Something Odd Happened

Why do letters 'stick' to the edge of the Movie when I import my SWiSH animation into Flash?
You have the 'Do not animate off-stage objects' option checked on the Movie Export Panel. Uncheck this option and re-export your SWiSH Movie.

Why do some fonts display incorrectly when I opened a SWiSH Movie created on another machine?
You do not have all the fonts installed on your machine. Missing fonts will be displayed as Times New Roman. You need to install all the fonts used in the SWiSH Movie onto your computer.
Note: Fonts do not need to be installed to play SWiSH animations over the internet

Why does my movie get slower and slower as it plays?
If you fade objects out, they remain on the stage completely transparent (with zero alpha). Even though you cannot see them, Flash Player still has to do expensive transparency calculations on them, and that will slow things down.

Why do I get strange holes in my objects?
Flash Player has problems when you have several completely transparent objects overlapping another object and it ends up cutting "holes" in the objects. This can happen if you use a Fade Out effect and do not put a Remove effect immediately after the Fade Out. If you do not put the remove effect, the object stays on the stage, but with zero transparency .. it is still active though (for example if it is a button). If you do not require the object to be active but invisible, you should put a Remove effect after the Fade Out effect. This can also greatly improve movie playback performance.

Why do Effects start one Frame into the animation?
This is so Effects can be joined together seamlessly without the object 'sticking' for one Frame between the Effects. If you need the initial Frame of the Effect, simply shift the Effect one Frame to the right, and select Place Effect to insert an Effect in the first Frame.

Why do objects turns into Sprites when I group them?
Objects in a Group cannot have their own Effects, unless they are (inside) a Sprite. If any of the objects you are trying to Group already have Effects, then that object is first converted to a Sprite so that your Effects are not lost.

Why is the Sprite off center in the 'Layout' Panel, or not visible at all?
When you expand a Sprite to edit it, the system of co-ordinates in the Layout Panel changes from Scene co-ordinates to Sprite co-ordinates. This will make the objects in the Sprite go off center. Use the View | View at 100% or View | Fit Objects in Window to recenter the Layout Panel.

Why does the cursor still move in jumps when I turned of the Grid?
Even if you have hidden the Grid, you may still have Snap to Grid turned on. These are separate options under the View Menu. You can have the Grid visible, but no snapping; or the Grid hidden and snapping turned on. Use View | Snap to Grid to turn Grid snapping on or off. You can also turn this on or off, and set the Grid size, from the Movie Panel.

Why don't I see masking happening?
Masking only happens when the Movie or Scene is playing. When you are editing, masking is turned off automatically, so that you can see both the mask shape and the objects being masked.

Why can't I see the 'Export' Panel?
The Export Panel is hidden when you first install SWiSH. You can show the Export Panel by selecting Panels | Export from the main Menu.

Why can't I see the 'Color' Panel?
The Color Panel is hidden when you first install SWiSH. You can show the Color Panel by selecting Panels | Color from the main Menu.

Why can't I see all the Menu commands on Toolbars?
Use the View | Toolbars Menu to turn on additional Toolbars. Use Tool | Customise to add, move or remove buttons from Toolbars.

My Panels and Toolbars are all mixed up. How do I reset SWiSH to the default layout?
You can restore the Panels to the default layout by selecting Panels | Reset to Defaults. You can restore the Toolbars to the default layout by selecting Tools | Customize and pressing Reset All on the Toolbars tab. If your SWiSH layout is still mixed up, follow this procedure:

1.	close SWiSH if it is running

2.	press the Windows 'Start' button and select Run...

3.	type "regedit" (without quotes) into the Open edit box and press OK to open the Registry Editor

4.	in the Registry Editor open the folder: My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\

5.	select the DJJ Holdings folder, right-click and select Delete

6.	close the Registry Editor

7.	restart SWiSH.

SWiSH will now start with the default layout.

Flash crashed when I imported my SWF file. Why?
There is a bug in Flash where it will not import some valid SWF files. In particular, it will crash if a SWF file does not have a particular record that is not actually required in a SWF file. There are two situations in which SWiSH leaves out this optional record. The first is when you select the [x] Solid shape with overlap filled checkbox on the Shape Panel. This option tells SWiSH to export a shape as a font, which has different behavior for self-overlapping shapes. The information Flash requires is not applicable and so is not exported. The second is when you explicitly turn off the font info record with the [x] Allow import of text as text object checkbox on the Export Movie Panel. This tells SWiSH to omit the optional record for all text, which reduces the size of the resulting SWF file. See Importing a SWiSH Movie into Flash.

I imported my SWF file into Flash ok, but when I play the Flash movie thee is nothing there. Why?
There is a bug in Flash when importing a SWF that has masking. Even though it looks ok inside Flash itself, when Flash generates a SWF file, nothing is visible. To avoid this, ensure that the [x] Mask off-stage objects option is turned off in the Export Movie Panel.

A warning message was displayed when I tried to select an Adobe PostScript font. Why?
Due to a bug in Adobe Type Manager 4.0 (and earlier) for Windows NT, use of PostScript fonts may cause SWiSH to close.
To fix this either:

·	Update to ATM 4.1 or later (ATM Lite is a free download)

·	Turn off ATM 4.0, and convert your PostScript fonts to TrueType using Windows NT TrueType Converter.

To do this:

1.	turn off ATM 4.0

2.	restart Windows NT

3.	go to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Fonts | File | Install New Font

4.	in the 'Install Type 1 Font' dialog box turn on Convert Type 1 Font to TrueType and Install Type1 Font Files for use on a PostScript printer. Turn off Copy Type 1 Font Files to Fonts Folder

5.	click Yes.

For more information refer to:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/freehand/ts/documents/freehand_7_and_atm_4_for_nt.htm
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/flash_crash_fonts.htm
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/tn4105.html



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