Help with Flash 2004 design

[Friendships and Networking]

Hi all,
I have a friend that asked me to do his poetry series in Flash. I was
hoping I'd have a chance to control the font and then be able to later add
some graphics and other creativity to the site. I just started using Flash
MX 2004 exclusively and have some problems.
The site is: [url]http://wordsalad.net/poetrybyjean/[/url]
There are two animations and the first one just takes one to the second
animation/movie at page1.html
The first run with the web site was to see if it would look the same on my
browser as on his or others. What I included, which I didn't think was very
complex at this point, was some simple library buttons for navigation
and a text box for each poem in the collection. I have the action layer at
the top with a stop on each frame, which may not be necessary if the buttons
are such that they are scripted to goto and stop.
My first indication that something was wrong was when I selected
publish I got an error that button actions must only be on buttons. I had
dragged out the gel left and gel right and gel stop button. I added the on
(release) { prevFrame(); } and nextFrame, stop, depending on the button. 1)
My first curiousity and confusion is how is it that it is saying that such
actions must only be on a button when they are only on a button.

2) My feedback from him was that the text was too small to read. I
published for Flash player 6 as it wouldn't let me choose 5. I also chose
publish at 100% width and 100% hight, so the text on my screen is certainly
not small.

3) Thus my next question is that if the text is too small is that likely do
to the fact that he may be running an older version of the flash player? If
the fla file is saved in Flash MX 2004 could that be problematic with
publishing options, if indeed the problem is the incompatibility between
flash player versions?

4) If I need to use code and design that will work on earlier versions of
the flash player, is there a way to get Flash MX 2004 to show alternative
action script that will be ok for earlier versions of the flash player?

5) Are these gel buttons a problem in earlier versions of Flash Player?

Again the site is [url]http://wordsalad.net/poetrybyjean/[/url]

Please advise. Thank you,
Bruce

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Check out Poets Against Poverty at:
[url]http://PoetsAgainstPoverty.wordsalad.net/[/url]
or post for free at:
[url]http://TriangleSupport.net/PoetsAgainstPoverty/[/url]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[rlc5611]

What browser is your friend running? It sounds like he is using netscape or
Mozilla or something similar. I don't thank it is a flash player version issue.
If it is a browser issue it has a fix. I am surprised you cannot select Flash 5
in MX 2004. I can in mine. I can publish for Flash player 1 if I want to. I
cannot comment on gel buttons as I have not download them but the error you are
getting usually results from the AS being in the timeline rather than on the
button. Look on your timeline. Do you see any frames with an italic "a" in
them? Click those frames and see if your button script appears in the actions
panel. If you are working in Flash 7 and using components developed for Flash
7, they may not work if you try to publish in a previous version. Best not to
play around with that.

[cVarz]

I think once you publish an FLA in a higher format (7 for example) you can't go back in and publish the same FLA for 5.

I know once you convert from 5 to 7 it will not let you go back.

[rlc5611]

If you have to change any action script when converting to Flash 7 then I agree
with you. There is a fair amount of older script that will no longer work in
Flash 7. If you do not alter any script then I disagree. I can publish for an
older Flash player just fine.