About the Flash Authoring Environment
Chapter 1
10
About the Flash Authoring
Environment
Flash CS4 introduces a new user interface for
the authoring environment: the application
frame. is frame holds Flash’s panels and
documents in a resizable window. e frame
keeps elements together, making the most
e cient use of space and creating a Flash
“desktop” that hides elements of other open
applications. (In the Mac OS, such elements
would otherwise show through any spaces
between panels and documents, creating a
distracting visual eld.) A menu bar contain-
ing the Flash commands appears at the top
of the screen, above the application frame.
Touring the Workspace
e layout of elements within the application
frame is called the workspace. Flash comes
with ve preset workspaces: Classic, Debug,
Designer, Developer, and Essentials. Each
one uses a di erent set of docked panels
(Figure 1.11). e workspace is customiz-
able. You can open and close documents
and panels, docking them where you prefer
within the frame. Or you can undock panels
and documents and oat them anywhere on
the desktop. You can save these con gura-
tions in new workspaces. Flash remembers
the current workspace setup from one work
session to the next.
Figure 1.11 Flash offers fi ve preset workspaces, each with a different confi guration of open panels and docking
locations. Two workspaces are pictured here: Essentials (left), a bare-bones setup, and Designer (right), a layout of
panels commonly used while creating artwork in Flash.
About the Flash Authoring Environment
The Flash Authoring Tool
11
Figure 1.12 Choose Window > Workspace > New
Workspace (top) to access the New Workspace dialog
(bottom). Enter a name for your current desktop
confi guration and click OK.
Figure 1.13 The Workspace pop-up
menu in the Application bar gives you
quick access to preset and custom
workspaces as well as workspace-
management commands.
To save a custom workspace:
1. Con gure panels in the application frame
and/or in oating windows, using the
techniques you’ll learn later in this chapter.
2. Choose Window > Workspace > New
Workspace.
e New Workspace dialog appears
(Figure 1.12).
3. In the Name eld, enter a title for this
workspace.
4. Click OK.
Flash saves that con guration and adds
the name to the Workspace menu.
To restore a workspace:
1. Choose Window > Workspace.
2. From the submenu that appears, choose
one of the following:
Classic opens a minimal set of panels,
similar to those opened in the default
workspace in earlier versions of Flash.
Debug opens just the panels needed to
troubleshoot ActionScript.
Designer opens panels commonly used
in creating artwork.
Developer opens panels commonly used
in creating ActionScript.
Essentials opens a very minimal panel set.
If you’ve created a custom workspace, you
can choose it from the submenu as well.
✔ Tips
■ You can also save and choose workspaces
from the Workspace pop-up menu at
the right side of the Application bar that
forms the top of the application frame
(Figure 1.13).
■ To restore a workspace, choose it by name
from the Window > Workspace submenu
or from the Workspace pop-up menu in
the Application bar.
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