I received a greetings card from someone just before 01-01-2003 and it was a swf file(shock wave flash). Nice picture - at 1st you make wish, cut the cake and then from no where a beautiful house appears... a dog chasing a cat ... stars flashing.. and so on. Finally the message appears, "May your wish come true!"
My question is, how do I preview the images contained in a .swf file. Also, how about previewing the sound file.

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly; do you want to be able to view the images separately that the flash movie was made of? If so, you probably can't.