Watermarks are graphical assets layered on top of content to deter copying. They are typically semi-transparent and consist of a company logo, a photographer’s name, or a copyright symbol. SlideShowPro for Flash supports watermarks by attaching a Movie Clip created by the developer, layering it above each piece of slideshow content, and positioning it in one of five locations. To add a watermark to your slideshow, follow these steps.
In the FLA containing SlideShowPro for Flash, create an empty Movie Clip by clicking on the plus (+) symbol at the bottom left of the Library (Window > Library). Name it “watermark,” make sure that “Movie clip” is the Behavior, and then toggle-on the “Export for ActionScript” option next to “Linkage.” If using the AS2 version of SlideShowPro, the “Identifier” field should pre-fill with the linkage ID “watermark.” If using the AS3 version, the "Class" field will populate. When complete click “OK.” (The AS3 version may show a warning about creating a class. Click OK). Your movie clip will be created, and automatically opened.
Fill the Movie clip with your watermark content. You may create it in Flash using vector shapes and/or type, or for fancier effects, create a semi-transparent bitmap in another software package like Photoshop or Fireworks, export the artwork as a 24-bit transparent PNG, then import it into your Movie Clip.
When your watermark content is complete, select all (Edit > Select All), and then open the Align palette (Window > Design Panels > Align). Ensure that the “To stage:” button is depressed, then click both Align Horizontal and Align Vertical (see right Figure). Your artwork should now be centered both vertically and horizontally inside your Movie Clip. Aligning your artwork in this manner is required in order for SlideShowPro for Flash to accurately position the Movie Clip on top of your slideshow content.
Select your instance of SlideShowPro for Flash on the Stage and open the Component Inspector. In the empty field next to CONTENT/Watermark, enter the linkage ID for your Movie Clip, which in this case would be “watermark” (without quotes). Next, toggle open CONTENT/Watermark Align and choose an alignment position.
Publish a new SWF, and your watermark should be appearing on top of your loaded images in the position you chose. The position of the watermark will automatically change each time a new image or video is loaded so that it always covers your slideshow content (regardless of dimension).
