.

_root.gotoAnd play(frame);

eg:

on(release) {_root.gotoAndstop(10);}


Easter Egg

Here's how you can see an Easter Egg n Flash MX2004

Go to "Help/About Flash Professional..", and click on the tiny "TM' symbol near the number 2004 and enjoy!

Disable The Hand Cursor

Create your button as you normally would.

Give your button an instance name like 'ABC' in the 'properties' panel.

In the timeline. click on the first frame your button is placed on and open the Actions panel ([F9])

Enter this Action script:

ABC.useHandCursor = false;


Customising commands

Flash 2004 Professional has a History Panel (window> other panels > history), which documents the history of your previous actions. To save particular actions as a new command. Select the desired action. Right click on the action and choose 'SaveAs comman'. you can also name the new command and view it in the commands menu. These new commands can be replaced, as and when required. Commands can directly be accessed from the command menu as well.

Diable a button.

Create a button normally, Name the button in the 'properites' panel, say 'XYZ'. Left-click on the buttonto select it, and open the Actions panel ([F9])

Enter this Actionscript:

on(release){

xyz.enabled = false;

}

if you want to enable the button later. change "false" to "true".

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