Working With Symbol Instances - Adobe 38039336 - Flash CS3 Professional User Manual

• Select the symbol in the Library panel and select Edit from the Library Panel menu, or right-click (Windows) or
Control-click (Macintosh) the symbol in the Library panel and select Edit.
Edit the symbol.
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To exit symbol-editing mode and return to editing the document, do one of the following:
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• Click the Back button at the left of the Edit bar at the top of the Stage.
• Select Edit > Edit Document.
• Click the scene name in the Edit bar at the top of the Stage.
• Double-click outside the symbol content.

Working with symbol instances

Create instances
After you create a symbol, you can create instances of that symbol throughout your document, including inside other
symbols. When you modify the symbol, Flash updates all instances of the symbol.
You can give names to instances from the Property inspector. Use the instance name to refer to an instance in Action-
Script. To control instances with ActionScript, give each instance within a single timeline a unique name. For more
information, see Handling events in Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash or Handling events in Programming
ActionScript 3.0.
To specify color effects, assign actions, set the graphic display mode, or change the behavior of new instances, use
the Property inspector. The behavior of the instance is the same as the symbol behavior, unless you specify otherwise.
Any changes you make affect only the instance and not the symbol.
For a video tutorial about using symbols and instances, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0122.
For a text tutorial about symbols and instances, see Create Symbols and Instances on the Flash Tutorials page at
www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_tutorials.
Create an instance of a symbol
Select a layer in the Timeline. Flash can place instances only in keyframes, always on the current layer. If you don't
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select a keyframe, Flash adds the instance to the first keyframe to the left of the current frame.
Note: A keyframe is a frame in which you define a change in the animation. For more information, see "Manage frames
and keyframes in the Timeline" on page 70.
Select Window > Library.
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3 Drag the symbol from the library to the Stage.
If you created an instance of a graphic symbol, to add the number of frames that will contain the graphic symbol,
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select Insert > Timeline > Frame.
Apply a custom name to an instance
Select the instance on the Stage.
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2 Select Window > Properties > Properties, and enter a name in the Instance Name box.
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