Hi there… I need a bit of help from anyone who will be willing to lend it to me. 
I am somewhat between a beginner and an intermediate user of Flash. I have created a site www.vantagepointefarms.com and it is really slow. It is one of the first sites I have done for a company and I need to know some ways to speed it up. If you need more information from me, please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help.
I see what you mean… very sluggish. Looks pretty good though as far as flash sites go so you’re half way there.\r\rI’d start with the pictures. Find out how big they are in k. Start taking them into something like photoshop and downgrading their quality until you just barely can’t stand the look, then set them for a little higher than that. I’m not sure, but they look like they are pretty high rez. If you can reduce their k at all, it’ll start up more quickly.\r\rI’d add a preloader to the beginning. It gives people an idea of what they’re in for.\r\rI’d take the sections of the movie, which I assume are scenes, and separate each into it’s own FLA file. Then I’d use the loadMovie(); method to load each to the site as they are needed. Each one can have it’s own preloader as well.\r\rOther than that, it’s hard to tell about the sluggishness itself. \r\rThese are the top three processor hogs\r1) quantity of movie clips on the screen at one time.\r2) quantity of objects who’s alpha is less than 100% on the screen at one time. If they are moving, or something is moving behind them, they will slow it down even more.\r3) constantly updating text fields. Any text field which is set to update itself every couple milliseconds will cause great breakdown in running speed… though why, no one has been able to answer me yet, but it is a basic truth to flash.\r\rFrom what I see, you don’t seem to have any of the above problems. Though number of movie clips on the screen at once, is a little hard to judge without seeing the full FLA file.\r\rShapetweening of complex shapes will slow things down too… or just plain too many tweens going on at once.
Hey, thanks a bunch for all of that great input. Very helpful! I am going to do as you said regarding the picture sizes and putting each scene into it’s own fla file. That would probably help. I haven’t had any formal training with Flash so I kind of muddle myself through it. I know that my files are not organized as they should be, but I guess we all have to start somewhere. Anyway- thanks again!
Well… as soon as you’re ready for training in the loadMovie(); method, let me know. I’ve done several good write ups on that command.