Making Flash printable

Taking a Flash authors point of view, let's take a look at the technical stuff and possibilities with the new feature. Note first, that this article requires some basic knowledge of Flash.

Lesson #1 - Creating a Print button in Flash
Yes, using the Get URL action in Flash, it is possible to create a button that will invoke the printing dialog.
Here's how:

Step 1. Create a standard button in Flash.

Step 2. Select "Properties" for this button, and go to the "Actions" tab.

Step 3. Click the plus, and add a "Get URL" command.

Step 4. In the right hand "URL" box, enter "print:"

Step 5. In the bottom "Window" dropdown box, enter either of the following based on which you would like to print (it uses Tell Target path syntax - see references on the last page):

Movie clips:
Type in the name of the movie clip.

Timeline:
Type in "/"

A loaded movie:
Type in "_levelX", where X is the layernumber of the loaded movie, e.g. "_level1"

This action will print all printable frames in the first loaded movie, loaded in level 1.

If all of the above confuses you, just type in "/", it is probably the most common.

Step 6: Don't touch the variables settings.

All done! Clicking the button will, as mentioned, invoke the printing dialog box, but only if you have the 4.0.2 version of Flash player, or greater.

Note: This action can also be applied as a frame action (when the player plays the frame, the print dialog will appear).

Download this sample