swf won't open???

[steveoh]

I'm a newbie. What am I doing wrong? I have created or downloaded several Flash MX 2004 movies, ranging in size from 35KB to 600KB, but none of the swf files will open up.

Here is exactly what I'm doing:
1) See swf file on my C drive (it can be ANY swf file, even one straight from a book's CDROM), and I click on it.

2)An Internet Explorer browser window opens up, and the loading bar progresses very slowly. After about one minute it stops about halfway. It never fully loads. I never see the flash movie.

I can play a Projector of each of them, and I can also play them easily when I "Test Movie" my fla. But I can't get an swf to open other than in "Test Movie" mode -- and I obviously want others to be able to open one if I email one to them or put one on a website.

I'm sure the answer is simple, but I can't figure it out. Please help me out. Thank you!

[coolioman]

try this:

right click on your swf.

click "open with"

then browse to the location of your standalone player.

If you want to e-mail the movie to people, they will need the standalone player also.(unless they open the file with intrernet explorer)

[steveoh]

That works! Thanks!

But...???

I still can't open my own swf's by LEFT-clicking them (opening up the IE browser). Is that normal? Does that happen to you guys too?

I am noticing that I CAN play Flash movies on other websites -- it's just the swf's I have in my own files that I can't open in a browser by left-clicking on them. Weird. Thoughts?

How should I email someone one of my movies? As an swf or a Projector? I want to send some computer novices a few things to look at, and I don't want it to be confusing for them -- I'd like it to be as easy as possible -just click on it and open it. Please advise.

Thanks!

[coolioman]

doh! i should have said this before!

when you select the stand alone player, select the check box that says "always use this program to open this type of file"


as you know, a projector is a .exe file. Most email systems wont accept this file type, because they so often contain viruses.

[steveoh]

Thanks coolioman! :)