Making Flash pages compatible

There are several ways of making Flash available to your audience. I will mention two of them here, both of which involve the Flash 4 Publish command.

Option 1: Flash 2 Java Player.

This Java Player supports Flash 2 only. The fact that it is Java makes it compatible with nearly all browsers available on the market. However, since the Java Player is fairly slow and CPU intensive and it supports Flash 2 only, this choice is generally considered obsolete.

Should you wish it, choose "Java Player" under the HTML tab in the Publish Settings dialog. Make sure you select Flash 2 under the tab "Flash".

Option 2: Flash 4 with Image.

Make sure you've checked either JPEG or GIF under the Formats tab. This option will generate the Flash files, the HTML code, and a JPEG/GIF similar to the Flash movie.

When opening the HTML in your browser, the automatically generated code will detect whether or not Flash 4 is installed. If Flash 4 is installed, it will automatically show the page; if Flash 4 is not installed, it will show the GIF/JPEG. There is a similar option for Flash 3.

Before selecting either of the above options, you should decide which version of Flash you wish to export in.

My suggestion is this: should you create a multimedia site, an online portfolio or something similar, you may want to go for Flash 3. Flash 3 has a huge audience already, and the features you will miss by selecting v.3 instead of 4, are not important when talking multimedia; with the possible exception of MP3 sound compression.

Should you create a site that has to use Flash 4, then you should make sure the download will be easy and painless for the user who doesn't already have it. I will help you with that next.