Flash Interface Tutorial for Beginners

Author: Salman Awan Difficulty Level: Basic Flash Version: Flash MX 2004 Sources to Download: None Introduction: Getting familiar with Flash’s interface is very important to speed up your learning process and developing flash content in quick and easy way.

In this tutorial we will learn names of different parts of flash interface so that when they are referenced anywhere in Flash’s own help or on web, you know what they are talking about.

Flash Panels: To present related information in a compact and manageable form Panels were introduced. There are many specialized panels for different tasks e.g. Colors Panel, Components Panel and Project Panel. You will get familiar with them along the way.

All panels have some common behaviors like you can undock a panel by clicking its upper left corner (the dotted handle) in the Title bar, and drag the panel to another location in the work area.

If the panel snaps (comes close) against a border, it is docked in a new location (or docked in the same location, if you moved it back). Otherwise, the panel is undocked and can be moved freely in work area.

You can resize an undocked panel by dragging the lower right edge out to enlarge the panel.

Tools Panel: Tools panel is most commonly used panel which holds all tools and drawing aids that will help us create content in our Flash movie. Currently no tool is selectable because no Flash document is opened by default where we can draw. We will do that next.

File > New

A new pop-up window will appear listing different types of Flash documents that can be created, select “Flash Document” from list under General tab, press Ok button.

Stage: When a Flash document is opened In work area, by default a white area appears in middle of screen. This white area is called Stage, where we will work using our tools and it will hold all visible graphics for our Flash movie.


Timeline: If you have noticed, a new panel named Timeline is added on top of Stage, just like other panels its is drag and docable. Timeline panel displays our movie’s contents over a time period.

We will conclude our very basic flash interface tutorial here, play around with different panels and learn their names by heart. When you feel confident about understanding these concepts take
these exercises below and see if you can do them comfortably.

Exercises:

1. Without having a blank document opened, try selecting different tools, can you select them?
   
   
2. Open a new blank Flash Document, what changes you notice in Top Menu, before and after opening a document?
   
   
3. While having a blank document opened in work area, try to hide and unhide Properties, Timeline and Tools panels using Window menu command.
   
   
4. Select Pen, Brush and Oval tools from Tools panel and apply them on stage.
   
   
5. Try saving your file using File > Save