Specifications

Creating a new document 29
Creating a new document
You can create all kinds of different elements for the web or for CD-ROMs
and devices using Flash 8. First, you create a file in the Flash authoring
tool, which you use to output SWF files. SWF files are the files that you
can put online when you embed it in a web page. The Macromedia Flash
Player plug-in then displays the SWF file, so your website visitors can view
or interact with the content.
Your SWF file can contain video, MP3 sound, animations, images, data,
and so forth. The benefit of using an SWF file over other formats is that
the Flash Player plug-in is incredibly common. Let's start building a
banner.
1. Open the Flash application.
By default, Flash displays the Start Page (see the following figure),
which enables you to select a recently edited document, create a new
Flash document or ActionScript file, or create a new document using a
pre-built template. If you use Flash Professional 8, you can create
additional kinds of files.
By default, Flash displays the Start Page when it’s started. This figure shows
the options available in Flash Professional 8.