Controlling Playback

Once you have the animation sequence working, you can change the playback speed by setting the frame delay. The frame delay determines the amount of time each frame is displayed. Frame delay is specified in hundredths of a second. For example, a setting of 100 displays the frame for a second, and a setting of 25 displays the frame for a quarter of a second. For the fastest animations, set the frame delay to 0.

1.	Click Frame 1 on the Frames panel to select the first frame. Hold down Shift and click the last frame to select all of the frames in the animation. You can change the frame delay for each frame individually or for all frames at once.
2.	Access the Frames Option menu and choose Properties from the list. Tip You can also double-click the selected frame to display the properties for that frame. Double-click the frame delay column (the right column), not the frame name. You can rename each frame; double-clicking the name enables you to type a new name. If multiple frames are selected, double-click one frame-delay column. The value you enter for the frame delay is applied to each of the selected frames.
3.	Type 10 in the Frame Delay text box. Click outside the Frame Properties pop-up window to close the window. The smaller the number, the faster the animation plays.
4.	Click the Play/Stop control button to view the speed of your animation. Repeat step 3 with a different frame delay if the animation is too fast or too slow. Next you will set the looping control for your animation. Looping makes the animation play over and over. Make sure that looping your animation is absolutely necessary before you change this setting. There is nothing more irritating on a Web page than an animated GIF image that loops for no apparent reason. Make sure that the last frame of your animation contains the final information you want to display, and that you limit the number of loops. Note When you preview your animation in the Document window, Fireworks processes each frame separately. You may see the VCR controls flashing as each frame is processed. In the next task, you will set the optimization and then preview the movie in the Preview window.
5.	Click the Looping button on the Frames panel if you want to set the looping attributes of your animation. On the pop-up menu that opens, you can choose the number of times that you want the animation to loop. The number you choose does not include the first sequence of the animation; you'll actually see one more loop than the number you choose here. To remove the looping, choose No Looping. When you play your animation with the Play/Stop control button, it continues to loop regardless of your loop setting. Choose File > Preview in Browser to view your animation with the proper loop setting.
6.	Save your file.