Introduction

to Flash CS6
Getting Started
Adobe Flash is an extremely
powerful and flexible work
environment. Over the years,
it has improved tremendously
and Flash CS6 is no exception.
The current version builds upon Flashs strength and
adds some interesting new features, including:

TLF Text: a new text engine supported in Flash

Player 10
New Deco Brushes: many additional new brushes
Spring for Bones: allows IK (inverse kinematics) to
look more realistic
Additional Code Tools: include a Snippets panel
for ActionScript
Starting Flash and
Opening a File
After clicking the icon of Flash
CS6, you will see the loading
screen and this welcome
screen.
On this screen, you can create
a file from a template or create
a file from a blank stage. You
can also open a recent item.
Getting to Know the Work Area

1.Tools
Includesfrequently used tools such
as selection tools, drawing tools,
and text tools.
2. Panels
Flash includes more than 20 panels that offer detailed control
objects, animation, and more. Most are disabled until a document is
open.
Here are some of the most important panels:
a. Properties
A context-based panel which that properties of any selected object
b. Library
A collection of reusable objects called Symbols
c. Align
Allows many ways to align objects to each other or the stage
3. Timeline
A set of layers similar to Photoshop plus
frames that span time
4. Change Workspace
Allowsfor quick changes between different
layout options
Creating a New Document
Unless you expect to publish for an older version of Flash, you will likely
select ActionScript 3.0 in order to create a new document.
Once you have a document open, several items on the screen will
change. First, the Stage is visible. It is the white box in the middle of the
screen. Anything that is placed in the stage area will be visible in the
final output. Animations might start off stage and fly in before leaving
off the other side of the Stage. To see the content on the Stage better,
you might want to zoom in or out.
Note: Even objects off stage can sometimes become visible to users.
The Timeline is the area to organize the layers of items and when they
happen during the animation.
Using Workspaces
Flash now comes with pre-set Workspaces that organize
the screen automatically. Individual designers and
developers like to customize the Flash screen by moving
the panels and other screen elements to different
positions. All of these Workspaces are customizable. If
you would ever like to go back to the default layout for
a Workspace, select Reset.
You may even save your own favourite layouts by
selecting New Workspace.
Moving Panels
All panels may be docked in several places on the screen or they may
float. Floating panels may be dragged anywhere on the screen and will
appear on top of other items. To move a panel, left-click then drags it by
its Title Tab (the name of the panel). As you drag it around the screen,
watch for a blue line which indicates where it will docked if dropped
(release left-click to drop). When panels are docked to the screen, they
may stay open at all times.
When collapsed, the panels become small icons.
Single-click on the small icon temporarily opens a panel; it will stay open
as long as you are using it. It will automatically close when you click
away.
Opening Existing Files
You may open a Flash file
by clicking File > Open. A
dialog box will allow you
to select a file.
Using the Properties Panel
The Properties panel (known as Properties Inspector)
shows the properties of any selected objects. This
includes frames on the timeline or objects on the stage.
Identify the Properties Inspector and then single-click
on different objects to explore properties of the
objects. The Properties Inspector is one of the most
utilized and most important pieces in the Flash
interface.
Undo in Flash
Flash allows you to undo even the smallest steps. Therefore,
some new Flash users think that undo is not working
properly. You might have to undo several steps to go back far
enough.
You might also want to increase the number steps that can
be undone. It is set to 100 by default, but it mat be
increased to 300. to increase the number steps, Select Edit >
Preferences > General Category and change the number of
Document-level undo levels.
Previewing Your Movie
Sometimes looking at the Flash screen does not
properly show you the real-life view of your
animation, because some animations will not
play unless you are looking at a published
version.
You may preview the publishes version by
selecting Control > Test Movie > Test. You can
also use Ctrl+Enter to preview the movie.
Publishing Your Movie
When you preview your movie, an SWF file is
generated in the same folder as the .fla
document.
Select File > Publish Settings to change
options like the version of the Flash player to
be used as well as many other options that
will affect the final SWF animation.

Some Important
Keyboard Shortcuts
Many Flash developers use
keyboard shortcuts to
optimize workflow. Keyboard
shortcuts can save you a
great deal of time. More
shortcuts will be introduced
in later sections
Move to a region of the stage:
(Hold the space bar. Then
click and drag the Stage)
Zoom in/Zoom out: (Ctrl/+
Ctrl/-)
Test movie (Ctrl+Enter)
Scrub timeline (Enter)
Undo (Ctrl+z)
F5: Insert frames
F6: Insert keyframe
F7: Insert blank keyframe
F8: Convert to symbol
You may even create your own keyboard shortcuts by choosing Edit
> Keyboard Shortcuts.
Note: When using TLF Text: Flash has a new text engine called
Text Layout Framework or TLF. Because it is new, TLF text may
only be used in the Flash Player 10.
Furthermore, when you preview or publish any file, you might
receive the following warning about streaming. The file will have
to wait to begin playing until the whole movie is downloaded. For
now, this is not a problem. However, if you do ot want to see this
warning each time you preview you have two options. First option,
click Dont show again in the warning box.
Second option, you may change the ActionScript Settings by
choosing File > ActionScript Settings and change the default
linkage to Merge into code.