This post goes out specifically to my fellow AM students. The current system at Animation Mentor requires use to use an older release of Flash 9 R47. The problem with this is a lot of websites nowadays like Capacity.tv, a cool studio whose work I will make a separate blog post for, They use Flash 10 and require us to update, but then we have to downgrade again. Quite the hassle.

The solution came up in the Tech Q&A last night, and sadly with so many people posting so fast I can’t give credit to the person who mentioned it as I forgot who it was.Flash Switcher is a Firefox extension that allows you to install multiple Flash versions and easily switch between them. It does cause a restart of Firefox so be careful about switching in the middle of a post or flash upload etc, but the thing works great.

Now for some quick advice on setting it up and using it. When you first install the extension it is going to have three versions of flash installed, one of 7,8, and 9. Do note the 9 that it uses is not the same as the one provided by AM. When you click on the Flash Icon in the bottom right corner of Firefox, it will list those three versions and hopefully a Flash 9 r47 option that has a sub menu. In that sub menu you can choose to save or delete. Choose to save it use the default name, but perhaps add an AM to the end to help you remember this is the AM version you need.

Flash Switcher Extension

Next there is a settings menu that should bring up a dialog. We don’t need to change anything here, but the first path it provides you’ll want to copy, and then paste into your explorer/finder window. This will take you to a folder containing several folders, one for each flash version. Delete the 7,8, and 9 that were provided by the plugin, but keep the Flash 9 R47 folder as that’s the AM version.

Finally, we need to get the latest flash version from Adobe. Install the plugin and when Firefox restarts, clicking on the flash Icon in the bottom right corner should now show Flash 9 R47 and now a Flash 10 with a submenu. Choose to save the Flash 10. Now you will have both Flash 9 and Flash 10 and be able to easily switch between them, so you can use the Animation Mentor site just fine and safely upload assignments, but still access websites that need Flash 10.

One small Note, from my research, the main reason I believe that AM is not supporting Flash 10 yet is because of changes to the Flash uploader, which obviously is what AM relies on for uploading our assignments. A lot o the AM site seems to work fine, but if you can’t upload for whatever reason, chances are your using the wrong version of Flash. While this extension is handy, be very careful Sunday mornings to make sure you are using the Flash 9 r47 version so that you will definitely be able to upload, and not freaking out right before your assignment deadline.

Well that was a really long post, but hopefully it alleviates some of the woes some people have had, myself included, with using the AM site and needing to visit flash 10 sites. If you are having troubles setting it up and want some support, contact me on AM or here, Happy animating, and happy browsing.