Can I import a Flash movie into Fireworks?

[chiefroastbeef]

Hi guys,

I am currently using Dreamweavers, and I'm most of the design in fireworks. I made a little picture slide show, and I want to put it in my Fireworks layout to see how it looks. Is there anyway I can do that?

After searching Google, there are a million results on how to import Fireworks into Flash, but nothing on putting a Flash file into Fireworks.

Thank you for any suggestions!

chief

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

I have an old copy of FW 2004 MX on my work machine, never tried importing Flash before, but went right into it's own help area, searched for Flash and came up with all kinds of results, including:

About scripting with Flash SWF files

With Flash, you can create SWF movies that contain JavaScript code. These movies can be used as Fireworks commands, accessible from the Commands menu in Fireworks.
You can even create a SWF movie and use it as a Fireworks panel, accessible from the Window menu. The Align panel in Fireworks is an example of a Flash movie imported as a panel.

and...

With the Extension Manager, you can install and manage extensions that augment the functionality of Fireworks. Or you can write custom JavaScript code and use it as a custom command in Fireworks. You can also use Flash SWF movies as custom commands in Fireworks.

So there is a limited import technique in this version. Use MX's help as I did plus search for "Extending fireworks" to discover these features to determine if it does what you want. Hope this gets ya started.

-jim

 

[chiefroastbeef]

Thanks a lot! I will look into this tomorrow, it is 2:00am in Hong Kong right now. I never thought about looking in the help sections of the program...

Thanks again.

 

[chiefroastbeef]

I've been fiddling around, doing more searching on the topic, I still haven't gotten anywhere. Should it really be this hard? Fireworks integrates into Flash nicely, and there are a million topics about that, but not the other way around?

Should I just export all my fireworks files and design in Flash instead?

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

From the help index topic named "Flash SWF movies used as Fireworks panels":

If dropped into the Command Panels folder on your hard disk, the movie will appear as a panel in the Fireworks Window menu.

Flash SWF movies used as Fireworks panelsNote: The exact location of this folder varies from system to system and depends on whether you want the panel to be available just to your user profile or to all users. Command Panels folders are located in the Configuration folder in the Fireworks application folder and also in your user-specific Fireworks configuration folder. For more information, see Working with configuration files.
For more information about using Flash SWFs as Fireworks panels, see Extending Fireworks.

So apparently Fireworks integrates Flash SWF's via it's command panels, you simply drop your Flash file into the proper folder. For the location of the folder, that's linked in the help, and for more information about how the panels are used, that's noted in the help in the last sentence above.

That's how it works!

-jim

 

[snickelfritz]

The entire Adobe CS4 GUI will probably be extensible via Flash panel extensions.
ie: you can create custom panels for all of the CS4 applications using Flash.
This is not the same thing as support for Flash content.

 

[chiefroastbeef]

Thank you so much for your help! People like you make this forum better than any customer support Apple can offer!

Unfortunately, doing so only creates another window that plays my flash, it does not import into my fireworks layout. I guess I will use flash for my layout design! Thanks again!

 

[snickelfritz]

BTW, the significance of support for custom Flash panels should not be underestimated.
I have a custom "snippets" panel in FlashCS3 that is absolutely indispensable.
(Snippets Panel was authored by Lee Brimelow)
It allows me to store frequently used strings of code for quick insertion into new projects.
It's a huge time saver.