TechNote (Archived)

Flash 4 Release - ReadMe

Introduction
This file contains information about Flash 4 not available in the printed manuals. To get the most out of this release, please read this document. For the most up to date information about Flash 4 please visit our website at: http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/

Application specific information
Playback in Standalone or Browser.
HTML Help

Flash Application
You can leave Flash 3 installed with Flash 4 but you may wish to uninstall Flash 3 before installing Flash 4. To uninstall Flash 3 on Windows, select Flash 3 from Add/Remove Programs. Start Menu>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. To uninstall on Macintosh, move the entire Flash 3 folder to the trash. Do make sure you haven't saved any of your Flash movies into the Flash 3 folder before you empty the trash.

Backward Compatibility
You cannot open a Flash 4 file in Flash 3 due to the many new features in Flash 4. You can export your Flash 4 Flash movie as a Flash 2 or 3 movie. (Flash Java Player requires Flash 2 version movies.) Once you open and save your FLA file in Flash 4, you will not be able to use it in the Flash 3 editor.

To export a Flash 4 movie as an older version:

Choose File> Export. Name the file and click OK.
In the Export Flash dialog box, select the Flash version from the Version pop-up menu.
Set any other export choices.
Click OK to export the movie to SWF format.

Macromedia Generator
The Flash 4 authoring tool is not compatible with the Developer Studio Extensions for Macromedia Generator version 1. You should not attempt to install the Generator version 1 Extensions into the Flash 4 application. You can continue to use the Flash 3 authoring tool to create template files for Generator 1. Contact Macromedia for information on upgrading to Generator 2.

Import
Working with large audio files can require large amounts of memory. In order to import a sound the entire file must fit into memory. For example, a 62MB sound file needs an unused 62MB block of memory. If you don't have enough memory, your system may become very slow or behave unpredictably. If your files are too large, reduce the sample rate or remove the stereo information with your sound editor.

Interactivity
Load Movie action:If you are trying to load a movie, make sure the movie is in the same folder as the parent movie.

Library
Update Use Counts
Use Counts are the number of times a Library element is used in your Flash editor document. The use count is listed in a column in your library window along with information such as size and date modified. Use Count does not appear for Flash documents that are opened as Library, by either using the Open as Library command or opening from the Library pull down in the title bar.
The library's use count tracking feature can sometimes slow down the opening of a document, depending on the document's complexity. To minimize this problem, two commands have been added to the library's Options menu. They are: "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" and "Update Use Counts Now"

Keep Use Counts Up To Date:The "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" command is a check marked toggle that turns on and off the library's use count tracking feature. The "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" command is always available and its state is remembered when the document is saved. When "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" is on (check marked), the library will automatically keep the use counts of library items up to date. If "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" is off, use counts are not updated.
Note: Even when "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" is off, any use counts that have already been calculated will be accurate. If the usage of an item is changed while "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" is off, the use count entry of that item will be a "-".

Update Use Counts Now:The "Update Use Counts Now" command is available only when "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" is off. Choosing the "Update Use Counts Now" will trigger an update of the use counts for every item in the library. The "Update Use Counts Now" command is not available when "Keep Use Counts Up To Date" is on since use counts are already being constantly updated.

QuickTime
Be sure to use the latest version of QuickTime 4, available on http://quicktime.apple.com. Publishing a QuickTime movie that is already open in the browser may cause publish to fail. Close the QuickTime movie in the browser before trying to publish.

Video Card
Rendering Problems with Macintosh G3 Blue & Whites with ATI Video Card:There is a known conflict with the ATI Graphics Accelerator extension, version 3.7.9 and Flash. This conflict can cause rendering issues when drawing in the Flash editor. For example, black and white boxes might fill the stage when the pencil tool is used. A refresh of the screen (such as hiding and redisplaying the application window) will clear any lingering redraw effects, but they may appear again upon further use of the drawing tools.
For more information about this issue see the technote on: http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_13674

Flash Playback and Browser specific Information

Using Flash 4 on Your Web Pages
When creating SWF files in the Flash 4 player format, it is important that you ensure that visitors to your web site have the Flash 4 Player installed with their web browser. With Internet Explorer on Windows, this is accomplished by specifying version=4,0,0,0 on the CODEBASE parameter of the OBJECT tag. This causes the Flash 4 player to automatically be downloaded and installed in the user's browser. For Netscape Navigator users, JavaScript can be used to detect if they have the Flash 4 player. For other browsers, you will have to tell the user that the Flash 4 player is needed. If a user views Flash 4 content with a Flash 3 player, most of the graphics will appear but much of the interactivity will not function properly. It is not recommended to view Flash 4 content with the Flash 3 player. We recommend that the Publish command be used to generate the proper HTML to place Flash files on a web page.

Using JavaScript with Flash and Netscape Navigator
When using the FSCommand or JavaScript to control the Flash 4 plug-in in Netscape Navigator, you must add the settingswliveconnect=true to the Embed tag. By default, the swliveconnect flag is set to false so that the Flash 4 plug-in does not need to load Java. This makes accessing Flash web pages much faster for Netscape Navigator 4 users.

Macintosh Only

Problems opening PC created files on a Macintosh:Double-clicking on a FLA file created on a PC will not open the file on Macintosh. This is due to differences between the PC and Macintosh operating systems. There are several ways to correct this:

Use the PC Exchange control panel to map the .FLA file extension to Flash. This will allow you to double-click the file to open it.
Open the file from inside Flash by selecting File > Open and choosing All Files rather than All Formats. The file can be opened and saved on a Macintosh. It should then open normally when double-clicked.
Use a utility such as Drop-Info or ResEdit to edit the file's Type and Creator.

	Type	Creator
FLA files (editor)	SPA<space>	MFL2
SWF files (player)	SWFL	SWF2

In the example, <space> represents the space bar character.

POST and Internet Explorer for Macintosh:The POST operation in the Load Movie and Get URL action is unsupported on Internet Explorer for Macintosh.

Flash 4 HTML Help

Internet Explorer on Macintosh:To use Internet Explorer 3.0 or above on a Macintosh to view any SWF type files stored locally either:

Change your Internet explorer MIME type Preferences. For more information, see "Adding the SWF MIME type for Macintosh Internet Explorer users" section of the Player folder/Reademe.html.
Use the standalone player to open the any SWF type files on your local hard drive.