How to create flash site that loads faster?

[Glen_B]

Our (volunteer) designer created a flash web site for us and isn't available to help us anymore. The site takes forever to load and I'm able to make small changes to the .fla but don't know how to speed up the loading. Is there a way to load it in increments instead of all at once?

Is there a way to also create, from the .fla .swf file a simple html site? I could then edit this down for those people who don't have or don't want flash players. Thanks so much for your comments.

[Axel]

to make it a html site, you have to use something
like dreamweaver or front page and copy and paste
stuff. you cant just hit a button in flash... ;(

as for loading it quicker... make sure your images
are as compressed as they can be. make sure you open
your library (F11) and check that all the stuff in
there is absolutely necessary. flash exports EVERYTHING you import whether you use it in the movie or not.

vector based graphics (images made inside flash or
Illustrator) are lighter and faster to load
than gif's or jpg's... use vector images instead
of jpg's and gif's...

other than that, i know no more...
hope i could help. :) good luck!

[benihana]

flash exports EVERYTHING you import whether you use it in the movie or not.

not true.

i just made a test movie with a line of text on the stage, and an image in the library, and exported it.

then i put an instance of the image on the stage, and exported again.

the first movie was ~450 bytes, the secound ~4kb.

p.s. glen_b, axel welcome to webmasterworld!:)

[Glen_B]

Thanks much for answering -- it helps a lot. I'll be working on cutting and pasting to get our site into a regular html. The way it is now, people with dial up claim it takes 5 minutes for the site to load.

[winstun]

Welcome to Webmaster World!

Another option that may be available to you would be to load elements only as they are needed.

To go along with this you could export certain elements of your .fla into smaller .swf's and loading them as required by the user.

For example you could have your main interface as the initial .swf that is loaded and then for each section or sub-section have as a separate .swf that loads into a container movie clip as the user requests/ navigates there.

If going this route pre-loaders are very handy and useful, especially from an end-user pov as they will know that something is loading and that something will happen instead of looking at an empty space thinking that it's not working.

Whichever route you choose I hope it all works out for you.

Cheers,
winstun