User manual MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004 - USING FLASH

Using Flash Trademarks Add Life to the Web, Afterburner, Aftershock, Andromedia, Allaire, Animation PowerPack, Aria, Attain, Authorware, Authorware Star, Backstage, Bright Tiger, Clustercats, ColdFusion, Contribute, Design In Motion, Director, Dream Templates, Dreamweaver, Drumbeat 2000, EDJE, EJIPT, Extreme 3D, Fireworks, Flash, Flash Lite, Flex, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JFusion, JRun, Kawa, Know Your Site, Knowledge Objects, Knowledge Stream, Knowledge Track, LikeMinds, Lingo, Live Effects, MacRecorder Logo and Design, Macromedia, Macromedia Action!, Macromedia Breeze, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia M Logo and Design, Macromedia Spectra, Macromedia xRes Logo and Design, MacroModel, Made with Macromedia, Made with Macromedia Logo and Design, MAGIC Logo and Design, Mediamaker, Movie Critic, Open Sesame!, Roundtrip, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, Sitespring, SoundEdit, Titlemaker, UltraDev, Web Design 101, what the web can be, and Xtra are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally. Third-Party Information This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites. Speech compression and decompression technology licensed from Nellymoser, Inc. (www.nellymoser.com). SorensonTM SparkTM video compression and decompression technology licensed from Sorenson Media, Inc. Opera ® browser Copyright © 1995-2002 Opera Software ASA and its suppliers. All rights reserved. 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 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Working with Flash Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Creating or opening a document and setting properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Using document tabs for multiple documents (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Saving Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 About adding media content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 About creating motion and interactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 About components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Using the library to manage media assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 About ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Multiple Timelines and levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Nested movie clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Using absolute and relative target paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Working with scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Using the Movie Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Using Find and Replace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Using the Undo, Redo, and Repeat menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Using the History panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Saving documents when you undo steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Automating tasks with the Commands menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 About customizing context menus in Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 About the links menu in Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Speeding up document display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Optimizing Flash documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Testing document download performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Printing from the Flash authoring tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 CHAPTER 2: Working with Projects (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Creating and managing projects (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Using version control with projects (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Troubleshooting remote folder setup (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3 CHAPTER 3: Using Symbols, Instances, and Library Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Types of symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 About controlling instances and symbols with ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Creating symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Creating instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Creating buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Enabling, editing, and testing buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Editing symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Changing instance properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Controlling instances with behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Breaking apart instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Getting information about instances on the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Copying library assets between documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Using shared library assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Resolving conflicts between library assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 CHAPTER 4: Working with Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Using the Stroke Color and Fill Color controls in the Tools panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Using the Stroke Color and Fill Color controls in the Property inspector . . . . . . . 76 Working with solid colors and gradient fills in the Color Mixer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Modifying strokes with the Ink Bottle tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Applying solid, gradient, and bitmap fills with the Paint Bucket tool. . . . . . . . . . . 79 Transforming gradient and bitmap fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Copying strokes and fills with the Eyedropper tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Locking a gradient or bitmap to fill the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Modifying color palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 CHAPTER 5: Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 About vector and bitmap graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Flash drawing and painting tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 About overlapping shapes in Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Drawing with the Pencil tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Drawing straight lines, ovals, and rectangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Drawing polygons and stars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Using the Pen tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Painting with the Brush tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Reshaping lines and shape outlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Erasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Modifying shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Snapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Specifying drawing settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 4 Contents CHAPTER 6: Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 About Unicode text encoding in Flash applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 About font outlines and device fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Creating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Creating scrolling text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Setting text attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Creating font symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Editing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Checking spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 About transforming text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Using Timeline effects with text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Breaking text apart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Linking text to a URL (horizontal text only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Preserving rich text formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Substituting missing fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Controlling text with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Creating scrolling text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 CHAPTER 7: Using Imported Artwork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Placing artwork into Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Working with imported bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 CHAPTER 8: Working with Graphic Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Selecting objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Grouping objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Moving, copying, and deleting objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Stacking objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Transforming objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Flipping objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Restoring transformed objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Aligning objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Breaking apart groups and objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 CHAPTER 9: Creating Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 158 161 162 162 162 163 163 164 164 165 168 Using Timeline effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tweened animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frame-by-frame animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Layers in animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Representations of animations in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frame rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Extending still images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distributing objects to layers for tweened animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tweening instances, groups, and type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tweening motion along a path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents 5 Tweening shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Using shape hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Creating frame-by-frame animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Editing animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Using mask layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 CHAPTER 10: Working with Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 About file formats for imported video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 About the Sorenson Spark codec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Using the Video Import wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Importing Macromedia Flash Video (FLV) files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Importing linked QuickTime video files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 About playing back external FLV files dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Changing the properties of a video clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Controlling video playback using behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 About controlling video playback using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Exporting FLV files from video-editing applications (Flash Professional only) . . . 192 Playing FLV video clips with media components (Flash Professional only) . . . . . 196 CHAPTER 11: Working with Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Importing sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Adding sounds to a document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Adding sounds to buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Using sounds with Sound objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 About accessing ID3 properties in MP3 files with Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Using the sound-editing controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Controlling sound playback using behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Starting and stopping sounds at keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 About the onSoundComplete event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Compressing sounds for export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Using sounds in Flash documents for mobile devices (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Creating a Flash Lite sound file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 CHAPTER 12: Working with Screens (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Understanding screen-based documents and the screen authoring environment (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Using the Screen Outline pane (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 About undoing and redoing commands with screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Using the screens context menu (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Creating a new screen-based document (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Adding screens to a document (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Naming screens (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Setting properties and parameters for a screen (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . 223 About adding media content to screens (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 6 Contents Selecting and moving screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Creating controls and transitions for screens with behaviors (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Using Find and Replace with screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 About using the Movie Explorer with screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . 230 About using Timelines with screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 About using ActionScript with screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 About using components with screens (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Accessibility in the Flash screens authoring environment (Flash Professional only)233 CHAPTER 13: Creating Multilanguage Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Selecting an encoding language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Fonts for Unicode-encoded text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Authoring multilanguage text with the Strings panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Creating documents with multilanguage text without using the Strings panel . . . 248 Using external text or XML files that are not Unicode encoded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 CHAPTER 14: Data Integration (Flash Professional Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 255 256 257 259 274 280 286 289 Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a simple application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Workflows for using the data components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data binding (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data connectivity (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data management (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data resolution (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advanced topics in data integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 15: Publishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Playing your Flash SWF files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 About publishing secure Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 Publishing Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 About publishing Flash Lite documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 Using publish profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 About HTML publishing templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Customizing HTML publishing templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 Editing Flash HTML settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 Previewing the publishing format and settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 Using Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 About configuring a web server for Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 CHAPTER 16: Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Exporting Flash content and images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 About export file formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 Updating Flash content for Dreamweaver UltraDev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 Contents 7 CHAPTER 17: Creating Accessible Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Worldwide accessibility standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 Macromedia Flash Accessibility web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Understanding screen reader technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Using Flash to enter accessibility information for screen readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Viewing and creating tab order and reading order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 Creating a tab order index for keyboard navigation in the Accessibility panel (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 About animation and accessibility for the visually impaired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Using accessible components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Creating accessibility with ActionScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Accessibility for hearing-impaired users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 Testing accessible content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 CHAPTER 18: Printing from SWF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 Controlling printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Supported printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Using the ActionScript PrintJob class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Building a print job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Starting a print job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 Printing frames independent of the PrintJob class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 Changing the printed background color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Using frame labels to disable printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Printing from the Flash Player context menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Publishing a document with printable frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 CHAPTER 19: Creating E-learning Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Getting started with Flash learning interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 About Flash learning interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 Including a Flash learning interaction in a document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Changing the appearance of a learning interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 Testing a quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 Configuring learning interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 Adding, naming, and registering assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Setting feedback options for a learning interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 Setting Knowledge Track options for a learning interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 Setting navigation options for a learning interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 Setting control button labels for a learning interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 Tracking to AICC- or SCORM-compliant learning management systems. . . . . . 414 Extending learning interaction scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 APPENDIX A: Using Samples and Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Using samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Using templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 8 Contents APPENDIX B: XML to UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 435 436 436 437 438 438 439 440 441 442 444 446 447 449 450 452 453 454 455 458 458 460 461 462 465 465 466 467 468 Layout tag summary for XML to UI dialog boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Control tag summary for XML to UI dialog boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 Contents 9 10 Contents CHAPTER 1 Working with Flash Documents When you create and save Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 documents within the Flash authoring environment, the documents are in FLA file format. To display a document in Macromedia Flash Player, you must publish or export the document as a SWF file. Note: For information on publishing or exporting a file, see Chapter 15, "Publishing," on page 309 or Chapter 16, "Exporting," on page 345. You can add media assets to a Flash document and manage the assets in the library, and you can use the Movie Explorer to view and organize all the elements in a Flash document. The Undo and Redo commands, the History panel, and the Commands menu let you automate tasks in a document. This chapter contains the following sections: Creating or opening a document and setting properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Using document tabs for multiple documents (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Saving Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 About adding media content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 About creating motion and interactivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 About components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Using the library to manage media assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 About ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Multiple Timelines and levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Nested movie clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Using absolute and relative target paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Working with scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Using the Movie Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Using Find and Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 11 Using the Undo, Redo, and Repeat menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Using the History panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Saving documents when you undo steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Automating tasks with the Commands menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 About customizing context menus in Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 About the links menu in Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Speeding up document display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Optimizing Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Testing document download performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Printing from the Flash authoring tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Creating or opening a document and setting properties You can create a new document or open a previously saved document as you work in Flash. In Windows, you can use the New File button to open a document of the same type as the last document created. To set the size, frame rate, background color, and other properties of a new or existing document, you use the Document Properties dialog box. You can also use the Property inspector to set properties for an existing document. The Property inspector makes it easy to access and change the most commonly used attributes of a document. For more information on the Property inspector, see "Using panels and the Property inspector" in Getting Started with Flash. You can open a Flash template as a new document. You can select from standard templates that come with Flash or open a template you have already saved. For information on saving a document file as a template, see "Saving Flash documents" on page 14. In the On Launch section of the Preferences dialog box, you can select an option to specify what document Flash opens when you start the application: You select New Document to open a new, blank document, Last Documents Open to open the documents that were open when you last quit Flash, or No Document to start Flash without opening a document. For more information, see "Setting preferences in Flash" in Getting Started with Flash. For information on creating a new document using the Start page, see "Using the Start page" in Getting Started with Flash. You can open a new window as you work. To create a new document: 1. Select File > New. 2. On the General tab, select Flash Document. To create a new document with the New File button (Windows only): · Click the New File button in the main toolbar to create a new document of the same type as the last document created. 12 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents To open an existing document: 1. Select File > Open. 2. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the file or enter the path to the file in the Go To text box. 3. Click Open. To set properties for a new or existing document in the Document Properties dialog box: 1. With the document open, select Modify > Document. The Document Properties dialog box appears. 2. For Frame Rate, enter the number of animation frames to appear every second. For most computer-displayed animations, especially those playing from a website, 8 frames per second (fps) to 12 fps is sufficient (12 fps is the default frame rate). 3. For Dimensions, do one of the following: To specify the Stage size in pixels, enter values in the Width and Height text boxes. The default document size is 550 x 400 pixels. The minimum size is 1 x 1 pixels; the maximum is 2880 x 2880 pixels. To set the Stage size so that there is equal space around the content on all sides, click the Contents button to the right of Match. To minimize document size, align all elements to the upper left corner of the Stage, and then click Contents. To set the Stage size to the maximum available print area, click Printer. This area is determined by the paper size minus the current margin selected in the Margins area of the Page Setup dialog box (Windows) or the Print Margins dialog box (Macintosh). To set the Stage size to the default size, click Default. 4. To set the background color of your document, click the triangle in the Background Color box and select a color from the palette. 5. To specify the unit of measure for rulers that you can display along the top and side of the application window, select an option from the pop-up menu in the upper right. For more information, see "Using the grid, guides, and rulers" in Getting Started with Flash.(This setting also determines the units used in the Info panel.) 6. Do one of the following: To make the new settings the default properties for your new document only, click OK. To make the new settings the default properties for all new documents, click Make Default. To create a new document from a template: 1. Select File > New. 2. Click the Templates tab. 3. Select a category from the Category list, and select a document from the Category Items list. 4. Click OK. To open a new window in the current document: · Select Window > New Window. Creating or opening a document and setting properties 13 To change document properties with the Property inspector: 1. Deselect all assets, then select the Selection tool. 2. If the Property inspector is not visible, select Window > Properties. 3. Click the Size control to display the Document Properties dialog box and access its settings. 4. To select a background color, click the triangle in the Background color box and select a color from the palette. 5. For Frame Rate, enter the number of animation frames to appear every second. 6. For Publish, click the Settings button to display the Publish Settings dialog box with the Flash tab selected. For more information on the Publish Settings dialog box, see "Publishing Flash documents" on page 311. Using document tabs for multiple documents (Windows only) When you open multiple documents in Windows, tabs at the top of the Document window identify the open documents and let you easily navigate among them. Tabs appear only when documents are maximized in the Document window. To make a document active, you click its tab. By default, tabs appear in the order in which the documents were created. You cannot drag tabs to change their order. To view a document when multiple documents are open: · Click the document tab. Saving Flash documents You can save a Flash FLA document using its current name and location or save the document using a different name or location. You can revert to the last saved version of a document. You can also save Flash MX 2004 content as a Flash MX document. When a document contains unsaved changes, an asterisk (*) appears after the document name in the document title bar, the application title bar, and the document tab (Windows only). When you save the document, the asterisk is removed. You can save a document as a template, which lets you use the document as the starting point for a new Flash document (this is similar to how you would use templates in word-processing or web page­editing applications). For information on using templates to create new documents, see "Creating or opening a document and setting properties" on page 12. When you save a document using the Save command, Flash performs a quick save, which appends new information to the existing file. When you save using the Save As command, Flash arranges the new information into the file, creating a smaller file on disk. If you quit Flash while one or more documents with unsaved changes are open, Flash prompts you to save the document or documents with the changes. When you delete items from a document by undoing commands, you can permanently remove the items from the document and reduce the document file size, using the File > Save and Compact command. See "Saving documents when you undo steps" on page 37. 14 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents To save a Flash document: 1. Do one of the following: To overwrite the current version on the disk, select File > Save. To save the document in a different location and/or with a different name, or to compress the document, select File > Save As. 2. If you selected the Save As command, or if the document has never been saved before, enter the filename and location. 3. Click Save. To revert to the last saved version of a document: · Select File > Revert. To save a document as a template: 1. Select File > Save As Template. 2. In the Save As Template dialog box, enter a name for the template in the Name text box. 3. Select a category from the Category pop-up menu, or enter a name to create a new category. 4. Enter a description of the template in the Description text box (as many as 255 characters). The description appears when the template is selected in the New Document dialog box. 5. Click OK. To save a document as a Flash MX document: 1. Select File > Save As. 2. Enter the filename and location. 3. Select Flash MX Document from the Format pop-up menu. If an alert message indicates that content will be deleted if you save in Flash MX format, click Save As Flash MX to continue. This might happen if your document contains features, such as behaviors, that are available only in Flash MX 2004. These features will not be preserved when you save the document in Flash MX format. 4. Click Save. To save documents when quitting Flash: 1. Select File > Exit (Windows) or Flash > Quit Flash (Macintosh). 2. If you have documents open with unsaved changes, Flash prompts you to save or discard the changes for each document. Click Yes to save the changes and close the document. Click No to close the document without saving the changes. Saving Flash documents 15 About adding media content You can add media content to a Flash document in the Flash authoring environment. You can create vector artwork or text directly in Flash; import vector artwork, bitmaps, video, and sound; and create symbols, reusable media content such as buttons. You can also use ActionScript to add media content to a document dynamically. For more information on ActionScript, see Chapter 2, "ActionScript Basics," in Using ActionScript in Flash. Media content that you add in the authoring environment includes the following: Vector artwork You can create vector artwork with the Flash drawing and painting tools or import artwork from another application. See Chapter 5, "Drawing," on page 85 and Chapter 7, "Using Imported Artwork," on page 131. Text You can create static text, text whose contents and appearance you determine when you author the document. You can also create dynamic text fields, which display text that updates dynamically during runtime, and input text fields, which let users enter text for forms or other purposes. See Chapter 6, "Working with Text," on page 105. You can import bitmaps from other applications, use a bitmap as a file, convert the bitmap to vector artwork, and modify it in other ways. See Chapter 7, "Using Imported Artwork," on page 131. Bitmaps Video You can import video clips from other applications as embedded or linked files, and select compression and editing options. See Chapter 10, "Working with Video," on page 177. Sound You can import sound files from other applications and use them as event sounds or streaming sounds in a document. See Chapter 11, "Working with Sound," on page 201. Symbols You can use symbols, objects that you create once and reuse multiple times. Symbols can be movie clips, buttons, or graphics. Each symbol has its own Timeline. See Chapter 3, "Using Symbols, Instances, and Library Assets," on page 53. About creating motion and interactivity Flash provides several ways for you to easily add motion and interactivity to your documents, which creates a compelling user experience. For example, you can make visual elements, such as text, graphics, buttons, or movie clips, move or disappear; you can link to another URL; and you can load another document or movie clip into the current document. The following features let you add motion and interactivity: Timeline effects are prebuilt animations that you can apply to text, graphics, bitmaps, and buttons, to add motion to visual elements with little effort. See "Using Timeline effects" on page 158. is motion that you create by placing graphics on frames in the Timeline. In tweened animation, you create the beginning and ending frames of the animation, and Flash creates the intermediary frames. In frame-by-frame animation, you create graphics for each frame in the animation. See "Tweened animation" on page 161 and "Frame-byframe animation" on page 162. Tweened and frame-by-frame animation 16 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents Behaviors are prewritten ActionScript scripts that you add to an object to control that object. Behaviors let you add the power, control, and flexibility of ActionScript coding to your document without having to create the ActionScript code. You can use behaviors to control movie clips and video and sound files. See the following sections: · "Controlling instances with behaviors" on page 65. · "Controlling video playback using behaviors" on page 191. · "Controlling sound playback using behaviors" on page 206. In screen-based documents, you can use behaviors to control screens. See "Creating controls and transitions for screens with behaviors (Flash Professional only)" on page 228. Note: You can use ActionScript to create complex or customized interactivity. See Chapter 2, "ActionScript Basics," in Using ActionScript in Flash. About components Components are movie clips with parameters that let you modify their appearance and behavior. A component can provide a wide range of functionality. A component can be a simple user interface control, such as a radio button or a check box, or it can be a complicated control element, such as a media controller or a scroll pane. A component can even be nonvisual, such as the focus manager that lets you control which object receives focus in an application. Components let you separate coding and design. They also let you reuse code, and download components created by other developers. For more information, see "Getting Started with Components" in Using Components. Using the library to manage media assets The library in a Flash document stores media assets that you create or import for use in a Flash document. The library stores imported files such as video clips, sound clips, bitmaps, and imported vector artwork as well as symbols. A symbol is a graphic, button, or movie clip that you create once and can reuse multiple times. You can also create a font symbol. For information on symbols, see Chapter 3, "Using Symbols, Instances, and Library Assets," on page 53 and "Creating font symbols" on page 116. The library also contains components that you have added to your document. Components appear in the library as compiled clips. For more information, see "Components in the Library panel" in Using Components. The Library panel displays a scroll list with the names of all items in the library, which lets you view and organize these elements as you work. An icon next to an item's name in the Library panel indicates the item's file type. The Library panel has an options menu with commands for managing library items. You can open the library of any Flash document while you are working in Flash, to make the library items from that file available for the current document. Using the library to manage media assets 17 You can create permanent libraries in your Flash application that is available whenever you start Flash. Flash also includes several sample libraries containing buttons, graphics, movie clips, and sounds that you can add to your Flash documents. The sample Flash libraries and permanent libraries that you create are listed in the Window > Common Libraries submenu. For more information, see "Working with common libraries" on page 21. You can export library assets as a SWF file to a URL to create a runtime-shared library. This lets you link to the library assets from Flash documents that import symbols using runtime sharing. For more information, see "Using shared library assets" on page 69. To display the Library panel: · Select Window > Library. To open the library from another Flash file: 1. Select File > Import > Open External Library. 2. Navigate to the Flash file whose library you want to open and click Open. The selected file's library opens in the current document, with the filename at the top of the Library panel. To use items from the selected file's library in the current document, drag the items to the current document's Library panel or to the Stage. To resize the Library panel: · Drag the lower right corner of the panel. · Click the Wide State button to enlarge the Library panel so it shows all the columns. · Click the Narrow State button to reduce the width of the Library panel. To change the width of columns: · Position the pointer between column headers and drag to resize. You cannot change the order of columns. To use the Library options menu: 1. Click the options menu button in the Library panel's title bar to view the options menu. 2. Click an item in the menu. Working with library items When you select an item in the Library panel, a thumbnail preview of the item appears at the top of the Library panel. If the selected item is animated or is a sound file, you can use the Play button in the library preview window or the Controller to preview the item. You can use folders in the library to organize library items. See "Working with folders in the Library panel" on page 19. To use a library item in the current document: · Drag the item from the Library panel onto the Stage. The item is added to the current layer. 18 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents To convert an object to a symbol in the library: · Drag the item from the Stage onto the current Library panel. To use a library item from the current document in another document: · Drag the item from the library or Stage into the library or Stage for another document. Working with folders in the Library panel You can organize items in the Library panel using folders, much like in the Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder. When you create a new symbol, it is stored in the selected folder. If no folder is selected, the symbol is stored at the root of the library. To create a new folder: · Click the New Folder button at the bottom of the Library panel. To open or close a folder: · Double-click the folder. · Select the folder and select Expand Folder or Collapse Folder from the Library options menu. To open or close all folders: · Select Expand All Folders or Collapse All Folders from the Library options menu. To move an item between folders: · Drag the item from one folder to another. If an item with the same name exists in the new location, Flash prompts you to replace the item you are moving. Sorting items in the Library panel Columns in the Library panel list the name of an item, its type, the number of times it's used in the file, its linkage status and identifier (if the item is associated with a shared library or is exported for ActionScript), and the date on which it was last modified. You can sort items in the Library panel alphanumerically by any column. Sorting items lets you view related items together. Items are sorted within folders. To sort items in the Library panel: · Click the column header to sort by that column. Click the triangle button to the right of the column headers to reverse the sort order. Editing items in the library To edit library items, including imported files, you select options from the Library options menu. You can also update imported files after editing them in an external editor, using the Update option in the Library options menu. For more information, see "Updating imported files in the Library panel" on page 21. Using the library to manage media assets 19 To edit a library item: 1. Select the item in the Library panel. 2. Select one of the following from the Library options menu: Select Edit to edit an item in Flash. Select Edit With and then select an external application to edit the item. Note: When starting a supported external editor, Flash opens the original imported document. Renaming library items You can rename items in the library. Changing the library item name of an imported file does not change the filename. To rename a library item: · Double-click the item's name and enter the new name in the text box. · Select the item and select Rename from the Library options menu, and then enter the new name in the text box. · Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the item and select Rename from the context menu, and then enter the new name in the text box. Deleting library items When you delete an item from the library, all instances or occurrences of that item in the document are also deleted. The Use Count column in the Library panel indicates whether an item is in use. To delete a library item: 1. Select the item and click the trash can icon at the bottom of the Library panel. 2. In the warning box that appears, select Delete Symbol Instances (the default) to delete the library item and all its instances. Deselect the option to delete only the symbol, which leaves the instances on the Stage. 3. Click Delete. Finding unused library items To make organizing a document easier, you can locate unused library items and delete them. Note: It is not necessary to delete unused library items to reduce a Flash document's file size because unused library items are not included in the SWF file. However, items linked for export are included in the SWF file. For more information, see "Using shared library assets" on page 69. To find unused library items: · Select Unused Items from the Library options menu. · Sort library items by the Use Count column. See "Sorting items in the Library panel" on page 19. 20 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents