Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips

I like to organize everything. I keep my desktop neat, my Library categorized, and my sock drawer in chronological order by date last worn. Okay, that's not true; my desktop is a mess. Anyway, if you're like me, then you may want to keep your Flash documents (.flas) in a different directory than your published (.swfs). I for one like to put the FLA files in a sub-directory called "_source" and my SWFs up one level. However, when I publish, the SWFs go to the same directory. So here's a way to have the best of both worlds. Open your Publish settings (CTRL-SHIFT-F12 or OPT-SHIFT-F12 on Mac) and activate the Formats tab, and you'll see a list of filenames that you can publish to. You can choose the folder location by clicking any folder icon to the right, but it doesn't always jump right to the folder above where your FLA is. Put a "../" in front of the filename, and then with every publishing, your SWF will be placed up one level from your FLA. This also works with ..\ and ..: on PC and Macs.