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Adobe 65018518 - Flash CS4 Professional, Using Manual

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377

USING FLASH CS4 PROFESSIONAL

ActionScript

•

The editing context menu appears when a user right-clicks (Windows) or Control-clicks (Macintosh) in an editable 
text field in a SWF file in Flash Player. You can add custom items to this menu. You cannot hide any built-in items.

Note: 

Flash Player also displays an error context menu when a user right-clicks (Windows) or Control-clicks (Macintosh) 

in Flash Player and no SWF file is loaded. You cannot customize this menu.

Customize context menus in Flash Player 7 by using the ContextMenu and ContextMenuItem objects in ActionScript 
2.0. For more information on using these objects, see 

ContextMenu

 in the 

ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference

.

Remember the following conditions when creating custom context menu items for Flash Player:

•

Custom items are added to a context menu in the order in which they are created. You cannot modify this order 
after the items are created.

•

You can specify the visibility and enabling of custom items. 

•

Custom context menu items are automatically encoded using Unicode UTF-8 text encoding.

Configuration folders installed with Flash

Flash places several configuration folders on your system when you install the application. The configuration folders 
organize files associated with the application into appropriate levels of user access. You may want to view the contents 
of these folders when you are working with ActionScript® or components. The configuration folders for Flash are as 
follows:

Application-level configuration folder

Because it is in the application level, non-administrative users do not have write access to this directory. Typical paths 
to this folder are as follows: 

•

In Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista, browse to 

boot drive

\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash 

CS3\

language

\Configuration\. 

•

On the Macintosh, browse to 

Macintosh HD

/Applications/Adobe Flash CS3/Configuration/.

First Run folder

This sibling to the application-level configuration folder facilitates sharing configuration files among users of the same 
computer. Folders and files in the First Run folder are automatically copied to the user-level configuration folder. Any 
new files placed in the First Run folder are copied to the user-level configuration folder when you start the application.

Typical paths to the First Run folder are as follows:

•

In Windows XP or Vista, browse to 

boot drive

\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS3\

language

\First Run\.

•

On the Macintosh, browse to 

Macintosh HD

/Applications/Adobe Flash CS3/First Run/.

User-level configuration folder

Found in the user profile area, this folder is always writable by the current user. Typical paths to this folder are as 
follows:

•

In Windows XP or Vista, browse to 

boot drive

\Documents and Settings\

username

\Local Settings\Application 

Data\Adobe\Flash CS3\

language

\Configuration. 

•

On the Macintosh, browse to 

Macintosh HD

/Users/

username

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash 

CS3/

language

/Configuration/.

Updated 5 March 2009

Summary of Contents for 65018518 - Flash CS4 Professional

Page 1: ...Using ADOBE FLASH CS4 PROFESSIONAL Updated 5 March 2009...

Page 2: ...U S and other countries Helvetica is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH and may be registered in certain jurisdictions Arial is a tradema...

Page 3: ...rtcuts 40 Chapter 3 Managing documents Working with Flash documents 43 Printing Flash documents 50 Working with projects 52 Find and Replace 58 Templates 62 Chapter 4 Using imported artwork Placing ar...

Page 4: ...ying blend modes 242 Chapter 9 Text About text and fonts 244 Creating text 246 Setting text attributes 254 About multilanguage text 258 Creating multilanguage text 263 XML file format for multilanguag...

Page 5: ...ebugging ActionScript 1 0 and 2 0 350 Debugging ActionScript 3 0 360 Working with Flash and Flex 364 Printing at runtime 366 ActionScript publish settings 371 Chapter 16 Publishing and Exporting Publi...

Page 6: ...rst deactivate it on one of the other two computers Choose Help Deactivate Register Register your product to receive complimentary installation support notifications of updates and other services To r...

Page 7: ...duct You can also use the Help search field in some Creative Suite 4 applications or press F1 Windows to access Community Help for your product The sites searched by the default Community Help search...

Page 8: ...handling at www adobe com go store Support resources Visit the Adobe Support website at www adobe com support to learn about free and paid technical support options Services downloads and extras You c...

Page 9: ...elopment process In this environment customers quickly become productive with new products and technologies Adobe Labs is also a forum for early feedback The Adobe development teams use this feedback...

Page 10: ...nal CS4 Series Introducing Flash CS4 Professional Managing Design Suite Workspaces Demo is in Photoshop Using Motion Presets Creating motion tweens Part 1 Creating motion tweens Part 2 Using the Motio...

Page 11: ...nsformation tools including rotate and translate allow you to animate across X Y and Z axes Apply local or global rotation to rotate an object within relationship to itself or to the Stage For more in...

Page 12: ...ds in Soundbooth directly from within Flash The Adobe ASND sound file format enables non destructive editing of sound files For more information see Edit a sound in Soundbooth on page 277 Enhanced met...

Page 13: ...n with tools throughout Adobe s Creative Suites For more information see Workspace on page 9 New Font menus The font menu in Flash now includes previews of each font and each style included in the fon...

Page 14: ...see fit Use ActionScript to control behavior Write ActionScript code to control how the media elements behave including how the elements respond to user interactions Test and publish your application...

Page 15: ...tcher D Panel title bar E Control panel F Tools panel G Collapse To Icons button H Four panel groups in vertical dock The Application bar across the top contains a workspace switcher menus Windows onl...

Page 16: ...ign Photoshop To hide or show all panels except the Tools panel and Control panel press Shift Tab You can temporarily display hidden panels if Auto Show Hidden Panels is selected in Interface preferen...

Page 17: ...ng the top bottom or sides of another window You can also select a layout for the group by using the Layout button on the Application bar Note Some products do not support this functionality However y...

Page 18: ...oats freely in the workspace To move a panel drag it by its tab To move a panel group or a stack of floating panels drag the title bar Press Ctrl Windows or Command Mac OS while moving a panel to prev...

Page 19: ...not be stacked or moved as a unit in this way Free floating stacked panels To stack floating panels drag a panel by its tab to the drop zone at the bottom of another panel To change the stacking order...

Page 20: ...an icon dock drag it in by its tab or title bar Panels are automatically collapsed to icons when added to an icon dock To move a panel icon or panel icon group drag the icon You can drag panel icons u...

Page 21: ...o each workspace to navigate among them quickly Delete a custom workspace Select Manage Workspaces from the workspace switcher in the Application bar select the workspace and then click Delete The opt...

Page 22: ...me screen appears The Welcome screen contains the following four areas Open a Recent Item Lets you open your most recent documents click the Open icon Create New Lists Flash file types such as Flash d...

Page 23: ...ge select View Zoom In or View Zoom Out To zoom in or out by a specified percentage select View Magnification and select a percentage from the submenu or select a percentage from the Zoom control at t...

Page 24: ...e only when the Timeline in which they were created is active To create custom guides or irregular guides use guide layers To display or hide the drawing guides select View Guides Show Guides Note If...

Page 25: ...e options 2 To save the current settings as the default click Save Default About the main toolbar and edit bar The menu bar at the top of the application window contains menus with commands for contro...

Page 26: ...tool in the group the most recently used appears with an arrow in the lower right corner of its icon This arrow indicates that additional tools are present in a pop up menu The same keyboard shortcut...

Page 27: ...e header at the top of the Timeline indicates frame numbers The playhead indicates the current frame displayed on the Stage As a document plays the playhead moves from left to right through the Timeli...

Page 28: ...To move the Timeline when it is docked to the document window drag the title bar tab at the upper left corner of the Timeline To dock an undocked Timeline to the application window drag the title bar...

Page 29: ...rol click Macintosh the layer name and select Properties from the context menu Select the layer in the Timeline and select Modify Timeline Layer Properties 2 In the Layer Properties dialog box select...

Page 30: ...ccessing the menus or panels that also control these attributes Depending on what is currently selected the Property inspector displays information and settings for the current document text symbol sh...

Page 31: ...age identifier You can also search the Library panel with the search field and set properties on most multiple object selections The Library panel showing a movie clip symbol See also Managing assets...

Page 32: ...g operations on selected items or modifying the Movie Explorer display A check mark with a triangle below it in the Movie Explorer panel indicates the Panel menu Note The Movie Explorer has slightly d...

Page 33: ...selected symbol in the document s library Flash opens the Library panel if it is not already visible Rename Lets you enter a new name for a selected element Edit In Place Lets you edit a selected sym...

Page 34: ...te component documentation for the version of ActionScript you are using in the Flash document Enter parameters for a component using the Component inspector 1 Select Window Component Inspector 2 Sele...

Page 35: ...nt up to a specified maximum number of steps The History panel doesn t show steps you ve performed in other documents The slider in the History panel initially points to the last step that you perform...

Page 36: ...the following Drag from one step to another Don t drag the slider drag from the text label of one step to the text label of another step Select the first step then Shift click the last step or select...

Page 37: ...panel options menu 3 Enter a name for the command and click OK The command appears in the Commands menu Note The command is saved as a JavaScript file with the extension jsfl in your Commands folder T...

Page 38: ...including panels the Property inspector dialog boxes the Stage and objects on the Stage so that you can work with these interface elements without using the mouse Note Certain keyboard controls and au...

Page 39: ...rrent panel in a panel group press Up Arrow or Down Arrow To hide all panels and the Property inspector press F4 To display all panels and the Property inspector press F4 again Use keyboard shortcuts...

Page 40: ...eatedly 2 To activate the currently selected panel control press Enter Windows only Navigate dialog box controls using keyboard shortcuts Windows only To move through the controls in the dialog box pr...

Page 41: ...nded folder press Left Arrow To move to the child folder of an expanded folder press Right Arrow Work with library items using keyboard shortcuts 1 To copy or paste a selected library item press Contr...

Page 42: ...board operations The General category in the Preferences dialog box See also Drawing preferences on page 96 Change the appearance of the Timeline on page 23 About the Timeline on page 22 Managing docu...

Page 43: ...arn On Reading Generator Content To receive an alert when Flash inserts frames in your document to accommodate audio or video files that you import select Warn On Inserting Frames When Importing Conte...

Page 44: ...cted when the tool s marquee rectangle completely surrounds the object Show axes for 3D Displays an overlay of the X Y and Z axes on all 3D movie clips This makes them easier to identify on the Stage...

Page 45: ...ts you select a category of commands to edit for example menu commands The command list displays the commands associated with the category you selected from the Commands pop up menu along with the ass...

Page 46: ...up menu select a command category select a command from the Commands list and select a shortcut to change 2 Click in the Press Key box enter a new key combination and click Change Note If a problem oc...

Page 47: ...ts for the selected category 3 In the Commands list select the command for which you want to add or remove a shortcut An explanation of the selected command appears in the description area in the dial...

Page 48: ...ions SWF files the compiled versions of FLA files are the files you display in a web page When you publish your FLA file Flash creates a SWF file AS files are ActionScript files you can use these to k...

Page 49: ...ars 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 15 fps is suf...

Page 50: ...re information about XMP metadata see Metadata and Keywords in Bridge Help Embedding metadata improves the ability of web based search engines to return meaningful search results for Flash content The...

Page 51: ...unsaved changes an asterisk appears after the document name in the document title bar the application title bar and the document tab When you save the document the asterisk is removed Save a Flash do...

Page 52: ...Dreamweaver to edit the content See also Working with Illustrator and Flash on page 70 Working with Photoshop and Flash on page 78 Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects on page 294 Edit a...

Page 53: ...FLA file or SWF file is locked check out the file in Dreamweaver 3 In Flash edit the FLA file The Flash Document window indicates that you are modifying the file from within Dreamweaver 4 When you fi...

Page 54: ...r tab is listed in the Device Sets panel with a special icon To test the new Flash document on another device double click the name of a different device in the Device Sets or Available Devices lists...

Page 55: ...Print Margins dialog boxes The Print and Page Setup dialog boxes are standard in either operating system and their appearance depends on the selected printer driver 1 Select File Page Setup Windows o...

Page 56: ...use a frame s bounding box select a frame with any object of the appropriate print area size 4 Select the frame in the Timeline that contains the shape to use for the bounding box 5 In the Property in...

Page 57: ...te Printing from the context menu does not interact with calls to the PrintJob object Working with projects About projects You can use Flash projects to manage multiple document files in a single proj...

Page 58: ...ry that contains the selected folder Flash reads the directory of the initial folder you choose To change directories create another project Create a Quick Project The Project panel allows you to quic...

Page 59: ...roject panel 2 Select Open Project from the Project pop up menu in the Project panel 3 Using the Browse For Folder dialog box navigate to the folder containing the FLP file and click OK specifying tha...

Page 60: ...supported by the Flash authoring tool the file opens in Flash If the file is a non native file type the file opens in the application used to create it Remove a file or folder from a project 1 Select...

Page 61: ...folder visibility can be toggled in the Project panel preferences Settings tab 1 Click the Create Class button at the bottom of the Project panel 2 Enter the package path of your class 3 Select Bind C...

Page 62: ...s you can reduce clutter by only showing files in a specific directory 1 Select the directory you would like to pin 2 Click the Pin Directory button The Pin Directory button changes to the Unpin Direc...

Page 63: ...onent files or folders containing SWC files Click the Plus button to enter a path or the Browse button to select a folder containing SWC files To delete an SWC file or folder select it and click the M...

Page 64: ...te that returns a value Text Field Contents Searches the contents of a text field Frames Layers Parameters Searches frame labels layer names scene names and component parameters Strings in ActionScrip...

Page 65: ...selected for live editing even if you select Find All in step 4 4 To find a font do one of the following To find the next occurrence of the specified font click Find Next To find all occurrences of th...

Page 66: ...o select the next occurrence of the specified symbol on the Stage and edit it in place select Live Edit Note Only the next occurrence is selected for editing even if you select Find All in the next st...

Page 67: ...d rich media types and sizes defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau IAB and accepted by the industry For more information on IAB endorsed ad types see the IAB site at IAB net Test ads for stabi...

Page 68: ...Language Reference or Working with movie clips in Programming ActionScript 3 0 Flash imports vector graphics bitmaps and sequences of images as follows When you import Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Pho...

Page 69: ...Library To use a library item in a document drag it onto the Stage 2 Select a file format from the Files Of Type Windows or Show Macintosh pop up menu 3 Navigate to the desired file and select it If...

Page 70: ...Flash only if QuickTime 4 or later is installed Import FreeHand MX files You can import FreeHand files in version 7 or later directly into Flash FreeHand is a good choice for creating vector graphics...

Page 71: ...select this option the EPS image is not viewable when imported into Flash In addition Flash does not display information for an imported EPS image regardless of the Preferences settings used in FreeHa...

Page 72: ...artwork in the file is preserved in vector format Choose to preserve placed bitmaps text filters called effects in Fireworks and guides in the PNG file when you import it as editable objects About imp...

Page 73: ...rks PNG image and select it 4 Click Open 5 Select one of the following for Location Import All Page s into New Scene s Imports all pages in the PNG file as scenes within a movie clip with all of their...

Page 74: ...G file into a single bitmap image select Import As A Single Flattened Bitmap When this option is selected all other options are dimmed 10 Click OK See also Edit a bitmap in an external editor on page...

Page 75: ...h is common in printing Flash can convert CMYK images to RGB however colors are better preserved if you convert the colors to RGB in Illustrator To preserve the drop shadow inner glow outer glow and G...

Page 76: ...ted artboard import as a single layer in Flash If you import another artboard from that same AI file the objects from that artboard import as a new layer in Flash When you import Illustrator artwork a...

Page 77: ...ile After the AI file is imported into the library you can change the name of the root folder or move the layers out of the folder Note The Library panel orders the contents of the imported AI file al...

Page 78: ...ed that are not compatible with Flash importing the text as a bitmap preserves the visual appearance Rasterized text is no longer editable Create Movie Clips Specifies that text objects be imported in...

Page 79: ...sues importing AI files created in earlier versions of Illustrator we recommend importing AI files created using Illustrator CS3 and later If you encounter issues importing AI files created in an earl...

Page 80: ...tor CS3 and adjust the size of the document or change the color mode to RGB 4 Optional In the AI Import dialog box select layers groups and individual objects and choose how to import each item For in...

Page 81: ...patibilities between Illustrator and Flash can be automatically corrected using the incompatibility report and the import recommendations suggested in the Import options area of the AI Import dialog b...

Page 82: ...editable Flash filters select Create Movie Clip Import to import the text as a movie clip Bitmap Rasterizes the text into a bitmap to preserve the exact appearance of the text as it was in Illustrato...

Page 83: ...jects in the group into a single movie clip Copy and pasting between Illustrator and Flash If you copy and paste or drag and drop artwork between Illustrator and Flash the Paste dialog box appears whi...

Page 84: ...Photoshop where you can paint nondestructively on the video frames For example you can create an animated sequence in Flash export the Flash document as a QuickTime video and then import the video in...

Page 85: ...ed to JPG files when imported into Flash Transparency in the original PNG is preserved in the resulting JPG file Photoshop does a better job of scaling bitmap images than Flash If you know that you pl...

Page 86: ...ve the name of the layer in Photoshop when put into the Library panel 5 For the remaining options select from the following Place Layers At Original Position The contents of the PSD file retain the ex...

Page 87: ...Layer visibility whether a layer is displayed or hidden Layer position in the document Layer appearance whether a layer style is applied to the layer and the layer s blending mode If no layer comps a...

Page 88: ...with a vector clipping mask on it Editable Paths And Layer Styles Creates an editable vector shape with a bitmap clipped inside the vector Supported blend modes filters and opacity are maintained Uns...

Page 89: ...sion and document quality to apply to the image when publishing the Flash document as a SWF file These settings take effect only when you publish the document as a SWF file and have no effect on the i...

Page 90: ...his option is selected the object must be converted into a movie clip Vector Outlines Vectorizes the text into paths The appearance of the text may be altered but visual attributes will be maintained...

Page 91: ...to apply to images when publishing the Flash document as a SWF file These settings take effect only when you publish the document as a SWF file and have no effect on the image when you import it to th...

Page 92: ...efault Quality To specify a new quality compression setting deselect Use Document Default Quality and enter a value between 1 and 100 in the Quality text field A higher setting preserves greater image...

Page 93: ...e bitmap is applied as a fill to the artwork See also Transform gradient and bitmap fills on page 134 Edit a bitmap in an external editor If you are editing a Fireworks PNG file imported as a flattene...

Page 94: ...adjacent pixels must match to be included in the selection A higher number includes a broader range of colors If you enter 0 only pixels of the exact same color as the first pixel you click are select...

Page 95: ...ct Modify Bitmap Trace Bitmap 3 Enter a Color Threshold value When two pixels are compared if the difference in the RGB color values is less than the color threshold the two pixels are considered the...

Page 96: ...itmap graphics that were created in other applications Vector graphics Vector graphics describe images by using lines and curves called vectors that also include color and position properties For exam...

Page 97: ...ing a wire in place A path can be closed for example a circle or open with distinct endpoints for example a wavy line You change the shape of a path by dragging its anchor points the direction points...

Page 98: ...t appear in the final output After selecting an anchor point left direction lines appear on any curved segments connected by the anchor point right A smooth point always has two direction lines which...

Page 99: ...ogramming language see About Data Types in Learning ActionScript 2 0 in Adobe Flash or Data types in Programming ActionScript 3 0 Merge Drawing mode The default drawing mode automatically merges shape...

Page 100: ...using the Object Drawing mode Shapes created with the Object Drawing mode remain separate objects that you can manipulate individually Enter Object Drawing mode To draw shapes using Object Drawing mod...

Page 101: ...n you paint on top of shapes and lines the portion underneath is replaced by whatever is on top Paint of the same color merges together Paint of different colors remains distinct To create masks cutou...

Page 102: ...a straight line and makes it perfectly straight If Recognize Lines is off while you draw straighten lines later by selecting one or more line segments and selecting Modify Shape Straighten Recognize S...

Page 103: ...ve tools Flash draws the shapes as separate objects not unlike the shapes you create using Object Drawing mode The primitive shape tools let you specify the corner radius of rectangles and the start a...

Page 104: ...ve shape drawn on the Stage to its initial size and shape 4 To specify a different corner radius for each corner deselect the Lock icon in the Rectangle Options area of the Property inspector When loc...

Page 105: ...Primitive tool controls and restores the oval primitive shape drawn on the Stage to its initial size and shape Draw ovals and rectangles The Oval and Rectangle tools create these basic geometric shap...

Page 106: ...perties and select a stroke color line weight and style 3 Select a drawing mode under Options in the Tools panel To draw straight lines and convert approximations of triangles ovals circles rectangles...

Page 107: ...n blank areas of the Stage on the same layer leaving lines and fills unaffected Paint Selection Applies a new fill to the selection when you select a fill in the Fill Color control or the Fill box of...

Page 108: ...u are not currently drawing a path The anchor point does not have to be one of the terminal anchor points of a path any anchor point can be the location of a continued path Close Path pointer Closes t...

Page 109: ...l See also Adjust Stroke and Fill color on page 130 Draw curves with the Pen tool To create a curve add an anchor point where a curve changes direction and drag the direction lines that shape the curv...

Page 110: ...rawing an S curve A Starting to drag new smooth point B Dragging in the same direction as previous direction line creating an S curve C Result after releasing mouse button 5 To create a series of smoo...

Page 111: ...ith the Pen tool you create smooth points anchor points on a continuous curved path When you draw a straight line segment or a straight line connected to a curved segment you create corner points anch...

Page 112: ...f the point adjust When you move a tangent handle on a corner point only the curve on the same side of the point as the tangent handle adjusts To adjust a straight segment select the Subselection tool...

Page 113: ...reate kaleidoscopic effects using single or multiple symbols with the Deco Symmetry tool For a video tutorial about the Decorative drawing tools see Using the Decorative Drawing Tools at www adobe com...

Page 114: ...is a black rectangle shape with no stroke that is 25 x 25 pixels 1 Select the Deco Drawing tool and select Symmetry Brush from the Drawing Effect menu in the Property inspector 2 In the Deco Drawing...

Page 115: ...Apply the Vine Fill effect The Vine Fill effect lets you fill the Stage a symbol or closed region with a vine pattern You can substitute your own artwork for the leaves and flowers by selecting symbol...

Page 116: ...adjust a curve Some brush stroke areas are easier to reshape if you view them as outlines If you are having trouble reshaping a complex line smooth it to remove some of its details making reshaping e...

Page 117: ...ameters To make small straightening adjustments on each selected fill outline or curved line select the Selection tool and click the Straighten modifier in the Options section of the Tools panel To en...

Page 118: ...e file size of a Flash document and the resulting SWF file Delete everything on the Stage Double click the Eraser tool in the toolbar This erases all types of content on the Stage and pasteboard Remov...

Page 119: ...ation point in the Info panel and in the Property inspector 2 Do one of the following To move the transformation point drag it from within the selected graphic object To realign the transformation poi...

Page 120: ...skew the selection position the pointer on the outline between the transformation handles and drag To distort shapes press Control Windows or Command Macintosh and drag a corner handle or a side hand...

Page 121: ...zontally vertically or both 1 Select a graphic object or objects on the Stage 2 Select Modify Transform Scale 3 Do one of the following To scale the object both horizontally and vertically drag one of...

Page 122: ...y dragging or by entering a value in the Transform panel 1 Select the object or objects 2 Select Window Transform 3 Click Skew 4 Enter angles for the horizontal and vertical values Flip objects You ca...

Page 123: ...object that is overlapped by the top most object is deleted and the top most object is deleted entirely The resulting objects remain separate and are not combined into a single object unlike the Unio...

Page 124: ...ted lines double click one of the lines To select a filled shape and its stroked outline double click the fill To select objects within a rectangular area drag a marquee around the object or objects t...

Page 125: ...objects You can set different colors to be used for the bounding box rectangles that appear around different kinds of selected objects on the Stage 1 Select Edit Preferences Windows or Flash Preferen...

Page 126: ...each other See also Create and organize layers on page 173 Align objects The Align panel lets you align selected objects along the horizontal or vertical axis You can align objects vertically along th...

Page 127: ...ter into a separate text block when applied to text blocks Converts characters to outlines when applied to a single text character Do not confuse the Break Apart command with the Ungroup command The U...

Page 128: ...al pixels that appear in your Flash application When you create or move an object it is constrained to the pixel grid If you create a shape whose edges fall between pixel boundaries for example if you...

Page 129: ...he object s movement to multiples of 45 Shift drag Move objects by using the arrow keys 1 Select an object or multiple objects 2 Do one of the following To move the selection 1 pixel at a time press t...

Page 130: ...on the type of element it is its source and the preferences you have set Text from a text editor becomes a single text object Vector based graphics from any drawing program become a group that can be...

Page 131: ...inks cannot be displayed on a monitor and some colors that can be displayed on a monitor cannot be reproduced using inks on paper When creating colors for use in Flash documents keep in mind that even...

Page 132: ...hange the density of the red green and blue RGB colors in a fill Alpha Sets the opacity for a solid fill or the currently selected slider for a gradient fill An alpha value of 0 creates an invisible o...

Page 133: ...fe palette to replace the current palette To load or save the default palette in the Swatches panel select one of the following commands from the menu in the upper right corner Load Default Colors Rep...

Page 134: ...he color modifications you make in the Color panel are applied to the selection Do one of the following To select a color click in the color space in the Color panel To adjust the brightness of the co...

Page 135: ...ointers below the bar indicating the colors in the gradient 5 Optional From the Overflow menu select an overflow mode to apply to the gradient Extend the default mode Reflect or Repeat 6 Optional To c...

Page 136: ...panel To remove any stroke or fill click the No Color button Note The No Color button appears only when you are creating an oval or rectangle You can create an object without a stroke or fill but you...

Page 137: ...er is disabled 8 To define how two path segments meet select a Join option To change the corners in an open or closed path select a path and select another join option Miter round and bevel joins 9 To...

Page 138: ...om the panel menu When duplicating a swatch the paint bucket appears Click in the empty area of the Swatches panel with the paint bucket to make a duplicate of the selected color To clear all colors f...

Page 139: ...nt The focal point handle appears only when you select a radial gradient The rollover icon for the focal point handle is an inverted triangle Size The rollover icon for the size handle middle handle i...

Page 140: ...ontaining the fill To change the height of the gradient or bitmap fill drag the square handle at the bottom of the bounding box To rotate the gradient or bitmap fill drag the circular rotation handle...

Page 141: ...make it appear that the fill extends over the entire Stage and that the objects painted with the fill are masks revealing the underlying gradient or bitmap When you select the Lock Fill modifier with...

Page 142: ...strator CS4 and Adobe Fireworks CS4 The panel is not available in the French versions of these products For a video on the Kuler panel see www adobe com go lrvid4088_xp For an article on Kuler and col...

Page 143: ...anel Create panel tools The Create panel provides a variety of tools to create or edit themes Select a harmony rule from the Select Rule pop up menu The harmony rule uses the base color as the basis f...

Page 144: ...ator appears overlaid onto the movie clip whenever it is selected To make an object appear nearer or further away from the viewer move it along its z axis with the 3D Translation tool or the Property...

Page 145: ...the Flash authoring tool you can control only one viewpoint or camera The camera view of your FLA file is the same as the Stage view Each FLA file has only one perspective Angle and Vanishing Point s...

Page 146: ...the invisible perspective lines which radiate from the 3D vanishing point set in the 3D symbol instance Property inspector to the edges of the Stage Move a single object in 3D space 1 Select the 3D Tr...

Page 147: ...es in 3D space with the 3D Rotation tool A 3D rotation control appears on top of selected objects on the Stage The X control is red the Y control is green and the Z control is blue Use the orange free...

Page 148: ...circular motion to rotate around the z axis 5 To relocate the rotation control center point relative to the movie clip drag the center point To constrain the movement of the center point to 45 increm...

Page 149: ...object appears in the Transform panel as the 3D Center Point You can modify the location of the center point in the Transform panel Rotate a selection with the Transform panel 1 Open the Transform pan...

Page 150: ...set the Perspective Angle in the Property inspector a 3D movie clip must be selected on Stage Changes to the Perspective Angle are visible on the Stage immediately The Perspective Angle changes automa...

Page 151: ...ll 3D movie clips changing it also changes the position of all movie clips that have a z axis translation applied The Vanishing Point is a document property that affects all movie clips that have z ax...

Page 152: ...n your documents dramatically reduces file size saving several instances of a symbol requires less storage space than saving multiple copies of the contents of the symbol For example you can reduce th...

Page 153: ...ide the Timeline of a button symbol to create animated buttons In addition movie clips are scriptable with ActionScript Use font symbols to export a font and use it in other Flash documents Flash prov...

Page 154: ...symbol Create an empty symbol 1 Do one of the following Select Insert New Symbol Click the New Symbol button at the lower left of the Library panel Select New Symbol from the Library Panel menu in th...

Page 155: ...ractivity from the frames you copied now becomes an independent animation a movie clip symbol that you can reuse 6 To return to document editing mode do one of the following Click the Back button Sele...

Page 156: ...lect an instance of the symbol on the Stage and select Edit Edit In Place 2 Edit the symbol 3 To change the registration point drag the symbol on the Stage A cross hair indicates the location of the r...

Page 157: ...unique name For more information see Handling events in Learning ActionScript 2 0 in Adobe Flash or Handling events in Programming ActionScript 3 0 To specify color effects assign actions set the gra...

Page 158: ...are saved with it If you edit a symbol or relink an instance to a different symbol any instance properties you ve changed still apply to the instance Change the color and transparency of an instance E...

Page 159: ...value is 100 setting the left slider to 50 and the right slider to 100 produces a new red value of 150 100 x 5 100 150 Note The Advanced settings in the Effect panel implement the function a y b x whe...

Page 160: ...ocument editing mode Movie clip symbols appear as static objects on the Stage and do not appear as animations in the Flash editing environment 1 Select a graphic instance on the Stage and select Windo...

Page 161: ...t click the center square in the Coordinate grid in the Info panel To display the coordinates of the upper left corner click the upper left square in the Coordinate grid In the Movie Explorer view the...

Page 162: ...ssets 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 See also Text on page 244 Using...

Page 163: ...rary item from the current document in another document Drag the item from the Library panel or Stage into the Library panel or Stage of another document Copy library items from a different document 1...

Page 164: ...then select an external application Note When starting a supported external editor Flash opens the original imported document Rename a library item Changing the library item name of an imported file d...

Page 165: ...rrent document Create a common library for your SWF application 1 Create a Flash file with a library containing the symbols that you want to include in the common library 2 Place the Flash file in the...

Page 166: ...s dialog box appears when you attempt to place items that conflict with existing items in a document A conflict exists when you copy an item from a source document that already exists in the destinati...

Page 167: ...l in the destination document retains its original name and properties but its contents are updated or replaced with those of the symbol you select Using shared library assets can optimize workflow an...

Page 168: ...stination document select Window Library 2 Do one of the following Select a movie clip button graphic symbol bitmap or sound in the Library panel and select Properties from the Library Panel menu Clic...

Page 169: ...g to the appropriate frame To make a button interactive you place an instance of the button symbol on the Stage and assign actions to the instance You must assign the actions to the instance of the bu...

Page 170: ...ify a Hit frame the image for the Up state is used as the Hit frame To create a disjoint rollover in which moving the pointer over a button causes another graphic on the Stage to change place the Hit...

Page 171: ...is often true of movie clips used as user interface elements such as buttons The movie clip is visually divided into nine sections with a grid like overlay and each of the nine areas is scaled indepen...

Page 172: ...sformed but should not be edited Editing these instances can have unpredictable results For video tutorials about 9 slice scaling see www adobe com go vid0204 www adobe com go vid0205 Enable 9 slice s...

Page 173: ...ime bitmap caching is only noticeable on complex content movie clips Runtime bitmap caching with simple movie clips does not enhance performance For more information see When to enable caching in Lear...

Page 174: ...screen URL of external SWF file Instance name of movie clip or screen receiving the SWF file Duplicate Movieclip Duplicates a movie clip or screen Instance name of movie clip to duplicate X offset an...

Page 175: ...following location Windows XP C Documents and Settings user name Local Settings Application Data Adobe Flash CS3 language Configuration Behaviors Windows Vista C Users user name Local Settings Applica...

Page 176: ...ior requires a dialog box enter parameters using the properties and dialog tags To learn about the tags and parameters used to create your own custom dialog boxes see Extending Flash 5 In the actionsc...

Page 177: ...en A static frame is any frame that is not part of a motion tween You arrange keyframes and property keyframes in the Timeline to control the sequence of events in your document and its animation See...

Page 178: ...unchanged Move a keyframe or frame sequence and its contents Drag the keyframe or sequence to the desired location Change the length of a static frame sequence Control drag Windows or Command drag Ma...

Page 179: ...221 Guide layers contain strokes that can be used to guide the arrangement of objects on other layers or the motion of classic tween animations on other layers For more information see Guide layers on...

Page 180: ...Windows or Control click Macintosh and select Expand All Folders or Collapse All Folders Rename a layer or folder By default new layers are named by the order in which they are created Layer 1 Layer 2...

Page 181: ...ck column To lock all other layers or folders Alt click Windows or Option click Macintosh in the Lock column to the right of a layer or folder name To unlock all layers or folders Alt click or Option...

Page 182: ...s Guide layers are not exported and do not appear in a published SWF file Any layer can be a guide layer Guide layers are indicated by a guide icon to the left of the layer name See also Align objects...

Page 183: ...ng Show Symbol Definitions from the panel menu To understand movie clip hierarchy consider the hierarchy on a computer the hard disk has a root directory or folder and subdirectories The root director...

Page 184: ...files Using scenes encourages you to place more content in a single FLA file which results in larger FLA files and SWF files Scenes force users to progressively download the entire SWF file even if th...

Page 185: ...n _level5 georgia atlanta You can use the _root alias to refer to the main Timeline of the current level For the main Timeline the _root alias stands for _level0 when targeted by a movie clip also on...

Page 186: ...olling timeline and the timeline that receives the action is called the target timeline For example there could be an action on the last frame of one timeline that tells another timeline to play To re...

Page 187: ...path mode 6 Select a movie clip in the Insert Target Path display list and click OK Specify a target path manually 1 Select the movie clip frame or button instance to which you want to assign the acti...

Page 188: ...bject by default Motion tweens are powerful and simple to create Classic tweens Classic tweens are like motion tweens but are more complex to create Classic tweens allow for some specific animated eff...

Page 189: ...a motion tween A black dot in the first frame of the span indicates that the tween span has a target object assigned to it Black diamonds indicate the last frame and any other property keyframes Prope...

Page 190: ...name in the Timeline If other objects are present on the same layer as the tweened object Flash adds new layers above or below the original layer as needed Any objects that existed below the tweened o...

Page 191: ...t such as a symbol bitmap or video clip receives the same name as the asset A new layer containing a named instance receives the name of the instance A new layer containing a character from a broken a...

Page 192: ...onvert the text to a symbol Filter properties not including filters applied to graphic symbols A tween span is a group of frames in the Timeline in which an object on the Stage can have one or more pr...

Page 193: ...the values for the property keyframes you specify are stored in the FLA file and published SWF file Before creating tweens it is helpful to understand the following Flash concepts Drawing on the Stage...

Page 194: ...lly selectable frames in the Timeline To select individual frames in a motion tween span you must Ctrl click Windows or Command click Macintosh the frames With classic tweens eases can be applied to t...

Page 195: ...o effect on any tweens previously created with that preset If you save a new preset over an existing one in the panel it has no effect on any tweens already created with the original preset Each motio...

Page 196: ...text menu of the selection The new preset appears in the Motion Presets panel Flash saves the preset as an XML file The files are stored in the following directories Windows hard disk Documents and Se...

Page 197: ...bol instances and text fields can be tweened All other object types are wrapped in a symbol when a tween is applied to them The symbol instance can contain nested symbols which can themselves be tween...

Page 198: ...ny of the following layer types Normal Guide Mask or Masked 2 Do one of the following Choose Insert Motion Tween Right click Windows or Ctrl click Macintosh the selection or current frame and choose C...

Page 199: ...nverted to a symbol click OK in the dialog box that appears Flash converts the object to a movie clip symbol When you apply a tween to an object that exists only in a single keyframe the playhead move...

Page 200: ...s helpful when designing multiple animations on different motion paths that intersect each other When a motion path or tween span is selected you can choose this option from the Property inspector opt...

Page 201: ...inspector A tweened object not oriented to the motion path left and oriented to the motion path right 1 Click the Selection tool in the Tools panel 2 Click the Stage away from the motion path and the...

Page 202: ...y for the spatial properties X Y and Z They are useful when you have edited a motion path on the Stage by dragging the tweened object to different locations in different frames Editing motion paths th...

Page 203: ...and frames you can then finish the tweens by editing the tweened properties in the Property inspector or the Motion Editor To select tween spans and frames in the Timeline do one of the following To...

Page 204: ...ntext menu Both tween spans have same target instance Note You cannot split motion if more than one frame is selected If the tween that was split had easing applied the two smaller tweens may not have...

Page 205: ...frames in the span Then right click Windows or Ctrl click Macintosh and choose Insert Keyframe property type from the span context menu Flash adds property keyframes to the selected frames You can al...

Page 206: ...e in a tween span Ctrl click Windows or Command click Macintosh the frame 2 Right click Windows or Command click Macintosh the selected frame and choose Copy Properties from the context menu 3 Select...

Page 207: ...imeline Copy Motion As ActionScript 3 0 Right click Windows or Control click Macintosh the tween span or the tweened instance on the Stage and choose Copy Motion As ActionScript 3 0 Flash copies to yo...

Page 208: ...o another Reverse the keyframes for individual properties Reset individual properties or property categories Exert fine control over the shape of the tween curves of most individual properties using B...

Page 209: ...n the Motion Editor lets you create certain types of complex animation effects without creating complex motion paths Ease curves are graphs that show how the values of a tweened property are interpola...

Page 210: ...it forms an angle When a property curve passes through a smooth point it forms a smooth curve For X Y and Z the type of a control point in the property curve depends on the type of the corresponding...

Page 211: ...control point is in smooth point mode its Bezier handles are exposed and the property curve passes through the point as a smooth curve When a control point is a corner point the property curve forms...

Page 212: ...the change to the value is the same in each frame With easing you can adjust the rate of change to the values for more natural or more complex animation An ease is a mathematical curve that is applie...

Page 213: ...When you apply an ease curve to a property curve a visual overlay of the ease curve appears in the property curve graph area By showing the property curve and the ease curve in the same graph area the...

Page 214: ...oose When you apply an ease to a property a dashed line curve appears overlayed onto the graph area of the property The dashed line curve shows the affect of the ease curve on the actual values of tha...

Page 215: ...n Editor To edit a custom ease curve add an instance of the Custom ease curve to the list of eases and then edit the curve using the same techniques as for editing any other Bezier curve in Flash The...

Page 216: ...Timeline Keyframe or right click Windows or Control click Macintosh the frame where you want to place a keyframe and select Insert Keyframe To create a new blank keyframe select Insert Timeline Blank...

Page 217: ...e to the Graphics AnimatedDropShadow folder to access the sample Animation and Gradients Download and decompress the Samples zip file and navigate to the Graphics AnimationAndGradients folder to acces...

Page 218: ...ate the selected item during the tween select an option from the Rotate menu in the Property inspector To prevent rotation select None the default setting To rotate the object once in the direction re...

Page 219: ...tween and choose Add Classic Motion Guide Flash adds a motion guide layer above the classic tween layer and indents the name of the classic tween layer to show that it is bound to the motion guide lay...

Page 220: ...tion How far an object moves in the x direction Y Position How far an object moves in the y direction Horizontal Scale The ratio between the current size of the object and its natural size in the hori...

Page 221: ...perties check box is not selected When enabled a separate curve is maintained for each of the five properties appearing in the menu Selecting a property in the menu displays the curve for that propert...

Page 222: ...roperty in the menu 4 To add a control point Control click Windows or Command click Macintosh the diagonal line 5 To increase the speed of the object drag the control point up to slow down the speed o...

Page 223: ...n any part of the Timeline that you choose 1 In frame 1 draw a square with the Rectangle tool 2 Select frame 30 of the same layer and add a blank keyframe by choosing Insert Timeline Blank Keyframe or...

Page 224: ...a triangle they must be in the same order on the original triangle and on the triangle to be tweened The order cannot be abc in the first keyframe and acb in the second Shape hints work best if you p...

Page 225: ...you can modify the frames in the animation incrementally 1 Click a layer name to make it the active layer and select a frame in the layer where the animation is to start 2 If the frame isn t already...

Page 226: ...of which is the current frame Note Locked layers those with a padlock icon aren t displayed when onion skinning is turned on To avoid a multitude of confusing images lock or hide the layers you don t...

Page 227: ...g groups text and symbols as a mask The mask layer reveals the area of linked layers beneath the filled shape For a video tutorial about animating masks see www adobe com go vid0127 For a sample of sc...

Page 228: ...double click the movie clip on the Stage 3 Apply motion tweening to the movie clip 4 When the animation procedure is complete click the Back button to return to document editing mode 5 To lock the lay...

Page 229: ...point where one bone connects to another is called a joint You can use IK in Flash in two ways The first is to articulate a series of symbol instances by adding bones to connect each instance to anot...

Page 230: ...about inverse kinematics see Using Inverse Kinematics at www adobe com go lrvid4058_fl See also Drawing modes and graphic objects on page 94 Add bones to symbols You can add IK bones to movie clip gra...

Page 231: ...th a given armature reside in the pose layer Each pose layer can contain only one armature Flash adds the new pose layer to the Timeline in between existing layers to maintain the previous stacking or...

Page 232: ...u can still add or remove control points from the existing strokes of the shape The IK shape has its own registration point transform point and bounding box 5 To add another bone drag from the tail of...

Page 233: ...drag any bone in the branch All of the bones in the branch move Bones in other branches of the armature do not move To rotate a bone with its child bones without moving the parent bone Shift drag the...

Page 234: ...ighlight the control points connected to a bone click the bone with the Bind tool The connected points are highlighted in yellow while the selected bone is highlighted in red Control points connected...

Page 235: ...and maximum degrees of rotation in the Joint Rotation section of the Property inspector The degrees of rotation are relative to the parent bone An arc appears on top of the bone joint indicating the d...

Page 236: ...last frame of the pose layer to the right or left to add or remove frames Flash repositions the pose frames in proportion to the change in duration of the layer and reinterpolates the frames in betwee...

Page 237: ...easing to frames in a pose layer 1 Click a frame between two pose frames in the pose layer When you apply an ease it affects the frames between the pose frames to the left and right of the selected fr...

Page 238: ...Timelines and Animation When you are finished scrub the playhead in the Timeline between the 2 pose frames where you applied the ease to preview the eased motion on the Stage See also Easing tweens o...

Page 239: ...ach end Flash does the following If you apply a motion tween to a movie clip with filters applied to it when you insert a keyframe at the opposite end of the tween the movie clip automatically has the...

Page 240: ...ce set the quality level to Low to maximize playback performance About Pixel Bender filters Adobe Pixel Bender is a programming language developed by Adobe that allows users to create custom filters e...

Page 241: ...ct the Filters panel 2 Select the filter to copy and click the Clipboard button and choose Copy Selected from the pop up menu To copy all filters choose Copy All 3 Select the object to apply the filte...

Page 242: ...CS4 language Configuration Filters filtername xml Windows Vista C Users username Local Settings Application Data Adobe Flash CS4 language Configuration Filters filtername xml Macintosh Macintosh HD Us...

Page 243: ...ct Inner shadow To hide the object and display only its shadow select Hide Object Hide Object lets you more easily create a realistic shadow To open the Color Picker and set the shadow color click the...

Page 244: ...rs 2 Click the Add Filter button and select Glow 3 Edit the filter settings in the Filter tab To set the width and height of the glow set the Blur X and Y values To open the Color Picker and set the g...

Page 245: ...change the color Text with a gradient glow applied 1 Select an object to apply a gradient glow to 2 In the Filters section of the Property inspector click the Add Filter button and select Gradient Glo...

Page 246: ...gradient color for the bevel A gradient contains two or more colors that fade or blend into one another The middle pointer controls the alpha color of the gradient You can change the color of the alp...

Page 247: ...the blend color Areas darker than the blend color don t change Multiply Multiplies the base color by the blend color resulting in darker colors Lighten Replaces only pixels that are darker than the b...

Page 248: ...ile 1 Select the movie clip instance on the Stage to apply a blend mode to 2 To adjust the color and transparency of the movie clip instance use the Color pop up menu in the Properties panel 3 Select...

Page 249: ...ield instances are ActionScript objects that have properties and methods By giving a text field an instance name you can manipulate it with ActionScript However you cannot write ActionScript code insi...

Page 250: ...r example if you skew the fonts or otherwise manipulate the font shapes Anti Alias for Readability is automatically disabled All font families including bold italic and so on Display sizes of up to 25...

Page 251: ...lso result in more legible text at small point sizes below 10 points However if a user s computer does not have an installed font corresponding to the device font text may look different than expected...

Page 252: ...ntify the type of text field For static horizontal text that extends a round handle appears at the upper right corner of the text field For static horizontal text that has a fixed width a square handl...

Page 253: ...e also Setting text attributes on page 254 Add text to the Stage 1 Select the Text tool 2 In the Property inspector Window Properties select a text type from the pop up menu to specify the type of tex...

Page 254: ...h and location of text 5 Select the font and style 6 In the Paragraph section of the Property inspector specify one of the following options from the Behavior menu Single line Displays the text as one...

Page 255: ...add the word to your personal dictionary Click Ignore to leave the word unchanged Click Ignore All to leave all occurrences of the word in the document unchanged Enter a word in the Change To box or s...

Page 256: ...ry assets between documents on page 160 Create a font library item 1 Open the library to add a font symbol to 2 Select New Font from the Library Panel menu 3 Enter a name for the font item in the Name...

Page 257: ...ext effects by transforming text fields For example you can rotate skew flip and scale text fields When you scale a text field as an object the Property inspector does not reflect increases or decreas...

Page 258: ...the font list in the Property inspector When you select substitute fonts the substitute fonts names also appear enclosed in parentheses to identify them as substitute fonts If you apply formatting su...

Page 259: ...xt Font attributes include font family point size style color letter spacing autokerning and character position Paragraph attributes include alignment margins indents and line spacing For static text...

Page 260: ...blocks of text Kerning controls the spacing between pairs of characters Many fonts have built in kerning information For example A and V are often closer together than A and D Flash provides horizonta...

Page 261: ...o specify line spacing enter a value in the Line Spacing text field in the Paragraph section of the Property inspector Work with text anti aliasing Flash provides improved font rasterization that lets...

Page 262: ...e font outlines are embedded To use this option you must publish to Flash Player 8 or later Upgrade content for Flash 8 or later anti aliasing 1 Open a FLA file created for use with Flash Player 7 or...

Page 263: ...lication at runtime by using the loadVariables or getURL actions or the LoadVars or XML objects Enter Unicode escape characters in the string value for a dynamic or input text field variable Create an...

Page 264: ...ck OK Note Select only the font sets to embed so you do not exceed the internal maximum number of glyphs for the authoring tool approximately 65 500 Flash does not perform error checking to confirm th...

Page 265: ...glyphs Lowercase a z Basic Latin lowercase glyphs Numerals 0 9 Basic Latin numeral glyphs Punctuation Basic Latin punctuation Basic Latin Basic Latin glyphs within the Unicode range 0x0021 to 0x007E...

Page 266: ...System useCodepage property in the ActionScript 2 0 Language Reference Text encoding All text in a computer is encoded as a series of bytes Many different forms of encoding and therefore different by...

Page 267: ...coded Create these files by using the Strings panel or using a text or HTML editor that can save the files in Unicode format Unicode encoding formats that Flash Player supports When reading text data...

Page 268: ...ode each text string with an ID 4 Publish the application A folder is created for each language you select and within each language folder is an XML file for that language 5 Send the published FLA fil...

Page 269: ...ears in the Strings panel Note When you remove a language from the Strings panel the language XML file is not deleted from the local file system This lets you add the language back into the Strings pa...

Page 270: ...Strings panel Edit the XML file directly See also Translate text in the Strings panel or an XML file Find and Replace on page 58 Check spelling on page 250 Change the language displayed on the Stage...

Page 271: ...ances of input and dynamic text with an associated string ID In this case text strings are only updated when you publish the SWF file language detection is not automatic and you must publish a SWF fil...

Page 272: ...and click OK Flash generates the following ActionScript code which stores the language XML file paths Use this code as a starting point for your own language detection script import mx lang Locale Lo...

Page 273: ...documents xliff dtd xliff version 1 0 xml lang en file datatype plaintext original MultiLingualContent fla source language EN header header body trans unit id 001 resname IDS_GREETINGS source welcome...

Page 274: ...for each language to translate the FLA file to selected languages If you translate directly in the XML file you must either import the XML file to the Strings panel or save it in the default director...

Page 275: ...In the Select a Language menu select the language of the XML file you are importing and click OK 3 Navigate to the folder and XML file to import The XML information is loaded into the column in the St...

Page 276: ...o external XML files on page 272 Text on page 244 Create multilanguage documents using the include action To create a document that contains multiple languages use the include action Use an applicatio...

Page 277: ...sign enter the following myTextVar text u304B uD55C u6C49hello u03BB u20AC When the SWF file plays the following characters appear in the text field For best results when creating a text field that c...

Page 278: ...ds in your published SWF file Device sounds are encoded in the device s natively supported audio format such as MIDI MFi or SMAF You can use shared libraries to link a sound to multiple documents You...

Page 279: ...t sounds instead of 16 bit sounds See also Work with common libraries on page 160 Supported sound file formats You can import the following sound file formats into Flash ASND Windows or Macintosh This...

Page 280: ...entirety independently of the Timeline even if the SWF file stops playing Event sounds are mixed when you play your published SWF file If an event sound is playing and the sound is instantiated again...

Page 281: ...mation you start and stop the sound at keyframes 1 Add a sound to a document 2 To synchronize this sound with an event in the scene select a beginning keyframe that corresponds to the keyframe of the...

Page 282: ...are finished save the file To save the changes in a non destructive format choose the ASND format If you save the file in a different format from the original you will need to re import the sound file...

Page 283: ...make a significant difference in the quality and size of sounds in exported SWF files The more you compress a sound and the lower the sampling rate the smaller the size and the lower the quality You...

Page 284: ...ly Specifies the bit depth of the sound compression Higher bit depths produce higher quality sound mp3 compression options MP3 Compression Lets you export sounds with mp3 compression Use mp3 when you...

Page 285: ...loop When exporting audio in embedded video clips remember that the audio is exported using the global streaming settings selected in the Publish Settings dialog box Use stream synchronization to keep...

Page 286: ...n see Creating sound controls in Learning ActionScript 2 0 in Flash 1 Select the sound in the Library panel 2 Select Linkage from the Panel menu in the upper right corner of the panel or right click W...

Page 287: ...g the ActionScript 2 0 attachSound or loadSound method the ID3 tag properties are available at the beginning of the sound data stream The onID3 event executes when the ID3 data is initialized Flash Pl...

Page 288: ...ter upload them to the server To control video playback and provide intuitive controls for users to interact with the streaming video use the FLVPlayback component or Adobe ActionScript Progressively...

Page 289: ...on page 292 See also The FLVPlayback component on page 298 Controlling external video playback with ActionScript on page 296 Control video playback using behaviors on page 298 The Video Import Wizard...

Page 290: ...de your video content for use with Flash H 264 Support for the H 264 video codec was incorporated into Flash Player beginning with version 9 0 r115 The F4V video format which uses this codec provides...

Page 291: ...o dissolves are usually best Eye catching video sequences for instance showing an object zooming from behind the first track doing a page peel or wrapping around a ball and then flying off the screen...

Page 292: ...inish downloading While the first part of your video clip downloads you may want to display other content that disguises the download For short clips use the following formula Pause download time play...

Page 293: ...istics and a range of interactive features designed to enhance the video experience As with progressive downloading the video content FLV or F4V file is kept external to the other Flash content and th...

Page 294: ...ile 1 Select File Import Import Video to import the video clip into the current Flash document 2 Select the video clip to import You can select either a video clip located on your local computer or en...

Page 295: ...of these methods the FLV or F4V files are self contained and run at a frame rate separate from that of all other timeline frame rates included in the SWF file Embedded video works best for smaller vi...

Page 296: ...es to accommodate the video which can make working with your FLA file difficult Graphic When you embed a video clip as a graphic symbol you cannot interact with the video using ActionScript typically...

Page 297: ...96 Import video files into the library To import files in the FLV or F4V format use the Import or Import To Library commands or the Import button in the Video Properties dialog box To create your own...

Page 298: ...nother linked video clip View video clip properties in the Video Properties dialog box 1 Select a video clip in the Library Panel 2 Select Properties from the Library Panel menu or click the Propertie...

Page 299: ...r you start and edit a video in Adobe Premiere Pro you can add sequence markers to the timeline If you select Flash Cue Point for these markers they can serve as cue points in a rich media application...

Page 300: ...e visual interface that surrounds your video For example you might include playback controls or other graphics You can also add graphic layers on top of the FLV or F4V file for composite results Compo...

Page 301: ...flattened into a single continuously rasterized layer with its alpha channel preserved Continuous rasterization means that graphics stay sharp as they are scaled up This import method allows you to u...

Page 302: ...o behaviors provide one way to control video playback Behaviors are prewritten ActionScript scripts that you add to a triggering object to control another object Behaviors add the power control and fl...

Page 303: ...n custom skins Provides cue points to synchronize your video with the animation text and graphics in your Flash application Provides live preview of customizations Maintains a reasonably sized SWF fil...

Page 304: ...yback component itself is not resized The autoSize parameter takes precedence over this parameter The default value is true skin A parameter that opens the Select Skin dialog box and allows you to cho...

Page 305: ...components were introduced in Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 and are intended for use with Flash Player 6 or 7 If you are developing video content to use with Flash Player 8 instead use the FLV...

Page 306: ...rning application interface to meet your needs and create high quality interfaces that load quickly and have a consistent look on different platforms Third party learning interactions added to your on...

Page 307: ...examples see the Flash Accessibility web page at www adobe com go flash_accessibility Worldwide accessibility standards Many countries have adopted accessibility standards based on the standards deve...

Page 308: ...ology visit the Microsoft Accessibility website at www microsoft com enable default aspx The Windows ActiveX Internet Explorer plug in version of Flash Player 6 supports MSAA but Windows Netscape and...

Page 309: ...ed to the screen reader No names are transferred except where labeling relationships are found and no descriptions or keyboard shortcut strings are transferred Documents The document state is transfer...

Page 310: ...demonstration version of the software as a free download test as many screen readers as you can to ensure compatibility across screen readers Test interactive content and verify that users can navigat...

Page 311: ...ps only Default Instructs Flash Player to pass child object information to the screen reader Disabling this option for a movie clip causes that movie clip to appear as a simple clip in the accessible...

Page 312: ...er to activate the button A form might include an input text field where users enter their names A static text field with the text Name appears next to the input text field When Flash Player discovers...

Page 313: ...ssibility 3 Select either Make Object Accessible for buttons or text fields or the default Make Movie Accessible for entire Flash applications 4 Enter a name and description for the button text field...

Page 314: ...ject correctly Tab order The order in which objects receive input focus when users press the Tab key Use ActionScript to create the tab order or if you have Adobe Flash CS4 Professional use the Access...

Page 315: ...umbers Note Tab indexes created with ActionScript code do not appear on the Stage when the Show Tab Order option is enabled Specifying advanced accessibility options for screen readers Turn off automa...

Page 316: ...S2_en Select the object and add the name of the keyboard shortcut to the Accessibility panel so the screen reader can read it Test your Flash content with multiple screen readers Keyboard shortcut fun...

Page 317: ...2 0 Language Reference at www adobe com go learn_fl_cs4_as2lr_en Creating accessibility with ActionScript About ActionScript and accessibility You can create accessible documents with ActionScript co...

Page 318: ...tionScript method which returns a value of true if a screen reader is present and false otherwise You can then design your Flash content to perform so that it s compatible with screen reader use for e...

Page 319: ...uded in the tab order if they are to be read in that order Because static text cannot be assigned an instance name it cannot be included in the list of the tabIndex property values As a result a singl...

Page 320: ...he accessible portion of the component with the enableAccessibility command This command includes the accessibility object with the component as the document is compiled Because no simple way exists t...

Page 321: ...nd without viewing the Timeline When you author a screen based document the screens are arranged in a structured hierarchy that you create To structure the document nest screens in a branching tree Yo...

Page 322: ...ut creating screen based documents that use ActionScript see About organizing code for screens in Using ActionScript 2 0 Components See also Creating controls and transitions for screens with behavior...

Page 323: ...reens Add screens to a document You can add a default type screen or select a screen type at the same level as the currently selected screen The new screen is a sibling screen of the selected screen Y...

Page 324: ...en Outline pane at the left of the Document window displays thumbnails of each screen in the current document in a collapsible tree view The tree represents the structural hierarchy of the document Ne...

Page 325: ...ications to several screens at once select multiple contiguous or discontiguous screens in the Screen Outline pane When you select multiple screens the contents of the first screen selected appear in...

Page 326: ...s context menu Select a child screen on the Stage 1 Deselect Hide Screen 2 Select the parent screen in the Screen Outline pane 3 Click in the contents of the child screen on the Stage Edit an item on...

Page 327: ...ument For example a document can have only one screen named Overview_Page The default screen name is used as the instance name which is used in ActionScript to control a screen If you change the defau...

Page 328: ...meline receives focus first The Screen Outline pane receives focus only the first time you cycle through the panels That is if you arrive at the last panel and press the keyboard shortcut again the Sc...

Page 329: ...for the screen By default slide screens are assigned to the mx screens Slide class and form screens are assigned to the mx screens Form class You can assign the screen to a different class The regist...

Page 330: ...inherit yields the same result as setting it to true Note This property can be set independently for each slide and it affects keyboard handling when that slide has focus The overlayChildren paramete...

Page 331: ...ionScript code yourself Behaviors are available for a variety of objects in Flash including movie clips text fields and video and sound files To learn more about creating screen based documents that u...

Page 332: ...ses the on reveal event Use the Out option when applying a transition that uses the on hide event Do not add an Out transition immediately before an In transition in a presentation To attach the same...

Page 333: ...een and rotate the screen around its registration point See also Symbols instances and library assets on page 147 How screens interact with ActionScript Screens are similar to nested movie clips in th...

Page 334: ...lex structured applications in Flash use components with screens Components are especially useful with forms to create structured applications that show data and enable nonlinear user interactivity Fo...

Page 335: ...ns ActionScript and JavaScript are both rooted in the ECMA 262 standard the international standard for the ECMAScript scripting language For this reason developers who are familiar with JavaScript sho...

Page 336: ...es Flash Lite 1 x ActionScript is a subset of ActionScript 1 0 that is supported by Flash Lite 1 x running on mobile phones and devices Ways of working with ActionScript There are several ways to work...

Page 337: ...rnal files You can also use a text editor to create an external AS file The Script window includes code assistance features such as code hinting and coloring syntax checking and auto formatting See al...

Page 338: ...appears between the Actions toolbox and Script pane Click the Show Hide Toolbox button at the top of the Actions panel Double click the vertical bar to collapse the Actions toolbox double click the ba...

Page 339: ...create external script files that you import into your application These scripts can be ActionScript Flash Communication or Flash JavaScript files The Add menu lists the language elements available fo...

Page 340: ...to display a code hint for the line of code you re working on Debug Options Actions panel only Sets and removes breakpoints so that you can proceed line by line through your script when debugging You...

Page 341: ...the character encoding used when you open or import ActionScript files Save Export Specifies the character encoding used when you save or export ActionScript files Reload Modified Files Specifies wha...

Page 342: ...w adobe com go learn_fl_tutorials Use Script Assist to write ActionScript To add an ActionScript 3 0 action to a Flash document you must attach it to a frame To add an ActionScript 2 0 or earlier acti...

Page 343: ...meter options appear above the Script pane 2 Enter values in the boxes above the Script pane Search for text in a script To go to a specific line in a script choose Go To Line from the Actions panel p...

Page 344: ...samples Download and decompress the Samples zip file and navigate to the Behaviors BehaviorsScrapbook folder to access the sample See also Controlling instances with behaviors on page 169 Add and conf...

Page 345: ...In your scripts you can indent a line by selecting it and pressing Tab To remove the indent select the line and press Shift Tab Comment sections of code Code comments are parts of code that the Actio...

Page 346: ...ds that are not supported by the version of the player you are targeting appear in yellow in the Actions toolbox For example if the Flash Player SWF file version is set to Flash 7 ActionScript that on...

Page 347: ...e code block click the minus sign that appears Expand all collapsed code in the current script Click Expand All Adding ActionScript with shortcut keys To add elements to a script use Escape shortcut k...

Page 348: ...every script in a Flash document use the Movie Explorer See also Use the Movie Explorer on page 27 Find text 1 In the Actions panel or Script window click Find or press Control F Windows or Command F...

Page 349: ...class is being compiled For more information about ActionScript 3 0 classes see Objects and classesin Programming ActionScript 3 0 For more information on compiling ActionScript 2 0 classes see Compi...

Page 350: ...g supported by the language your system is currently using also called the traditional code page Important When you use a non English application on an English system the Test Movie command fails if a...

Page 351: ...anel select Close Script or Close All Scripts Keyboard shortcuts for pinned scripts When the insertion point is in the Script pane use the following keyboard shortcuts to work with pinned scripts Inse...

Page 352: ...sh Preferences Macintosh click ActionScript in the Category list and then enable or disable Code Hints Select Preferences from the panel menu at the upper right of the Actions panel and enable or disa...

Page 353: ...is Press Escape Manually display a code hint 1 Click in a code location where code hints can appear such as in the following locations After the dot following a statement or command where a property o...

Page 354: ...g code var my_array new Array var my_cam Camera get If you then enter my_cam followed by a period code hints for the Camera object appear For objects that appear on the Stage use the suffix in the Ins...

Page 355: ...g your ActionScript 1 0 and 2 0 scripts The ActionScript 2 0 debugger helps you find ActionScript 1 0 and 2 0 errors while your SWF file runs in Flash Player When using Flash to debug ActionScript 1 0...

Page 356: ...vie window Selecting this option prevents the authoring environment from grabbing keystrokes and lets them pass through to the player For example in the authoring environment Control U opens the Prefe...

Page 357: ...Publish Settings dialog box select Permit Debugging 4 To set a password enter a password in the Password box After you set this password no one can download information to the Debugger without the pa...

Page 358: ...might be paused so click Continue to start it Display and modify the values of variables in the Debugger The Variables tab in the Debugger shows the names and values of any global and timeline variab...

Page 359: ...able the value is listed as undefined Variables marked for the Watch list and variables in the Watch list Add variables to the Watch list On the Variables or Locals tab right click Windows or Control...

Page 360: ...est environment select Control Test Movie 2 Select Debug List Objects A list of all the objects currently on the Stage appears in the Output panel The list does not update automatically as the SWF fil...

Page 361: ...pt might be moved to a different line It s a good idea to autoformat your scripts before you set breakpoints You can view breakpoints in both the Debugger and the Script window by setting them in eith...

Page 362: ...s flash_breakpoints This node has a version attribute which specifies the version of the XML file Flash 8 is version 1 0 file A child node of flash_breakpoints This node has a name attribute which spe...

Page 363: ...cute the script until it encounters a breakpoint Step Over Advances the Debugger over a line of code This button moves the yellow arrow to the next line in the script In the previous example if you ar...

Page 364: ...ation to the Output panel For example while testing a SWF file you can send results to the Output panel when a button is pressed or a frame plays The trace statement is similar to the JavaScript alert...

Page 365: ...lText html textWidth textHeight maxChars borderColor backgroundColor textColor border background wordWrap password multiline selectable scroll hscroll maxscroll maxhscroll bottomScroll type embedFonts...

Page 366: ...gging information makes the SWF file slightly larger Start debugging from a FLA file Select Debug Debug Movie Start debugging from an ActionScript 3 0 AS file 1 With the ActionScript file open in the...

Page 367: ...e of the script in the call stack Display and modify variable values View and edit the values of variables and properties in the Variables panel View a variable value 1 In the Variables panel select t...

Page 368: ...ited to files located on the same localhost as the Flash authoring application being played in the stand alone debug player ActiveX control or plugin To permit remote debugging of the file enable debu...

Page 369: ...might be paused so click Continue to start it Working with Flash and Flex Creating components for Flex In Adobe Flash CS4 Professional you can create content for use as components in Adobe Flex appli...

Page 370: ...Choose File Publish to create a SWC file containing the compiled Flex component Flash also creates a SWF file from the main FLA file but you can ignore the SWF file if you choose The published compon...

Page 371: ...as a single print job The PrintJob object also provides the user s printer settings which can be used to format reports specifically for the user Flash Player versions earlier than 4 0 25 Windows or 4...

Page 372: ...yer internal view of onscreen Flash content implement print specific activities only between your calls to PrintJob start and PrintJob send For example the Flash content should not interact with the u...

Page 373: ...ves the print settings from the operating system The PrintJob start function populates the following properties Adding pages to a print job You add pages to your print job with the ActionScript 2 0 Pr...

Page 374: ...of the printable area on the page If the print area is larger than the printable area on the page the print data that exceeds the right and bottom edge of the page is clipped A Paper rectangle B Page...

Page 375: ...specify that the print job print as vector graphics to take advantage of the higher image quality Specifying a frame to print The frameNum parameter lets you specify a frame to print If you do not sp...

Page 376: ...ed to designate the print area The label b must be on the same layer as a frame labeled p For more information about print function parameters see print function in the ActionScript 2 0 Language Refer...

Page 377: ...n ASO files For more information on the organization of this directory see the Read Me file in the Classes folder Include class folder Contains all of the global ActionScript include files Locations a...

Page 378: ...ion of ActionScript files To use an ActionScript class that you ve defined Flash must locate the external ActionScript files that contain the class definition The list of folders in which Flash search...

Page 379: ...mple my_classes or Set the classpath for ActionScript 2 0 To set the document level classpath 1 Select File Publish Settings and click Flash 2 Verify that ActionScript 2 0 is selected in the ActionScr...

Page 380: ...d click the ActionScript category 2 Click the ActionScript 3 0 Settings button and add the path s to the Source path list Set the Library path for ActionScript 3 0 files To set the document level Libr...

Page 381: ...e compiled when COMPILE_FOR BROWSERS true To define a config constant using the Publish Settings dialog box 1 Choose File Publish Settings 2 In the Publish Settings dialog box click the Flash tab 3 En...

Page 382: ...e working with ActionScript or components The configuration folders for Flash are as follows Application level configuration folder Because it is in the application level non administrative users do n...

Page 383: ...drive Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Adobe Flash CS3 language Configuration On the Macintosh browse to Macintosh HD Users Shared Application Support Adobe Flash CS3 language Config...

Page 384: ...HTML needed to display them in the browser window Alternative formats allow a browser to show your SWF file animation and interactivity for users who don t have the targeted Adobe Flash Player instal...

Page 385: ...ices Development Center Adobe also provides Adobe Device Central a new way to test content created with Adobe products on emulated mobile devices When creating a new mobile document of any kind start...

Page 386: ...m starts Flash Player which then plays the SWF file Use the player to make Flash content viewable for users who aren t using a web browser or an ActiveX host application To control Flash content in Fl...

Page 387: ...m Create a security configuration file that limits Flash Player functionality on the local system The security configuration file is a text file placed in the same folder as the Flash Player installer...

Page 388: ...the Property inspector select Override Sound Settings To create a smaller low fidelity version of a SWF file select this option Note If the Select Override Sound Settings option is deselected Flash s...

Page 389: ...yer utilizes the available computing power of the graphics card to perform video playback and compositing of layered graphics This provides another level of performance benefit depending on the user s...

Page 390: ...ption to set the values of the width and height attributes in the object and embed tags Match Movie Default Uses the size of the SWF file Pixels Enters the number of pixels for the width and height Pe...

Page 391: ...pear above or on top of content Transparent Windowless Sets the background of the Flash content to transparent allowing the HTML content to appear above and below the content For browsers that support...

Page 392: ...es the name of the SWF file to be loaded Applies to the embed tag only Value movieName swf Template variable MO movie parameter Specifies the name of the SWF file to be loaded Applies to the object ta...

Page 393: ...ue if this attribute is omitted Value true false Template variable LO quality attribute parameter Optional Specifies the level of anti aliasing to be used Because anti aliasing requires a faster proce...

Page 394: ...t embed and img tags and determines how the SWF file is positioned within the browser window Default Centers the application in the browser window and crops edges if the browser window is smaller than...

Page 395: ...s and Transparent windowless Both interact with HTML layers letting layers above the SWF file block out the application Transparent allows transparency so that HTML layers below the SWF file might sho...

Page 396: ...ght 100 codebase http fpdownload adobe com pub shockwave cabs flash swflash cab version 9 0 0 0 param name movie value moviename swf param name play value true param name loop value true param name qu...

Page 397: ...ey do not embed the Flash Player 1 Select File Publish Settings and click HTML 2 Select either the Flash Only or Flash HTTPS template from the Template pop up menu These templates support the single p...

Page 398: ...itions 4 To specify a range of appearance settings for the exported GIF file select one of the following options Optimize Colors Removes any unused colors from a GIF file s color table This option red...

Page 399: ...ette is optimized for the image but when possible Flash uses colors from the web 216 color palette This produces better colors for the image when the web 216 color palette is active on a 256 color sys...

Page 400: ...for export by entering the Static frame label 1 Select File Publish Settings click Formats and select PNG Image 2 For the PNG filename either use the default filename or enter a new filename with the...

Page 401: ...larger than a PNG created with the web safe 216 color palette Web Snap Adaptive Is the same as the Adaptive palette option except that it converts colors similar to the web safe 216 color palette The...

Page 402: ...lect the file format to preview Using the current Publish Settings values Flash creates a file of the specified type in the same location as the FLA file This file remains in this location until you o...

Page 403: ...to the Adobe Flash Player your content can now reach even more audiences across more devices web mobile and now the desktop About Adobe AIR Adobe AIR is a cross operating system runtime that allows yo...

Page 404: ...3 only supports publishing to AIR 1 0 Preview or publish an Adobe AIR application You can preview a Flash AIR SWF file as it would appear in the AIR application window Previewing is useful when you wa...

Page 405: ...o 1 0 ID Identifies your application with a unique ID You can change the default ID if you prefer Do not use spaces or special characters in the ID The only valid characters are 0 9 a z A Z dot and da...

Page 406: ...your AIR application should handle For example if you wanted your application to be the principal application for handling HTML files you would specify that in the Associated File Types text box You...

Page 407: ...e of the program menu folder for the application Use Custom UI for Updates Specifies what happens when a user opens an AIR installer file for an application that s already installed By default AIR dis...

Page 408: ...on Digital Signature All Adobe AIR applications must be signed to be installed on another system For information about assigning a digital signature to a Flash Adobe AIR application see Signing your a...

Page 409: ...description blank name swfname copyright blank initialWindow content swfname swf systemChrome standard type normal transparent false visible true icon image128x128 icons AIRApp_128 png image48x48 icon...

Page 410: ...r signing is handled separately from application development Sign an Adobe AIR application with a pre purchased digital certificate from a root certificate authority 1 Click the Digital Signature Set...

Page 411: ...formation on creating a self signed digital certificate see Digitally signing an AIR file in the Developing AIR Applications guide You can also create an AIR Intermediate AIRI application without a di...

Page 412: ...report or a URL report or to insert custom values for some of the most common Flash HTML object and embed tag parameters for browsers that use ActiveX controls and plug ins respectively Flash templat...

Page 413: ...Width WI Height HE Movie MO HTML alignment HA Looping LO Parameters for object PO Parameters for embed PE Play PL Quality QU Scale SC Salign SA Wmode WM Devicefont DE Bgcolor BG Movie text area to wr...

Page 414: ...EN http www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1 transitional dtd html xmlns http www w3 org 1999 xhtml xml lang en lang en head CS title TI title head body bgcolor BG url s used in the movie MU text used in...

Page 415: ...ing code in a template IM img src IS usemap IU width IW height IH BORDER 0 This might produce the following code in the HTML document that the Publish command creates map name mymovie area coords 130...

Page 416: ...d as bitmaps in image editors such as Adobe Photoshop but you can no longer edit them in vector based drawing programs When you export a Flash file in the SWF format text is encoded as Unicode providi...

Page 417: ...ot open the Open File dialog box appears Navigate to the FLA file and click Open 4 If the user used the Change Link Sitewide feature in Dreamweaver a warning appears To apply link changes to the SWF f...

Page 418: ...jagged edges of a bitmap image PNG Sequence and PNG Image The PNG export settings options are similar to the PNG Publish Settings options which you can apply as well with the following exceptions Dime...

Page 419: ...size of the exported bitmap image in pixels The size you specify always has the same aspect ratio as your original image Resolution Sets the resolution of the exported bitmap image in dots per inch dp...

Page 420: ...s Dreamweaver export the entire document as a SWF file Flash exports the SWF file using the current settings from the Flash tab of the Publish Settings for the FLA file See also Publishing Flash docum...

Page 421: ...ss the document contains an imported QuickTime movie The imported QuickTime movie remains in QuickTime format in the exported application Export QuickTime 1 Select File Export Export Movie 2 Specify s...

Page 422: ...r dimension is automatically set to maintain the aspect ratio of your original document To set both the width and the height deselect Maintain Aspect Ratio Video Format Selects a color depth Some appl...

Page 423: ...our layers that include ActionScript and a layer for frame labels at the top of the layer stack in the timeline For example name the layer that contains your ActionScript actions Use layer folders to...

Page 424: ...When you save your FLA files use a consistent naming scheme for your documents This is particularly important if you save multiple versions of a single project Some problems might occur if you only w...

Page 425: ...ed actions on the topmost layer in the Timeline Alternatively you might put all of your code in ActionScript files Some Flash applications do not always put all code in a single place in particular Ac...

Page 426: ...the timeline Behaviors are not supported by ActionScript 3 0 Comparing timeline code with object code To avoid problems that decentralized ActionScript 2 0 code creates carefully plan a document that...

Page 427: ...s How many behaviors do you have to use and where do you plan to put them in the FLA file If your behaviors are all placed on a timeline they might work well in your document Or your workflow might no...

Page 428: ...deo into a FLA file called embedded video it increases the size of the SWF file that you publish This video starts progressively downloading to the user s computer whether or not they view the video Y...

Page 429: ...available to you Make your video as short as possible Trim the beginning and end of your video and edit your video to remove any unnecessary content This can be accomplished directly in Flash using th...

Page 430: ...your Flash Player version is correct For example if you encoded your files using On2 codec you need Flash Player 8 or later installed for the browsers you use to view your Flash content Note For Flas...

Page 431: ...it handles a server s response After data is received in the SWF file it must be manipulated and formatted If you use a protocol you do not have to worry about data being in an unexpected format When...

Page 432: ...main You must write ActionScript to handle the data that loads into the SWF file from the server After you finish loading data into a SWF file the data can be accessed from that location Use ActionScr...

Page 433: ...services in classes When you use classes you benefit in the following ways You can reuse the code in more than one SWF file You can edit code in a central place and update all SWF files by republishi...

Page 434: ...ication can greatly reduce the time it takes to develop test and even update more than one client interface Similarly adding new front ends for the same application is easier if you have an existing m...

Page 435: ...access the content for instance a textual description of a video However Flash provides textual information directly to the screen reader Although this usually means you need to make additional settin...

Page 436: ...u divide text or use images for text in your SWF files provide either a name or description for these elements If you have several nested movie clips that serve a single purpose or convey one idea ens...

Page 437: ...on screen readers to describe a site s content typically use tabbing and keyboard controls to navigate the operating system and web pages because using the mouse is not useful when the screen cannot...

Page 438: ...with screen readers Test your SWF files when each new version of Flash Player is released including minor revisions and test it with the following scenarios Using the Window Eyes and JAWS for Windows...

Page 439: ...he standardized file size recommendations as advertising specifications Use the GET command to pass data between an advertisement and a server and do not use the POST command For more information on G...

Page 440: ...acking Tracks the advertisement and helps the network serving the ad to track where the ad appears and when it is clicked The process is the standard way of creating an advertising campaign for a typi...

Page 441: ...can also compress a SWF file as you publish it As you make changes test your document by running it on a variety of computers operating systems and Internet connections For a video tutorial about opt...

Page 442: ...s Turns on anti aliasing for lines shapes and bitmaps and displays shapes and lines so that their edges appear smoother on the screen Draws more slowly than the Fast option Anti aliasing works best on...

Page 443: ...zing curves reduces your file size and improves SWF file performance Third party options are available for specialized optimization of curves and points that yield different results To get the best re...

Page 444: ...ccurs The filters array is ignored The movie clip is drawn using the regular vector renderer No bitmaps are cached for the movie clip After an out of memory error occurs a movie clip never attempts to...

Page 445: ...nge and whether or not you set the opaqueBackground property If you are changing small regions the difference between using a surface and using vector data might be negligible Test both scenarios with...

Page 446: ...e For example the XMLConnector component adds 17K to the SWF file and TextInput components add 24K to your document If you add the ComboBox component it adds 28K because it is not part of the framewor...

Page 447: ...download time by using runtime shared libraries These libraries are usually necessary for larger applications or when numerous applications on a site use the same components or symbols By externalizin...

Page 448: ...system s code page can seem to solve the problem of text incorrectly displaying However using System useCodePage is always a last resort To use the system s code page place the following line of Actio...

Page 449: ...n page 350 Debugging ActionScript 3 0 on page 360 Test download performance 1 Do one of the following Select Control Test Scene or Control Test Movie If you test a scene or document Flash publishes th...

Page 450: ...e with the txt extension If the document file is myMovie fla the text file is myMovie Report txt The report lists the size of each frame shape text sound video and ActionScript script by frame Tips fo...

Page 451: ...weens keyframe animations and ActionScript driven movement to produce the most efficient results Rendering vector ovals and circles is much more memory intensive than rendering quadrangles Using round...

Page 452: ...so it can rarely be avoided entirely When text is needed avoid animating it or placing it over an animation Consider using text as a bitmap For multiline dynamic and input text the line break of the t...

Page 453: ...roximate the playback speed of the target device This shows how the content will run on a device with limited performance Before publishing a final SWF file set the document frame rate to at least 20...

Page 454: ...nload time and run time memory requirements Avoid using Object watch and Object unwatch because every change to an object property requires the player to determine whether a change notification must b...

Page 455: ...example a variable defined within a function definition you can t use the delete statement to free an object s memory but you can set to null the variable that references the object This frees the me...

Page 456: ...smaller pieces for example in several XML files and make several data loading calls for each piece The size of each piece of data and therefore the number of data loading calls you need to make varie...

Page 457: ...hould be excluded from the SWF file Add as many as required for the file For example the following XML file excludes the mx core UIObject and mx screens Slide classes from the SWF file excludeAssets a...

Page 458: ...ptions in 338 yellow items in 341 ActionScript accessibility properties 312 class for screens 324 creating with Script Assist 337 detecting screen reader 313 editing preferences 336 formatting 339 in...

Page 459: ...nimation frames accessibility and 304 classic tweens versus motion tweens 189 converting to movie clip symbol 150 creating keyframes in 211 displaying frames as onion skin outlines 221 dragging a libr...

Page 460: ...ng and removing 356 361 setting and removing in Actions panel 356 XML file 357 brightness adjusting in Illustrator 11 Brightness effect 154 Bring Forward behavior 169 command 121 Bring To Front behavi...

Page 461: ...o to Mono 279 Convert to Symbol command 149 Copy Frames command 173 211 copying history steps 31 layer folder contents 176 layers 175 objects 125 screens 321 Create Copy button in Transform panel 125...

Page 462: ...okes 101 click accuracy tolerance 97 combining objects 118 converting lines to fills 113 Crop command 118 curve points and corner points 106 curves optimizing 112 curves smoothing 97 erasing lines or...

Page 463: ...ting 234 applying 235 238 239 240 241 Flash Player performance 235 Pixel Bender 235 saving preset settings 237 Find And Replace bitmap images 61 colors 60 fonts 59 overview 58 sound 61 text 59 video 6...

Page 464: ...Gradients on clipboard preference 39 graphic object converting to a symbol 158 graphic symbols about 148 controlling with behaviors 169 graphics creating symbol instances 152 load behavior 169 setting...

Page 465: ...r library items 36 for panels 33 34 for pinned scripts 346 for Property inspector 33 34 for the Stage 35 for tree controls 36 Shortcut option on Accessibility panel 306 Keyframe command 172 211 keyfra...

Page 466: ...Child Objects Accessible option about 306 movie clips and 308 Make Movie Accessible option 309 Make Object Accessible option 306 308 margins text 255 mask layers about 221 creating 222 linking additi...

Page 467: ...backward 121 sending to back 121 size matching 121 skewing 117 snapping 123 stacking 121 transformed copying 125 transformed restoring 117 transforming freely 115 On Launch preferences 39 onion skin...

Page 468: ...Settings options 96 editing 40 Font Mapping Default 38 FreeHand Text on clipboard 40 general 39 Gradients on clipboard 39 Highlight Color 39 Named Anchor on Scenes 39 On Launch options 39 Pen tool 107...

Page 469: ...p editing sound 277 roving keyframes 197 Ruler Units menu 45 rulers about 19 running commands with Run Command 32 S salign parameter 389 SALIGN parameter publish settings 386 Sample Rate for ADPCM sou...

Page 470: ...120 scene everything in 119 selection marquee with 119 straight edged selection area with 119 text and text blocks 248 selection highlighting for objects 118 Selection tool reshaping with 111 selecti...

Page 471: ...top Dragging Movieclip behavior 169 Stop option for sound 275 Straighten modifier for Selection tool 112 straightening curves lines 111 Stream option for sound 275 streaming sounds 273 testing perform...

Page 472: ...r into Flash 72 importing with clipboard 125 in mobile devices 446 linking to a URL 253 making selectable by users 257 margins 255 masking 246 multilanguage 258 259 261 266 267 optimizing 436 point si...

Page 473: ...36 troubleshooting See debugging tryouts 4 tween spans copy and paste 201 editing 198 tweened animation 187 tweened frames dragging keyframes in 211 tweening along a path 213 motion 212 motion paths f...

Page 474: ...3 Web 216 color palette 394 web servers configuring for Flash Player 382 Web Snap Adaptive color palette 394 web safe color palette 128 weight for lines 131 Welcome screen 17 width attribute 385 387 w...

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