Animated gif from flash

I have been doing some research on how to make an animated gif from flash. I have already created the flash file and given the .swf file to client. Things are good on that end. Now they are asking for it in an animated gif format. I don’t know flash well enough to go to this next step.

My first problem is I have the animated parts built into a movie clip. Which i now know won’t export to an animated gif since it isn’t in the main timeline. Also i figured out that it would be best to convert it to a bitmap and assemble it in Image ready to keep file size down.

Is there a way to move my layers from the MC to the main timeline without having to reanimate?

How do i convert to a bitmap to bring into Image Ready?

Any suggestions would be great! I am at a wall right now with this.