Lingo in a Nutshell

Flash Asset Xtra

The Flash Asset Xtra allows Director to play Flash 2 files. Support for Flash 3 files in Director has not yet been announced, although Flash 3 files can be played in a browser via the separate Shockwave for Flash plug-in. As of May 1998, the latest Flash Asset Xtra revision is 1.0.2 (which ships with Director 6.5). It is used along with the PowerLine Xtra to import shape objects and gradients from PowerPoint and reproduce them as Flash Assets in Director.

Tip

To import a Flash 2 filet, use Insert ➤Media Element ➤Shockwave Flash Movie, not File ➤Import.

Table B-5 lists the Xtras you’ll need for authoring and distribution of Flash files (Windows 3.1 and 68K are not supported). The playback version of the Xtra is included in the recent versions of the Shockwave for Director download from Macromedia’s site. D6.0.1 or later is required.

Tip

The Xtra does not create Flash files. Macromedia Flash version 2.0 or 3.0 is required separately to create .SWF files. See also the new Flash Generator.

Table B-5. Flash Asset Xtras

Projectors	Xtra Name
Power Macintosh Authoring	Flash Asset Options PPC
Power Macintosh Distribution (Projectors or Shockwave)	Flash Asset PPC
Windows 32-bit Authoring	Flash Asset Options.x32
Windows 32-bit Distribution (Projectors or Shockwave)	Flash Asset.x32

Table B-6 shows sprite and castmember properties for Flash Assets. It is implicit that each property takes the form:

the property of member flashMember

and/or

the property of sprite flashSprite