Re: FLASH: Software (is: FLA vs SWF)

[John Dowdell]

At 10:58 AM 10/20/0, Scott Hagaman wrote:

> Is there a free program out there that will let me write/edit

> flash files? The acutal .fla's....


The SWF file format is (relatively) easy to describe, and has public

documentation, and dozens of tools work with it today. These are the files

played back in the browsers, and there's a wide ranging of pricing options

depending on what you want to create.


The FLA file is much more complex, though, because it holds the editing

structures for the Macromedia Flash authoring environment, and because it

relies on that authoring system code in order to make sense. I don't know

of any tool which attempts this more difficult task, sorry... these files

are only used in the authoring tool itself, and for realworld browser

distribution we're really looking at the final compiled SWF instead.


What is it that you're really trying to do? For instance, if you're trying

to prepare vector artwork for use in the Macromedia Flash 5 authoring

environment, then any tool that writes a valid SWF can have its art

imported to F5. Or are you trying to achieve something different...?


jd







John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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