Flash CS3: The Missing Manual

Chapter 1. Getting Around Flash

These days, computer programs strive to give you an intuitive work environment. A word processing document, for example, looks pretty much like a piece of paper and shows your words as you type them. Movie playing software has controls that look just like the ones on your home DVD player. Flash CS3 provides the powerful and flexible tools that you need to create interactive animations, which is a more complex affair than producing text or playing media. Problem is, if this is your first time in an animation program, it may not be immediately obvious what to do with all these tools.

When you start with a blank Flash document, you find yourself staring at a blank white square and a dizzying array of icons, most of which appear to do nothing when you click them (Figure 1-1). You'd pretty much have to be a Flash developer to figure out what to do next. In this chapter, you get acquainted with all the different parts of the Flash window: the stage and main work area, the main menu, the toolbars and panels, the Timeline, and more. You'll also take Flash for a test drive and get some practice moving around the Flash screen. When you learn to create an animation of your own in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, you'll feel right at home.

Tip

To get further acquainted with Flash, you can check out the built-in help text by selecting Help →Flash Help. Once the help panel opens, click Using Flash and then click Getting Started. You can read more about Flash's Help system in Appendix A.

Figure 1-1. The white rectangle in the middle of the main Flash window—the Stage—is where you actually work on your animations. This entire window, together with the Timeline, toolbars, and panels identified here, is called the Flash desktop, the Flash interface, or the Flash authoring environment.

Starting Flash

Once you've installed Flash on your computer (Installing and Activating Flash CS3), you can launch it like any other program. Choose your method:

• Double-click the program's icon. You can find it on your hard drive in Program Files →Adobe →Flash CS3 (Windows) or Applications →Adobe Flash CS3 folder (Mac).

• Click Start →All Programs →Adobe →Adobe Flash CS3 (Windows). If you're running Mac, you can drag the Flash CS3 icon from the Adobe Flash CS3 folder to the Dock and from then on open it with a single click on the Dock icon.

  Up pops the Flash welcome screen, as shown in Figure 1-2. When you open the program, you're most likely to start a new document or return to a work in progress. This screen puts all your options in one handy place.

  Tip

  If Flash seems to take forever to open—or if the Flash desktop ignores your mouse clicks or responds sluggishly—you may not have enough memory installed on your computer. See Installing and Activating Flash CS3 for more advice.

  When you choose one of the options on the welcome screen, it disappears and your actual document takes its place. Here are your choices:

• Open a Recent Item. As you create new documents, Flash adds them to this list. Clicking one of the file names listed here tells Flash to open that file. Clicking the folder icon lets you browse your computer for (and then open) any other Flash file on your computer.

  

  Figure 1-2. This welcome screen appears the first time you launch Flash—and every subsequent time too, unless you turn on the "Don't show again" checkbox (circled). If you ever miss the convenience of seeing all your recent Flash documents, built-in templates, and other options in one place, you can turn it back on by choosing Edit →Preferences (Windows) or Flash → Preferences (Mac). On the General panel, choose Welcome Screen from the On Launch pop-up menu.

• Create New. Clicking one of the options listed here lets you create a brand-new Flash file. Most of the time, you'll want to create a Flash File, which is a plain garden-variety animation file. Flash gives you two choices: Flash File (ActionScript 3.0) and Flash File (ActionScript 2.0). If you're a Flash beginner, choose the second flavor listed: Flash File (ActionScript 2.0). With this choice, you can take advantage of the Flash Behaviors panel, a great way to learn ActionScript. (There's more on behaviors in Chapter 9.)

  Tip

  Old programming pros—you know who you are—may have reasons to prefer Flash File (ActionScript 3.0). For example, if you're familiar with object-oriented programming and want to create reusable components, choose the newer ActionScript 3.0 option.

  There are other options, too. You can also create a Flash File (mobile), a specialized animation for cell phones or other handheld devices; an ActionScript file (a file containing nothing but ActionScript, for use with a Flash animation); an ActionScript Communication file (a file that uses ActionScript to transfer data between an animation and a server); a Flash JavaScript file (a file that transfers data between an animation and a Web browser using JavaScript); and a Flash project (useful if you're planning a complex, multifile, multideveloper Flash production and need version control).

• Create From Template. Clicking one of the little icons under this option lets you create a Flash document using a predesigned form called a template. Using a template helps you create a Flash animation quicker because a developer somewhere has already done part of the work for you. You'll find out more about templates in Chapter 7.

• Extend. Clicking the Flash Exchange link under this option tells Flash to open your Web browser (if it's not already running) and load the Flash Exchange Web site. There, you can download Flash components, sound files, and other goodies (some free, some fee, and all of them created by Flash-ionados just like you) that you can add to your Flash animations.

• Getting Started, New Features, Resources. Why the Flash development team thought folks running Flash would want to sit through an ad is anybody's guess. Click these options if you must, but don't expect much in the way of usable, nitty-gritty information. Instead, a multimedia presentation shamelessly regales you with market-speak describing all the ways you can "enhance" the "engaging experiences" you create in Flash.

Note

Except for the Adobe Flash Exchange, which you find on the Help menu, all of the options on the welcome screen also appear on the File menu (shown in Figure 1-3), so you can start a new document any time.