Flash CS3: The Missing Manual

Exporting Flash to Other Formats

Exporting your entire animation—or one or more of the individual frames that make up your animation—is very similar to publishing. In both cases, you get to specify which file format you'd like Flash to convert your .fla file into, and in both cases, you get to tweak file settings based on the file format you choose. The only real difference, in fact, is that Flash designated the most common file formats (.html, .swf, .gif, .jpg, .png, .mov, and projector files) as publishing destinations and all other file formats as export destinations. Most of the time, you'll export (rather than publish) an image, sound, or your entire animation because you want to work with it in another graphics or animation program.

Flash lets you export to all the file formats you see in Table 14-1.

Table 14-1. File Formats to Which You Can Export Your Flash Animation

Format	Extension	Platform	Note
Flash movie	.swf	Windows, Mac	Image (single frame) and animation
PICT file	.pct	Mac	Image and animation (as a sequence of images)
Enhanced metafile	.emf	Windows	Image and animation (as a sequence of images)
Windows metafile	.wmf	Windows	Image and animation (as a sequence of images)
EPS 3.0	.eps	Windows, Mac	Image and animation (as a sequence of images)
Adobe Illustrator	.ai	Windows, Mac	Image and animation (as a sequence of images)
AutoCAD DXF	.dxf	Windows, Mac	Image and animation (as a sequence of images)
JPEG Image	.jpg	Windows, Mac	Image and ...