Cleaning Up a Flash Library to Reduce File Size

To reduce the final file size of a Flash movie you should delete any unused objects in the movie's Library. If you would like to follow along with this tutorial, download this FLA file and open it in Flash.

In Flash, open the Flash Library by clicking Window > Library or pressing CTRL+L

The image to the left is a screen capture of the Library in the smnetworklibrary.fla file.

Notice that there are a lot of symbols in this Library. Many of these symbols are not being used in the actual animation. Symbols that are not being used in the animation should be deleted from the Library. Deleting unused symbols reduces the final movie size, thus decreasing the download time. While this movie is fairly small (fla file 144kb, swf file 3kb) this is very important when you are creating complex movies that contain a lot of graphics and sound files.

Fortunately, deleting unused symbols from the Flash Library is very easy. In the Library, click the Options Menu Icon . The Options Menu will appear (image to the right).

Click Select Unused Items.

Objects selected in Library The library objects that are not being used in the movie will be selected or blue. To delete these objects, click the Trash icon at the bottom of the Library.

A prompt will display asking if you are sure if you want to delete the items.

Are you sure

Click Yes at this prompt.

This will delete the unused Library items which will decrease the final file size. The file size of my FLA file is now only 48kb (from 144kb).

To take your organization process a step further, click the new folder icon at the bottom of the Library Window. This creates an untitled folder . Name the folder images and press Enter. Drag the two remaining symbols into the images folder.

Always create folders in your movie's library to store your symbols. I would recommend at least creating folders for sounds, images, movie clips, and buttons.

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