and commands, and also how to open, save, and close files. If you need to review these techniques, see the printed or online documentation included with your Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS software.   Installing Flash You must purchase the Adobe Flash CS3 software either as a stand-alone application or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite. Flash CS3 requires Apple QuickTime 7.1.2 or higher. For system requirements and complete instructions on installing the software, see the Adobe Flash ReadMe.html file on the application DVD. Install Flash from the Adobe Flash CS3 application DVD onto your hard disk; you cannot run the program from the DVD. Follow the on-screen instructions. Make sure that your serial number is accessible before installing the application; you can find the serial number on the registration card or on the back of the DVD case.   Optimizing Performance Creating animations is memory-intensive work for a desktop computer. Flash CS3 Professional requires a minimum of 512 MB of RAM; 1 GB or more is recommended. The more RAM that is available to Flash, the faster the application will work for you. Copying the Lesson Files The lessons in Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book use specific source files, such as image files created in Adobe Illustrator, video files created in Adobe After Effects, audio files, and prepared Flash documents. To complete the lessons in this book, you must copy these files from the Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book CD (inside the back cover of this book) to your hard disk. 1. On your hard disk, create a new folder in a convenient location and name it FlashCS3_CIB, following the standard procedure for your operating system: * Windows: In Explorer, select the folder or drive in which you want to create the new folder, and choose File > New > Folder. Then type the new name. * Mac OS: In the Finder, choose File > New Folder. Type the new name and drag the folder to the location you want to use. Now, you can copy the source files onto your hard disk. 2. Copy the Lessons folder (which contains folders named Lesson01, Lesson02, and so on) from the Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book CD onto your hard disk by dragging it to your new FlashCS3_CIB folder. When you begin each lesson, navigate to the folder with that lesson number, where you will find all of the assets, sample movies, and other project files you need to complete the lesson. If you have limited storage space on your computer, you can copy each lesson folder individually as you need it, and delete it afterward if desired. Some lessons build on preceding lessons; in those cases, a starting project file is provided for you for the second lesson or project. You do not have to save any finished project if you don't want to, or if you have limited hard disk space. About Copying the Sample Movies and Projects You will create and publish SWF animation files in some lessons in this book. The files in the End folders (01End, 02End, and so on) within the Lesson folders are samples of the completed project for each lesson. Use these files for reference if you want to compare your work in progress with the project files used to generate the sample movies. The end project files vary in size from relatively small to a couple of megabytes, so you can either copy them all now if you have ample storage space, or copy just the end project file for each lesson as needed, and then delete it when you finish that lesson.