Subtitles of the Movie

Let me now review the various file types that you'll be working with in the Flash Authoring Environment. Each of these file types has a separate purpose. Let's start with FLA files. These are the primary files you'll work with in Flash. These contain the basic media, timeline, and script information for a Flash document. You can see different types of FLA files here in the opening screen. You have ActionScript 3.0 FLA files and 2.0 FLA files, which are completely incompatible, as well as Adobe Air and Adobe Flash Mobile. Now FLA files for ActionScript CS4 cannot be opened in Flash CS3, and likewise CS3 files cannot be opened in Flash 8. The majority of the files in the working folder that I've placed on your CD are in fact FLA files. You can see that most of my recently opened files are also FLA files. Now if we open up one of these FLA files, the contents are the objects that we will be using in the FLA file or also other files. These are graphic, text, sound, and video files that comprise the content of your Flash document. Now normally you would import those files into Flash and they would then be stored in the Library. Although you can have external linked media files that are not stored in the Library, and those are usually inserted or imported at runtime. If you open up the Timeline here by choosing Window, Timeline, this is where you tell Flash when specific media objects should appear on the stage. You can also add ActionScript code to Flash documents to more finely control their behavior and to make them respond to user interactions. If I choose File, New, I can actually create an external ActionScript file that has a. AS extension. I can include the ActionScript either in the FLA file or have an external ActionScript file and then edit it in the Script window. ActionScript, as it says here, is the Flash scripting language and is used to control actions, operators, objects, classes, and other elements in movies and applications. SWF files are next. Let's cancel out of here. SWF files are the compiled versions of FLA files. These are the files you display in a webpage. When you publish your FLA file, Flash creates an SWF file for you. You can do that under the File, Publish, or Publish Settings options. Here in the Publish Settings dialog is where you tell Flash to publish that SWF file. You also have Projectors, Windows Projectors or Macintosh Projectors. These are stand-alone files published from a source FLA file like this one. These play back Flash content from a CD, DVD, or even from an email without either needing a browser or the Flash Player. You can create Projectors that play back notice both in Windows or Macs from either version of the Flash application. You also have SWC files that contain reusable Flash components. Each SWC file contains a compiled movie clip, ActionScript code, and any other assets that the component requires. You also have ASC files. These are used to store ActionScript that will be executed on a computer running Flash Media server. If we choose File, New, you'll see this one here, ActionScript Communication File, or ASC. These files provide the ability to implement server side logic that works in conjunction with ActionScript in an SWF file. Next you have Flash JavaScript files or JSFL files. These are JavaScript files that you can use to add new functionality to the Flash Authoring tool. Then last in this list here in the New Document dialog is Flash Project Files, FLP files. You can use Flash Projects to manage multiple document files in a single project. Flash Projects allow you to group multiple related files together to create more complex applications. Flash is also designed to work with other Adobe applications to enable a broad range of creative workflows. For example, you could import Illustrator and Photoshop files directly into Flash. These would go again into the Library right here. You can also create video from Flash and then edit it in Premiere Pro or After Effects, or import video from either of those two applications into Flash. When publishing your Flash content, you can use Dreamweaver to embed the content in your web pages and then launch Flash directly from within Dreamweaver to edit that content. So there you have a quick review of some of the various file types that you'll be working with inside of this Flash Authoring Environment.