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Filed under: Web Video •

Use Encore to Create Flash Web Pages

Now, the best way to import video into Encore is to import them as Timelines, so that you don’t have to go to the additional step of creating the timelines if you import them as assets. Import all 12 of your videos as Timelines. (shift-command-T on a Mac).

Rename the buttons in the main menu and link them to the appropriate submenus. You can also choose Enable Weblink for Flash in the Encore Properties Tab and link buttons to URLs instead of DVD assets, which is really cool. I used this to link a button back to the home page of my website.

Rename the buttons in the submenu and link them to the appropriate timelines.

Also, link the forward and backward arrows and the “return to main menu” button to the appropriate buttons. Encore is also capable of linking any of these buttons to URLs so you can link to other external web resources or to other pages on your own website that were not created with Encore.

When you’ve finished building your menu set and linking it to the video files, test it to make sure all of the links are valid and correct.

In the Build tab - from top to bottom and left to right – choose Format: Flash, Output, Flash (.swf), Create Using Current Project, select a destination folder into which the entire project, including linked source files, will be written. I chose to write it directly to the local Dreamweaver folder for my website. Give it a name. Format as f4v or flv (I chose f4v.) You can change the size of the project, I chose 640x480 High Quality. And then Build your project as you would a regular DVD project.

Now, you’re finished with your work in Encore. In Adobe Dreamweaver, if you didn’t build your project directly to your local website folder, you’ll need to copy it into that folder or ftp it directly to your website server. I then used the Put button to put the demo file folder up on the site. If you placed it in the site’s local folder, you’ll need to go into Dreamweaver and Put the folder up on the remote server.

Now, the only thing left for me to do was to change my homepage to link to the new demo page. I selected the button for Demo Reel on my homepage and changed the link to reflect the new .htm file that Encore created. Encore always names this .htm file “index,” which is the name normally reserved for home pages, so rename the file to something like “demoreelchoice.”

The coolest way to link the Demo Reel button on my home page to the newly named Encore .htm file was to select the button and use this cool “pick whip” feature that allows you to directly choose the file from your File pane. This is part of Adobe’s effort to make all of their applications work similarly, so the learning curve when jumping from one Adobe app to another is minimized. The “pick whip” feature has been part of Encore and After Effects for a while and is a nice, intuitive way to link files.

Save your home page with the new links and synchronize everything with your remote server. The next time you browse to your website, the new Flash functionality will be up and running!

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