MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX 2004-USING DIRECTOR Mounting instructions

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
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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).
Sorenson™ Spark™ 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

3
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

4 Contents
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

Contents 5
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
Using Timeline effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Tweened animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Frame-by-frame animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Layers in animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Creating keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Representations of animations in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Frame rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Extending still images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Distributing objects to layers for tweened animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Tweening instances, groups, and type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Tweening motion along a path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

6 Contents
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

Contents 7
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
Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Creating a simple application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Workflows for using the data components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Data binding (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Data connectivity (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Data management (Flash Professional only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Data resolution (Flash Professional only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Advanced topics in data integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
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

8 Contents
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

Contents 9
APPENDIX B: XML to UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Layout tag summary for XML to UI dialog boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Control tag summary for XML to UI dialog boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
<column> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
<columns> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
<dialog> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
<grid> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
<hbox> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
<row> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
<rows> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
<separator> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
<spacer> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
<vbox> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
<button> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
<checkbox> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
<choosefile> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
<colorchip> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
<flash> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
<label> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
<listbox> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
<listitem> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
<menulist> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
<menupop>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
<menuitem> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
<popupslider> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
<property> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
<radiogroup>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
<radio> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
<targetlist> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
<textbox> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

10 Contents

11
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

12 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents
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.

Creating or opening a document and setting properties 13
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.

14 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents
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
page–editing 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.

Saving Flash documents 15
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.

16 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents
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.
Bitmaps 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.
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.
Tweened and frame-by-frame animation 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-by-
frame animation” on page 162.

Using the library to manage media assets 17
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.

18 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents
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.

Using the library to manage media assets 19
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.

20 Chapter 1: Working with Flash Documents
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.