Converting Documents with FlashPaper

There are a few different ways to convert an existing document using FlashPaper. If you are using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, you can use the FlashPaper Office Add-In menus or toolbar buttons. Open Word and choose FlashPaper > Convert to Macromedia Flash (.swf), or Convert to PDF, or even Email PDF.

You can also use FlashPaper from any application by using the Print command. If you use this option in Microsoft Office, however, your FlashPaper documents will not contain any embedded hyperlinks, outlines, or accessibility information.

To convert a document to FlashPaper automatically and insert it into a web page, you can drag a document onto the Edit window or choose Insert > Document as FlashPaper while editing the web page. Doing this makes Contribute tell FlashPaper to convert the file to Flash format, copy the Flash file to the documents folder for the HTML page you are editing, and modify the HTML code to load the Flash file properly.

For any of these methods to work, you need the program that created the documents on your system in the first place.

Examining the FlashPaper User Interface

Figure 1 shows the FlashPaper screen elements from the left to right.

Figure 1. FlashPaper screen elements.

• FlashPaper logo: Brings you to the Macromedia FlashPaper website.
• Hand Tool: Allows you to click and drag the FlashPaper document to scroll the view. (New)
• Text Select Tool: Allows you to select and copy (Ctrl+C) text. (New)
• Search Text Field: Searches for text in the document. (New)
• Search Button: Searches the document for the text in the Search Text Field. (New)
• Zoom slider: Adjusts the magnification of the document and shows the results in real time. The slider "snaps" slightly at the 100%, Fit Page, and Fit Width zoom levels. The slider ranges from 50 to 250 percent—a useful range for viewing most documents.
• Zoom text box: Shows the zoom level and allows you to type in a zoom level that is outside the range of the zoom slider. It accepts percentages from 10% to 999%.
• Fit Page button: Sets the viewer zoom level so that it fits a whole page just within the window. Depending on the orientation and size of the document, it may show more than one page.
• Fit Width button: Sets the zoom level so that the full width of the viewing area is used. This is the default zoom setting and is good for reading a document easily.
• Current Page text box: Shows the number of the currently displayed page and allows you to jump to any page in the document by typing a page number and pressing Enter.
• Total Pages display: Displays the total number of pages in the document.
• Previous/Next Page buttons: Displays the top of the previous or next page in the document.
• Print button: Prints the document to any printer. Clicking it opens the standard Print dialog box and lets the person viewing the FlashPaper document to print it as they would from any program.
• Launch in New Window button: Opens the FlashPaper document in a new window.

Here are some handy keyboard shortcuts when viewing a FlashPaper document:

• Page Up and Page Down scroll the document one screen at a time
• Arrow keys scroll the document by a few pixels at a time
• Tab highlights the buttons on the toolbar in sequence; hitting Spacebar "presses" the highlighted button (helpful if your mouse has problems, as well as to address accessibility issues)

Understanding the Benefits of FlashPaper

FlashPaper is a document format designed for the web. By embedding a FlashPaper document in a web page, anybody coming to your site can see the document right away without first launching an external application or reader to view it.

Depending on the content, many files become significantly smaller when converted to FlashPaper. Our testing shows that some files shrink by as much as 50% or more. (Your results may vary.)

Because there is no external software to load, and FlashPaper files are often smaller than their source formats, the only thing between the reader and the information is the speed of the Internet connection.

Almost all web users (more than 98%) can read a FlashPaper document without additional downloads because they already have Flash Player installed and the document viewer user interface is included in the FlashPaper document.

In addition to providing a fast and lightweight document viewing experience, you can also print FlashPaper documents. FlashPaper is not intended to supplant existing prepress printing technology. However, it is perfectly suitable for printing documents on office and home printers. Just click the printer icon found on the Flash document toolbar.

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