The Flash Interface and Components

The Flash interface uses palettes and toolbars for development.

To start Flash

Launch Flash by selecting Start > Programs > Macromedia Flash > Flash .

Note the following components of the Flash interface

Flash stage: the area in which you place elements, objects and graphics used in the movie.

Flash timeline: a sequenced ruler used to control the movie and how it plays the elements on the stage.

Flash layers: canvases used to control objects placed on the stage. Layers allow multiple objects to be positioned independently of each other.

Flash drawing tools: tools used to draw, colour, paint, move, resize, stretch and fill the objects on the stage.

Libraries

From the main menu, select Libraries. Notice the options for the available libraries.

Buttons Library

Select Buttons. These objects are available to place in Flash movies. If you click once on a button, you will see a preview in the top of the library.

Click the X to close the library.

Symbols

To insert a symbol

From the main menu, select Insert > New Symbol. The Symbol Properties dialog will appear. As you work with objects in Flash, you convert them to symbols based on how you want them to behave. Notice that you can name the symbol, then specify it as a graphic, button, or movie clip.

Click the Cancel button to close the Symbol Properties dialog.

NOTES ON SYMBOLS AND LIBRARY

Flash has the ability to define and reuse objects called symbols. A symbol is a graphic, a button or a movie clip that is stored in a Flash movie’s library. Symbols can be created after an object is imported into Flash. Flash automatically adds the file to the library for the current movie.

For example, suppose you import a graphic image. Flash will place the file in the library and name it. However, the graphic is not yet a symbol. To convert the graphic to a symbol, you must select the graphic, specify it as a graphic symbol, and give it a name. Once the file is a symbol, it can be inserted repeatedly throughout the Flash movie.

If you need to change the appearance of a symbol, you can edit it in Symbol Edit mode. After you make changes to the symbol file, all instances of the symbol used throughout the movie will reflect those changes. By contrast, if you left the file as the default graphic it was when you imported it, the changes you make later would not be reflected in other instances of the graphic.

Settings for Publishing

From the main menu, select File > Publish Settings. The Publish Settings dialog will appear. Note the tabs on the Publish Settings dialog:

• The Formats tab allows you to specify how you want Flash to publish a movie. By default, Flash creates a SWF file then generates an HTML page with the code necessary to view the movie in a browser.
• The Flash tab allows more advanced settings, such as loading preferences. You can specify how your movie loads in order to protect it from importing. (All SWF files can be opened in Flash, and you may not want someone else to download your Flash movie to see how it was made.) You can also specify the audio type used and the Flash version with which the movie must comply.
• The HTML tab allows you to specify the quality and position of the Flash movie in the HTML page that is generated.

For now, all the default settings are acceptable.

Click Cancel to close the Publish Settings dialog.