This page will show you how to insert an existing Macromedia Flash animation into a Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 Web page. See our Macromedia Flash 5 Tutorial for help creating a Flash animation.

Before Inserting a Flash Animation

Avoid using animations that distract from the content of your site and always provide navigation options. At the least, you should have "play" and "stop" buttons included and make the animation optional to view (especially for Flash intros).

Saving the Animation for the Web

First, save the Flash .fla file to the appropriate folder on your Web site. Before inserting the animation into a Web page, you will need a .swf or a .html file. Open your .fla Flash file in Macromedia Flash 5. From the Control menu, select Test Movie. Your file will open as a .swf file, and this is how it will appear on the Web. From the File menu select Close to close this file. In your original .fla file, go to the File menu and select Publish Settings. The Publish Settings box will pop up.

Check the boxes next to Flash (.swf) and HTML (.html), then go to the HTML tab.

For "Dimensions," select Percent. For "Width" and "Height," select 100 X 100. Select the options shown above, then click Publish. Close out of Flash.

Inserting Flash

There are two different ways to include Flash on your Web site:

1. Insert a .swf file into one of your Web pages.
With this option, the Flash animation can be included on one of your existing Web pages. The animation will appear inside your user interface.

2. Link to the Flash .html file in one of your Web pages.
With this option, the Flash animation will take up the entire browser window (you may choose whether or not it opens up in a new window). Your user interface will not surround the animation.

Inserting a .swf File into a Web page

If you want the Flash animation to appear in one of your Web pages, insert it as a .swf file. Open the Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 Web page where the animation will be inserted. From the Insert menu in Dreamweaver, select Media, then Flash. The Select File dialog box pops up. Select the movie file, using the .swf file (NOT the .fla file!) and it will be inserted on your page as an icon like this:

Click on the Icon and go to the properties box. Make sure Autoplay is not selected (Web users should be able to choose whether or not to view the animation), and select loop only if you want the animation to repeat continuously. Make sure the width and height will be appropriate for your Web page.

To preview what the Flash Animation will look like on the Web, from the File menu select Preview in Browser.

Including the Animation as a .html File

If you want the animation to appear on its own, make a hyperlink to the .html Flash animation file in one of your other Web pages.