Notice

   This documentation is a little outdated. As with swftools-0.2.1 and
   above, you can simply do
   pdf2swf -bl -o document.swf document.pdf 
   to link viewer and preloader.
   However, the Steps below are still valid for jpeg2swf. 

Step 1: Converting the documents

   Suppose you have an arbitrary pdf file, "document.pdf".
   Call:
   pdf2swf -o tmp.swf document.pdf 
   Now, tmp.swf is a Flash Movie generated from document.pdf. Movie means
   that there are no navigation elements whatsoever. Just frames which
   get displayed one by one, at a rate of approx. 1/2 frames/second. How
   to make document browsable is explained below.
   (You can do the same things described below with jpeg files. Simply
   use
   jpeg2swf -o tmp.swf pic1.jpeg pic2.jpeg ...
   and read on)

Step 2: Linking a viewer

   Just take a viewer of your choice (e.g. [1]SimpleViewer.swf ) and put
   it in the same directory where you entered the commands above.
   Now call:
   swfcombine -o flashfile.swf SimpleViewer.swf viewport=tmp.swf 
   Now, 'flashfile.swf' is "browsable", i.e. there are some buttons in it
   for turning pages.

Step 3: Linking a Preloader

   Depending on the size of your PDFs/SWFs, you may want to have some
   kind of loading animation displayed while the browser is busy getting
   the actual document. Assuming you have some file like flashfile.swf
   above, you furthermore need the file [2]PreLoader.swf and an arbirtary
   loading animation of your choice. (To get started, try [3]loading.swf,
   or just convert a "Loading" JPEG picture to swf (jpeg2swf -o
   loading.swf picture.jpg)) Now use
   swfcombine -o flashfile.swf PreLoader.swf loader=loading.swf
   movie=flashfile.swf 
   (Most loaders are smaller than the document they load. They usually
   need some centering so they appear in the middle of the page to be
   displayed, not in the upper left corner. Replace the above command
   with e.g.
   swfcombine -o flashfile.swf PreLoader.swf -x 3000 -y 3000
   loader=loading.swf movie=flashfile.swf 
   and try playing around with the values after -x and -y)

Step 4: Correcting the size and framerate

   Sometimes, the bounding box of the generated flash file is not
   correct. This happens because when linking a viewer or preloader to
   the SWFs, the new dimensions are those of the PreLoader and Viewer
   templates, and not those of your pdf or jpeg files. To fix this, use
   swfcombine --dummy `swfdump -XY tmp.swf` flashfile.swf -o
   flashfile.swf 
   (tmp.swf is your 'original' swf, generated like above)
   You may also want to adjust the framerate of the movie to that of the
   preloader. (As the preloader is usually the only animated part of e.g.
   pdf viewers)
   Use:
   swfcombine --dummy `swfdump -r loading.swf` flashfile.swf -o
   flashfile.swf 

Step 5: Embedding the SWF into a html page

   Usually, one wants to put the generated SWFs on his web page. To do
   so, you have to embed the SWF file into html. If you don't know how to
   embed SWFs into html pages, it's explained at
   [4]http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/tn4150.html .
   Also, you can simply type
   swfdump --html flashfile.swf 
   and insert the output into your html document

Appendix A: Creating your own Viewers

   If you know about Flash, and you want to substitute SimpleViewer from
   above with something more sophisticated, follow these rules:
   1. There has to be some rectangle (Movieclip, whatever... ) in your
   Viewer, named "viewport". (This name is used to reference the object
   when using swfcombine for merging it with the converted pdfs)
   2. The First frame should contain an actionscript "Stop" instruction.
   (Otherwise, the browsing buttons turn pages, but pages get also
   automatically turned every few seconds)
   3. Browsing buttons next to the rectangle (which turn pages in the
   shown pdf) should trigger some Actionsscript events, like

     SetTarget "viewport"
     NextFrame
     SetTarget ""

   to set the frame in the to-be-replaced rectangle. (It will be replaced
   with a MovieClip, therefore a SetTarget is neccessary)
   It's important that the Target Name ist "viewport", not "/viewport",
   as the Movie will get inserted into a Movieclip (Sprite).
     _________________________________________________________________

   [5]Back to the SWFTools Project page
   

References

   Visible links
   1. http://www.quiss.org/swftools/SimpleViewer.swf
   2. http://www.quiss.org/swftools/PreLoader.swf
   3. http://www.quiss.org/swftools/loading.swf
   4. http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/tn4150.html
   5. http://www.quiss.org/swftools