Specifications

68 Basic Tasks: Creating a banner, Part 3
The purpose of this article is understand how to create Flash content,
export it from Flash, and add it to your own website. The lesson to draw
from considering banner guidelines is that you need to consider your
audience. Whenever you create a Flash site, think about the kind of people
who will see the content—much like when you create any website. Is your
audience a wide range of individuals, with many kinds of computers and
Flash Players (or none at all)? Or, is your audience primarily fellow Flash
developers and new media companies? Your audience affects which Flash
Player version you target. For example, if you think a diverse audience
(often a large audience with a wide range of computer capabilities) will visit
your site, target an earlier version of Flash Player, such as version 6. If you
think other web professionals will visit the site, then the latest player (with
a detection system) is fine. You set your Flash Player and add a Flash Player
detection system using Dreamweaver in upcoming sections.
Checking your publish settings
Often you need to save banners to earlier versions of Flash Player. Many
sites you might advertise with now accept Flash Player 6 files. You might
also create a website that targets a wide audience, and you need to target an
older player. The simple ActionScript you added to your file can play in
Flash Player 6. Therefore, you can change your player settings to Flash
Player 6 for your website.
NOTE
If you send your banner to a company to host, they usually have special
requirements for how you add button code to your FLA file. Often, they
want you to add a specific variable (such as clickTAG) instead of a URL.
Refer to the advertising service, client, or website guidelines for the
correct button code to add to your FLA file. Some companies also limit
what frames per second (fps) rate you can use in the SWF file. When you
design a banner, try to keep your fps rate as low as possible. I recommend
using 18 fps or lower; ideally, use 12 fps.