Macromedia Flash5

Introduction

The Interface

Flash Exercises:
   Layers
   Color
   Drawing
   Buttons
   Symbols
   Animating
   Sound

Saving and Publishing

Flash Examples

The Flash Interface

Consists of a Timeline, a Stage, and a Work area.

• Stage -- large rectangular area where you create the objects for your movie.
• Timeline -- directly above the stage. This is where you animate your objects.
• Work area -- The Toolbox is to the left of the Stage. Panels are to the right. These items comprise the work area.
• Layers -- a section of a movie where individual events take place. Layers can be stacked on top of each other.

  

Panels - Panels are used to set the attributes of the tools used to create new elements and to modify the attributes of selected elements. Open Panels by choosing Panels from the Window menu. Each panel contains tabbed sections. Click on one of the tabs to open that panel.

You will be using some of these panels in the Examples section of this site.

To combine panels into one panel window:

• With two or more panel windows open on the desktop, click a panel tab and drag it on top of another open panel window.
• To save a custom panel layout, choose Save Panel Layout from the Windows menu.

Keyboard Shortcuts (hot keys) -- keyboard equivalents to Flash's menu-based commands appear in the menu next to the command name.

Symbols -- types of symbols include graphics, buttons and movie clips.

Button -- a particular type of symbol producing action.

Library -- stores reusable items called symbols.

Instance -- an occurrence of a symbol on the stage.

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