Chapter 2: Flash Basics - MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-GETTING STARTED WITH FLASH Getting Started

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CHAPTER 2
Flash Basics
The Macromedia Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8 workspace consists
of a Stage on which you place media objects, a Property inspector for
organizing and modifying media assets, a Tools panel with tools for
creating and modifying image content, and many other panels for
accessing the wide range of functionality in Flash. For more information
on the workspace, see the following sections:
Using the Start page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Using the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Using frames and keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Using layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
About the main toolbar and edit bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Using the Tools panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Using the grid, guides, and rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Using panels and the Property inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
You can select preferences to modify the default Flash workspace. Context
menus and keyboard shortcuts provide ways for you to easily navigate the
Flash authoring environment. Special workspace accessibility features
provide additional keyboard shortcuts that let you navigate panels and
dialog boxes without using the mouse. For more information, see the
following sections:
Setting preferences in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Customizing keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Using context menus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Accessibility in the Flash authoring environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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