TO EXPORT AN ANIMATED-GIF FILE FROM FLASH

Referring to the main menu, choose File > Export > Export Movie.  When the Export Movie window opens, select the following export options:

• Save As:  Give the file a name and prepare to save the document in a suitable place (i.e., your temporary folder in the Scratch Disk).
• An important note: When you save the file and give the animated-gif a name, you must add a [.gif] as the file extension; that is “dot-g-i-f.” For example:

• self_portrait.gif

Otherwise web browsers will not recognize the file.

• Format: Choose “Animated GIF.”

Press Save.  By doing this, an “Export GIF” dialogue box will then open.  From there, choose the following options:

• Dimensions: You could apply any set of dimensions, [640] wide by [480] wide, for example. However, the larger the dimensions, the larger the file will be, your animation could play slower as a result. You might want to choose something like [320] wide by [240] high, at a 4:3 aspect ratio.
• Colours: You can use “Standard colours,” “256 colours,” “128 colours,” etc. Changing these settings and reducing the colour range will affect the size of the animated-gif, but such an adjustment might unduly affect the image quality as well.
• Select “Smooth” and/or "Transparent;" "Interlace" and "Dither solid colours" if the file will take longer to load over the internet.
• Animation: Select [0] repetitions, so that the file will repeat forever when played in a web browser.

Finally, press the “OK” button.

TO REVIEW AN ANIMATED-GIF MOVIE

Launch Mozilla Firefox (or your favorite web browser) and, referring to the main menu, choose File > Open File. Locate the animated-gif and press Open. The animated sequence should play in the browser.