Macromedia Flash 5

Standalone Players and Plugins

Macromedia Flash 5 includes new versions of the Flash plugins, ActiveX control, and the standalone Flash Players.

Replace Flash 4 versions of the Flash plugins for Netscape, ActiveX control for Internet Explorer with the new Flash 5 versions to view Flash movies that incorporate Flash 5 features.

Use the standalone Flash Players to create projectors or to play movies outside a browser or ActiveX application. Use a projector when you want to distribute movies to users who don't have Flash or properly configured browsers, or for distributing movies on floppy disks or CD-ROMs. There are no distribution costs or limitations on distributing projectors created with the standalone players.

Included Files: Describes all files included in the Players folder.
Installing Macromedia Flash 5 Players: detailed instructions for installing the Macromedia Flash 5 Players.
Removing Macromedia Flash 5 Players: detailed instructions for removing the Macromedia Flash 5 Players.
Troubleshooting: Workarounds for common errors.

Included Files

Macromedia Flash Player Files For Macintosh

Player Installer:

Flash 5 Player Installer - This installs the Netscape Navigator Plugin version of Flash Player for Macintosh Power PC users. The installed plugin will also work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or later for Macintosh.

Standalone player:

Flash Player - This is the standalone player version of Flash for Power PC Macintosh users. Drag and Drop or use File>Open in the standalone player menu to view movies in the standalone players. To create a projector file for Macintosh Power PC only, open your movie in the standalone player and select Create Projector from the file menu or use the Publish command and select Macintosh Projector.

FlashPla.exe: This is the standalone player version of Flash for Windows 95/98/NT/2000. It is also used by the Publish command to create Windows 95/98/NT/2000 compatible projector files on the Macintosh. Windows projector files can be created inside the Flash editor application by selecting Publish Settings from the File menu and then selecting Windows Projector. Click the Publish button to create the Windows projector.

Macromedia Flash Player Files For Windows

Player Installer:

InstallAXFlash.exe: This file installs the Flash Player for Internet Explorer on Windows95/98/NT/2000. This player is also known as the ActiveX control. To use this file, double click it to start the installation.

Flash32.exe: This file installs the Netscape Navigator Plugin version of the Flash player on Windows 95/98/NT/2000.

Standalone player:

FlashPla.exe: This is the standalone player version of Flash for Windows 95/98/NT/2000. It is also used by the Publish command to create Windows 95/98/NT/2000 compatible projector files. Windows projector files can be created inside the Flash editor application by selecting Publish Settings from the File menu and then selecting Windows Projector. Click the Publish button to create the Windows projector.

FlashPla.data, FlashPla.rsrc: These are components of the standalone player version of Flash for Macintosh. It is used by the Publish command on Windows 95/98/NT/2000 to create a Macintosh compatible projector. Macintosh projector files can be created inside the Flash editor application by selecting Publish Settings from the File menu and then selecting Macintosh Projector. Click the Publish button to create the Macintosh projector.

Macromedia Flash Player Java(tm) Edition

This release supports Flash 2 features only. This version does not support Flash 3, 4 or 5 files or Flash 3, 4 or 5 features. To use Flash Player Java(TM) Edition with Flash 5, select "version Flash 2" in the Flash export or publish dialogs.

There are two additional folders in the Flash Player Java(TM) Edition folder: FlashSmall and FlashApi.

The FlashSmall folder contains a smaller version of the Flash Player Java(TM) Edition. Sound and bitmap support have been disabled in this version in order to reduce the size of the applet. If you don't have any sounds or bitmaps in your movie, consider using the smaller applet in order to view the Flash movie.
The FlashApi folder contains a package, FlashApi.zip, which developers can import into their own applets and applications. FlashApi.html contains the documentation for the api in that package.

A Java Player Template has been included with Flash 5 to use with the Flash Player Java(TM) Edition. Be sure to select Version 2 from the Flash tab of the Publish Settings dialog. The Java Player Template links the Flash Player Java(TM) Edition files level (in the same folder) to your html file. To use the HTML created from the template you need to place the Flash Player Java(TM) Edition files in the same folder as your SWF and HTML files.

Installing Macromedia Flash 5 Players

To install the Flash Player on Macintosh:

Netscape and Internet Explorer:

1. Quit your browser before installing the new plugin.
2. Remove any old versions of the FutureSplash and the Flash plugins. See Removing Macromedia Flash 5 Players for detailed information that applies to both old and new versions of the Flash plugin.
3. Double-click the Flash 5 Player Installer file to begin the installation.
4. Open the Browser. The new Flash Plug-in should be installed and working. To verify, choose the "About Plug-Ins" menu option from Netscape's Help menu, or choose About "Internet Explorer...", then click on the "Support" button to view the list of installed plugins.

To install the Flash Player for Netscape on Windows:

1. Quit your browser before installing the new plugin.
2. Remove any old versions of the FutureSplash and the Flash plugins. See Removing Macromedia Flash 5 Players for detailed information that applies to both old and new versions of the Flash plugin.
3. Double-click the Flash32.exe file to begin the installation.
4. Open the Browser. The new Flash Plug-in should be installed and working. To verify, choose the "About Plug-Ins" menu option from Netscape's Help menu, or choose About "Internet Explorer...", then click on the "Support" button to view the list of installed plugins.

To install the Flash Player for Internet Explorer on Windows:

1. Quit your browser before installing the new ActiveX Control.
2. Remove any old versions of the ActiveX Control. See Removing Macromedia Flash 5 Players for detailed information that applies to both old and new versions of the Flash ActiveX Control.
3. Double-click the InstallAXFlash.exe file to begin the installation.

Removing Macromedia Flash 5 Players

To remove the Flash Player on Macintosh, or the Flash Player for Netscape on Windows:

1. Quit Netscape.
2. Navigate to the Plugins folder in your Netscape directory.
3. On the Mac: Remove the file Shockwave Flash NP-PPC. On Windows: Remove the file NPSWF32.dll.

To remove the Flash Player for Internet Explorer on Windows:

To remove the ActiveX Control, do the following:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, if it is open.
2. From the Start menu, choose Find Files or Folders... and enter swflash.ocx
3. Note the path for the file (typically C:\Windows\System\Macromed\Flash
   on Windows 95 or Windows 98 and C:\WinNT\System32\Macromed\Flash on Windows
   NT or 2000). If more than one copy is found, note the path to the file
   located inside the Windows folder, like those above.
4. From the Start menu, Select Run...
5. In the Open field, type in the following command: regsvr32 {path}\swflash.ocx /uwhere {path} is the path noted from step 3.
6. Select OK. You should get a RegSvr32 dialog box stating that the
   executable succeeded. If it failed, double check the path to your Windows
   system folder.
7. From the start menu choose Find Files or Folders.. and enter swflash.ocx
   again.
8. Select the file named swflash.ocx. Right mouse click on this file and
   select Delete. If more than one copy of the file exist, delete every copy
   of swflash.ocx found.
9. In the "Find" field, enter swflash.inf.
10. Right mouse click on this file. Select Delete.
11. Restart the machine.
    

Troubleshooting

 If after installing the Flash plug-in it does not work, here are a few things to check.

• Make sure you remove the old versions of the FutureSplash or Flash plugins. See Removing Macromedia Flash 5 Players for detailed information that applies to both old and new versions of the Flash plugin.
• If you are using Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, open the Options dialog in the Edit menu. Select the Web Content tab and be sure that "Load Plug-In Objects" is selected.
• If you are testing your own SWF files from a web server, make sure that you have set the MIME type mapping for SWF files to application/x-shockwave-flash.

Netscape Navigator Plugin is installed but not working:

Netscape Navigator 4 Macintosh Users

1. In the browser, choose Edit > Preferences.
2. Choose the Navigator > Applications Category.
3. Select Shockwave Flash from the list on the right.
4. Click Delete and then click Yes to confirm the deletion.
5. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.
6. Restart your browser.
7. This removes your Flash MIME type from your browser.

To re-create your MIME type:

1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.
2. Select the "Applications" category from the pane on the left (under "Navigator").
3. Click the "New..." button.
4. In the "Description" field, enter: Shockwave Flash
5. In the "MIME type" field, enter: application/x-shockwave-flash
6. In the "Suffixes" field, enter: swf
7. Under "Handled by" section, select the "Plug-in" radio button. In some cases, you may not be able to select this button until after you restart your browser.
8. Then, select "Shockwave Flash NP-PPC" from the drop-down menu.
9. Under "File info", make sure the "Use this MIME type for outgoing attachments" checkbox is selected.
10. Click "OK".
11. Click "OK"
12. Restart your browser.

Netscape Navigator display problems:

When Netscape runs out of memory, you may see display problems in the plugin or Netscape may hang. Some versions of Netscape install with only 4000K of memory on a Macintosh with the standalone version of the browser (the version that contains the browser without mail). You may also have this problem with the full installation of Netscape.

To increase the memory allocation for Netscape:

1. Click on the program icon,
2. Select File > Get Info.
3. In the dialog which opens, increase the memory. We recommend at least 9000K; if you have limited memory, 6000K should work for most smaller movies.

Macintosh Internet Explorer Users:

Adding the SWF MIME type for Macintosh Internet Explorer users

The movies in Flash Help are Flash movies. They are installed on your local hard drive. To use Internet Explorer 3.0 or 4.0 on a Macintosh to view these movies or any Flash movies stored locally, you must change your Internet Explorer MIME type Preferences.

To add the SWF MIME type to your Internet Explorer browser preferences on a Macintosh:

1	Launch Internet Explorer.
2	Choose Edit > Preferences.
3	Under Receiving Files, choose File Helpers.
4	Click Add to add the following information:
	Representation:
	Description: Shockwave Flash Extension: .SWF MIME type: application/x-shockwave-flash
	File Type:
	Application: Flash (browse to where your local copy of Flash is located) File Type: SWFL File Creator: MFL2
	Handling:
	How to handle: View with Plugin Application: Shockwave Flash NP-PPC (Browse to the Plugins folder in your browser directory.)
5	Click OK.

To view older FutureSplash files, repeat these steps (adding a new File Helper), but in Step 4 Representation, use the Extension of .spl instead of .swf.