ptg Working Within the Flash Environment Introduction Getting to know the Flash authoring environment makes you more effective and efficient as you create movies. You’ll get to know the parts of the Flash window, which include the Timeline, Stage, panels, and Property Inspector. The Tools panel, also known as the Toolbox, contains tools that you can use to draw, paint, select, and modify artwork. The Timeline represents the overall structure of a Flash docu- ment and controls the content. The Timeline consists of lay- ers, frames, and scenes that make up a Flash document. Layers are like transparent sheets stacked on top of one another. Each layer can contain different images that appear on the Stage. A frame displays content at a specific moment on the Stage. The order in which frames appear in the Timeline determines the order in which they appear in the document. As you play a document, the playhead moves through the Timeline displaying the current frame with each layer on the Stage. If a project requires many animation sequences with hundreds of frames, you can organize the animations into scenes to make them easier to work with and manage. Below the Timeline is the Stage, which provides a place to compose the content for individual frames. Panels are windows that allow you to view, organize, and change elements and related options in a document. The Property Inspector is a specialized panel that allows you to change object-specific attributes and options. Flash uses built-in keyboard shortcuts designed specifi- cally for Flash. The built-in keyboard shortcuts are organized into sets, which you can duplicate and customize to create your own personalized set. Flash allows to you set prefer- ences to customize the way you work in the program. As you design and develop a movie, you can print frames to review your work. 2 2 What You’ll Do Examine the Flash Window Use the Timeline Work with Layers View and Organize Layers Change Layer Properties Use Guide Layers Work with Frames Work with Scenes Use the Edit Bar and Main Toolbar Resize Panels Use the Tools Panel Work with Panels Dock and Undock Panels Group and Ungroup Panels Create a Workspace Create Keyboard Shortcuts Set Flash Preferences Work with Page Setup Print a Document 29 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 30 Chapter 2 When you start Flash, the program window displays several windows of varying sizes you can use to create a movie. These windows include the Timeline/Stage, various panels, and the Property Inspector. Depending on your installation and previous program usage, not all of these windows may appear, or addi- tional ones may be visible. You'll do the bulk of your work in Flash with these windows. In Flash, windows appear in the work- space with a title bar, such as the Timeline window, or in a panel. A panel is a window you can collapse, expand, and group with other panels, known as a panel group, to improve accessibility and workflow. A panel appears with a shaded header bar, which includes the window title and additional options. A panel group consists of either indi- vidual panels stacked one on top of the other Examining the Flash Window Document Window Displays open Flash documents, which includes a Timeline, Edit bar, and Stage. Timeline Gives you a visual represent- ation of every frame, layer and scene in the document. Stage Provides a place to compose the content for individual frames, which includes drawing artwork or arranging imported graphics. Panel Windows Gives you access to authoring tools and attribute settings for elements. Property Inspector Displays information about the properties and attributes of tools and graphic elements. Tools Panel Contains drawing and other related tools to create and manipulate graphics. Main Toolbar Contains buttons for commonly used commands. Point to a button to display a Tooltip. Search Box Allows you to search Adobe Community Help online. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 2 Working Within the Flash Environment 31 or related panels organized together with tabs, such as the Components panel, to navi- gate from one panel to another. The Flash window displays the menu bar at the top. The menu bar also contains a Workspace menu, Search box, CS Live menu, Close button, and resizing buttons. A menu is a list of commands that you use to accomplish specific tasks. A command is a directive that accesses a feature of a program. Flash has its own set of menus, which are located on the menu bar along the top of the Flash window. On a menu, a check mark iden- tifies a feature that is currently selected (that is, the feature is enabled or on). To disable (turn off) the feature, you click the command again to remove the check mark. A menu can contain several check-marked features. A bul- let (Win) or diamond (Mac) also indicates that an option is enabled, but a menu can contain only one bullet-or diamond-marked feature per menu section. To disable a command with a bullet or diamond next to it, you must select a different option in the section on the menu. When you perform a command frequently, it's faster, and sometimes more convenient, to use a shortcut key, which is a keyboard alter- native to using the mouse. When a shortcut key is available, it is listed beside the com- mand on the menu, such as A+F3 (Mac) or Ctrl+F3 (Win) for the Properties command on the Window menu. Flash (for Windows) also includes a Main toolbar. The Main toolbar contains buttons for the most frequently used commands. Clicking a button on a toolbar is often faster than click- ing a menu and then clicking a command. When you position the pointer over a button, a tooltip appears, displaying the button name. The Tools panel contains a set of tools you can use to create shapes, such as lines, rec- tangles, rounded rectangles, and ellipses. You can fill shapes with a color, pattern, or custom tile. The shapes and buttons you create in Flash are saved as media elements in the layers. The Document window displays open Flash documents, which include a Timeline, Edit bar, and Stage. Flash (for Windows) also includes tabs to make it easier to switch back and forth between documents. At the top of the Document window is the Edit bar. The Edit bar displays what editing mode you are work- ing in, and allows you to switch scenes. The Timel ine organizes and controls media elements over a linear timeline in rows called channels and in columns called frames. The Timeline displays a movie's Timeline and monitors the playback frame-by-frame. A frame represents a single point in a movie. The Timeline includes layers that control dif- ferent parts of the movie. The Stage is the visible portion of a movie, on which you determine where your media elements appear. The Stage is the rectangle area below the Timeline where you place graphic content, including vector art, text boxes, buttons, imported bitmap graphics, or audio and video clips. You can define the properties of your Stage, such as its size and color. The Property Inspector provides a conven- ient way to view and change attributes of any selected object or multiple objects on the Stage in your movie. After you select an object, relevant commands and associated fields for it appear in the Property Inspector. You can apply f ilter s, s uch as gradient con- trols to text, buttons, and movie clips. In addi- tion, you can display the Property Inspector horizontally (like previous versions of Flash) or vertically. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 32 Chapter 2 Using the Timeline Change the Timeline Display ◆ To lengthen or shorten layer name fields, drag the bar separating the layer names and the frames in the Timeline. ◆ To heighten or shorten the Timeline, drag the bar separating the Timeline and the Stage. ◆ To hide or show the Timeline panel, click the gray bar to the right of the Timeline tab. Resize the Timeline Display Do one of the following: ◆ If the Timeline is docked to the program window, drag the bar separating the Timeline from the program window. ◆ If the Timeline is not docked to the program window, drag the size box in the lower right corner. 1 The Timeline represents the overall structure of a Flash document and controls the content. The Timeline consists of layers, frames, and scenes that make up a Flash document. Layers appear on the left side of the Timeline and frames contained in each layer appear in a row to the right of the layer. The Timeline header above the frames displays the frame numbers. At the bottom of the Timeline, a Status bar appears, displaying the current frame indicator, the current rate indicator, and the elapsed time indicator. Sometimes it is hard to work with frames in a small view in the Timeline. You can change the size of frames and dis- play frames with tinted cells. In addition, you can display thumbnail previews of frame content, which is useful for viewing animations. Drag to change length of layer name fields. Drag edge to change height of Timeline. Drag to resize Timeline. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 2 Working Within the Flash Environment 33 Change the Display of Frames in the Timeline Click the Frame View button in the Timeline. Select one of the following options from the list: ◆ To change the width of frame cells, click Tiny, Small, Normal, Medium, or Large. ◆ To display thumbnails of the content of each frame scaled to fit the Timeline frames, click Preview. ◆ To display thumbnails of each full frame, click Preview In Context. This is useful for viewing animation movement within their frames. ◆ To decrease the height of frame cell rows, click Short. ◆ To turn frame sequence tinting on and off, click Tinted Frames. ◆ To disregard audio in the Timeline, click Scrub Audio ( New! ). ◆ To close the current tab, click Close. To close all the tabs, click Close Group. 2 1 2 Preview in frame view See Also See “Working with Panels” on page 52 for information on using the Timeline panel. 1 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 34 Chapter 2 Working with Layers Create a New Layer Click the layer or folder above which you want to insert a layer. Click the New Layer button at the bottom of the Timeline. The new layer appears above the selected layer. Create a New Layer Folder Click the layer or folder above which you want to insert a layer folder. Click the New Folder button at the bottom of the Timeline. The new layer folder appears above the selected layer. 2 1 2 1 Layers are like transparent sheets stacked on top of one another. Each layer can contain different images that appear on the Stage. You can draw and edit objects on one layer without affecting objects on another layer. Layers in a document are listed in the left column of the Timeline. Before you can work with a layer, you need to select it, or make it active. A pencil icon next to a layer or layer folder indicates it is active. Only one layer can be active at a time, even though you can select more than one layer. A new document comes with one layer, but you can add more to organize content on the Stage. As you create multiple layers of related content, you can create layer folders to make it easier to manage the layers. 2 New layer 1 2 New layer folder 1 Active layer Did You Know? Flash names layers in order based on the highest number. If you add Layers 2 and 3, and then delete Layer 2. The next time you add a layer, Flash names it Layer 4. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 2 Working Within the Flash Environment 35 Rename a Layer or Folder Double-click the name of a layer or folder. Type a name. Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Win). Delete a Layer or Folder Select the layer or folder you want to delete. Click the Delete button at the bottom of the Timeline . 2 1 3 2 1 2 1 2 1 Did You Know? There are several ways to select a layer. You can click the name of a layer or folder in the Timeline, click a frame in the Timeline of the layer you want to select, or select an object on the Stage that is located on the layer you want to select. You can select multiple layers. To select contiguous layers or folders, click the first layer or folder, and then Shift+click the last layer or folder. To select noncontiguous layers or folders, A +click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Win) the layers or folders you want to select. From the Library of Wow! eBook . in Flash are saved as media elements in the layers. The Document window displays open Flash documents, which include a Timeline, Edit bar, and Stage. Flash. effective and efficient as you create movies. You’ll get to know the parts of the Flash window, which include the Timeline, Stage, panels, and Property