Publishing in Flash CS4

Publishing overview

By default, the Publish command creates a Flash SWF file and an HTML document that inserts your Flash content in a browser window. The Publish command also creates and copies detection files for Macromedia Flash 4 from Adobe and later. If you change publish settings, Flash saves the changes with the document. After you create a publish profile, export it to use in other documents or for others working on the same project to use.

Flash® Player 6 and later support Unicode text encoding. With Unicode support, users can view multilanguage text, regardless of the language that the operating system running the player uses.

You can publish the FLA file in alternative file formats - GIF, JPEG, PNG, and QuickTime® - with the HTML needed to display them in the browser window. Alternative formats allow a browser to show your SWF file animation and interactivity for users who don't have the targeted Adobe Flash Player installed. When you publish a Flash document (FLA file) in alternative file formats, the settings for each file format are stored with the FLA file.

You can export the FLA file in several formats, similar to publishing FLA files in alternative file formats, except that the settings for each file format are not stored with the FLA file.

Alternatively, create a custom HTML document with any HTML editor and include the tags required to display a SWF file.

To test how the SWF file works before you publish your SWF file, use Test Movie (Control > Test Movie) and Test Scene (Control > Test Scene).

The following video tutorials describe the Flash publishing and deployment process. Some videos show Flash CS3, but still apply to Flash CS4.

Playing Flash SWF files

The Flash SWF file format is for deploying Flash content.

You can play content in the following ways:

  • In Internet browsers that are equipped with Flash Player
  • With Flash Xtra in Director® and Authorware® from Adobe®
  • With the Flash ActiveX control in Microsoft Office and other ActiveX hosts
  • As part of a QuickTime video
  • As a stand-alone application called a projector

The Flash SWF file format is an open standard that other applications support. For more information about Flash file formats, see www.adobe.com/go/flashplayer.

HTML documents

You need an HTML document to play a SWF file in a web browser and specify browser settings. To display a SWF file in a web browser, an HTML document must use the object and embed tags with the proper parameters.

Note: You can generate an HTML document using the correct object and embed tags using the Publish Settings dialog box, and selecting the HTML option.

Flash can create the HTML document automatically when you publish a SWF file.