Converting a .gif into a .swf using gif2swf

New to the forums, and the whole Ubuntu world, also NOT a technical person, so please be gracious.

Try as I might I cannot figure this thing out. Please keep in mind I know virtually NOTHING about how to run this thing (read: terminal). I just need to convert a .gif file I created into a flash (.swf) for my website. Here's what I typed (no laughing, ok maybe a little) and the response:

pandora@pandora-Satellite-L645:~$ gif2swf -o test.swf -r 12 animate.gif
Couldn't open animate.gif!
Error opening input file: animate.gif
No gif files found in arguments

I have a feeling it's something quite simple that I'm missing but like I said, total n00b. It took forever for me to even figure out I needed to type something.

2 Answers

You run command in your home folder. But is file present exactly there?

Check if you home directory contains animate.gif. If not copy animate.gif to your homedir, or do cd /path/to/file/ before run your command, or use full path: gif2swf -o test.swf -r 12 /path/to/file/animate.gif

Does animate.gif actually exist?

Check if the directory you're currently in contains a file named animate.gif by running:

ls

This will list the contents of the current directory.

If you're in the wrong directory, change to the appropriate directory by running:

cd /path/to/correct/directory