Flash 8 Cookbook

3.11. Using Guide Layers

Problem

You want to add to a layer content that you do not want to be published.

Solution

Put the content on a guide layer.

Discussion

Guide layers can be used to store elements visible on the stage during authoring, which do not export with the .swf file. Guide layers have a number of potential uses:

Meta information

Instructions or notes left for oneself or other developers.

Alignment

To align several elements in different layers to a path, draw the path in a guide layer, and then drag each of the elements to it.

Asset repository

Store assets in a guide layer for easy viewing and retrieval. In most cases, the library is a more sensible solution for this purpose, but the library can preview only one asset at a time, and you may need to choose from several actual size assets.

To create a guide layer, follow these steps:

1. Create a new layer.

2. Populate it with content, as needed, and fill it out with keyframes and frames as needed.

3. Convert it to a guide layer. To do so, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the layer, and choose Guide from the context menu. Alternatively, you can specify a layer as a guide layer from the Layer Properties dialog box (Modify → Timeline → Layer Properties). You can revert a guide layer back to a regular layer the same way.

After the layer has been converted to a guide layer, the layer icon (to the left of the layer name) changes to a T-square tool.