MODIFY


Click the menu-item you want to read about.

Instance                    Ctrl + I
Frame                       Ctrl + F
Scene
Movie                       Ctrl + M
Font                          Ctrl + T
Paragraph                 Ctrl + Shift + T
Style                                                      >
Kerning                                                 >
Transform                                              >
Arrange                                                 >
Curves                                                   >
Frames                                                  >
TraceBitmap
Align                        Ctrl + K
Group                      Ctrl + G
UnGroup                  Ctrl + G
Break Apart             Ctrl + B

Instance
Ctrl + I

Opens the instance dialog-box, used to change settings for selected symbols.
You can specify actions for the symbol, change its behaviour (image, button or movieclip) or add coloreffects to it.


Frame
Ctrl + F

Opens the Frame Dialog Box, used to enter settings for the current frame.
You can add a comment to the frame, add a sound or an action to it or you can specify a tweening.
Just go ahead!
This is the same as right-clicking the frame and choose "properties" from the menu that appears.


Scene

Opens the Scene Dialog Box, which allows you to change the name of the current scene.


Movie
Ctrl + M

Opens the Movie Properties Dialog Box, used to change settings for the current movie:

Frame Rate: the speed at which the movie is executed.

Dimensions: the pixel-size of your movie.

Match Printer: scales your movie to fit the current printer.

Match Contents: scales the movie to the minimum size containing all elements from all scenes.

Grid: Shows/hides the grid. You can also specify the gridsize.

Colors: Colors for the grid and the background of your movie.

Ruler Units:Specify whether rulers should measure in pixels, centimeter, millimeter, etc.


Font
Ctrl + T

Opens the Font Dialog Box, containing settings for text.


Paragraph
Ctrl + Shift + T

Opens the paragraph dialog box.
Use the options to change margins, tabulators and linespace for paragraphs.


Style

Use the styleoption to enter standards for justifying, bold, italic etc. for your text.


Kerning
 
Kerning is used to manually controle the space between characters in your text:

Narrower: reduces the spacing between characters.

Wider: increases the spacing between characters

Reset: Default spacing between characters.


Transform

Scale
Rotate
Scale & Rotate
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Flip Vertical
Flip Horizontal
Remove Transform
Edit Center
Remove Colors
Add Shape Hint
Remove All Hints

Scale

Scale is used to manually resize an object.
Click the object you want to scale. Then choose the scale-option. Eight handles appers.
Use the handles at the corners to resize the object without changing the proportions.
Use the handles at the center to change the proportions of the object (width / height).
Note: For precise numeric resizing choose the "Scale & Rotate"-option instead.


Rotate

Rotate is used to manually rotate or skew an object.
Click the object you want to scale. Then choose the scale-option. Eight handles appers.
Use the handles at the corners to rotate the object-
Use the handles at the center to skew the object.
Note: For precise numeric rotating/skewing choose the "Scale & Rotate"-option instead.


Scale & Rotate
Ctrl + Alt + S

Scale & Rotate opens a dialog box, that will allow you to scale, rotate or skew an object according to values.
This can sometimes be more precise than using the manual options for the same topics.


Rotate Left

Rotates seleceted element(s) 90 degrees to the left.


Rotate Right

Rotates seleceted element(s) 90 degrees to the right.


Flip Vertical

Flip vertical will turn the slected object(s) upside down - so that what used to be at the bottom will now be at the top.


Flip Horizontal

Flip Horizontal flips the selected object(s), so that what used to be to the left will now be to the right.


Remove Transform
Ctrl + Shift + Z

Remove Transform resets selected object(s) to it's original form..
This is particulary usefull when you want text or objects to return to their initial state.


Edit Center
All grouped objects, symbols, texts and OLE-objects has a center-point.
The centerpoint is the point the object is rotated around when you use the rotate-option.
It is also the point an object is centered at when you resize it using the scale-options.
If you want the object to maintain the same center after resizing it, you should make sure the center-point is at the center of the object before resizing it.

To edit the centerponit of grouped objects:

1. Select the group

2. Choose : Modify > Transform > Edit Center
    A cross indicating the center of the group will now be visible.

3. Drag the cross to a new position with your mouse.

4. Click somewhere outside the group to remove the cross indocating the center-point..


Remove Colors

Removes colors from elements ( not text ) :

1. Select an un-grouped element

2. Choose Modify > Transform > Remove Colors.

Flash now remoes all colored fields.
Black areas will still be black. All other colors will turn into white.


Add Shape Hint

Use Shape Hintsto control complex forms when you make a shape-tweening.

Shape hints identifies points that should be the same at the beginning and the end of a shapetweening.

Each Shape Hint will be shown using a character.

Du can work with up to 26 different shape hints in the same tweening.
Shape hints are yellow in the start keyframe and green in the end-keyframe.
If shape hints are not positioned on a line they will be shown in red.


Remove All Hints

Removes all shape hints from the selected object.


Arrange

Arrange elements placed in the same layer.
Note: Symbols and grouped objects are always placed on top of items placed directly on the canvas.
The following options are available in the arrange dialog-box:

Bring To Front
Brings the selected object(s) to the top level of the layer.

Move Ahead
Brings the selected object(s) one step closer to the top level of the layer.

Move Behind
Brings the selected object(s) to the bottom level of the layer.

Send to Back
Brings the selected object(s) one step closer to the bottom level of the layer.

To protect a group or a symbol from being selected and changed, you can lock it using:

Lock                Ctrl + Alt + L

in the arrange-menu.

To re-open locked objects choose:

Unlock All       Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L


Curves
The curve dialog box has the following options:

Smooth
Modify > Curves > Smooth

Smooths curves on the selected part of a line.
By selecting a line and clicking smooth several times you make the line more and more smooth.


Straighten

Modify > Curves > Straighten

Straightens the selected part of a line.
By clicking straighten several times the line is straightened more and more.


Optimize

Optimize will simplify the curves in the selected element. Use this option to reduce the size of your elements when exporting the movie.


Frames

The frame-itme gives you the following options:

Reverse Frames
To make an animation play backwards and forth choose:

Modify > Frames > Reverse Frames

Note: You must have a keyframe at the beginning and the end of the tweening.

This is an extremely usefull option. Very often you want an animation to be reversed, for example, if you make a menu that plays an animation when an item is selected, you would usually want to play the reverse animation when the topic is deselected.

Synchronize Symbol

Use this option to syncronize loops that runs across keyframes.
If for instance you have an animation running on one side of a keyframe, and the same animation should be present on the other side of the keyframe, it would be destroyed if the animation was reset as the movie crossed the keyframe.
An example: You have an animation showing a ball that jumps up and down.
Now you want the ball not only to jump up and down, but also to move horizontally in doing so.
You add several keyframes and tweenings that will make the ball jump all over the screen.
Now, if the ball-animation was reset when it reached a keyframe, it would totally destroy the animation, since the balls movement in the up-down-direction would be interrupted.


Trace Bitmap

Trace Bitmap opens the Trace Bitmap Dialog Box. Use the settings to convert bitmap-imagaes to vectorgraphics.


Align
( Justify )
Ctrl + K

 

Align is a fast and precice way to justify and arrange objects.
Use the "Align"-options to align objects.
Use the "Space Evenly"-options to create equal spaces between several objects.
Use the "Match Size"-options to make two or more elements the same size.
Flash always resizes to match the biggest of the selected objects.
The three match-options allows you to choose either to match height, width or both.

Note: If you select "Align to page" the alignments will be made according to the movie rather than just the selected objects. This can be usefull when you want an object to be centered in your movie: simply choose centered vertical and horizontal alignment, and click "Align to page".


Group               
Ctrl + G

Group is used when you want two or more objects to be grouped to act as if it was one.
Select the objects you want to group and then choose the group-option to combine them.


Ungroup

Ungroups elements that have been grouped using the group-option.


Break Apart
Breaks the selected object(s) into minor components.
Note: When you break a text it is turned into a graphic object allowing you to use complex fillcolors etc.