MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-FLASH, Use Manual, Page: 84 / 678

84 Using Symbols, Instances, and Library Assets
5. When you have finished creating the symbol content, do one of the following to return to
document-editing mode:
■
Click the Back button at the left of the Edit bar above the Stage.
■
Select Edit > Edit Document.
■
Click the scene name in the Edit bar above the Stage.
When you create a new symbol, the registration point is placed at the center of the
window in symbol-editing mode. You can place the symbol contents in the window in
relation to the registration point. You can also move the symbol contents in relation to the
registration point when you edit a symbol, in order to change the registration point. See
“Editing symbols” on page 89 .
Converting animation on the Stage into a movie clip
If you’ve created an animated sequence on the Stage and want to reuse it elsewhere in your
document, or if you want to manipulate it as an instance, you can select it and save it as a
movie clip symbol.
To convert animation on the Stage into a movie clip:
1. On the main Timeline, select every frame in every layer of the animation on the Stage that
you want to use. For information on selecting frames, see “Using the Timeline” in
Getting
Started with Flash .
2. Do one of the following to copy the frames:
■
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) any selected frame and select
Copy Frames from the context menu. Select Cut if you want to delete the sequence
after converting it to a movie clip.
■
Select Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. Select Cut Frames if you want to delete the
sequence after converting it to a movie clip.
3.
Deselect your selection and make sure nothing on the Stage is selected. Select Modify >
New Symbol.
4. In the Create New Symbol dialog box, name the symbol. For Behavior, select Movie Clip,
then click OK.
Flash opens a new symbol for editing in symbol-editing mode.
5. On the Timeline, click Frame 1 on Layer 1, and select Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames.
This pastes the frames (and any layers and layer names) you copied from the main
Timeline to the Timeline of this movie clip symbol. Any animation, buttons, or
interactivity from the frames you copied now becomes an independent animation (a
movie clip symbol) that you can reuse throughout your document.