DW8 easily insert Flash video in a Web page

Open the Index.html page in the Dreamweaver document window, insert a three-column table, and click once over the shape placed in the middle column of the three-column table.

Select "Insert" > "Media" > "Flash Video".

In the Insert Flash Video dialog box, choose Progressive Download video from the video type pop-up menu. About...

About Flash video using the Insert Flash Video command in Dreamweaver, you can insert Flash video content into a Web page without using the Flash authoring tool. The command can be inserted into the flash component, and when you view it in a browser, it displays the Flash video content of your choice as well as a set of playback controls.

The Insert Flash Video command provides the following options for sending video content to a site visitor:

Progressive Download video Downloads the Flash video (FLV) file to the site visitor's hard disk, and then plays. However, unlike the traditional "download and Play" video transfer method, progressive downloads allow video files to start playing before the download is complete.

Streaming video streams the Flash video content and immediately plays it in a Web page. To enable streaming video on a Web page, you must have access to the Macromedia Flash Communication Server, the only one that can stream the flash video content.

In the URL text box, specify the relative path of the cafe_townsend_home.flv file by clicking Browse, browsing to the cafe_townsend_home.flv file (located in the Cafe_townsend root folder of the site), and selecting the FLV file.

Choose Halo Skin 2 from the Appearance pop-up menu.

A preview of the selected skin appears below the Appearance pop-up menu. The appearance option specifies the appearance of the Flash video component that will contain the Flash video content.

In the width and Height text boxes, do the following:

In the Width text box, type 180.

In the Height text box, type 135, and then press Enter.

Tips

Click Detect size to determine the exact width and height of the FLV file. However, sometimes Dreamweaver cannot determine the size of the FLV file. In this case, you must manually enter the width and height values.

The values in the Width and Height text boxes specify the width and height of the FLV file in pixels. You can adjust these values arbitrarily to change the size of the Flash video on the Web page. When you increase the size of your video, the image quality of the video usually drops.

Attention

"Include appearance" is a tax of the width and height of the FLV file and the width and height of the selected appearance.

The remaining options leave the default selection values:

Limit the aspect ratio to keep the width and height ratio of the Flash video component unchanged. This option is selected by default.

AutoPlay Specifies whether to play the video when the Web page is open. Deselect this option by default.

Automatically replay the specified playback control to return to the starting position after the video has finished playing. Deselect this option by default.

Click OK to close the dialog box and add the Flash video content to the Web page.

The Insert Flash Video command generates a video player swf file and a skin SWF file that is used to display Flash video content on a Web page. (You may need to click the Refresh button in the Files panel to view the new file.) These files are stored in the same directory as the HTML files that are added to the Flash video content (in this case, the Cafe_townsend root folder). When you upload an HTML page that contains Flash video content, Dreamweaver uploads the files as related files (just click "Do you want to upload the relevant files?"). "Yes" in the dialog box.

Save the page, and then you can test the effect.