Testing a movie > Authoring and scripting guidelines

 

Authoring and scripting guidelines

If you use good authoring practices when you author your movie and write scripts, your movies will have fewer problems. Use the following guidelines to help prevent problems and to fix them quickly when they do occur.

 
Using good authoring practices

It's a good idea to save multiple versions of your document as you work. Choose File > Save As to save a version with a different name every half hour. You can then determine when a problem began by using your version history to find the most recent file without the problem. Using this approach, you'll always have a functioning version, even if one file becomes corrupted.

Another important authoring practice is to test early, test often, and test on all target platforms to find problems as soon as they develop. Use Control > Test Movie to run your movie in test mode whenever you make a significant change or before saving a version. In test mode, the movie runs in the authoring application's version of Flash Player.

If your target audience will be viewing the movie on the Web, it's important to test the movie in a browser as well. In certain situations (for example, if you're developing an intranet site) you may know the browser and platform of your target audience. If you're developing for a Web site, however, test your movie in all browsers on all potential platforms.