Flash 8 Cookbook

Chapter 3. Structuring Movies and Laying Out Content

After elements are in Flash, whether drawn or imported, graphics or sound, bitmap or video, you must specify where they should go, when they should appear, and when they should disappear.

Like the canvas of an image editor, or the page of a page layout program, Flash has the stage. By default, the Flash stage is 550 pixels wide by 400 pixels in height, with a white background and pixels as the default unit of measurement. But you can modify any of these settings to meet your needs.

To facilitate document layout and element positioning, Flash has rulers, a customizable grid, and guides. Rulers run along the horizontal and vertical edges of the page, enabling you to see exactly where a given coordinate appears relative to the stage. The grid, like the lines on graph paper, is a regular rectangular pattern that facilitates the creation of proportionate elements. Guides are horizontal or vertical lines that you can add to a document in custom locations to be used for alignment and layout purposes: they do not appear in the output file.

Another useful layout tool is Flash’s Align panel, which you can use to align various elements to each other and/or the stage. In addition, the Align panel enables you to distribute multiple elements so they are spaced out evenly.

Flash also provides controls on the stacking order of elements. That is, if two or more elements overlap, you can control which appears on top of the other. In general, more recently ...