1. Flash movie size preview

Swiff Chart offers a real-time preview of the resulting Flash movie size. The current file size is displayed on the bottom right corner of the main window. See screenshot below:

2. Parameters increasing the Flash movie size

There are mainly 5 factors that increase the resulting Flash movie size:

• The number of series, categories and data values
  The larger is number of series, categories and data values, the larger is the Flash movie size.
• The graphical parameters and visual effects
  Plot visual effects such as Drop Shadow, Outer Glow, Stroke, etc. also increase the Flash movie size. Some visual effects are light some other can be more costly in terms of size.
• The chart is static or animated
  An animated chart produces a larger Flash movie than a static chart.
• The type of animation applied to the chart
  The type of animation applied to your chart alter the final Flash movie size. Some animation types are very light some other can be costly in terms of size. For example, for a line chart, selecting the Draw animation type is much more costly than the Appear animation type. The resulting Flash movie in this case can be much larger.
• The Flash Compression
  Using the Flash compression divides the final Flash movie size by about 2, thus considerably reducing the size.

3. Solutions for optimizing the Flash movie size

Use one or more of the proposed solutions below to reduce the size of the Flash movie:

• Select lighter Visual Effects

  To apply lighter visual effects to the chart plots:

  1. Select menu Plots
  2. In the FX list box, select a lighter effect.
     The costly FX are Drop Shadow and Outer Glow
     The light FX are Solid Shadow and Stroke.

• Select lighter plot animation effects

  To apply lighter animation effects to the chart plots:

  1. Select menu Animation
  2. In the Main Plot Animation section, choose a lighter animation type from the Plot list box.

• For Line Charts: use straight lines instead of smoothed lines

  To change the path type for line charts:

  1. Select menu Plots
  2. Select one series from the Series list box
  3. In the Line Style section, in the Path list box, select Lines.
  4. Repeat the operation for the other series

• For Bar or Column Charts: use Simple Border instead of Complex Border

  To select simple borders for bar and column charts:

  1. Select menu Plots
  2. Select one series from the Series list box
  3. In the Bar Border or Column Border section, check Simple Border.
  4. Repeat the operation for the other series

• Use Solid Gridlines instead of Dashed Gridlines

  To select Solid Gridlines:

  1. Select menu Gridlines
  2. Select Vertical Gridlines or Horizontal Gridlines
  3. In the Vertical Gridlines or Horizontal Gridlines section, in the Pattern list box, select Solid.

• Use Flash 6 or higher Compression

  To enable Flash 6 Compression:

  1. Select menu Save
  2. In the Export a SWF File section, check Compress.