MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING FLASH Use Manual page 56

To create a new empty symbol:
Make sure that nothing is selected on the Stage. Then do one of the following:
1.
Select Modify > New Symbol.
Click the New Symbol button at the lower left of the Library panel.
Select New Symbol from the Library options menu in the upper right corner of the
Library panel.
In the Create New Symbol dialog box, type the name of the symbol and select the behavior—
2.
Graphic, Button, or Movie Clip. See
Click OK.
3.
Flash adds the symbol to the library and switches to symbol-editing mode. In symbol-editing
mode, the name of the symbol appears above the upper left corner of the Stage, and a cross hair
indicates the symbol's registration point.
To create the symbol content, use the Timeline, draw with the drawing tools, import media, or
4.
create instances of other symbols.
When you have finished creating the symbol content, do one of the following to return to
5.
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
on page 61.
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:
On the main Timeline, select every frame in every layer of the animation on the Stage that
1.
you want to use. For information on selecting frames, see "Using the Timeline" in Getting
Started with Flash.
Do one of the following to copy the frames:
2.
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.
56 Chapter 3: Using Symbols, Instances, and Library Assets
"Types of symbols" on page 54.
"Editing symbols"