Flash glossary: SWF
The SWF (Shockwave Flash) file format is the file that is generated as a result of publishing or testing a FLA file in Adobe Flash Professional. SWF files are designed to be small, compressed files that are published on the web. SWF files may contain animations, components, bitmap and vector graphics, and digital video. You can control SWF behavior at runtime with ActionScript. SWF files can include interface items like buttons for interactivity and to perform various functions.
SWF files can be generated from within several Adobe products, including Flash, Adobe Flash Builder (an IDE), and the Adobe Flex SDK.
Once created, SWF files are played back with Flash Player, usually as a browser plug-in but also as a standalone player. SWF files can also be encapsulated with the player, creating a self-running SWF movie called a projector.
By default, the Publish operation creates a Flash SWF file and an HTML file that includes the embed parameters to insert the SWF content so that it will appear properly in a browser window. Publishing can also create SWF detection files, depending on the publish settings.
If you change the document's publish settings, Flash saves the changes with the document. After you create a publish profile, export it to use in other documents or for others working on the same project to use.
To test how the SWF file works before you publish your SWF file, choose Control > Test Movie. Flash will publish a SWF file alongside the FLA file in the same folder. Each time you test the file, the published SWF file overwrites the older version.
To learn more about publishing files in Flash, watch the following videos: Creating a Flash web movie and Publishing FLA files.
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