add Flash to Email?
create a transparent gradient in Flash?
create an AutoRun CD for Windows?
import Adobe Illustrator files into Flash?
import video into Flash?
save a text file from Flash?

are the statistics for the use of Flash?

makes all these examples & runs this site?

1. Create & Publish your movie including SWF & HTML.
2. Upload the SWF to a server that is accessible from the Internet. You need to be able to access the SWF with a normal browser from any system connected to the Internet.
3. Edit the HTML page so that you can view the remote SWF locally in the HTML page created by Flash on your system. Your OBJECT & EMBED tags should look something like this:

   <PARAM name=movie value="http://www.yourdomain.com/movie.swf">
<EMBED src="http://www.yourdomain.com/movie.swf"...

4. Copy everything between the OBJECT tags including the OBJECT tags.

   <OBJECT classid= ...
</OBJECT>

5. Add the code to your email message. In most clients you should be able to access the actual HTML code used in Rich Text messages. In Outlook Express:
   1. Format > "Rich Text (HTML)"needs to be checked
   2. View > "Source Edit" needs to be checked
   3. Click on the Source tab at the bottom
   4. Paste in your code
   5. Click on the Preview tab to review your work
   6. Click on the Edit or Source tab to make changes to your work

6. Send your email

or

1. Publish your SWF & HTML page.
2. With Internet Explorer 4+ open the page and go:

   File > Send > Page by Email

   With Mozilla or Netscape 6+ open the page and go:

   File > Send Page...

1. In the Swatches Panel select the white to black gradient.
2. Then click the right arrow & select Duplicate Swatch.
3. The new gradient should be highlighted by default but if not select it.
4. In the Fill Panel select the white pointer.
5. In the Mixer Panel set white to the color you wish to use.
6. In the Fill Panel select the black pointer.
7. In the Mixer Panel set the Alpha to 0.
8. Use your new transparent gradient... ;)

Note you should go here for all the info you need on this subject.

1. Create a text file in the root of the CD called AutoRun.inf (case insensitive)
2. Put something similar to the following in the AutoRun.inf:

   [autorun]
   icon=ProjectorExample.ico
   label=Projector Example
   open=ProjectorExample.exe

Beware AutoPlay in WinXP! It will try to play MP3s and other known media files on a CD automatically using the default media player. Your best defense against this is to rename your file extensions to something else unknown by the system or remove it entirely. Flash does not care what the file extension of media called with Sound.loadSound() or loadMovie() is. As long as it's a valide file type for the method and the projector has permission to access the file it will work.

Flash can only import Illustrator 6 or lower graphics. The problem with this is that Illustrator 6 or lower graphics are always CMYK and Flash does not usually do a great conversion to RGB which Flash always uses.

If you have Illustrator 8 you can download a free plug-in from Macromedia called FlashWriter here. This plug-in does a perfect job (every time I've used it) of saving your graphic to SWF without loosing any color information. Illustrator 9+ can save directly to SWF.

Note: the compression options only effect any bitmap images that may be in the graphic. It does not rasterize the image. Vector objects stay vector objects. I haven't used Illustrator 9 or greater but I would imagine there built in ability to save or export to SWF is simply the Macromedia plug-in preinstalled.

How do I import video into Flash?

Flash MX (Flash 6+) can directly import and utilize video of several formats. Though you are generally best off import QuickTime files. Especially if the video has an audio track. With Flash MX (not necessarily FMX 2004+) MPEG is possibly the worst format to try and import. Especially if it has an audio track.

Flash 5 and older can only import QuickTime movies & then only to export them as either a MOV or AVI. Though you could use a third-party program to convert your video into an SWF with one of these programs.

Vid2swf $25 (Still beta last I checked)

Wildform Flix Lite $49 and Pro $149 (I like these programs a lot)

Turbine Video Encoder $145 (Only does Flash 5 video which doesn't utilize true video streaming. But does a good job with frame based video)

Adobe After Effects $649 (Haven't tried it yet but is possibly your best choice if you plan on doing a lot of video work that is not necessarily related to Flash)

Or you could use QuickTime Pro ($29) to export your video file to an Image Sequence (I suggest JPEG or PNG) and also a WAV (PC) or AIFF (Mac) file, if you need the audio track. These can then be imported into Flash. This is essentially all that any of the above programs do unless creating a Flash MX (or better) compatible movie. They just take the work out of it for you. And can add some nice features as well very quickly.

Note that the QuickTime Player 4+ can play Flash 4 files & QuickTime movies can have Flash 3 embedded content. See this & this.

You'll need a special CGI Script to save info to a file on the Internet. For the way to save a text file with a Projector under Windows see my Projectors section. Next, there are some third party programs that allow you to save info available at Flashtool under "Third Party Tools". You should see FlaSAVE, FlaWRITE & FlaWRITEonline. I've played with FlaWRITE but not the others. Flashtool in general is a good resource. Also in Flash MX you have the option of using a Shared Object. This is VERY useful for storing information locally on the system (sort of like a super cookie) but is not able to just create a generic text file for use in other programs.

You can find the statistics at the Macromedia site here. Last I checked on March 2004 it was:

Continent	Flash 2	Flash 3	Flash 4	Flash 5	Flash 6/MX	Flash 7/MX04
US	98.0%	97.9%	97.5%	96.4%	93.5%	52.5%
Canada	98.7%	98.7%	98.7%	98.4%	95.1%	60.6%
Europe	97.8%	97.6%	97.4%	97.3%	93.5%	59.9%
Asia	94.8%	94.6%	94.0%	93.8%	88.1%	58.7%

99% of the work on the examples & the site is done by yours truly (RuneImp). But there have been many helpful people who have helped with this directly & indirectly. Leon McComish, Helen Triolo and many others on the FLASHmacromedia email list.