MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-LEARNING FLASH User manual

Learning Flash

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Acknowledgments

Director: Erick Vera

Project Management: Julee Burdekin, Erick Vera

Writing: Jay Armstrong, Jody Bleyle, Mary Burger, Francis Cheng, Jen deHaan, Stephanie Gowin, Phillip Heinz, Shimul Rahim,

Samuel R. Neff

Managing Editor: Rosana Francescato

Editing: Mary Ferguson, Mary Kraemer, Noreen Maher, Antonio Padial, Lisa Stanziano, Anne Szabla

Production Management: Patrice O’Neill

Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Christopher Basmajian, Aaron Begley, John Francis

Second Edition: June 2004

Macromedia, Inc.

600 Townsend St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: Learning Macromedia Flash MX 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Additional resources for learning Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

CHAPTER 1: Create a Document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Take a tour of the user interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Change background and Stage size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Change your view of the Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

View the Library panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Add graphics to the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Add video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

View object properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Add video control behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Use the Movie Explorer to view the document structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Test the document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Find help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

CHAPTER 2: Create Accessible Flash Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Specify that your document be accessible to screen readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Provide a document title and description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Provide a title and description for instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Specify that screen readers ignore elements in your document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Change static text to dynamic text for accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Control the tab order and reading order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

About testing your document with screen readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4 Contents

CHAPTER 3: Write Scripts with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Create an instance of a symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Name button instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Initialize the document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

About ActionScript syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Locate ActionScript reference documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Add comments to ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Write a function for a button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Copy and modify a button function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Check syntax and test your application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CHAPTER 4: Create an Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Copy input and dynamic text fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Name text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Add and name a Button component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Declare variables and values for the prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Specify values for input text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Write a function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Write an event handler for the component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Test your application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

CHAPTER 5: Work with Layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Select a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Hide and show layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Lock a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Add and name a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Change the order of layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Organize layers in a folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Add a mask layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Add a guide layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Delete a layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

CHAPTER 6: Create a User Interface with Layout Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Use guides to align an object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Change the Stage size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Resize objects to match the Stage size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Specify snap alignment settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Align an object using the alignment guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Align objects using the Align panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Snap objects to each other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Contents 5

Align objects using the Property inspector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Align objects using the grid and arrow keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

CHAPTER 7: Draw in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Select a shape tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Select options to create a polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Draw a polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Rotate the shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Use the cut-out feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Transform the shape of your drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Copy strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Draw with the Line tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Select and add a different fill color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Group the shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Create a logo with the Pen tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

CHAPTER 8: Create Symbols and Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

About creating symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Create a graphic symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Duplicate and modify an instance of a symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Modify a symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Create a movie clip symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Assign an instance name to the movie clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Add an effect to the movie clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

CHAPTER 9: Add Animation and Navigation to Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Create a button from grouped objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Name a button instance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

View the hit area by enabling buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Change the hit area of a button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Align buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Create animation for a button state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Add an action to a button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Add navigation to a button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Test the SWF file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6 Contents

CHAPTER 10: Add Static, Input, and Dynamic Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Create an expanding-width text block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Create a fixed-width text block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Edit text and change font attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Select device fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Add an input text field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Copy a text field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Assign instance names to text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Create a dynamic text field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Specify format options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

View ActionScript for the dynamic text field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Test the SWF file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Check spelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

CHAPTER 11: Create a Timeline Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Create a motion tween . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Create a shape tween . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Copy and paste keyframes in an animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Change the speed of the animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Test the SWF file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

CHAPTER 12: Create a Presentation with Screens (Flash Professional Only) . . . 91

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

View the screen hierarchy and screen Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

View screen properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Add content to a presentation slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Add screen navigation behaviors to buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Add and name a slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Select and move slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Add content to a new slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Add transition behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Test your presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Contents 7

CHAPTER 13: Add Interactivity with ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Name button instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Add a scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Move between scenes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Control the document with a stop() action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Link a button to a scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Add navigation to return to Scene 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Play a movie clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Use a behavior to play an MP3 file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Test your document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

CHAPTER 14: Create a Form with Conditional Logic and Send Data . . . . . . . . 105

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Add an input text field to collect form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Add a Submit button to the form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Add an error message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Add a confirmation message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Add a stop() action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Add frame labels for navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Add conditional logic for the Submit button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Pass data out of a SWF file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Write a function for the Try Again button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Test your SWF file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

CHAPTER 15: Work with Objects and Classes Using ActionScript 2.0 . . . . . . . 113

Set up your workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

About classes and object types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Creating an object from a class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Creating a custom class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Create two objects from the Product class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

About extending existing classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Extend the MovieClip class to create a new class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

8 Contents

INTRODUCTION

Learning Macromedia Flash MX 2004

Learning Flash overview

Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004 provide everything

you need to create and deliver rich web content and powerful applications. Whether you’re

designing motion graphics or building data-driven applications, Flash has the tools necessary to

produce great results and deliver the best user experience across multiple platforms and devices.

This lessons in this book are designed to introduce you to Flash. As you complete the lessons, you

will learn many of the basic tasks of creating Flash applications.

Note: This book is not a comprehensive manual detailing all the features of Macromedia Flash MX

2004. For in-depth information about using Flash, from within the Flash application, select Flash

Help (Help > Help).

About the lessons

The book includes several step-by-step lessons, designed to teach you the fundamentals of Flash.

We recommend that you go through the lessons using the sample files provided. The path to the

sample file is provided in each lesson.

By completing these hands-on lessons, you’ll learn how to use Flash to add text, graphics, and

animation to your Flash applications. Additionally, you’ll learn how easy it is to customize your

Flash application by using ActionsScript and behaviors.

The lessons are targeted toward beginners to intermediate-level Flash designers and developers

who want to get up to speed quickly.

Each lesson focuses on a specific Flash design feature or topic and takes approximately 10–20

minutes to complete, depending on your experience. You can follow the lessons in this book in

order, or you can start with a lesson or task that best suits your interests and experience.

The Quick Start, Basic Flash, and Basic ActionScript lessons provide an opportunity to explore

the Flash workspace. In these lessons, you learn how to create a Flash document, write

ActionScript, work with video and video control behaviors, and add a Flash component.

10 Introduction: Learning Macromedia Flash MX 2004

Where to start

If you are new to Flash, start with the “Getting Started with Flash” chapter in Help (Help >

Help > Using Flash > Getting Started with Flash) to help you become familiar with Flash before

proceeding to the Flash lessons.

To complete the Flash lessons, you can follow the lessons in this book or open the lessons in the

How Do I panel in Flash Help (Help > How Do I). Although the lessons can be completed in any

order, the best way to build your understanding of Flash is to take the lessons in the order they

appear in the How Do I panel.

Typographical conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

•Menu items are shown in this format: menu name > menu item name. Items in submenus are

shown in this format: menu name > submenu name > menu item name.

•Code font indicates HTML tag and attribute names as well as literal text used in examples.

•Italic code font indicates replaceable items (sometimes called metasymbols) in code.

•Bold roman text indicates text that you should enter verbatim.

Additional resources for learning Flash

Flash contains a variety of media to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in

creating your own Flash applications.

About the electronic manuals and lessons

The following electronic manuals are available through the Help panel (Help > Help):

•Getting Started with Flash (or Getting Started Help) provides a hands-on introduction to

Flash.

•Using Flash (or Using Flash Help) contains complete information on working in the Flash

authoring tool, including all commands, features, and user interface elements.

•Using Components contains information on adding and configuring components in a Flash

document, as well as information on creating components.

•Using ActionScript in Flash (or Using ActionScript Help) provides a conceptual introduction to

the ActionScript language

•Flash ActionScript Language Reference (or Flash ActionScript Language Reference Help)

documents all actions, methods, and properties in the ActionScript API.

If you are a new user, you’ll find the following information useful:

•Getting Started with Flash (or Getting Started Help) provides basic information about the

Flash workspace and guides you in creating a simple document.

•The lessons on the How Do I tab offer an introduction to using Flash. Refer to the Quick

Start, Basic Flash, and Basic ActionScript lessons (Help > How Do I).

This manual suits for next models

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