About Scenes - MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-USING FLASH Use Manual

About scenes

Using scenes is similar to using several SWF files together to create a larger presentation. Each
scene has a Timeline. When the playhead reaches the final frame of a scene, the playhead
progresses to the next scene. When you publish a SWF file, the Timeline of each scene
combines into a single Timeline in the SWF file. After the SWF file compiles, it behaves as if
you created the FLA file using one scene. Because of this behavior, avoid using scenes for the
following reasons:
Scenes can make documents confusing to edit, particularly in multiauthor environments.
Anyone using the FLA document might have to search several scenes within a FLA file to
locate code and assets. Consider loading content or using movie clips instead.
Scenes often result in large SWF files. Using scenes encourages you to place more content
in a single FLA file, and hence, you have larger documents to work with and larger SWF
files.
Scenes force users to progressively download the entire SWF file, even if they do not plan
or want to watch all of it. Your users progressively download the entire file, instead of
loading the assets they actually want to see or use. If you avoid scenes, users can control
what content they download as they progress through your SWF file. This means that
users have more control over how much content they download, which is better for
bandwidth management. One drawback is the requirement for managing a greater
number of FLA documents.
Scenes combined with ActionScript might produce unexpected results. Because each scene
Timeline is compressed onto a single Timeline, you might encounter errors involving your
ActionScript and scenes, which typically requires extra, complicated debugging.
There are some situations where few of these disadvantages apply, such as when you create
lengthy animations, which is a good time to use scenes. If disadvantages apply to your
document, consider using screens to build an animation instead of using scenes. For more
information on using screens, see
(Flash Professional only)" on page
44 Working with Flash Documents
"Creating a new screen-based document
343.