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MACROMEDIA FLASH

Optimizing movies

As part of the publishing process, Flash automatically detects duplicate shapes on export and places them in the file only once, and converts nested groups into single groups.

You can further reduce a movie's size before exporting it to minimize downloading time by doing any of the following:

	Use symbols, animated or otherwise, for every element that appears more than once.
	Whenever possible, use tweened animations, which require less overhead than a series of keyframes.
	Limit the number of special line types such as dashed, dotted, ragged, and so on. Solid lines are smaller. Lines created with the pencil tool require less memory than brush strokes.
	Use layers to separate elements that change over the course of the animation from those that do not.
	Use Modify > Curves > Optimize to minimize the number of separate lines that are used to describe shapes.
	Limit the number of fonts and font styles.
	When including text fields, use the Include Only Specified Font Outlines option in Text Field properties instead of Include All Font Outlines.
	MP3 is the smallest format for sound. Use it as much as possible.
	Embedded fonts increase file size. Use them sparingly.
	Avoid animating bitmap elements; use bitmap images as background or static elements.
	Limit the area of change in each keyframe; make the action take place in as small an area as possible.
	Group elements as much as possible.
	Use the Color Effects pop-up menu in the Instance Properties dialog box to create many different colored instances of a single symbol.
	Use the Colors window to match the color palette of the movie to a browser-specific palette.
	Use gradients sparingly. Filling an area with gradient color requires about 50 bytes more than filling it with solid color.

As you make changes, test your movie on a variety of different computers, operating systems, and Internet connections.