The Flash MX Workspace

Click on a link below or an area in the image. Tools Timeline Stage Panels Properties

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Tools: The tools pane contains drawing, image and text editing tools. (Purple) These include:

Arrow Tool: For repositioning and selecting objects

Line Tool: Used to draw linear shapes

Lasso Tool: Can draw around objects to select them

Text Tool: Used for inserting/formatting text in a movie

Oval/Rectangle Tools: For drawing shapes on the stage

Pencil Tool: Can be used to draw freehand objects

Brush Tool: Has many options for painting objects

Free Transform Tool: For resizing, rotating & skewing shapes

Fill Transform Tool: Adjusts gradient properties in fill color

Ink Bottle Tool: Used to select and change stroke styles

Paint Bucket Tool: To change or add fill color in a object

Eyedropper Tool: Use to match existing colors in a movie

Eraser Tool: This tool has many options for erasing

Options: As you change tools, the corresponding properties are available in Options.top

Timeline:

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

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

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

Stage:

The Stage is where you compose the content for individual frames in the movie, drawing artwork on it directly or arranging imported artwork on it.

You can change your view of the Stage by changing the magnification level or moving the Stage within the Flash work environment. You can also adjust your view of the Stage using the View commands.

Zooming

• To view the entire Stage on the screen, or to view just a particular area of your drawing at high magnification, you can change the magnification level. The maximum magnification depends on the resolution of your monitor and the document size.
• To magnify or reduce your view of the Stage, do one of the following:
• To zoom in on a certain element, select the Zoom tool and click the element. To switch the Zoom tool between zooming in or out, use the Enlarge or Reduce modifiers or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh).
• To zoom in on a specific area of your drawing, drag a rectangular selection marquee with the Zoom tool. Flash sets the magnification level so that the specified rectangle fills the window.
• To zoom in on or out of the entire Stage, choose View > Zoom In or View > Zoom Out.
• To zoom in or out by a specified percentage, choose View > Magnification and select a percentage from the submenu, or select a percentage from the Zoom control at the lower left corner of the application window.
• To display the contents of the current frame, choose View > Magnification > Show All, or choose Show All from the Zoom control at the lower left corner of the application window. If the scene is empty, the entire Stage is displayed.
• To display the entire Stage, choose View > Magnification > Show Frame or choose Show Frame from the Zoom control at the lower left corner of the application window.
• To display the work area surrounding the Stage, choose View > Work Area. The work area is shown in light gray. Use the Work Area command to view elements in a scene that are partly or completely outside of the Stage. For example, to have a bird fly into a frame, you would initially position the bird outside of the Stage in the work area.top

Panels:

Panels in Flash help you view, organize, and change elements in a document. The options available on panels control the characteristics of symbols, instances, colors, type, frames, and other elements. You can use panels to customize the Flash interface, by displaying the panels you need for a specific task and hiding other panels.

Panels let you work with objects, colors, text, instances, frames, scenes, and entire documents. For example, you use the Color Mixer to create colors, and the Align panel to align objects to each other or the Stage. To view the complete list of panels available in Flash, see the Window menu.

Most panels include a pop-up menu with additional options. The options menu is indicated by a control in the panel's title bar. (If no options menu control appears, there is no options menu for that panel.)

To open a panel:

1. Select the desired panel from the Window menu.
2. To close a panel, do one of the following.
3. Select the desired panel from the Window menu.
4. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the panel's title bar and choose Close Panel from the context menu.

To use a panel's options menu:

1. Click the control in the panel's title bar to view the options menu.
2. Click an item in the menu.

To resize a panel:

1. Drag the panel's border (Windows) or drag the size box at the panel's lower right corner (Macintosh).
2. To expand or collapse a panel to its title bar:
3. Click the collapse arrow in the title bar. Click the collapse arrow again to expand the panel to its previous size.

To show or hide all panels:

Press Tab

To close all panels:

Choose Window > Close All Panels.

Arranging panels

You can rearrange the order in which panels appear within panel groups. You can also create new panel groups and dock panels to existing panel groups.

To move a panel:

Drag the panel by its title bar.

To add a panel to an existing panel group:

Drag the panel by its title bar onto another panel.

To create a new panel group:

Drag the panel by its title bar, away from other panel groups.

Using panel sets:

You can create panel sets in custom arrangements, and you can save these custom panel layouts. You can reset panel display to the default layout (displaying the Color Swatches, Actions, and Components panels and the Color Mixer to the right of the application window) or to a custom layout that you have saved previously.

To save a custom panel set:

1. Choose Window > Save Panel Layout.
2. Enter a name for the layout and click OK.

To select a panel layout:

1. Choose Window > Panel Sets.
2. From the submenu, choose Default Layout to reset panels to the default layout, or choose a custom layout that you have saved previously.

To delete custom layouts:

Open the Panel Sets folder inside the Flash MX application folder on your hard drive and delete the Panel Sets file.top

Property Inspector:

The Property inspector makes it easy to access and change the most commonly used attributes of a document. You can make changes to document attributes in the Property inspector without accessing the menus or panels that contain these features. top