Testing a Movie

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Flash can play movies in the authoring environment, but this playback doesn't always show you exactly how the Flash movie will look when it's finally published for the Web. As you learned at the beginning of this lesson, the files you work with in Flash are .fla files, while the files you will eventually create for the Web, which will be viewed by the Flash Player, are .swf files. The Flash authoring tool's Test Movie command allows you to preview your movies as .swf files.

1. Make sure you still have zoo1.fla open . Choose Control > Test Movie.

   

   When you choose Control > Test Movie, Flash creates an .swf file in the same folder where you saved your .fla file. Flash opens that .swf file in a separate window and displays it in the Flash Player. We will refer to the Flash preview window as the Test Movie window. You will learn much more about the Test Movie window in Lesson 12.

   The .swf version of zoo1.fla is pretty boring right now. It should appear as an empty orange area. Don't worry, you'll add much more to this file in the next 11 lessons, and that empty orange area will soon have lots of content.

2. Close the Test Movie window.

   You didn't actually make any changes to zoo1.fla when you tested it, so you don't have to save the file again. Just keep it open for now, as you're going to add some content to it in the next lesson.

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