• Open Flash
• Create a new Flash File (ActionScript 3.0)

• The white area is called the Stage - everything drawn on this will be displayed in the final movie.
• The grey area around the stage can be used to draw additional objects. These will not be seen unless you move them onto the stage.

Below the stage is the Properties window which allows you to edit a limited number of properties for either the movie as a whole or for the selected object(s).

At the left of the stage is the Toolbar (aka Tool Palette or Tool Frame).

On the right of the stage are additional windows.

At the top of the windows on the left and right of the stage, there are double arrow icons. For the Toolbar, clicking this icon will toggle the display between one or two columns. On the right hand side, clicking the icon collapses or expands the panels. In addition, most panels can be dragged and placed directly on the screen or docked in another location. You can save configurations via

Window / Workspace / Save current...

• Dragging the window is extremely slow - this is totally unbelievable. I assume it is because the window is transparent when it is moved - well, that looks cute ... if it actually worked in real time. I have not found a way to turn this crap off.

• The help stays on top of what you are working on - you have to drag it off the work surface and back on again. Considering how slow the drags are ... this makes the help non-functional.

  In all other Windows applications, the help is provided in a separate window. This way you can use Alt-Tab to quickly switch windows. (Maybe this is really a Mac application.)

  Actually, F1 is a toggle ... press it again to hide the window. (I figured this out after using Flash 2 weeks.)

• In windows, all help windows can be maximized (to improve readability) by simply double clicking the title bar. In this totally non-compliant product, double clicking the help title bar causes the text to disappear (collapse to just a bar across the center of your work ... you will still need to move it, but it moves much faster).

• When you press F1, sometimes you just get a generic help window, other times, the help is context sensitive (displays data based on what you last clicked).

• When you search for a term, you get hundreds of "suggestions". (In one case, it was over a thousand.) When you select one of the options, it highlights the search word (generally a good idea) ... but there is no option to turn off the highlights. As a result, the text is generally unreadable.

  The work around to remove the highlights is to click Clear (next to the Search button), then click on any other page, then click back on the page you want to read. Kludgee.

• Use F1 as a toggle to turn the help window on and off
• Open the online (internet accessed) version of the help in your web browser ... most pages have a link to do that at the bottom

By the way, this is a Adobe Flash CS3 problem ... Adobe Photoshop CS3 does not have these problems

• Its help opens in a separate window
• Double clicking the title will maximize the window
• You can switch to and from it with Alt-Tab
• Search does not highlight the text and make it unreadable

Selection Tool	Allows you to move one or more objects and to change properties via the properties window, no handles are displayed
Subselection Tool
Free Transform Tool	Displays resize and rotate handles
Gradient Transform Tool	Displays gradient handles - this is hidden beneath the Free Transform Tool ... click and hold (wait) to see it
Lasso Tool	Allows you to select objects by drawing a curving line over them

With Adobe Flash, when you draw a rectangle, it ALWAYS has a black border. I spent over an hour trying to get rid of that - disabling the border color both before and after drawing the rectangles. I guess I'm a little dense, but it took more than an hour before I realized that the black border goes away after I draw another object. This behavior is different than any other application I've used.

After drawing an object, you can manipulate it without first selecting a transform by using the Ctrl and Alt keys to modify the mouse cursor.

Ctrl-Drag	Move objects Stretch the straight borders of a rectangle into curved lines Select multiple objects However, if the Selection Tool is active, then Ctrl-Drag copies the object
Ctrl-Alt-Drag	Copy an object Add a point to the straight borders of a rectangle and stretch the line to create 2 straight lines
Spacebar-Drag	Drag the desktop

When drawing objects or using tools

Shift-Draw	Makes the height and width the same - use this to draw circles and squares With the Pencil Tool, draw vertical and horizontal lines With the Pen Tool and Line Tool, draw vertical, horizontal, and 45 degree angle lines With the Eraser Tool, erase vertical and horizontal lines When dragging the Paint Bucket Tool, create vertical, horizontal, and 45 degree angle gradients
Alt-Draw	Double the height and width of the object

Warning

Do NOT use the keyboard in Gradient Transform mode - It usually crashes the program and you will loose any unsaved changes.

Be sure to use the Spelling Checker.

Use Ctrl-Enter to view movie.

URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Languages / Flash / Basics.html