Is it possible to compress when exporting as swf-file?

[kippie]

I wonder if it's possible to use different compressing settings when exporting a file for web use, so that the file can be made lighter or heavier?

 

[TheConeHead]

I don;t think so, that's the battle in doing flash - not only designing what you want - but building it so the file size is as small as possible...

 

[wangbar]

For bitmaps and sounds you can alter the individual compression settings which has a large bearing on the size of the published movie.

Image settings are controlled from the 'properties' section (right click on the image in the library) and you can choose the level of compression applied - lossless or differing levels of jpeg compression.

Sound compression is set also in the library - right click on the sound file and choose 'export settings'. MP3 compression significantly reduces the exported filesize.

 

[kippie]

But what to do then? I mean when I have made a Flash movie I would like to save it for a large (I mean large area) presentation on the web in a heavier version (more kb or even mb) and to save it for a small presentation (using a small area of the page) on the web in a lighter version (less kb). If this is not possible how can I make a difference for a large presentation and a small presentation?

 

[tviman]

Depending on the content of your presentation, you can make gains in this area by breaking the whole thing down into several, smaller swf files and load them dynamically as needed rather than load, for example, a 2mb swf for the web knowing that several pages may only be viewed by a small number of visitors. The same thing holds true for images. It may be beneficial to load your images (or some of them, at least) dynamically as needed.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[kippie]

Hi Tviman, thanks for your reaction. I'm rather new with Flash and I try to figure out how it works. Does it mean there is no easy way to change a large flash movie (covering a large area on the stage) into a smaller onze (covering a small area on the stage)?

 

[TheConeHead]

one of the best ways to affect size is to build the movie at the smallest size possible and then resize it in the html object tag. If you are designing totally in flash and not using any gifs a jpgs or anything this should be rather easy....

 

[tviman]

As conehead points out, as long as you're not using gif, jpg, or png graphic images, then it's easy to change the size of the movie by changing how the movie is presented. However, if you have any of the above image formats in your movie then changing the size dynamically will also affect the quality of the images because they don't lend themselves well to size changes.

So I guess the answer to your question is No, and Yes. It all depends on the content of your movie. I have never had the luxury of creating a movie that didn't incorporate these types of images so I've always made two movies - one for screen resolutions of 800x600 and below and another for 1024x768 and above. It's not that complicated or difficult to do.

I have had the opportunity of having to create several small swf files and load them dynamically as needed. THis is a bit of a challenge but one of the best ways to create a large presentation any yet still allow reasonable load times. This is mainly done for "all flash" web sites and I've found that such things as "About Us", Contact Us", Privacy Policy", and "Legal Issues" pages are rarely called and these are the ones that lend themselves well to external swf files. The same is true if you have a photo gallery or have large, hi-resolution images, or lage volumes of text. Rather than embed them in the swf, it's easy, and faster, to load them as needed.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[kippie]

Thanks for all your comments! I'll do what you suggest.
Thanks