ADOBE Flash Professional CS4 User Manual

Using

Updated 5 March 2009

ADOBE® FLASH® CS4 PROFESSIONAL

Updated 5 March 2009

Using Adobe

® Flash® CS4 Professional for Windows® and Mac OS

If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end user license agreement.

The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.

Please remember that existing artwork or images that you may want to include in your project may be protected under copyright law. The unauthorized incorporation of such material into your new work could be a violation of the rights of the copyright owner. Please be sure to obtain any permission required from the copyright owner.

Any references to company names in sample templates are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to refer to any actual organization.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe AIR, Adobe Premiere, ActionScript, After Effects, Authorware, ColdFusion, Creative Suite, Director, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Flash Lite, Flex, Flex Builder, FrameMaker, FreeHand, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, Kuler, Pixel Bender, Photoshop, PostScript, Soundbooth, and Version Cue are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

ActiveX, Vista, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Macintosh and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Helvetica is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Arial is a trademark of The Monotype Corporation registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and certain other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (

MPEG Layer-3 audio compression technology licensed by Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson Multimedia (

www.apache.org).

http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/). You cannot use the mp3 compressed audio within the Software for real time or live broadcasts. If you require an mp3 decoder for real time or live broadcasts, you are responsible for obtaining this mp3 technology license.

Speech compression and decompression technology licensed from Nellymoser, Inc. (

www.nellymoser.com)

This product includes software developed by the OpenSymphony Group (

http://www.opensymphony.com/)

This product contains either BSAFE and/or TIPEM software by RSA Security, Inc.

Sorenson Spark™ video compression and decompression technology licensed from Sorenson Media, Inc.

Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, USA.

Notice to U.S. Government End Users: The Software and Documentation are “Commercial Items,” as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of “Commercial Computer Software” and “Commercial Computer Software Documentation,” as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, as applicable, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are being licensed to U.S. Government end users (a) only as Commercial Items and (b) with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein. Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Adobe agrees to comply with all applicable equal opportunity laws including, if appropriate, the provisions of Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 402 of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (38 USC 4212), and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the regulations at 41 CFR Parts 60-1 through 60-60, 60-250, and 60-741. The affirmative action clause and regulations contained in the preceding sentence shall be incorporated by reference.

Updated 5 March 2009

Chapter 1: Resources

Activation and registration

Help and support

Services, downloads, and extras

Getting started in Flash

What’s new

Chapter 2: Workspace

Flash workflow and workspace

Working with ConnectNow

Using the Stage and Tools panel

The Timeline

Using Flash authoring panels

Undo, redo, and history

Automating tasks with the Commands menu

Accessibility in the Flash workspace

Set preferences in Flash

Keyboard shortcuts

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Chapter 3: Managing documents

Working with Flash documents

Printing Flash documents

Working with projects

Find and Replace

Templates

Chapter 4: Using imported artwork

Placing artwork into Flash

Working with Fireworks files

Working with Illustrator AI files

Working with Photoshop PSD files

Imported bitmaps

Chapter 5: Creating and Editing Artwork

Drawing

Reshaping objects

Moving, arranging, and deleting artwork

Colors, gradients, and strokes

3D graphics

Chapter 6: Symbols, instances, and library assets

Working with symbols

Working with symbol instances

Working with the library

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Sharing library assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Working with button symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Scaling and caching symbols

Symbols and ActionScript

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Chapter 7: Timelines and Animation

Working with timelines

Working with scenes

Timelines and ActionScript

Animation basics

Motion tweens

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Working with classic tweens

Shape tweening

Frame-by-frame animation

Using mask layers

Using inverse kinematics

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Chapter 8: Filters and Blends

About filters

Applying filters

Applying blend modes

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Chapter 9: Text

About text and fonts

Creating text

Setting text attributes

About multilanguage text

Creating multilanguage text

XML file format for multilanguage text

Multilanguage text and ActionScript

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Chapter 10: Sound

Using sounds in Flash

Exporting Sounds

Sound and ActionScript

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Chapter 11: Video

Digital video and Flash

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Import video for streaming or progressive download

Embed video in a SWF file

Export QuickTime video files

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Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

Controlling external video playback with ActionScript

Chapter 12: Creating e-learning content

Getting started with Flash e-learning

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Chapter 13: Creating accessible content

About accessible content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Using Flash to enter accessibility information for screen readers

Specifying advanced accessibility options for screen readers

Creating accessibility with ActionScript

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Chapter 14: Working with screens

Screen-based documents and the screen authoring environment

Working with screens

Adding content to screens

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Chapter 15: ActionScript

Working with ActionScript

Script Assist mode and behaviors

Writing and managing scripts

Debugging ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0

Debugging ActionScript 3.0

Working with Flash and Flex

Printing at runtime

ActionScript publish settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Chapter 16: Publishing and Exporting

Publishing Flash documents

Publish settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Publishing for Adobe AIR

HTML publishing templates

About exporting from Flash

Exporting Images and Graphics

Exporting video and sound

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

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Chapter 17: Best practices

Structuring FLA files

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Organizing ActionScript in an application

Behaviors conventions

Video conventions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

SWF application authoring guidelines

Accessibility guidelines

Advertising with Flash

Optimizing FLA files for SWF output

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

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Tips for creating content for mobile devices

Index

...............................................................................................................453

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Chapter 1: Resources

Updated 5 March 2009

Before you begin working with your software, take a few moments to read an overview of activation and the many resources available to you. You have access to instructional videos, plug-ins, templates, user communities, seminars, tutorials, RSS feeds, and much more.

Activation and registration

Help with installation

For help with installation issues, see the Installation Support Center at www.adobe.com/go/cs4install.

License activation

During the installation process, your Adobe software contacts Adobe to complete the license activation process. No personal data is transmitted. For more information on product activation, visit the Adobe website at

www.adobe.com/go/activation.

A single-user retail license activation supports two computers. For example, you can install the product on a desktop computer at work and on a laptop computer at home. If you want to install the software on a third computer, first deactivate it on one of the other two computers. Choose Help > Deactivate.

Register

❖ To register, follow the on-screen instructions in the Registration dialog box, which appears after you install the

software.

If you postpone registration, you can register at any time by choosing Help > Registration.

Adobe Product Improvement Program

After you use your Adobe software a certain number of times, a dialog box may appear asking whether you want to participate in the Adobe Product Improvement Program.

If you choose to participate, data about your use of Adobe software is sent to Adobe. No personal information is recorded or sent. The Adobe Product Improvement Program only collects information about which features and tools you use and how often you use them.

You can opt in to or out of the program at any time:

• To participate, choose Help > Adobe Product Improvement Program and click Yes, Participate.

• To stop participating, choose Help > Adobe Product Improvement Program and click No, Thank You.

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Resources

ReadMe

A ReadMe file for your software is available online and on the installation disc. Open the file to read important information about topics such as the following:

• System requirements

• Installation (including uninstalling the software)

• Activation and registration

• Font installation

• Troubleshooting

• Customer support

• Legal notices

Help and support

Community Help

Community Help is an integrated environment on Adobe.com that gives you access to community-generated content moderated by Adobe and industry experts. Comments from users help guide you to an answer.

Community Help draws on a number of resources, including:

• Videos, tutorials, tips and techniques, blogs, articles, and examples for designers and developers.

• Complete online product Help, which is updated regularly by the Adobe documentation team.

• All other content on Adobe.com, including knowledgebase articles, downloads and updates, Developer

Connection, and more.

Choose Help > product name Help in the application to access the Help and Support page, the portal to all of the Community Help content for your product. You can also use the Help search field in some Creative Suite 4 applications, or press F1 (Windows), to access Community Help for your product.

The sites searched by the default Community Help search engine are hand-selected and reviewed for quality by Adobe and Adobe Community Experts. Adobe experts also work to ensure that the top search results include a mixture of different kinds of content, including results from online product Help.

For more information on using Community Help, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/CommunityHelp/.

For a video overview of Community Help, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4117_xp.

Product Help

Adobe provides a comprehensive user guide for each product in several formats, including online product Help, PDF, and printed book. Results from online product Help are included in your results whenever you search Community Help.

If you’re connected to the Internet, the Help menu within the product opens the product Help and Support page by default. This page is a portal to all of the Community Help content for the product. If you want to consult or search online product Help only, you can access it by clicking the product Help link in the upper-right corner of the Help and Support page. Be sure to select the This Help System Only option before you do your search.

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Resources

If you’re not connected to the Internet, the Help menu within the product opens local Help, a subset of the content available in online product Help. Because local Help is not as complete or up-to-date as online product Help, Adobe recommends that you use the PDF version of product Help if you want to stay offline. A downloadable PDF of complete product Help is available from two places:

• The product’s Help and Support page (upper-right corner of the page)

• Local and web Help (top of the Help interface)

For more information on accessing product help, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/CommunityHelp/.

If you are working in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Fireworks, or Dreamweaver, and you want to turn off Community Help so that local Help opens by default, do the following:

1 Open the Connections panel (Window > Extensions > Connections).

2 From the Connections panel menu , select Offline Options.

3 Select Keep Me Offline and click OK.

Note: When you disable web services from the Connections panel, all other web services (such as Adobe Kuler and Adobe ConnectNow) are also disabled.

Printed resources

Printed versions of the complete online product Help are available for the cost of shipping and handling at

www.adobe.com/go/store.

Support resources

Visit the Adobe Support website at www.adobe.com/support to learn about free and paid technical support options.

Services, downloads, and extras

You can enhance your product by integrating a variety of services, plug-ins, and extensions in your product. You can also download samples and other assets to help you get your work done.

Adobe creative online services

Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 includes new online features that bring the power of the web to your desktop. Use these features to connect with the community, collaborate, and get more from your Adobe tools. Powerful creative online services let you complete tasks ranging from color matching to data conferencing. The services seamlessly integrate with desktop applications so you can quickly enhance existing workflows. Some services offer full or partial functionality when you’re offline too.

Visit Adobe.com to learn more about available services. Some Creative Suite 4 applications include these initial offerings:

Kuler™ panel Quickly create, share, and explore color themes online.

Adobe® ConnectNow Collaborate with dispersed working teams over the web, sharing voice, data, and multimedia.

Resource Central Instantly access tutorials, sample files, and extensions for Adobe digital video applications.

For information on managing your services, see the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_creativeservices_en.

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Resources

Adobe Exchange

Visit the Adobe Exchange at www.adobe.com/go/exchange to download samples as well as thousands of plug-ins and extensions from Adobe and third-party developers. The plug-ins and extensions can help you automate tasks, customize workflows, create specialized professional effects, and more.

Adobe downloads

Visit www.adobe.com/go/downloads to find free updates, tryouts, and other useful software.

Adobe Labs

Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/labs gives you the opportunity to experience and evaluate new and emerging technologies and products from Adobe. At Adobe Labs, you have access to resources such as these:

• Prerelease software and technologies

• Code samples and best practices to accelerate your learning

• Early versions of product and technical documentation

• Forums, wiki-based content, and other collaborative resources to help you interact with like-minded users.

Adobe Labs fosters a collaborative software development process. In this environment, customers quickly become productive with new products and technologies. Adobe Labs is also a forum for early feedback. The Adobe development teams use this feedback to create software that meets the needs and expectations of the community.

Adobe TV

Visit Adobe TV at http://tv.adobe.com to view instructional and inspirational videos.

Extras

The installation disc contains a variety of extras to help you make the most of your Adobe software. Some extras are installed on your computer during the setup process; others are located on the disc.

To view the extras installed during the setup process, navigate to the application folder on your computer.

• Windows®: [startup drive]\Program Files\Adobe\[Adobe application]

• Mac OS®: [startup drive]/Applications/[Adobe application]

To view the extras on the disc, navigate to the Goodies folder in your language folder on the disc. Example:

• /English/Goodies/

Getting started in Flash

If you’re new to Flash, get a good overview by viewing these videos.

Learn Flash Professional CS4 - Getting Started Series

Understanding Flash

Understanding Flash file types

Exploring the Flash interface

Setting up workspaces

Updated 5 March 2009

Using the drawing tools

Object and merge drawing

Understanding symbols

Working with bitmap graphics

Working with sound

Working with video

Understanding tweens

Creating shape tweens

Creating motion tweens

Using the Motion Editor

Working with motion presets

Animating bones (inverse kinematics)

ActionScript 3.0

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Resources

Building an application

Creating a Flash web movie

Learn Flash Professional CS4 Series

Introducing Flash CS4 Professional

Managing Design Suite Workspaces (Demo is in Photoshop)

Using Motion Presets

Creating motion tweens: Part 1

Creating motion tweens: Part 2

Using the Motion Editor

Using inverse kinematics

Working with 3D art

Using the decorative drawing tools

Understanding Flash Integration (InDesign import)

Using InDesign Export to Flash (XFL)

Exporting artboards to Flash (Illustrator import)

Working with Soundbooth and Flash

Exporting from After Effects to Flash via XFL

Using Kuler color themes

Using ConnectNow to share your screen (Demo is in Dreamweaver)

Introducing Adobe Device Central CS4

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Resources

What’s new

New features

The following features are new to Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional.

Object-based animation

Object-based animation dramatically simplifies designing in Flash while simultaneously providing greater control. Tweens are now applied directly to objects instead of keyframes, providing precise control over each of the individual animation attributes. For more information, see “Motion tweens” on page 187.

Motion Editor panel

Experience complete independent control over every keyframe parameter including rotation, size, scale, position, filters, and more using the keyframe editor. Use the keyframe editor to graphically control easing using curves. For more information, see “Editing property curves with the Motion Editor” on page 203.

Motion Tween Presets

Apply pre-built animations to any object to jumpstart your project. Select from dozens of pre-built presets, or create and save your own. Share presets across teams to save animation time. For more information, see “Applying motion

presets” on page 189.

Inverse Kinematics with the Bone tool

Easily create chain-like effects with a series of linked objects or quickly distort single objects using the Bones tool. For mor information, see “Using inverse kinematics” on page 223.

3D Transformation

Animate 2D objects through 3D space with new 3D transformation tools. Transformation tools including rotate and translate allow you to animate across X, Y, and Z axes. Apply local or global rotation to rotate an object within relationship to itself or to the Stage. For more information, see “3D graphics” on page 139.

Decorative drawing with the Deco tool

Easily turn any symbol into an instant design tool. Whether creating patterns that can then be applied using the brush or fill tools, or creating kaleidoscope-like effects using single or multiple symbols with the deco symmetry tool, Deco provides a new way to design with symbols. For more information, see “Drawing patterns with the Decorative drawing

tools” on page 108.

Adobe Kuler panel

The Kuler panel is your portal to groups of colors, or themes, created by an online community of designers. You can use it to browse thousands of themes on the Kuler web site, and then download selected themes to edit or to include in your own projects. You can also use the Kuler panel to create and save themes, and then share them with the Kuler community. For more information, see “Kuler panel” on page 137.

Authoring for Adobe AIR

Deliver interactive experiences to the desktop with new Publish to AIR. Adobe® AIR™, a new cross-operating system runtime allows you to leverage local desktop resources and data to deliver even more personal, engaging experiences. Using the same skills you use to deliver to the Flash® Player, your content can now reach even more audiences across more devices – web, mobile and now the desktop. For more information, see “Publishing for Adobe AIR” on page 398.

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Resources

Sample Sounds library

A new included library of sound effects makes creating content with sound even easier. For more information, see “Importing sounds” on page 273.

Vertical Property inspector

The Property inspector is now vertically displayed taking better advantage of wider screens to provide you with more Stage real estate.

New Project Panel

Work with multiple-file projects more easily with the new project panel. Apply property changes to multiple files, save symbols to a designated file folder at the time they are created, and more. For more information, see “Working with

projects” on page 52.

Adobe Media Encoder with H.264 support

Deliver the highest quality video with more control than ever before. Encode to any format recognized by Adobe Flash Player with the same tool found in other Adobe video products such as Adobe® Premiere® Pro and After Effects®. For more information, see Adobe Media Encoder help.

Adobe ConnectNow integration

Adobe® ConnectNow™ lets you share your screen and meet with other users online. You can open ConnectNow directly from the application interface by choosing File > Share My Screen. For more information, see Working with ConnectNow.

Edit in Soundbooth

Users of Adobe® Soundbooth™ can now edit imported sounds in Soundbooth directly from within Flash. The Adobe ASND sound file format enables non-destructive editing of sound files. For more information, see “Edit a sound in

Soundbooth” on page 277.

Enhanced metadata support

New XMP panel enables users to quickly and easily assign metadata tags to their SWF content. Enables addition of metadata into SWF files that is recognized by Adobe® Bridge and other Creative Suite® applications that recognize XMP metadata. Improves organization and enables fast find and retrieval of SWF files. Fore more information, see “Add XMP metadata to a document” on page 45.

Collaborate with Flex developers

Import code-only ActionScript® 3.0 SWC components developed in Flex™ Builder™. For more information, see “Creating components for Flex” on page 364.

XFL import

Import content from InDesign® and After Effects with complete file integrity. XFL is a new file format which enables designers to easily deliver content for further development in Flash. For more information see “Opening XFL files” on page 47.

Support for Adobe Pixel Bender

Easily apply custom filters and effects at runtime for real-time creative expression. Use Adobe® Pixel Bender™ to create unique filters, blends, and fills - which are now portable to multiple applications with Adobe Pixel Bender - to produce compelling, on-demand visual effects for the Adobe Flash Player runtime environment. Write a filter once, and then share it or apply it multiple times using ActionScript 3.0.

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Resources

JPEG deblocking

This publish settings option reduces the the appearance of the common artifacts found in highly compressed JPEG files. For more information, see “Specify publish settings for SWF files” on page 383.

Improved Library panel

Work with assets more easily, thanks to a new, improved Library panel that includes search capability, sorting, and the ability to set properties on multiple library items at once. For more information, see “About the Library panel” on page 26.

New Creative Suite user interface

Boost your efficiency with intuitive panel docking and spring-loaded behaviors that help streamline your interaction with tools throughout Adobe’s Creative Suites. For more information, see “Workspace” on page 9.

New Font menus

The font menu in Flash now includes previews of each font and each style included in the font. For more information, see “Setting text attributes” on page 254.

Hardware Acceleration

Published SWF files can now take better advantage of available hardware for better playback performance. For more information, see “Specify publish settings for SWF files” on page 383.

Community Help

Community Help is an integrated environment on adobe.com that gives you access to community-generated content moderated by Adobe and industry experts. Comments and ratings from users help guide you to an answer. Search Community Help to find the best content on the web about Adobe products and technologies. For more information, see “Help and support” on page 2.

Chapter 2: Workspace

Updated 5 March 2009

The Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional workspace includes tools and panels that help you create and navigate your documents. Understanding these tools will help you maximize the application’s capabilities.

Flash workflow and workspace

General Flash workflow

To build a Flash application, you typically perform the following basic steps:

Plan the application.

Decide which basic tasks the application will perform.

Add media elements.

Create and import media elements, such as images, video, sound, and text.

Arrange the elements.

Arrange the media elements on the Stage and in the Timeline to define when and how they appear in your application.

Apply special effects.

Apply graphic filters (such as blurs, glows, and bevels), blends, and other special effects as you see fit.

Use ActionScript to control behavior.

Write ActionScript® code to control how the media elements behave, including how the elements respond to user interactions.

Test and publish your application.

Test to verify that your application is working as you intended and find and fix any bugs you encounter. You should test the application throughout the creation process. Publish your FLA file as a SWF file that can be displayed in a web page and played back with Flash® Player.

Depending on your project and your working style, you might use these steps in a different order.

For more help getting started with the Flash workflow, see the following:

• Article: Introducing Adobe Flash CS4 Professional: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/logged_in/dwinnie_flcs4.html

• Article: Creating a simple document in Flash CS4 Professional:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flash_cs4_createfla.html

• Video: Flash CS4 Workflow Basics: http://www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4053_fl

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Workspace

Workspace overview

You create and manipulate your documents and files using various elements, such as panels, bars, and windows. Any arrangement of these elements is called a workspace. The workspaces of the different applications in Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 share the same appearance so that you can move between the applications easily. You can also adapt each application to the way you work by selecting from several preset workspaces or by creating one of your own.

Although the default workspace layout varies in different products, you manipulate the elements much the same way in all of them.

B DC

Default Illustrator workspace A. Tabbed Document windows B. Application bar C. Workspace switcher D. Panel title bar E. Control panel F. Tools panel G. Collapse To Icons button H. Four panel groups in vertical dock

• The Application bar across the top contains a workspace switcher, menus (Windows only), and other application

controls. On the Mac for certain products, you can show or hide it using the Window menu.

• The Tools panel contains tools for creating and editing images, artwork, page elements, and so on. Related tools are

grouped.

• The Control panel displays options for the currently selected tool. The Control panel is also known as the options

bar in Photoshop. (Adobe Flash®, Adobe Dreamweaver®, and Adobe Fireworks® have no Control panel.)

• Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks have a Property inspector that displays options for the currently selected

element or tool.

• The Document window displays the file you’re working on. Document windows can be tabbed and, in certain cases,

grouped and docked.

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Workspace

• Panels help you monitor and modify your work. Examples include the Timeline in Flash, the Layers panel in Adobe

Photoshop®, and the CSS Styles panel in Dreamweaver. Panels can be grouped, stacked, or docked.

• On the Mac, the Application frame groups all the workspace elements in a single, integrated window that lets you

treat the application as a single unit. When you move or resize the Application frame or any of its elements, all the elements within it respond to each other so none overlap. Panels don’t disappear when you switch applications or when you accidentally click out of the application. If you work with two or more applications, you can position each application side by side on the screen or on multiple monitors. If you prefer the traditional, free-form user interface of the Mac, you can turn off the Application frame. In Adobe Illustrator®, for example, select Window > Application Frame to toggle it on or off. (In Flash, the Application frame is on permanently. Dreamweaver does not use an Application frame.)

Hide or show all panels

• (Illustrator, Adobe InCopy®, Adobe InDesign®, Photoshop, Fireworks)To hide or show all panels, including the

Tools panel and Control panel, press Tab.

• (Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, Photoshop) To hide or show all panels except the Tools panel and Control panel,

press Shift+Tab.

You can temporarily display hidden panels if Auto-Show Hidden Panels is selected in Interface preferences. It’s always on in Illustrator. Move the pointer to the edge of the application window (Windows®) or to the edge of the

monitor (Mac OS®) and hover over the strip that appears.

• (Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks) To hide or show all panels, press F4.

Display panel options

❖ Click the panel menu icon in the upper-right corner of the panel.

You can open a panel menu even when the panel is minimized.

(Illustrator) Adjust panel brightness

❖ In User Interface preferences, move the Brightness slider. This control affects all panels, including the Control

panel.

Reconfigure the Tools panel

You can display the tools in the Tools panel in a single column, or side by side in two columns. (This feature is not available in the Tools panel in Fireworks and Flash.)

In InDesign and InCopy, you also can switch from single-column to double-column (or single-row) display by setting an option in Interface preferences.

❖ Click the double arrow at the top of the Tools panel.

Manage windows and panels

You can create a custom workspace by moving and manipulating Document windows and panels. You can also save workspaces and switch among them.

Note: The following examples use Photoshop for demonstration purposes. The workspace behaves the same in all the products.

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A B

Narrow blue drop zone indicates Color panel will be docked on its own above the Layers panel group. A. Title bar B. Tab C. Drop zone

In Photoshop, you can change the font size of the text in the Control panel, in the panels, and in tool tips. Choose a size from the UI Font Size menu in Interface preferences.

Manage Document windows

When you open more than one file, the Document windows are tabbed.

• To rearrange the order of tabbed Document windows, drag a window’s tab to a new location in the group.

• To undock a Document window from a group of windows, drag the window’s tab out of the group.

• To dock a Document window to a separate group of Document windows, drag the window into the group.

Note: Dreamweaver does not support docking and undocking Document windows. Use the Document window’s Minimize button to create floating windows.

Workspace

• To create groups of stacked or tiled documents, drag the window to one of the drop zones along the top, bottom, or

sides of another window. You can also select a layout for the group by using the Layout button on the Application bar.

Note: Some products do not support this functionality. However, your product may have Cascade and Tile commands in the Window menu to help you lay out your documents.

• To switch to another document in a tabbed group when dragging a selection, drag the selection over the document’s

tab for a moment.

Note: Some products do not support this functionality.

Dock and undock panels

A dock is a collection of panels or panel groups displayed together, generally in a vertical orientation. You dock and undock panels by moving them into and out of a dock.

Note: Docking is not the same as stacking. A stack is a collection of floating panels or panel groups, joined top to bottom.

• To dock a panel, drag it by its tab into the dock, at the top, bottom, or in between other panels.

• To dock a panel group, drag it by its title bar (the solid empty bar above the tabs) into the dock.

• To remove a panel or panel group, drag it out of the dock by its tab or title bar. You can drag it into another dock

or make it free-floating.

Navigator panel being dragged out to new dock, indicated by blue vertical highlight

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Navigator panel now in its own dock

You can prevent panels from filling all the space in a dock. Drag the bottom edge of the dock up so it no longer meets the edge of the workspace.

Move panels

As you move panels, you see blue highlighted drop zones, areas where you can move the panel. For example, you can move a panel up or down in a dock by dragging it to the narrow blue drop zone above or below another panel. If you drag to an area that is not a drop zone, the panel floats freely in the workspace.

• To move a panel, drag it by its tab.

• To move a panel group or a stack of floating panels, drag the title bar.

Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while moving a panel to prevent it from docking. Press Esc while moving the panel to cancel the operation.

Note: The dock is stationary and can’t be moved. However, you can create panel groups or stacks and move them anywhere.

Add and remove panels

If you remove all panels from a dock, the dock disappears. You can create a dock by moving panels to the right edge of the workspace until a drop zone appears.

• To remove a panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) its tab and then select Close, or deselect it from

the Window menu.

• To add a panel, select it from the Window menu and dock it wherever you want.

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Manipulate panel groups

• To move a panel into a group, drag the panel’s tab to the highlighted drop zone in the group.

Adding a panel to a panel group

• To rearrange panels in a group, drag a panel’s tab to a new location in the group.

• To remove a panel from a group so that it floats freely, drag the panel by its tab outside the group.

• To move a group, drag the title bar (the area above the tabs).

Stack floating panels

When you drag a panel out of its dock but not into a drop zone, the panel floats freely. The floating panel allows you to position it anywhere in the workspace. You can stack floating panels or panel groups so that they move as a unit when you drag the topmost title bar. (Panels that are part of a dock cannot be stacked or moved as a unit in this way.)

Free-floating stacked panels

• To stack floating panels, drag a panel by its tab to the drop zone at the bottom of another panel.

• To change the stacking order, drag a panel up or down by its tab.

Note: Be sure to release the tab over the narrow drop zone between panels, rather than the broad drop zone in a title bar.

• To remove a panel or panel group from the stack, so that it floats by itself, drag it out by its tab or title bar.

Resize panels

• To minimize or maximize a panel, panel group, or stack of panels, double-click a tab. You can also single-click the

tab area (the empty space next to the tabs).

• To resize a panel, drag any side of the panel. Some panels, such as the Color panel in Photoshop, cannot be resized

by dragging.

Manipulate panels collapsed to icons

You can collapse panels to icons to reduce clutter on the workspace. In some cases, panels are collapsed to icons in the default workspace.

Panels collapsed to icons

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Panels expanded from icons

• To collapse or expand all panel icons in a dock, click the double arrow at the top of the dock.

• To expand a single panel icon, click it.

• To resize panel icons so that you see only the icons (and not the labels), adjust the width of the dock until the text

disappears. To display the icon text again, make the dock wider.

• To collapse an expanded panel back to its icon, click its tab, its icon, or the double arrow in the panel’s title bar.

In some products, if you select Auto-Collapse Icon Panels from the Interface or User Interface Options preferences, an expanded panel icon collapses automatically when you click away from it.

• To add a floating panel or panel group to an icon dock, drag it in by its tab or title bar. (Panels are automatically

collapsed to icons when added to an icon dock.)

• To move a panel icon (or panel icon group), drag the icon. You can drag panel icons up and down in the dock, into

other docks (where they appear in the panel style of that dock), or outside the dock (where they appear as floating, expanded panels).

Restore the default workspace

• Select the default, Essentials workspace from the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

• (Photoshop) Select Window > Workspace > Essentials (Default).

• (InDesign, InCopy) Select Window > Workspace > Reset [Workspace Name].

Save and switch workspaces

By saving the current size and position of panels as a named workspace, you can restore that workspace even if you move or close a panel. The names of saved workspaces appear in the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

In Photoshop, the saved workspace can include a specific keyboard shortcut set and menu set.

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Save a custom workspace

1 With the workspace in the configuration you want to save, do one of the following:

• (Photoshop, Illustrator) Choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace.

• (InDesign, InCopy) Choose Window > Workspace > New Workspace.

• (Dreamweaver) Choose Window > Workspace Layout > New Workspace.

• (Flash) Choose New Workspace from the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

• (Fireworks) Choose Save Current from the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

2 Type a name for the workspace.

3 (Photoshop, InDesign) Under Capture, select one or more options:

Panel Locations Saves the current panel locations.

Keyboard shortcuts Saves the current set of keyboard shortcuts (Photoshop only).

Menus Saves the current set of menus.

4 Click OK or Save.

Display or switch workspaces

❖ Select a workspace from the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

In Photoshop, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to each workspace to navigate among them quickly.

Workspace

Delete a custom workspace

• Select Manage Workspaces from the workspace switcher in the Application bar, select the workspace, and then

click Delete. (The option is not available in Fireworks.)

• (Photoshop, InDesign, InCopy) Select Delete Workspace from the workspace switcher.

• (Illustrator) Choose Window > Workspace > Manage Workspaces, select the workspace, and then click the Delete icon.

• (InDesign) Choose Window > Workspace > Delete Workspace, select the workspace, and then click Delete.

(Photoshop) Start with the last or default panel locations

When you start Photoshop, panels can either appear in their original default locations, or appear as you last used them.

In Interface preferences:

• To display panels in their last locations on startup, select Remember Panel Locations.

• To display panels in their default locations on startup, deselect Remember Panel Locations.

Working with ConnectNow

Adobe® ConnectNow™ lets you share your screen and meet with other users online. You can open ConnectNow directly from the application interface by choosing File > Share My Screen.

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Working with ConnectNow

Adobe® ConnectNow provides you with a secure, personal online meeting room where you can meet and collaborate with others via the web in real time. With ConnectNow, you can share and annotate your computer screen, send chat messages, and communicate using integrated audio. You can also broadcast live video, share files, capture meeting notes, and control an attendee's computer.

You can access ConnectNow directly from the application interface.

1 Choose File > Share My Screen.

2 In the Share My Screen dialog box, enter your Adobe ID and password, and click Sign In. If you don’t have an

Adobe ID and password, click the Create a Free Adobe ID link at the top of the dialog box.

3 To share your screen, click the Share My Computer Screen button at the center of the ConnectNow application

window.

For complete instructions on using ConnectNow, see

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat.com/ConnectNow/index.html.

Using the Stage and Tools panel

Welcome screen overview

When Flash is running with no documents open, the Welcome screen appears. The Welcome screen contains the following four areas:

Open a Recent Item Lets you open your most recent documents (click the Open icon).

Create New Lists Flash file types, such as Flash documents and ActionScript® files.

Create from Template Lists the templates most commonly used to create Flash documents.

Extend Links to the Flash Exchange website, where you can download helper applications, extensions, and related

information.

The Welcome screen also offers quick access to Help resources. You can take a tour of Flash, learn about documentation resources, and find Adobe Authorized Training facilities.

• To hide the Welcome screen, select Don’t Show Again.

• To show the Welcome screen, select Edit > Preferences (Windows®) or select Flash > Preferences (Macintosh®), and

select Welcome Screen from the On Launch menu in the General category.

Using the Stage

The Stage is the rectangular area where you place graphic content when creating Flash documents. The Stage in the authoring environment represents the rectangular space in Flash Player or in a web browser window where your document appears during playback. To change the view of the Stage as you work, zoom in and out. To help you position items on the Stage, you can use the grid, guides, and rulers.

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Workspace

The Timeline and Stage with content.

Zoom the Stage

To view the entire Stage on the screen, or to view a particular area of your drawing at high magnification, change the magnification level. The maximum magnification depends on the resolution of your monitor and the document size. The minimum value for zooming out on the Stage is 8%. The maximum value for zooming in on the Stage is 2000%.

• To zoom in on an element, select the Zoom tool in the Tools panel, and click the element. To switch the Zoom

tool between zooming in or out, use the Enlarge or Reduce modifiers (in the options area of the Tools panel when the Zoom tool is selected) or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh).

• To zoom in so that a specific area of your drawing fills the window, drag a rectangular selection on the Stage with

the Zoom tool.

• To zoom in on or out of the entire Stage, select View > Zoom In or View > Zoom Out.

• To zoom in or out by a specified percentage, select View > Magnification, and select a percentage from the submenu

or select a percentage from the Zoom control at the upper-right corner of the document window.

• To scale the Stage so that it fits completely in the application window, select View > Magnification > Fit in Window.

• To show the contents of the current frame, select View > Magnification > Show All, or select Show All from the

Zoom control at the upper-right side of the application window. If the scene is empty, the entire Stage appears.

• To show the entire Stage, select View > Magnification > Show Frame or select Show Frame from the Zoom control

at the upper-right corner of the document window.

• To show the workspace surrounding the Stage, or to view elements in a scene that are partly or completely outside

of the Stage area, select View > Pasteboard. The pasteboard appears in light gray. For example, to have a bird fly into a frame, initially position the bird outside of the Stage in the pasteboard and animate it into the Stage area.

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Move the view of the Stage

When the Stage is magnified, you may not be able to see all of it. To change the view without having to change the magnification, use the Hand tool to move the Stage.

❖ In the Tools panel, select the Hand tool and drag the Stage. To temporarily switch between another tool and the

Hand tool, hold down the Spacebar and click the tool in the Tools panel.

Use rulers

When rulers show, they appear along the top and left sides of the document. You can change the unit of measure used in the rulers from the default of pixels to another unit. When you move an element on the Stage with the rulers displayed, lines indicating the element’s dimensions appear on the rulers.

• To show or hide rulers, select View > Rulers.

• To specify the rulers’ unit of measure for a document, select Modify > Document, and select a unit from the Ruler

Units menu.

See also

“Snapping art into position” on page 122

Use guides

When rulers show (View > Rulers), you can drag horizontal and vertical guides from the rulers onto the Stage.

When you create nested timelines, draggable guides appear on the Stage only when the Timeline in which they were created is active.

To create custom guides or irregular guides, use guide layers.

• To display or hide the drawing guides, select View > Guides > Show Guides.

Note: If the grid is visible and Snap to Grid is turned on when you create guides, guides snap to the grid.

• To turn snapping to guides on or off, select View > Snapping > Snap to Guides.

Note: Snapping to guides takes precedence over snapping to the grid in places where guides fall between grid lines.

• To move a guide, click anywhere on the ruler with the Selection tool and drag the guide to the desired place on the

Stage.

• To remove a guide, use the Selection tool with guides unlocked to drag the guide to the horizontal or vertical ruler.

• To lock guides, select View > Guides > Lock Guides or use the Lock Guides option in the Edit Guides (View >

Guides > Edit Guides) dialog box.

• To clear guides, select View > Guides > Clear Guides. If you are in document-editing mode, all guides in the

document are cleared. If you are in symbol-editing mode, only guides used in symbols are cleared.

See also

“Guide layers” on page 177

Set guide preferences

1 Select View > Guides > Edit Guides and do any of the following:

• To set Color, click the triangle in the color box and select a guide line color from the palette. The default guide color

is green.

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• To display or hide guides, select or deselect Show Guides.

• To turn snapping to guides on or off, select or deselect Snap To Guides.

• Select or deselect Lock Guides.

• To set Snap Accuracy, select an option from the pop-up menu.

• To remove all guides, click Clear All. Clear All removes all guides from the current scene.

• To save the current settings as the default, click Save Default.

2 Click OK.

Use the grid

The grid appears in a document as a set of lines behind the artwork in all scenes.

Display or hide the drawing grid

❖ Do one of the following:

• Select View > Grid > Show Grid.

• Press Control+'' (quote) (Windows) or Command+'' (quote) (Macintosh).

Workspace

Turn snapping to grid lines on or off

❖ Select View > Snapping > Snap to Grid.

Set grid preferences

1 Select View > Grid > Edit Grid and select from the options.

2 To save the current settings as the default, click Save Default.

About the main toolbar and edit bar

The menu bar at the top of the application window contains menus with commands for controlling functionality.

The edit bar, at the top of the Stage, contains controls and information for editing scenes and symbols, and for changing the magnification level of the Stage.

See also

“Symbols, instances, and library assets” on page 147

“Working with scenes” on page 178

Tools panel overview

The tools in the Tools panel let you draw, paint, select, and modify artwork, as well as change the view of the Stage. The Tools panel is divided into four sections:

• The tools area contains drawing, painting, and selection tools.

• The view area contains tools for zooming and panning in the application window.

• The colors area contains modifiers for stroke and fill colors.

• The options area contains modifiers for the currently selected tool. Modifiers affect the tool’s painting or editing

operations.

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To specify which tools to display in the authoring environment, use the Customize Tools Panel dialog box.

See also

“Creating and Editing Artwork” on page 91

“Selecting objects” on page 118

Use the Tools panel

To show or hide the Tools panel, select Window > Tools.

Select tools

❖ Do one of the following:

• Click the tool in the Tools panel. Depending on the tool you select, a set of modifiers might appear in the options

area at the bottom of the Tools panel.

• Press the tool’s keyboard shortcut. To view the keyboard shortcuts, select Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows) or

Flash > Keyboard Shortcuts (Macintosh). On the Macintosh, you might need to move the mouse to see the new pointer appear.

• To select a tool located in the pop-up menu for a visible tool such as the Rectangle tool, press the icon of the visible

tool and select another tool from the pop-up menu.

Customize the Tools panel

To specify which tools appear in the authoring environment, use the Customize Tools Panel dialog box to add or remove tools from the Tools panel.

When more than one tool appears in a location, the top tool in the group (the most recently used) appears with an arrow in the lower-right corner of its icon. This arrow indicates that additional tools are present in a pop-up menu. The same keyboard shortcut functions for all tools in the pop-up menu. When you press and hold the mouse button on the icon, the other tools in the group appear in a pop-up menu.

1 To show the Customize Tools Panel dialog box, do one of the following:

• (Windows) Select Edit > Customize Tools panel.

• (Macintosh) Select Flash > Customize Tools panel.

The Available Tools menu indicates the tools that are currently available. The Current Selection menu indicates the tools currently assigned to the selected location in the Tools panel.

2 To browse through the tools to specify the location to assign to another tool, click a tool in the image of the Tools

panel or use the arrows.

3 To add a tool to the selected location, select the tool in the Available Tools list and click Add. You can assign a tool

to more than one location.

4 To remove a tool from the selected location, select the tool in the Current Selection scroll list and click Remove.

5 To restore the default Tools Panel layout, click Restore Default in the Customize Tools Panel dialog box.

6 Click OK to apply your changes and close the Customize Tools Panel dialog box.

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Use context menus

Context menus contain commands relevant to the current selection. For example, when you select a frame in the Timeline window, the context menu contains commands for creating, deleting, and modifying frames and keyframes. Context menus exist for many items and controls in many locations, including on the Stage, in the Timeline, in the Library panel, and in the Actions panel.

❖ Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) an item.

The Timeline

About the Timeline

The Timeline organizes and controls a document’s content over time in layers and frames. Like films, Flash documents divide lengths of time into frames. Layers are like multiple film strips stacked on top of one another, each containing a different image that appears on the Stage. The major components of the Timeline are layers, frames, and the playhead.

Layers in a document are listed in a column on the left side of the Timeline. Frames contained in each layer appear in a row to the right of the layer name. The Timeline header at the top of the Timeline indicates frame numbers. The playhead indicates the current frame displayed on the Stage. As a document plays, the playhead moves from left to right through the Timeline.

The Timeline status displayed at the bottom of the Timeline indicates the selected frame number, the current frame rate, and the elapsed time to the current frame.

Note: When an animation is played, the actual frame rate is displayed; this may differ from the document’s frame rate setting if the computer can’t calculate and display the animation quickly enough.

HI J K L

Parts of the Timeline

A. Playhead B. Empty keyframe C. Timeline header D. Guide layer icon E. Frame View pop-up menu F. Frame-by-frame animation G. Tweened animation H. Scroll To Playhead button I. Onion-skinning buttons J. Current Frame indicator K. Frame Rate indicator L. Elapsed Time indicator

The Timeline shows where animation occurs in a document, including frame-by-frame animation, tweened animation, and motion paths.

Controls in the layers section of the Timeline let you hide, show, lock, or unlock layers, as well as display layer contents as outlines. You can drag frames to a new location on the same layer or to a different layer.

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See also

“Working with timelines” on page 172

“Motion tweens” on page 187

Change the appearance of the Timeline

By default, the Timeline appears below the main document window. To change its position, detach the Timeline from the document window and float it in its own window or dock it to any other panel you choose. You can also hide the Timeline.

To change the number of layers and frames that are visible, resize the Timeline. To view additional layers when the Timeline contains more layers than can be displayed, use the scroll bars on the right side of the Timeline.

Dragging the Timeline

• To move the Timeline when it is docked to the document window, drag the title bar tab at the upper-left corner of

the Timeline.

• To dock an undocked Timeline to the application window, drag the title bar tab to the top or bottom of the

document window.

• To dock an undocked Timeline to other panels, drag the Timeline title bar tab to the location you choose. To

prevent the Timeline from docking to other panels, press Control while you drag. A blue bar appears to indicate where the Timeline will dock.

• To lengthen or shorten layer name fields in the Timeline panel, drag the bar separating the layer names and the

frames portions of the Timeline.

Change the display of frames in the Timeline

1 To display the Frame View pop-up menu, click Frame View in the upper-right corner of the Timeline.

Frame View pop-up menu.

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2 Select from the following options:

• To change the width of frame cells, select Tiny, Small, Normal, Medium, or Large. (The Large frame-width setting

is useful for viewing the details of sound waveforms.)

• To decrease the height of frame cell rows, select Short.

Short and Normal frame view options.

• To turn the tinting of frame sequences on or off, select Tinted Frames.

• To display thumbnails of the content of each frame scaled to fit the Timeline frames, select Preview. This can cause

the apparent content size to vary and requires extra screen space.

• To display thumbnails of each full frame (including empty space), select Preview In Context. This is useful for

viewing the way elements move in their frames over the course of the animation, but previews are generally smaller than with the Preview option.

Change layer height in the Timeline

1 Do one of the following:

• Double-click the layer’s icon (the icon to the left of the layer name) in the Timeline.

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the layer name and select Properties from the context menu.

• Select the layer in the Timeline and select Modify > Timeline > Layer Properties.

2 In the Layer Properties dialog box, select an option for Layer Height and click OK.

Resize the Timeline

• If the Timeline is docked to the main application window, drag the bar separating the Timeline from the Stage area.

• If the Timeline is not docked to the main application window, drag the lower-right corner (Windows) or the size

box in the lower-right corner (Macintosh).

Move the playhead

The playhead moves through the timeline as a document plays to indicate the current frame displayed on the Stage. The Timeline header shows the frame numbers of the animation. To display a frame on the Stage, move the playhead to the frame in the Timeline.

To display a specific frame when you’re working with a large number of frames that can’t all be displayed in the Timeline at once, move the playhead along the Timeline.

• To go to a frame, click the frame’s location in the Timeline header, or drag the playhead to the desired position.

• To center the Timeline on the current frame, click the Scroll To Playhead button at the bottom of the Timeline.

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Moving the playhead

Using Flash authoring panels

About the Property inspector

The Property inspector provides easy access to the most commonly used attributes of the current selection, either on the Stage or in the Timeline. You can make changes to the object or document attributes in the Property inspector without accessing the menus or panels that also control these attributes.

Depending on what is currently selected, the Property inspector displays information and settings for the current document, text, symbol, shape, bitmap, video, group, frame, or tool. When two or more different types of objects are selected, the Property inspector displays the total number of objects selected.

The Property inspector showing the properties for the Text tool.

To display the Property inspector, Select Window > Properties, or press Control+F3 (Windows) or Command+F3 (Macintosh).

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