Recipe 2.10 Enhancing Standalone Projectors

2.10.1 Problem

You want to create an enhanced Standalone Projector with features such as borderless playback, custom titles, no Flash menus, and so on.

2.10.2 Solution

Use a third-party tool such as SWF Studio or SWFKit to create the Projector from your completed Flash movie.

2.10.3 Discussion

SWF Studio is a third-party utility that helps you overcome some of the limitations of regular standalone Flash Projectors. However, SWF Studio produces Windows projectors only. Also note that the resultant projector files are rather hefty (minimum file size is around 1.5 MB). Therefore, projectors created with SWF Studio are more suited for distribution via CD-ROM or a kiosk than via download.

SWF Studio has many features, as described on the official product site (http://www.northcode.com). SWFKit (http://www.swfkit.com) offers similar feature enhancements, but we cover only SWF Studio in detail here.

However, regardless of the Projector enhancements you want to achieve, there are several steps necessary in any project that uses SWF Studio:

1. Create your Flash movie by exporting the .swf file from Flash.

2. Open SWF Studio. The program automatically starts with a new project opened, so you don't need to create a new project.

3. On the left side of the application window is the Project Tree (see Figure 2-1). Locate the Layout option at the end of the list and click on it.

4. In the right pane, click on the Layout Options button. A menu appears from which you should select Add Movie (see Figure 2-1).

5. A new Movie is added to the project and appears as an item under the Layout option in the Project Tree. The Movie option should be selected automatically, and the right pane should now contain a File form field. Click on the Browse button to the right of the form field, select the .swf file you want to add to the project, and click OK.

6. Select the enhancements you want to add to your projector (the default settings disable the right-click menu entirely).

7. After you have chosen the settings for the Projector, click Build to export the EXE. If you saved the project previously, SWF Studio exports the EXE with that name; otherwise, it exports the EXE as Untitled.exe. If you do not specify an output directory, the EXE appears on the desktop.

Figure 2-1. SWF Studio Project Tree window

2.10.4 See Also

Third-party tools: SWF Studio (http://www.northcode.com) and SWFKit (http://www.swfkit.com). See Recipe 2.9, Recipe 2.11, and Recipe 2.12 for details on several of their benefits.