Macromedia FLASH MX GETTING STARTED WITH FLASH User Manual

Getting Started with Flash

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Apple Disclaimer

APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE ENCLOSED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE, ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

Copyright © 2004 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without prior written approval of Macromedia, Inc.

Acknowledgments

Director: Erick Vera

Project Management: Julee Burdekin, Erick Vera

Writing: Jay Armstrong, Jody Bleyle, Mary Burger, Francis Cheng, Jen deHaan, Stephanie Gowin, Phillip Heinz, Shimul Rahim, Samuel R. Neff

Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato

Editing: Mary Ferguson, Mary Kraemer, Noreen Maher, Antonio Padial, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla

Production Management: Patrice O’Neill

Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Christopher Basmajian, Aaron Begley, John Francis

Second Edition: June 2004

Macromedia, Inc. 600 Townsend St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

CHAPTER 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

About Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

About Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What’s new in Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Guide to instructional media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Using the Start page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

CHAPTER 2: Installing Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Installing and activating Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Configuration folders installed with Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Changing or removing Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Configuring a server for Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

CHAPTER 3: Getting to Know the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Using the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using frames and keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Using layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

About the main toolbar and edit bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the Tools panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the grid, guides, and rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using panels and the Property inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Setting preferences in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Customizing keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using context menus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Accessibility in the Flash authoring environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

CHAPTER 4: Building Your First Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Workflow for building an application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Examine a completed application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Create a new document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Add media content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Add navigation controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Add motion and basic interactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Test the application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Publish and view the application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

4 Contents

CHAPTER 1

Getting Started

Welcome to Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004. Flash provides everything you need to create and deliver rich web content and powerful applications. Whether you’re designing motion graphics or building data-driven applications, Flash has the tools necessary to produce great results and deliver the best user experience across multiple platforms and devices.

This guide is designed to introduce you to Flash. The tutorial in this guide leads you through the process of creating a simple Flash application.

This chapter contains the following sections:

About Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

About Flash Player. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What’s new in Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Guide to instructional media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Using the Start page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

About Flash

Flash is an authoring tool that allows you to create anything from a simple animation to a complex interactive web application, such as an online store. You can make your Flash applications media rich by adding pictures, sound, and video. Flash includes many features that make it powerful but easy to use, such as drag-and-drop user interface components, built-in behaviors that add ActionScript to your document, and special effects that you can add to objects.

When you author in Flash you work in a Flash document, a file that, when saved, has the file extension .fla. When you are ready to deploy your Flash content, you publish it, creating a file with the extension .swf. Flash Player, described in the next section, runs the SWF file.

About Flash Player

Macromedia Flash Player 7, which runs the applications that you create, installs by default along with Flash. Flash Player ensures that all SWF content is viewable and available consistently and across the broadest range of platforms, browsers, and devices.

The Macromedia Flash Player is distributed with products from every major partner, including Microsoft, Apple, Netscape, AOL, and Opera, to bring rich content and applications immediately to over 516 million people worldwide. Flash Player is distributed freely to anyone who wants to use it.

You can get the latest version of Flash Player at the Macromedia Flash Player

Download Center at www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer.

What’s new in Flash

There are now two editions of Flash: Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004. To verify which edition you have installed, select Help > About Flash in the application.

Flash MX 2004 Flash MX 2004 is the perfect tool for the web designer, interactive media

professional, or subject matter expert developing multimedia content. Emphasis is on creation, import, and manipulation of many types of media (audio, video, bitmaps, vectors, text, and data).

Flash MX Professional 2004 Flash MX Professional 2004 is designed for advanced web

designers and application builders. Flash MX Professional 2004 includes all the features of Flash MX 2004, along with several powerful new tools. It provides project-management tools for optimizing the workflow between the members of a web team made up of designers and developers. External scripting and capabilities for handling dynamic data from databases are some of the features that make Flash particularly suitable for large-scale, complex projects deployed using Flash Player along with a hybrid of HTML content.

New features available in both Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004

The new features in Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 provide greater productivity, enhanced rich media support, and streamlined publishing.

Productivity

Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 include many features designed specifically for streamlining previously complex tasks, thereby improving productivity:

Timeline effects You can apply Timeline effects to any object on the Stage to quickly add

transitions and animations such as fade-ins, fly-ins, blurs, and spins. For more information, see “Using Timeline effects” in Using Flash.

Behaviors With behaviors, you can add interactivity to Flash content without writing a line of

code. For example, you can use behaviors to include functionality that links to a website, loads sounds and graphics, controls playback of embedded videos, plays movie clips, and triggers data sources. For more information, see “Controlling instances with behaviors” in Using Flash.

6 Chapter 1: Getting Started

Accessibility support in the authoring environment Accessibility support in the Flash

authoring environment provides keyboard shortcuts for navigating and for using interface controls, letting you work with these interface elements without using the mouse. For more information, see “Accessibility in the Flash authoring environment” in Using Flash.

Updated templates Flash includes updated templates for creating presentations, e-learning

applications, advertisements, mobile device applications, and other commonly used types of Flash documents. For more informations, see “Using templates” in Using Flash.

Integrated Help system The new Help panel provides in-context reference, ActionScript

reference, and lessons in the Flash authoring environment. For more information, see “Using the Help panel” in Using Flash.

Spell checker The spell checker searches your text for spelling errors. For more information,

see “Checking spelling” in Using Flash.

Document tabs Tabs for each open document are displayed at the top of the workspace so that

you can quickly locate and switch between open documents. For more information, see “Using document tabs for multiple documents (Windows only)” in Using Flash.

Start page The Start page puts commonly used tasks at your fingertips, in a central page. For

more information, see “Using the Start page” on page 13.

Find and Replace The Find and Replace feature locates and replaces a text string, a font, a

color, a symbol, a sound file, a video file, or an imported bitmap file. For more information, see “Using Find and Replace” in Using Flash.

Rich media support

New rich media support features enhance the quality of rich media presentations.

High-fidelity import High-fidelity import lets you import Adobe PDF and Adobe Illustrator 10

files and preserve accurate vector representation of your source files. For more information, see “Importing Adobe Illustrator, EPS, or PDF files” in Using Flash.

Video Import wizard The Video Import wizard simplifies video encoding and offers encoding

presets and clip editing. For more information, see “Using the Video Import wizard” in Using Flash.

Small font size rendering Small font sizes are now rendered more crisply. For more

information, see “Creating text” in Using Flash.

Publishing

New publishing features make it easy to detect Flash Player versions, improve accessibility, and simplify localization.

Flash Player detection You can now publish SWF files with associated files that detect if a user

has a specified Flash Player version. You can configure your published files to direct users to alternate files if they don’t have the specified Flash Player. For more information, see “Configuring publish settings for Flash Player detection” in Using Flash.

What’s new in Flash 7

Publish profiles You can create profiles to save your publish settings, then export the profiles

and use them across projects to publish consistently under different conditions. For more information, see “Creating a publish profile” in Using Flash.

Accessibility and components New accessibility features and a new generation of components

offer tab ordering, tab focus management, and improved support for third-party screen readers and closed-caption programs.

Globalization and Unicode Enhanced globalization and Unicode support allows multilanguage

authoring using any character set. For more information, see “Creating Multilanguage Text” in Using Flash.

Strings panel The new Strings panel makes it easier to publish Flash content in multiple

languages. With the click of a few buttons, Flash creates external XML files for each specified language. For more information, see “Creating Multilanguage Text” in Using Flash. You may need to update your Help system to see this information.

Security Flash Player 7 enforces a stricter security model than previous versions of Flash Player.

Exact domain matching requires that the domain of the data to be accessed match the data provider’s domain exactly in order for the domains to communicate. HTTPS/HTTP restriction specifies that a SWF file using nonsecure (non-HTTPS) protocols cannot access content loaded using a secure (HTTPS) protocol, even when both are in exactly the same domain. For more information see “Flash Player security features” in Using ActionScript in Flash.

Other improvements

Flash Player performance has been greatly improved, and ActionScript has been enhanced to comply with ECMA script language specifications. Also, Flash now tracks interactions so that they can be converted to reusable commands.

Flash Player runtime performance Player runtime performance has been improved by a factor

of two to five times for video, scripting, and general display rendering.

ActionScript 2.0 ActionScript 2.0 is an object-oriented language that follows the ECMA script

language specification and supports inheritance, strong typing, and the event model. For more information, see “ECMA-262 compliance” in Using ActionScript in Flash. You may need to update your Help system to see this information.

History panel The History panel tracks your actions so that they can be converted to reusable

commands. For more information, see “Using the History panel” in Using Flash.

New features available in Flash MX Professional 2004 only

Flash MX Professional 2004 offers all the features available in Flash MX 2004, plus a variety of new features to enhance application development and design. Features include the screen-based visual development environment, and tools for managing data interactively and for fostering team productivity.

8 Chapter 1: Getting Started

Screen-based visual development environment

A visual programming environment Flash MX Professional 2004 introduces a forms-based

visual programming environment, which is ideal for developing applications. For more information, see “Slide screens and form screens (Flash Professional only)”in Using Flash.

Slides-based authoring Slide screens provide functionality designed for sequential

presentations. For more information, see “Slide screens and form screens (Flash Professional only)” in Using Flash.

A new generation of components

Advanced components support New components now support focus management to control

tab navigation. Although the components have a new sophisticated design, you can easily reskin them to modify their appearance. For more information, see “Benefits of using components” in Using Components.

Data interactivity

Data binding Data binding allows you to connect any component to various data sources to

manipulate, display, and update data through components or ActionScript. For more information, see Chapter 14, “Data Integration (Flash Professional Only)” in Using Flash.

Prebuilt data connectors for Web Services and XML New components allow you to connect

to web services and XML data sources easily. For more information, see Chapter 14, “Data Integration (Flash Professional Only),” in Using Flash.

Performance improvements Performance improvements on large record sets allow your

application to work efficiently with large amounts of data.

Team productivity

Project management The Project panel enables centralized project file management, version

control, and workflow optimization for teams of Flash users working together. For more information, see Chapter 2, “Working with Projects (Flash Professional Only),” in Using Flash.

Source code control Flash Professional provides source code control integration with plug-ins

to industry-leading source control systems such as Microsoft Visual Source Safe. For more information, see Chapter 2, “Using version control with projects (Flash Professional only),” in Using Flash.

Guide to instructional media

Flash contains a variety of media to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in creating your own Flash applications.

Guide to instructional media 9

About the electronic manuals and lessons

The following electronic manuals are available through the Help panel (Help > Help):

• Getting Started with Flash (or Getting Started Help) provides a hands-on introduction to Flash.

• Using Flash (or Using Flash Help) contains complete information on working in the Flash

authoring tool, including all commands, features, and user interface elements.

• Using Components contains information on adding and configuring components in a Flash

document, as well as information on creating components.

• Using ActionScript in Flash (or Using ActionScript Help)provides a conceptual introduction to

the ActionScript language

• Flash ActionScript Language Reference (or Flash ActionScript Language Reference Help)

documents all actions, methods, and properties in the ActionScript API.

If you are a new user, you’ll find the following information useful:

• Getting Started with Flash (or Getting Started Help) provides basic information about the Flash

workspace and guides you in creating a simple document.

• A series of lessons on the How Do I tab offer an introduction to using Flash. Refer to the

Quick Start, Basic Flash, and Basic ActionScript lessons (Help > How Do I).

Using the Help panel

The updatable Help panel provides access to information on how to use Flash. For more information about the Help panel, see the following sections.

Accessing help

The tabs in the Help panel—Help and How Do I—contain the full set of user assistance information provided with the Flash application.

• You can select the Help tab to display general help information.

• You can select the How Do I tab to display a list of 10–20 minute lessons that guide you

through many of the features in Flash.

To access help and the table of contents:

Select Help > Help to open the Help panel, or press F1.

If the table of contents is not visible, click the Table of Contents button to display the Table of Contents pane.

A list of help books is displayed. The Help tab is selected by default.

Double-click a book to open it and display its topics.

Click a topic to select it.

To close the table of contents, click the X above the Table of Contents pane.

The Help panel contains context-sensitive Reference information which can be accessed from the Actions panel.

10 Chapter 1: Getting Started

To access context-sensitive help from the Actions panel:

To select an item for reference, do one of the following:

■ Select an item in the Actions panel toolbox.

■ Select an item in the Actions panel Script pane.

■ Place the cursor before an item in the Actions panel Script pane.

To open the Help panel reference page for the selected item, do one of the following:

■ Press F1.

■ Right-click the item and select View Help.

■ Click the Reference button above the Script pane.

The How Do I tab contains brief lessons that introduce you to the main features of Flash, letting you practice on isolated examples. If you are new to Flash, or if you have used only a limited set of features, start with the How Do I tab.

To start the lessons:

Select Help > How Do I to display the How Do I tab of the Help panel.

In the Table of Contents, you’ll find a list of lessons.

Click a lesson topic to open it.

To search for a word or phrase in the Help panel:

Click the Search icon in the Help panel toolbar.

The Search pane is displayed.

Type a word or phrase in the text box, then click Search.

A list of topics that contain the word or phrase is displayed, organized by book.

Click a topic to select it.

Note: Click the Table of Contents button to return to the Table of Contents pane.

To print a help page:

Click the Print button in the Help panel toolbar.

In the Print dialog box, select the printer and other printing options, then click Print.

Changing the size of text displayed in the Help panel

If you are using a laptop, you may find it useful to change the text in the Help panel to a larger size. If you change the size of the text in your browser, this will then be reflected in the Help panel. If you are using Windows, you can change the size of the text in the Help panel itself; this will also change the text size in your browser.

Guide to instructional media 11

To change the size of the text displayed in the Help panel using your browser:

Quit Flash MX 2004.

Open your browser and follow the instructions to change the size of text in your browser to a larger size.

When you start Flash MX 2004, the size of the text in the help panel will be changed to the size you selected for your browser.

To change the size of the text displayed in the Help panel using the Help panel (Windows only):

Open the Help panel and choose any topic.

Select some text in the body of the Help topic.

Hold down CTRL and scroll the mouse wheel.

The text will increase or decrease in size.

Note: This will also change the size of text in your browser.

Arranging the Help panel

The Help panel allows you to arrange its position in the workspace to optimize usability. You can easily control the size of the display area, and where and when the Help panel is displayed. For more details about working with panels, see “Using panels and the Property inspector”

on page 36.

To arrange the Help panel in a docked position:

Dock the Help panel in the desired position.

Expand the Help panel if it is not already.

Drag the splitter bar between the panel or panel group and the Document window to size the display area.

Press F1 to collapse and expand the Help panel as needed.

To arrange the Help panel in an undocked (floating) position:

Undock the Help panel to the desired position.

Expand the Help panel if it is not already.

Resize the panel window.

Press F1 to hide and show the Help panel as needed.

Updating the Help panel

The Update feature allows you to update your help system with new and revised documentation, including procedures and lessons. You can click the Update button to see if new information is available. In addition, the Start page will indicate when there is a help update available.

12 Chapter 1: Getting Started

To update Flash Help:

Verify that you’re connected to the Internet.

Click the Update button in the Help panel toolbar and follow instructions to download the help system update.

As each help update is released, a new PDF of each updated book will be created and posted on the Flash support site documentation page at www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/

flash/.

If you have trouble downloading help updates using this method, you can also install updated help using the Extension Manager. See the note about installing an MXP file on the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 documentation update status page at www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/

documents/doc_update.htm.

Using the Start page

The Start page provides easy access to your most frequently used actions, either at the start of a session or whenever no open documents are in the application window.

The Start page contains the following areas:

Open a Recent Item lets you view your most recent documents.

0pen displays the Open File dialog box.

Create New offers a list of file types from which to choose, such as ActionScript or document, for

a quick way to open a new file.

Create from Template lists the templates most commonly used to create new documents and

allows you to select from the list.

Extend links to the Macromedia Flash Exchange website, where you can download additional

applications and information.

The Start page also offers quick access to resources that assist you in learning Flash. You can take a tour of Flash, take a lesson, and update your help system with the latest documentation.

The Start page can also display trial conversion information, upgrade notices, and additional messages of interest.

You can choose whether to display the Start page.

To hide the Start page:

• On the Start page, select Don’t Show Again.

To specify that the Start page appear again, do one of the following:

• (Windows) Select Edit > Preferences and click Show Start Page on the General tab.

• (Macintosh) Select Flash > Preferences and click Show Start Page on the General tab.

Using the Start page 13

14 Chapter 1: Getting Started

CHAPTER 2

Installing Flash

This chapter contains the following sections:

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Installing and activating Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Configuration folders installed with Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Changing or removing Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Configuring a server for Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

System requirements

The following hardware and software are required to run Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004.

Authoring

The following hardware and software are required to install the Flash authoring tool.

Windows Macintosh

600 MHz Intel Pentium III processor or equivalent Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, or Windows XP

128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended) 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended)

190 MB available disk space 130 MB available disk space

500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor Mac OS X 10.2.6

Complete product system requirements and recommendations are available at the Flash system requirements web page at www.macromedia.com/go/sysreqs.

To install Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004, you must have administrative privileges. You must also have administrative privileges to remove any edition of Flash.

Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 do not support Macintosh hard disks formatted with UFS. Apple has documented several UFS formatting issues for Carbon and Classic. Unless you are using native applications (Cocoa), UFS is not recommended or supported by Apple.

Flash Player 7

The following table lists system and browser requirements for Flash Player 7.

Platform Browser

Windows 98 Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x, Netscape 4.7, Netscape 7.x,

Mozilla 1.x, AOL 8, and Opera 7.11

Windows Me Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, Netscape 4.7, Netscape 7.x,

Mozilla 1.x, AOL 8, and Opera 7.11

Windows 2000 Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x, Netscape 4.7, Netscape 7.x,

Windows XP Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Netscape 7.x, Mozilla 1.x,

Mac OS 9.x Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1, Netscape 4.8, Netscape 7.x,

Mac OS X 10.1.x, or Mac OS X 10.2.x Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.2, Netscape 7.x, Mozilla 1.x,

Mozilla 1.x, CompuServe 7, AOL 8, and Opera 7.11

CompuServe 7, AOL 8, and Opera 7.11

Mozilla 1.x, and Opera 6

AOL 7, Opera 6, and Safari 1.0 (Mac OS X 10.2.x only)

Complete product system requirements and recommendations are available at the Flash system requirements web page at www.macromedia.com/go/sysreqs.

Installing and activating Flash

Installing Flash is an automated process. After installation, you can choose to run the 30-day trial mode of Flash, or you can choose to activate either Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX 2004 Professional. Both editions of Flash must be activated over the Internet or phone prior to use, and you need your serial number to activate either edition of Flash unless you want to select trial mode. Windows 98 SE users must have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 or later in order to activate over the Internet.

Note: Installing Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 does not overwrite earlier Flash versions, such as Macromedia Flash MX, that you might have installed.

To install Flash:

Close any running versions of Flash before installing.

Do one of the following to start the installation process:

■ (Windows) If you have a CD, insert it in your CD drive. A Flash movie clip plays that

guides you through installation choices.

Note: You can also run Install Flash MX 2004.exe to start the Flash movie clip, if necessary.

■ (Macintosh) If you have a CD, insert it in your CD drive and double-click the

Installer icon.

■ If you have downloaded Flash from the Internet, double-click FlashMX2004Installer.exe

(Windows), or double-click the Installer icon (Macintosh) and follow the onscreen instructions.

When installation is complete, follow the instructions to select the 30-day trial period, or enter your serial number and activate Flash.

16 Chapter 2: Installing Flash

Upgrading from Macromedia Flash MX 2004 to Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004

If you’ve purchased Macromedia Flash MX 2004, you can upgrade to Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004.

To upgrade to Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004:

Select Help > Upgrade to Flash MX Professional 2004.

In the dialog box that appears, do one of the following:

■ Select Buy to open a browser for the Macromedia store.

■ Select Try and follow the instructions to obtain a serial number for a trial upgrade.

At the end of the trial period, if you do not purchase the upgrade, your application reverts to Macromedia Flash MX 2004.

Switching between trial mode editions

If you’re running the trial mode of one edition of Flash, you can change to another edition during the same trial period.

To switch between trial modes:

• From Flash, select Help > Switch to Flash MX Professional 2004 or Switch to Flash MX 2004,

depending on which trial mode you’re already using, and which one you want to try.

A dialog box appears indicating that you must restart your computer for the change to take effect.

Purchasing a Flash edition from trial mode

If you’re running Flash in trial mode, you can initiate your purchase directly from the application.

To purchase Flash from trial mode:

Select Help > Activate Macromedia Flash MX.

In the dialog box that appears, select Buy One Online to purchase a serial number.

A browser window takes you to the Macromedia store.

Configuration folders installed with Flash

Flash places several configuration folders on your system when you install the application. The configuration folders organize files associated with the application into appropriate levels of user access. The configuration folders for Flash are as follows:

Application-level configuration folder This is the configuration folder found near the

application itself. Because it is in the application level, non-administrative users do not have write access to this directory. Typical paths to this folder are as follows:

• Windows: \Program Files\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\language\Configuration\

• Macintosh: HD/Applications/Macromedia Flash MX 2004/Configuration/

Configuration folders installed with Flash 17

First run folder This folder is a sibling to the application-level configuration folder, but serves a

different purpose. This folder is a simple mechanism created specifically for the Flash authoring tool that facilitates the sharing of configuration files among users of the same machine. Folders and files in this folder are automatically copied by Flash to the user-level configuration folder. Any new files placed in the First Run folder are copied to the Restricted Users folder when you start the application.

Typical paths to this folder are as follows:

• Windows: \Program Files\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\language\First Run\

• Macintosh: HD/Applications/Macromedia Flash MX 2004/First Run/

User-level configuration folder This is the configuration folder found in the user profile area.

This folder is always writable by the current user. Typical paths to this folder are as follows:

• Windows: \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application

Data\Macromedia\Flash MX 2004\language\Configuration

• Macintosh: HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Flash MX 2004/

language/Configuration/

Note: Flash MX 2004 for Windows uses the Local Settings folder for the user-level configuration files. This differs from Flash MX and the rest of the Studio MX family (including Dreamweaver MX

2004), which all use the Roaming Profile configuration folder for user-level configuration files. Roaming profiles allow network users to automatically store their configuration settings on a network server, and then move to different workstations on the network and always have an application load the same configuration files.The Local Settings folder differs from the Roaming Profile folder in that files in Local Settings are not saved to a server when the network is set up to support roaming profiles.

All-user-level configuration folder

This is the configuration folder found in the common user profile area. This folder is part of the standard Windows and Macintosh operating system installations and is shared by all users of a particular computer. Any files that are placed in this folder are made available by the operating system to all users of the machine. Typical paths to this folder are:

• Windows: \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Macromedia\

Flash MX 2004\language\Configuration

• Macintosh: HD/Users/Shared/Application Support/Macromedia/Flash MX 2004/language/

Configuration

Restricted users configuration folder This is the folder for users with restricted privileges on a

workstation. Typically, in a networked environment, only system administrators have administrative access to workstations. All other users are given restricted access, which usually means that these users can’t write to application-level files (such as the Program Files directory in Windows or the Applications folder on Macintosh OS X).

18 Chapter 2: Installing Flash

Changing or removing Flash Player

You can change or reinstall the current version of Flash Player.

To change or reinstall the ActiveX control for Windows (Internet Explorer or AOL):

Close your browser.

Remove any currently installed versions of the ActiveX control. For instructions, see Technote 14157 on the Macromedia Flash Support Center at www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/

documents/remove_player.htm.

Run the Install Flash Player 7 AX.exe file in your Players folder to begin installation.

Open the browser. The new version of the ActiveX control should be installed.

To change or reinstall the plug-in for Windows (Netscape, Mozilla, CompuServe, or Opera):

Close your browser before installing a new version of the plug-in.

Remove any currently installed versions of the plug-in. For instructions, see Technote 14157 on the Macromedia Support Center at www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/

remove_player.htm.

Run the Install Flash Player 7.exe file in your Players folder to begin installation.

Open the browser. The new version of the plug-in should be installed. To verify installation in Netscape, select Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.

To change or reinstall the plug-in for Macintosh (Netscape, Internet Explorer for Macintosh, Safari, AOL, Opera, or CompuServe):

Close your browser before installing a new version of the plug-in.

Remove currently installed versions of the plug-in. For instructions, see Technote 14157 on the Macromedia Support Center at www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/

remove_player.htm.

Run Install Flash Player 7 (Mac OS 9.x) or Install Flash Player 7 OS X (Mac OS X.x) in your Players folder to begin installation.

Open the browser. The new version of the plug-in should be installed. To verify installation on Netscape, select Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.

Configuring a server for Flash Player

For users to view your Flash content on the web, the web server must be properly configured to recognize SWF files.

Your server may already be configured properly. To test server configuration, see TechNote 4151 on the Macromedia Flash Support Center at www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/

tn4151.html. If your server is not properly configured, follow the procedure below to

configure it.

Configuring a server establishes the appropriate Multipart Internet Mail Extension (MIME) types so that the server can identify files with the .swf extension as Shockwave Flash files.

Configuring a server for Flash Player 19

A browser that receives the correct MIME type can load the appropriate plug-in, control, or helper application to process and properly display the incoming data. If the MIME type is missing or not properly delivered by the server, the browser might display an error message or a blank window with a puzzle piece icon.

To configure a server for Flash Player, do one of the following:

• If your site is established through an Internet service provider (ISP), ask the ISP to add this

MIME type to the server: application/x-shockwave-flash with the .swf extension.

• If you are administering your own server, see your web server documentation for instructions

on adding or configuring MIME types.

Corporate and enterprise system administrators can configure Flash to restrict access by Flash Player to resources in the local file system. You can create a security configuration file that limits Flash Player functionality on the local system.

The security configuration file is a text file placed in the same folder as the Flash Player installer. The Flash Player installer reads the configuration file during installation and follows its security directives. Flash Player exposes the configuration file to ActionScript using the System object.

With the configuration file, you can disable access by Flash Player to the camera or microphone, limit the amount of local storage Flash Player can use, control the auto-update feature, and block the Player from reading anything from the user’s local hard disk.

For more information about security, see “System class” in Flash ActionScript Language Reference.

20 Chapter 2: Installing Flash

CHAPTER 3

Getting to Know the Workspace

The Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 workspace consists of a Stage on which you place media content, a main toolbar with menus and commands for controlling application functionality, panels and a Property inspector for organizing and modifying media assets, and a Tools panel with tools for creating and modifying vector graphic content. For more information on the workspace, see the following sections:

Moving the view of the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using frames and keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Using layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

About the main toolbar and edit bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the Tools panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the grid, guides, and rulers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using panels and the Property inspector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

You can select preferences to modify the default Flash workspace. Context menus and keyboard shortcuts provide ways for you to easily navigate the Flash authoring environment. Special workspace accessibility features provide additional keyboard shortcuts that let you navigate panels and dialog boxes without using the mouse. See the following sections:

Setting preferences in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Customizing keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Accessibility in the Flash authoring environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

+ 47 hidden pages