Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips

In most cases when you embed your fonts as previously mentioned, you'll want to embed all possible characters for that font, just in case you need to use them all. However, if you're sure that you only need certain characters, then you can often significantly reduce your file size by including only the ones you need. Let's say you have a dynamic field that will only display numbers. There's no need to embed outlines for every letter in the alphabet, so don't. Select the text field, bring up the Character Options again, and this time only select the Numerals set from the list. Doing this throughout your movie can be a great way to cut down on file size. Keep in mind that if you have two text fields (Dynamic or Input) of the same font and one only has Numeric included while the other has all outlines, you won't save any space. If they're included for one field, then they're in your final SWF file, so do this only when it can actually make a difference.