Beginning ActionScript 2.0

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Macromedia Flash

Flash is a term used to refer to both the vector-based animation format (Flash movies) as well as the authoring tool that is commonly used to create the aforementioned content. Flash Player is the program that is capable of playing back Flash content. ActionScript is the scripting language that is encoded into Flash content and interpreted by Flash Player when that content is played back. You can use the Flash authoring tool to add ActionScript code to Flash content. As such, it's particularly useful to learn how to use the Flash authoring tool for that purpose as a first step when learning about ActionScript. In this chapter you learn about how to work with the Flash authoring tool for the purposes of writing ActionScript.

Introducing the Development Environment

Flash utilizes a panel system to organize specific functionalities available within the program. The panels can be docked and undocked as well as moved outside of the application area. This enables you to efficiently use and customize your working environment. You can find panels and layout options in the Window menu in the main navigation. Many of the descriptions in this chapter assume that you are working with the default panel layout. For example, when a panel is described as appearing in the upper left of the workspace, it means that the panel appears in that location in the default layout. You can open the default layout by selecting Window

By default, Flash 8 opens to ...