Beginning Adobe® AIR™: Building Applications for the Adobe Integrated Runtime

4.2. Introducing Flash CS3

Flash CS3 is the newest development tool in the Flash product line released from Adobe. Flash CS3 is the most advanced tool yet for creating rich interactive content for the Web as well as mobile devices.

Flash CS3 is the first product in the Flash lineup to include the new ActionScript 3, which was first introduced in 2006 within the Flex 2 product line. This is significant as it allows the two product lines to interact by sharing a native language.

The Flash IDE is made up of many views; here is a description of some of the most used views.

4.2.1. The Stage

The stage is the main visual workspace when working on the design elements of a Flash project. By default, the timeline is attached, but it can be turned off independently from the stage. See Figure 4-14.

Figure 4-14. The Flash CS3 stage with a single component added.

The Components window as shown in Figure 4-15 allows for easy drag and drop of the components onto the stage. The components are grouped into categories, and different categories are available depending on what version of the application you're building, ActionScript 2 versus 3.

Figure 4-15. The Components window.

Flash CS3 has full ActionScript capabilities utilizing the Actions window. The Actions window includes a script assistant, ...