How Can I Display the Panel Again in Adobe Flash Player

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Chapter 1. Getting Effectually Flash

As mentioned in this book's introduction, Wink performs several feats of audio-visual magic. You lot use it to create animations, to display video on a website, to create handheld apps, or to build a complete web-based application. So it's not surprising that the Wink workspace is crammed full of tools, panels, and windows (Figure one-i). But don't be intimidated—you don't have to conquer these tools all at one time. This chapter introduces you lot to Wink's primary work areas and often-used toolbars and panels, and so yous can beginning creating Flash projects right away. Y'all'll experiment with Flash's stage and timeline, and run into how Flash lets yous animate graphics so that they move along a path and change shape.

Tip

To get further acquainted with Flash, yous tin can cheque out the born aid screens by selecting Assist→Flash Help. Once the help panel opens, click Using Wink Professional person. Information technology's on the left side of the somewhat busy window. You tin can read more about Flash's assistance organization in Appendix A.

Starting Flash

You lot get-go Flash just as you would any other program—which means yous can do information technology in a few unlike ways, depending on whether you lot take a PC or a Mac. Installing the program puts Flash CS6 and its related files in the folder with your other programs, and y'all tin can start it by double-clicking its icon. Hither'south where it's usually installed:

• Windows . Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS6\Flash.exe . You tin can create a shortcut or drag the file to the taskbar for quicker starting.

• Mac . Go to Macintosh HD\Applications\Adobe Flash CS6\Adobe Flash CS6 . Y'all can make an alias or drag the file to the Dock for quicker starting.

Figure 1-1. The Flash Professional person workspace is divided into 3 main areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. This entire window, together with the timeline, toolbars, and panels, is sometimes called the Wink desktop, the Flash interface, or the Wink authoring environs.

Here are some other Windows means to start the plan:

• From the Vista or Windows 7 Showtime menu, choose All Programs→Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

• For Windows XP, go to Kickoff→All Programs→Adobe→Adobe Flash Professional CS6.

• If yous're a keyboard enthusiast, press the Windows key and begin to type flash . Every bit yous blazon, Windows searches for a match and displays a listing with programs at the top. Most likely, the Wink program is at the top of the list and already selected, then simply press Enter. Otherwise, use your mouse or arrow keys to select and beginning the program.

Here are some Mac launching options:

• Even if you haven't added the Flash icon to the Dock, you tin can still find it in the Dock's Applications folder. Click and hold the Applications folder icon and choose Adobe Wink CS6→Adobe Wink CS6.

• Want to hunt down Flash in the Finder? Most of the time, information technology's installed in Macintosh Hard disk→Applications→Adobe Flash CS6→Adobe Flash CS6.

• If you'd rather type than chase, apply Spotlight. Press ⌘-space and and then begin to type flash . Every bit you type, Spotlight displays a list of programs and files that friction match. Nigh likely, the Flash program is at the pinnacle of the list and already selected, and so just press Return. Otherwise, use the mouse or pointer keys to select and start the program.

When you showtime start Flash, up pops the Welcome screen, shown in Effigy 1-2. This screen puts all your options—like starting a new document or returning to a work in progress—in one handy identify. For good measure, Adobe includes some links to help references and resources on its website.

Figure 1-ii. This Welcome screen appears the first time you launch Flash—and every subsequent fourth dimension, as well, unless yous plow on the "Don't bear witness again" checkbox (pull down the bottom of the window if yous don't see it). If you ever miss the convenience of seeing all your recent Flash documents, built-in templates, and other options in one place, and then you lot tin can plow it back on by choosing Edit→Preferences (Windows) or Flash→Preferences (Mac). On the General panel, choose Welcome Screen from the On Launch pop-upwards card.

Note

If Flash seems to take forever to open—or if the Flash desktop ignores your mouse clicks or responds sluggishly—y'all may not accept enough retentiveness installed on your figurer. See Flash CS6 Minimum Arrangement Requirements for more advice.

When you choose one of the options, the Welcome screen disappears and your certificate takes its place. Here are your choices:

• Create from Template . Clicking one of the little icons nether this option lets you lot create a Flash document using a predesigned form chosen a template . A template helps you lot create an animation more quickly, since a Flash developer has already done part of the piece of work for you. You can detect out more than about templates in Chapter seven.

• Open up a Contempo Item . As you create new documents, Flash adds them to this list. Clicking ane of the filenames listed here tells Flash to open up that file. Clicking the folder icon lets you scan for and open up whatsoever other Flash file on your computer.

  Tip

  The options for creating new Wink documents and opening contempo documents also appear on the File menu, as shown in Figure 1-3.

  

  Figure i-3. Several of the options on each menu include keystroke shortcuts that let you perform an activity without having to mouse all the way up to the menu. For example, instead of selecting File→Save As, you can printing Ctrl+Shift+Due south to tell Wink to save your Flash document. On the Mac, the keystroke is Shift-⌘-S.

• Create New . Clicking one of the options listed hither lets you create a brand-new Flash file. About of the fourth dimension, you want to choose the first choice, ActionScript three.0, which is a garden-multifariousness animation file. ActionScript is the underlying programming language for Flash animations. The current version of ActionScript is 3.0, and it's the version used for the projects in this book. You lot can utilise the ActionScript ii.0 selection if you need to work with a Flash project that was created several years ago. For details on the file formats for different Flash projects, run across the box beneath.

  Note

  Sometime programming pros—you know who you are—may have reasons to prefer ActionScript ii.0. For example, you might choose this option if y'all're standing work on a projection created using ActionScript 2.0, or if you're working with a team using ActionScript two.0.

• Extend . Clicking the Wink Exchange link under this option tells Flash to open your spider web browser and load the Wink Substitution website. At that place, yous can download Wink components, audio files, and other goodies that y'all can add to your Wink animations. Some are free, some are fee-based, and all of them are created by Flashionados just like yous.

• Learn . As you might judge, these links lead to materials Adobe designed to help you get upwardly and running. Click an option, and your web browser opens to a folio on the Adobe website. The outset few topics introduce basic Wink concepts like symbols, instances, and timelines. Farther downwards the list, you notice specific topics for edifice applications for mobile devices or websites (AIR). At the bottom of the Welcome screen, "Getting Started" covers the very, very basics. "New Features" explains (and celebrates) some of Flash CS6'south new bells and whistles. "Developers" leads to an online magazine with articles and videos with an ActionScript programming slant. "Designers" leads to a like resource for the Wink graphics and blueprint community.

A Tour of the Wink Workspace

The best way to master the Wink CS6 Professional person workspace is to divide and conquer. Start, focus on the three primary piece of work areas: the stage, the timeline, and the Panels dock. Then you can gradually learn how to utilise all the tools in those areas.

One big source of confusion for Flash newbies is that the workspace is so easy to customize. You tin can open bunches of panels, windows, and toolbars. You can move the timeline higher up the stage, or y'all can take it floating in a window all its own. Once y'all're a seasoned Flash veteran, you'll accept strong opinions nigh how you want to set up your workspace and then the tools you use near are at hand. If you're simply learning Flash with the aid of this book, though, it's probably all-time if yous set upward your workspace then that it matches the pictures in these pages.

Fortunately, there's an easy fashion to do that. Adobe, in its wisdom, created the Workspace Switcher—a tool that lets y'all rearrange the entire workspace with the click of a menu. The thinking is that an platonic workspace for a cartoon animator is different from the ideal workspace for, say, a rich cyberspace awarding (RIA) programmer. The Workspace Switcher is a card in the upper-right corner of the Flash window, adjacent to the search box. The menu displays the name of the currently selected workspace; when y'all first starting time Flash, it probably says Essentials . That's a not bad workspace that displays some of the most frequently used tools. In fact, it'south the workspace used throughout nearly of this book.

Here'southward a quick little exercise that shows you how to switch among the dissimilar workspaces and how to reset a workspace afterwards you've mangled it by dragging panels out of identify and opening new windows.

1. Showtime Flash .

   Flash opens, displaying the Welcome screen. Unless you've made changes, the Essentials workspace is used. See Figure 1-4, peak.

2. From the Workspace carte du jour near the upper-right corner of the Wink window, choose Classic .

   The Classic system harkens back to earlier versions of Flash, when the timeline resided above the stage (Figure 1-iv, lesser). If you wish, go ahead and check out some of the other layouts.

3. Cull the Essentials workspace again .

   Back where yous began, the Essentials workspace shows the timeline at the bottom. The stage takes up virtually of the main window. On the right, the Panels dock holds toolbars and panels. Now's the time to cause a little havoc.

   

   Figure i-4. Top: The Essentials workspace is the one used throughout this book. Bottom: The Classic workspace shows the timeline in a higher place the stage, a expect familiar to Flash Pro veterans.

4. In the Panels dock, click the Properties tab and drag it to a new location on the screen .

   Panels can float, or they can dock to ane of the edges of the window. For this experiment, it doesn't matter what yous choose to practise.

5. Elevate the Colour and Swatches toolbars to new locations .

   The Color toolbar has an icon that looks like an artist's palette at the top. Similar the larger panels, toolbars can either dock or float. Yous tin can elevate them anywhere on your monitor, and you tin can aggrandize and collapse them by clicking the double-triangle button in their top-right corners.

6. Go to Window→Other Panels→History .

   Wink has dozens of windows. But a few are available at present, because you haven't even created a certificate yet.

   Tip

   Every bit you work on a project, the History panel keeps runway of all your commands, operations, and changes. Information technology'south a not bad tool for undoing mistakes. For more details, see Other Flash Panels.

7. From the Workspace menu, choose Reset Essentials .

   The workspace changes back to the original Essentials layout, even though you lot did your best to mess it upwards.

Someday yous want your workspace to match the one used throughout almost of this book, practise the "Essentials 2-step": Choose Essentials from the Workspace Switcher (if you're not already there), and and then cull Reset Essentials. As shown in Figure 1-four, when yous use the Essentials workspace, the Flash window is divvied up into iii chief work areas: the stage (upper left), the timeline (lower left), and the panels dock (right). Earlier exploring each of these areas in particular, here are a few words nearly Wink'southward carte bar.

Bill of fare Bar

Like nigh estimator programs, Flash gives yous menus to collaborate with your documents. In traditional fashion, Windows menus appear at the top of the program window, while Mac menus are always at the very top of the screen. The commands on these menus list every style yous tin interact with your Flash file, from creating a new file—equally shown on Starting Flash—to editing it, saving it, and controlling how information technology appears on your screen.

Some of the menu names—File, Edit, View, Window, and Assistance—are familiar to anyone who'south used a PC or a Mac. Using these card choices, you tin can perform basic tasks like opening, saving, and printing your Flash files; cutting and pasting artwork or text; viewing your project in different ways; choosing which toolbars to view; getting assist; and more.

To view a bill of fare, merely click the menu's name to open it, and and so click a card pick. If y'all adopt, you lot tin can also drag down to the option you lot want. Let go of the mouse button to activate the choice. Figure one-three shows you what the File card looks like. Most of the time, you run across the same menus at the peak of the screen, but occasionally they change. For example, when you use the Debugger to troubleshoot ActionScript programs, Wink hides some of the menus not related to debugging.

Tip

You lot'll learn nearly specific commands and menu options in their related chapters. For a quick reference to all the menu options, run into Appendix B.

The Stage

Equally the name implies, the stage is usually the eye of attending. It'south your virtual canvas. Here's where y'all draw the pictures, brandish text, and make objects move beyond the screen. The stage is as well your playback arena; when you run a completed blitheness—to meet if it needs tweaking—the animation appears on the phase. Figure one-5 shows a project with an animation under construction.

Figure one-5. The phase is where you lot draw the pictures that volition eventually become your animation. The piece of work area (light gray) gives y'all a handy place to put graphic elements while you lot figure out how y'all want to conform them on the stage. Hither a text box is beingness dragged from the work surface area dorsum to eye phase.

The piece of work expanse is the technical proper noun for the gray expanse surrounding the phase, although many Flashionados telephone call it the backstage . This work area serves every bit a prep zone where you lot can place graphic elements before you movement them to the stage, and equally a temporary holding pen for elements yous want to move off the stage briefly as yous reposition things. For instance, let'due south say yous draw three circles and 1 box containing text on your phase. If yous decide you need to rearrange these elements, you tin can temporarily drag one of the circles off the phase.

Note

The phase ever starts out with a white groundwork, which becomes the background colour for your animation. Changing it to any color imaginable is easy, as you'll learn in the next affiliate.

You'll near ever modify the starting size and shape of the phase depending on where people will run into your finished animation—in other words, your target platform . If your target platform is a smartphone, for case, you're going to desire a smaller stage. If, on the other paw, you're creating an animation for a ballpark'due south JumboTron, you're going to want a giant stage. Yous'll get to try your mitt at modifying the size and background color of the stage later in this chapter.

The Timeline

When you go to the theater, the phase changes over time—actors come up and go, songs are sung, scenery changes, and the lights smooth and fade. In Flash, y'all're the director, and you get to control what appears on the stage at whatever given moment. The timeline is the tool used to specify what's seen or heard at a item moment. The concept is pretty unproblematic, and if you lot've ever used video editing software, it will be familiar. Wink animations (or movies) are organized into chunks of time called frames . Each piffling box in the timeline represents a frame or a point in time. You apply the playhead , shown in Figure 1-vi, to select a specific frame. So when the playhead is positioned at Frame 10, the stage shows what the audience sees at that indicate in time.

Figure 1-half-dozen. The playhead is a blood-red box that appears in the timeline; here the playhead is fix to Frame 10. Y'all can drag the playhead to whatsoever indicate in the timeline to select a unmarried frame. The Wink stage shows exactly what's in your animation at that signal in fourth dimension.

The timeline is laid out from left to right, starting with Frame ane. Only put, you build Flash animations past choosing a frame with the playhead so arranging the objects on the phase the way you want them. The timeline uses a special tool chosen a keyframe (see Effigy 1-half-dozen) to remember exactly what's on stage at that moment. Y'all'll learn more about the keyframes and other timeline tools in Affiliate 3. Most simple animations play from Frame ane through to the stop of the movie, but Wink gives you ways to start and cease the animation and control how fast it runs—that is, how many frames per second (fps) are displayed. Using some ActionScript magic, yous can control the guild in which the frames are displayed. You lot'll acquire how to do that on Organizing Your Blitheness.

Tip

The first fourth dimension y'all run Wink, the timeline appears automatically, merely occasionally you want to hide the timeline—perhaps to reduce screen clutter while you concentrate on your artwork. Y'all can testify and hide the timeline by selecting Window→Timeline or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T (or for the Mac, Option-⌘-T).

Panels and Toolbars

If you followed the picayune practice on A Tour of the Flash Workspace, you know y'all tin can put panels and toolbars almost anywhere onscreen. However, if you use the Essentials workspace, you lot start off with a few oft used panels and toolbars docked neatly on the right side of the programme window.

It'southward easy to become confused by the Flash nomenclature. Wink has toolbars, panels, palettes, and windows. Sometimes collapsed panels look like toolbars and open up upwards when clicked—like the frequently used Tools panel. Toolbars and panels pack the well-nigh commonly used options together in a prissy compact space, so you don't accept to practise a chase-and-peck through the main menu every fourth dimension you lot desire to do something. Panels are smashing, just they take up precious real manor. As you work, you tin can hide sure tools to go a better view of your artwork. (You can always become them back by choosing their names from the Window bill of fare.)

Toolbars and panels are such an integral part of working with Flash that information technology'due south helpful to learn some of their tricks early on:

• Move a panel . Merely click and elevate the tab or superlative of the panel to a new location. Panels can float anywhere on your monitor, or dock on an edge of the Flash program window (as in the Essentials workspace). For more details on docking and floating, encounter the box on Docked vs. Floating.

• Expand or plummet a panel . Click the double-triangle push at the top of a console to expand or collapse information technology. Complanate panels await similar toolbars, showing a few icons that hint at the tools' purposes. Expanded panels take upward more real estate, but they also give you more details and often take word labels for the tools and settings.

• Prove or hide a panel . Employ the Window menu to evidence and hibernate individual panels. Checkmarks appear next to the panels that are shown.

• Close a floating panel . In Windows, click the small X in the panel's upper-right corner. On the Mac, click the X in the upper-left corner.

• Prove or hibernate all panels . The F4 key works like a toggle, hiding or showing all the panels and toolbars. Use it when you want to quickly reduce screen clutter and focus on your artwork.

• Separate or combine tabbed panels . Click and drag the proper noun on a tab to split up it from a group of tabbed panels. To add a tab to a group, simply elevate it into place.

• Reset the panel workspace . Choose Reset <workspace proper name> from the Workspace Switcher. Instead of <workspace proper name>, you run into the name of the current workspace—something similar Essentials or Archetype . You can also exercise a reset using the menus; choose Window→Workspace→Reset <workspace proper name>.

Effigy 1-vii. Meridian: To conserve space on Flash's jam-packed desktop, just one toolbar—the Edit bar—appears automatically. It's positioned directly above the stage. To brandish the other two, select Window→Toolbars→Main (to brandish the Principal toolbar, Windows only) and Window→Toolbars→Controller (to display the Controller window). Bottom: The checkmarks on the carte du jour show when a toolbar is turned on. Choose the toolbar's proper noun once again to remove the checkmark and hibernate the toolbar.

Annotation

When you reposition a floating toolbar, Wink remembers where you put it. If, later on on, you hibernate the toolbar—or leave Flash and run it again—your toolbars appear exactly as you left them. If this isn't what y'all want, utilise the Workspace Switcher to choose a new workspace layout or to reset the current workspace.

Toolbars

Strictly speaking, Wink has only three toolbars: Main, Controller, and Edit. (Everything else is a console, even if it looks suspiciously similar a toolbar.) Figure 1-7 shows all three toolbars.

• Principal (Windows only) . The Chief toolbar gives y'all one-click bones operations, like opening an existing Wink file, creating a new file, and cut and pasting sections of your cartoon.

• Controller . If you've ever used a DVD player or an iPod, you lot'll recognize the Stop, Rewind, and Play buttons on the Controller toolbar, which lets you control how you want Wink to run your finished animation. (Non surprisingly, the Controller options appear grayed out —significant you lot can't select them—if you haven't withal constructed an animation.) With Flash Professional CS6, the Controller is a little obsolete, because now the same buttons announced below the timeline.

• Edit bar . Using the options here, you can alter your view of the stage, zooming in and out, likewise as edit scenes (named groups of frames ) and symbols (reusable drawings).

Note

The Edit bar is a petty different from the other toolbars in that it remains fixed to the phase. You can't reposition it.

Tools Console

The Tools console is unique. For designers, it's probably the most used of all the panels and toolbars. In the Essentials workspace, the Tools panel appears along the right side of the Flash program window. There are no text labels, just a series of icons. Still, if you lot need a hint, just hold your mouse over one of the tools, and a tooltip shows the name of the tool. Then, for example, mouse over the arrow at the top of the Tools panel, and the tooltip says "Selection tool (V)." The letter in parentheses is the shortcut key for that tool. Press the letter V while you lot're working in Wink, and your cursor changes to the Selection tool.

Most animations start with a single drawing. And to describe something in Flash, you need cartoon tools: pens, pencils, brushes, colors, erasers, and so on. The Tools panel shown in Effigy 1-8 is where you find Flash's cartoon tools. Chapter 2 shows you how to use these tools to create a simple drawing; this section gives you a quick overview of the vi sections of the Tools panel, each of which focuses on a slightly different kind of cartoon tool or optional feature.

Selection and Drawing Tools

At the acme of the Tools panel are the tools you lot need to create and change a Flash drawing. For example, yous might utilise the Pen tool to showtime a sketch, the Paint Saucepan or Ink Bottle to apply color, and the Eraser to make clean up mistakes.

Effigy 1-8. The Tools console groups tools by different drawing chores. Choice and Transform tools are at the top, followed by Drawing tools. Adjacent are the IK Bones tool and the Color tools. The View tools are for zooming and panning. The Colour tools include two swatches, i for strokes and one for fills. At the bottom you observe the Options buttons, which modify depending on the drawing tool y'all've selected. If you similar, you can drag the docked Tools console away from the border of the workspace and turn it into a floating panel.

View Tools

At times, you'll detect yourself cartoon a picture show so enormous y'all tin can't run into it all on the stage at one time. Or peradventure you lot'll find yourself cartoon something you want to take a super-shut look at so you can modify information technology pixel by pixel. In either of these situations, you tin utilize the tools Flash displays in the View section of the Tools panel to zoom in, zoom out, and pan around the stage. (Y'all'll get to try your paw at using these tools afterward in this chapter; see The Flash CS6 Test Drive.)

Note

The term pixel is brusk for "moving picture element." Images on a computer screen are made up of lots of tiny dots emitting different colors. Each dot is a pixel.

Color Tools

When you're creating in Flash, you're drawing one of two things: a stroke , which is a plain line or outline, or a fill , which is the area within an outline. You lot can use these tools to choose a color from the Color palette earlier yous click one of the drawing icons to brainstorm drawing (or subsequently to change the colors, as discussed in Chapter 2). Flash applies that colour to the phase as you draw.

Options Tools

Which icons appear in the Options section at any given time depends on which tool you've selected. For case, when you lot select the Zoom tool from the View section of the Tools panel, the Options section displays an Enlarge icon and a Reduce icon that you can apply to change the way the Zoom tool works (Figure 1-ix).

Figure 1-9. On the Tools panel, when you click each tool, the Options section shows you buttons that let you modify that particular tool. In the Tools panel's View section, for example, when you click the Zoom tool, the Options section changes to bear witness you merely zooming options: Overstate (with the + sign) and Reduce (with the – sign).

Properties Panel

In many means, the Properties console is Command Fundamental as y'all work with your animation, because it gathers all the pertinent details for the objects you lot work with and displays them in 1 identify. Select an object, and the Properties panel displays all of its properties and settings. Information technology's not just an information provider; yous as well use the Properties console to change settings and tweak the elements in your animation. When there'south fine-tuning to be done, select an object and conform the settings in the Properties console. (Yous can acquire more in the "Exam Drive" section on The Wink CS6 Test Drive.)

The Properties console ordinarily appears when you open a new certificate. Initially, information technology shows information well-nigh your Flash document, like the stage dimensions and the blitheness'southward frame charge per unit. Whenever y'all select an private object in your animation, the Backdrop console shows that object's details. For example, if yous select a text field, the Properties panel lists the typeface, font size, and text color. You also come across information on the paragraph settings, similar the margins and line spacing. Considering the Properties panel crams so many details into one place, you'll find yourself using the collapse and expand buttons to show and hibernate some of the data in its subpanels, equally shown in Effigy 1-10.

Effigy 1-10. The Properties panel shows only those backdrop associated with the object y'all've selected on the stage. Here, considering a text field is selected, the Backdrop console gives you options you can utilize to change the typeface, font size, font color, and paragraph settings. Click the triangular expand and plummet buttons to show and hide details in the Properties console.

Note

If you don't come across the Properties panel, you lot can display it by selecting Window→Properties or past pressing Ctrl+F3 (⌘-F3 on a Mac).

Properties Subpanels

On the Backdrop panel, you come across dissimilar subpanels depending on the object you've selected. Some objects have a lot of settings, and subpanels are Wink'southward mode of giving you access to all of them. Fortunately, the various panels and tools work consistently. For instance, many objects have settings that determine their onscreen positions and define their width and tiptop dimensions. These common settings usually announced at the top of the Properties panel, and you fix them the aforementioned manner for near kinds of objects. If you want to modify colors or add together special effects similar filters or blends, y'all'll find that the tools piece of work the aforementioned manner throughout Wink.

Library Panel

The Library panel (Effigy 1-11) is a place to store objects you want to use more than one time. Let'due south say, for case, that you create a flick-perfect bubble, sun, or snowflake in one frame of your animation. (You'll larn more about frames on Frame-by-Frame Blitheness.) Now, if yous want that bubble, dominicus, or snowflake to announced in 15 additional frames, yous could describe information technology once again and again, but it really makes more sense to shop a re-create in the electric current projection library and then just drag it to where it's needed on those other 15 frames. This fox saves fourth dimension and ensures consistency to boot. The Library console has quite a few other of import tricks, and you'll learn more than near it on Symbols and Instances. To bear witness the Library panel, click Window→Library, or press Ctrl+L (Windows) or ⌘-L (Mac).

Tip

In the upper-right corner of most panels is an Options menu push. When y'all click this push, a bill of fare of options appears—different options for each panel. For example, the Color Swatch panel lets y'all add and delete color swatches. You'll observe many indispensable tools and commands on the Options menus, then it's worth checking them out. You'll learn almost different options throughout this book.

Figure 1-11. Storing simple images as reusable symbols in the Library panel does more than just save yous fourth dimension: Information technology saves you file size, also. (You'll acquire a lot more than almost symbols and file size in Affiliate 7.) Using the Library panel you see here, you can preview symbols, add them to the stage, and easily add symbols you created in one Flash document to another.

Other Flash Panels

As you can see from the examples on the preceding pages, each Wink panel performs specific functions, and most of them deserve several pages to describe them fully, as yous'll notice throughout this book. For now, Tabular array ane-1 gives a thumbnail description and notes the page where the panel is described in detail. If you're eager to get started actually using Flash, jump to The Flash CS6 Test Drive to start the Flash CS6 Examination Drive.

Table 1-1. Flash Panels and their uses (in order equally they appear on the Window carte du jour)

Console Proper name	KEYBOARD SHORTCUT	PURPOSE
Timeline	Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Chiliad Mac: Option-⌘-T	Technically, the timeline is just some other panel. Y'all can motion, hide, aggrandize, and collapse the timeline simply as you would whatever other console. See Frame-by-Frame Animation for more.
Motility Editor	none	A powerful tool used to create and control animation furnishings. Encounter A Tour of the Movement Editor for more than.
Tools	Windows: Ctrl+F2 Mac: ⌘-F2	Perhaps the virtually frequently used panel of all—it holds cartoon, selecting, and coloring tools. The Tools panel also includes specialized tools like the IK Bones tools and the 3D Rotation tool. Come across Using Merge Style and Object Mode Together for more.
Backdrop	Windows: Ctrl+F3 Mac: ⌘-F3	Everything that appears on the stage has properties that define its appearance or characteristics. Even the stage has properties, like width, height, and groundwork color. You can review and edit an object's properties in the Properties panel. See Color Tools for more.
Library	Windows: Ctrl+L Mac: ⌘-Fifty	Holds graphics, symbols, and entire movies that you lot want to reuse. See Symbols and Instances for more.
Common Libraries	none	When yous want to share buttons, classes, or sounds among several different Wink documents, use the mutual libraries. That way, they'll be available to all your projects. See the tip on Tip for more.
Move Presets	none	Serves up dozens of predesigned animations. See Applying Motion Presets for more.
Actions	Windows: F9 Mac: Selection-F9	Y'all use this panel to write ActionScript lawmaking. The Deportment console provides a window for code, a reference tool for the programming language, and a visual brandish for the object-oriented nature of the code. Run into Writing ActionScript Lawmaking in the Timeline for more than.
Code Snippets	none	Contains predesigned chunks of code—someone else sweated the details and then you lot don't have to. Specific bits of code perform timeline tricks, load or unload graphics, handle audiovisual tasks, and program buttons. Come across the box on Create an Issue Handler in a Snap for more.
Behaviors	Windows: Shift+F3 Mac: Shift-F3	The earlier version of ActionScript (version 2.0) uses this panel to provide predesigned $.25 of lawmaking.
Compiler Errors	Windows: Alt-F2 Mac: Pick-F2	Hither's where you lot troubleshoot ActionScript code. Messages explicate the location of an error and provide hints equally to what went wrong. See Setting and Working with Breakpoints for more.
Debug Panels	none	Additional panels to help you lot detect errors in your ActionScript programs. Come across Analyzing Code with the Debugger for more.
Movie Explorer	Windows: Alt+F3 Mac: Option-F3	Helps you examine the elements in your Flash blitheness, including separate scenes if you lot've created them. The brandish uses a tree structure to show the relationship of the elements.
Output	Windows: F2 Mac: F2	Another place to debug ActionScript programs. The Output console is used to display text messages at certain points as a program runs. See Using the Output Panel and trace() Statement for more.
Marshal	Windows: Ctrl+K Mac: ⌘-K	Lets you align and arrange graphic elements on the stage. See Aligning Objects with the Marshal Tools for more than.
Color	Windows: Shift+F9 Mac: Shift-⌘-F9	Lets you select and apply colors to graphic elements. Run into Advanced Colour and Fills for more.
Info	Windows: Ctrl+I Mac: ⌘-I	Provides details about objects, like their location and dimensions. The Info panel also keeps track of the cursor location and the color immediately nether the cursor. See Making It Move with Movement Tweens for more than.
Swatches	Windows: Ctrl+F9 Mac: ⌘-F9	Colors and gradients that you can utilise to graphic elements. You can create your own swatches for colors y'all want to reuse. See Specifying Colors for ActionScript for more.
Transform	Windows: Ctrl+T Mac: ⌘-T	Lets you alter the size, shape, and position of graphic elements on the stage. Yous can even use the Transform panel to reposition or rotate objects in 3-D infinite. Come across Transforming Objects for more.
Components	Windows: Ctrl+F7 Mac: ⌘-F7	Holds predesigned components you can employ in your Flash projects. You'll detect user interface components like buttons and checkboxes, components that tin exist used to create data tables, and components used to control motion picture and sound players. See Reversing Frames in the Timeline for more than.
Component Inspector	Windows: Shift+F7 Mac: Shift-F7	Provides compatibility with older animations. (Flash CS6 displays component backdrop in the Backdrop panel. Earlier versions of Wink used the Component Inspector. See the box on Learning the Parameters for more than.)
Accessibility (under Other Panels)	Windows: Alt+Shift+F11 Mac: Shift-⌘-F11	Tools that help you ensure that vision- and hearing-dumb folks can savor the animations you create using Flash. Come across the box on Why Accessibility Matters.
History (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F10 Mac: ⌘-F10	Lets yous backtrack or undo specific steps in your work. Flash keeps track of every lilliputian thing you do to a file, starting with the fourth dimension y'all created it (or the last fourth dimension you opened it). You tin besides use this panel to save a series of commands yous want to reuse later.
Scene (nether Other Panels)	Windows: Shift+F2 Mac: Shift-F2	Helps you organize and manage your scenes. (You tin break long Flash animations into carve up scenes, equally described on Working with Scenes.)
Strings (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+F11 Mac: ⌘-F11	Need to create an blitheness or application that works in different languages? Using the Strings panel, yous tin create and manage multi-language versions of the text. (This book doesn't cover multi-language Flash.)
Spider web Services (under Other Panels)	Windows: Ctrl+Shift+F10 Mac: Shift-⌘-F10	Used only with ActionScript 2.0 projects that connect to the Internet. (This book doesn't cover ActionScript 2.0.)

The Flash CS6 Examination Drive

For the tutorials in this section, you lot demand a Flash blitheness to practice on. In that location's one ready and waiting for yous on the Missing CD page at www.missingmanuals.com/cds/flashcs6mm. The file is named 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

Note

In instance y'all're wondering, the number 01 at the beginning stands for Chapter ane, and the -1 indicates it'south the first exercise in the chapter. Other Missing CD files for this book are named the same way. You can download all the exercise files in a single Naught file or you can take hold of them affiliate by affiliate. The Missing CD also includes links to all the web-based resources mentioned in this volume.

Open up a Flash File

Go the file 01-1_First_Animation.fla and save it on your reckoner. You may want to create a FlashMM folder in your My Documents or Documents folder to hold your Missing Manual exercises. Launch Wink, and then cull File→Open. When the Open dialog box appears, navigate to the file yous simply downloaded, so click Open. When you open a document, the Welcome screen disappears. Flash shows you the animation on the stage, surrounded by the usual timeline, toolbars, and panels. If you're using the Essentials workspace, it should look like Figure 1-12.

Figure 1-12. After you open the exercise in Flash, your screen should expect like this. At the lesser, the timeline shows two layers—one named background and the other, wheel. The stage shows (surprise, surprise) a background and a bike. To the right, the Backdrop panel displays the backdrop for the document.

Explore the Properties Panel

The Properties panel appears docked to the right side of the stage when y'all open a new certificate. As shown in Effigy 1-thirteen, it shows the Property settings for objects. Initially, information technology shows the backdrop for the Wink document itself. Click some other object, such equally the wheel, and you lot encounter its properties. Why are backdrop so important? They give you an extremely accurate clarification of objects. If you need to precisely define a color or the dimensions of an object, the Properties console is the tool to use. Information technology not only reports the details, but it also gives you the tools to make changes, equally shown in this piffling do:

1. At the top of the Tools panel, click the Pick tool (solid pointer) .

   As an alternative, printing V, the keyboard shortcut for the Selection tool.

2. Click the white part of the stage .

   The Properties console shows the backdrop for your Wink document. At the top, you see the discussion "Document," and underneath, yous see the filename.

   

   Figure 1-13. Left: When yous first open a document, the Properties panel shows property settings for the document. Correct: Select the bicycle in the certificate, and yous see its properties. Click the triangle buttons to expand and collapse the subpanels.

3. Click the triangle button to open the Backdrop subpanel .

   The push button works like a toggle to open and close the subpanel. The subpanel displays three settings: FPS (frames per second), Size, and Phase.

4. Click the white rectangle side by side to Phase .

   A panel opens with colour swatches.

5. Click a color swatch—any color will do .

   The background color of the phase changes to the colour you chose.

6. Click the cycle .

   Information virtually the cycle fills the Backdrop panel. The bicycle is a special type of object called a Movie Clip symbol . You'll learn much more about Movie Clips and other reusable symbols in Chapter 7.

Note

You may notice that you can't select anything else in this certificate. That's because the other objects are in the background layer, which is locked. (For more details on locking layers, see Locking and Unlocking Layers.)

Resize the Stage

In Flash, the size of your phase is the actual finished size of your blitheness, so setting its verbal dimensions is one of the first things you do when yous create an animation, as you'll see in the next affiliate. Just you can resize the stage at whatever time.

Here's how to alter the size of your stage:

1. With the Selection tool, click on a blank surface area of the stage (to brand sure nothing on the stage is selected) .

   Alternatively, you can click the Selection tool and then choose Edit→Deselect All.

2. In the Backdrop panel, open the Properties subpanel, and and so click the Edit push .

   The Document Settings window appears, as shown in Figure 1-fourteen. At the pinnacle of the window are boxes labeled Dimensions. That's where you lot're going to work your magic.

   

   Effigy 1-14. The Document Settings dialog box puts several related settings in 1 place. At the summit are the document's dimensions. In the lower-left corner are settings for the stage's background color and the frame rate. Click "Ruler units" to cull amid Inches, Points, Centimeters, Millimeters, and Pixels.

3. Click in the width box (which currently reads "550 px"), and so blazon 600 .

   Yous can change both the width and the height. The changes won't take place until y'all click OK. So if y'all accept 2nd thoughts and don't desire to brand any changes, then only click Abolish.

   Tip

   If you desire to change the phase back to its original dimensions later on you've clicked OK, you can do that past choosing Edit→Undo or pressing Ctrl+Z (⌘-Z on a Mac). Undo works like it does in most programs, undoing your last action, and y'all can press information technology multiple times to work your mode back through your recent actions.

4. Click OK when you're washed .

   The stage resizes according to your instructions.

Zoom In and Out

When your Wink projection gets large or complicated, you may want to focus on just a portion of the stage. If you lot've used other graphics programs—from Windows Paint to iPhoto or Photoshop—in that location's not much mystery to the procedure. In the Tools panel, click the Zoom tool, which looks similar a magnifying glass (Figure 1-15). Initially, the Zoom tool shows a + sign, pregnant it's all prepare to zoom in. Click any spot you want to zoom in on, and you get a closer view. As an alternative, yous can click and elevate over an surface area to zoom in with more precision. As you drag, a rectangle appears to marker the area of interest.

Figure 1-xv. Choose the Zoom tool and and then click the stage to zoom in on your Flash certificate. Hold the Alt (Option) primal downwards to zoom out. Once you lot're zoomed in, you can move effectually using either the scrollbars or the Hand tool (H).

Using the Zoom tool, you can get so shut that y'all see individual pixels in your artwork. Very handy for some operations. One time you're zoomed in, you can utilise the scroll confined at the right and lesser of the phase to reposition the stage in the viewing area. Even easier, choose the Hand tool (H) and then click and drag the phase within the viewing area.

Want to zoom out? Concur downwards the Alt (Option) key every bit yous use the Zoom tool. Each time y'all click, you run across more and more of the phase. Directly higher up the stage is the Edit bar. (If you don't see it, select Window→Toolbars→Edit Bar.) A carte du jour on the Edit bar sets the Magnification or Zoom property as a pct, as shown in Figure 1-sixteen.

Figure one-16. The Magnification menu in the Edit bar gives yous a quick readout on the Zoom factor. Click the carte to choose from several presets, including "Fit in Window," which shows the entire stage, or Show All, which zooms in or out to prove all the objects drawn on the stage.

Go far Move

If you've followed along in the exercises upwardly to this point, you deserve a gustation of the Wink magic to come. Enough studying panels and tools—Wink is an blitheness program. It'south time to make something move, or more precisely, to make something bounciness. With the assistance of a little feature chosen Move Presets, it's easier than y'all call back:

1. In the Magnification carte du jour, choose "Fit in Window."

   This gives you a view of the entire stage.

2. With the Selection tool (Five), drag the bike to the height of the stage .

   All the parts of the bicycle (tire, spokes, hub) movement as a single unit because they're grouped within a Flash symbol, chosen a Movie Clip.

3. Choose Window→Motility Presets .

   A floating panel appears, as shown in Figure ane-17. Move Presets are covered in detail on Applying Motion Presets, but for this do, you only need a couple of basic steps.

4. Click the triangle side by side to Default Presets .

   The Default Presets folder opens, showing many predesigned motions.

5. Click the words "bounciness-smoosh."

   At the top of the panel, the preview window gives you an idea of how the bounciness-smoosh preset works.

6. Make sure the wheel is selected on the stage and that "bounce-smoosh" is selected in the Motion Presets panel, and then click the Apply push button .

   A green line appears hanging from the bottom of the wheel. This line is called the motility path , and it shows you how the cycle volition movement over the course of the animation. In the timeline, the wheel layer turns to bluish to indicate that it's now a movement tween .

   Note

   Tween is an animation term that comes from all those in-between frames that animators have to describe to create a smooth animated motion.

   

   Figure 1-17. The Motion Presets window has two folders. The one called Default Presets (shown open up hither) holds presets designed by Adobe. The other folder holds presets that you pattern and save. The "tail" hanging down from the wheel is the motility path.

7. Close the Motion Presets console .

   That'south all it takes to animate the wheel, and so you lot might also shut the Motion Presets window. Yous can always bring it dorsum later if y'all desire to try out some of the other presets on the cycle.

Play an Animation

Naturally, subsequently you lot've animated an object in Flash, y'all want to run into the results. You'll be checking your work oftentimes, so Adobe makes it easy to play an animation. Just printing Enter (Render), and your animation bounces and smooshes as advertised. In the timeline, find how the playhead moves along frame by frame every bit your animation plays. Y'all tin see your animation at all the dissimilar stages by dragging the playhead up and down the timeline—a process sometimes chosen scrubbing .

New in Flash CS6, the animation controller is fixed to the bottom of the timeline (Figure 1-18). That's the perfect place because information technology's e'er available.

Figure i-18. If you've ever used a DVD histrion or an iPod, the animation play icons at the bottom of the timeline expect comfortingly familiar. You can move ane frame at a time or jump to the starting time or end of an animation.

Save a File

Saving your work frequently is important in any program, and Flash is no exception. You don't want to have to become back and recreate that perfect blithe sequence because the power went out. The minute yous terminate a sizable chunk of work, salve your Flash file past pressing Ctrl+S (⌘-South). The Salve command also appears on the menu bar: File→Save. Both maneuvers save the animation with the current proper name. So, if after post-obit the exercises in this chapter, you use the Salvage command, yous end up with a unmarried Flash document using the original filename: 01-1_First_Animation.fla.

If you want to salve the file under a unlike name, apply Save As or Ctrl+Shift+Due south (Shift-⌘-South). A standard window opens where you tin can choose a folder and requite your document a name. When you use Salve As, you terminate upwards with two documents, the original and one saved with the new proper noun. The newly named document is the one that remains open in the Flash workspace.

If y'all close a document (File→Close) after you lot've made changes, Flash automatically asks if you want to save it. You're given three options. Cull Relieve to salvage your piece of work and close the document. Choose Don't Salvage to close the certificate without saving your work. Choose Abolish if yous don't desire to save and don't want to close the document.

Note

Flash Professional person CS6 provides a new life-saving feature for files. When you create a new certificate you tin turn on Machine-Save. This feature saves your certificate periodically even if you forget. You even go to cull the period. Initially, the Machine-Save period is ready to every 10 minutes. To change that, click the number and blazon a new value.

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