Flash CS3: The Missing Manual

Modify

The commands in the Modify menu let you change the properties of your document, your timeline, and the objects in your animation. For example, you use commands in this menu to rotate, scale, and distort the shapes on the stage.

Document

Windows: Ctrl+J

Mac: ⌘-J

Opens the Document window, where you set the width, height, and background color of the stage. Document settings also control the speed (frames per second) of your animation and the measurement units used by rulers.

Convert to Symbol

Windows: F8

Mac: F8

Converts selected objects to a symbol, which can be a movie clip, a graphic, or a button. Symbols are key to many aspects of Flash animations. Among other things, symbols help to reduce the overall file size of Flash animations.

Break Apart

Windows: Ctrl+B

Mac: ⌘-B

Used to break an imported bitmap into separate pixels that can be selected and edited. (When you first import a bitmap, Flash treats it as a single discrete element.) This command also separates grouped objects and symbols into their component parts.

Bitmap

Flash has two Modify commands to help you work with imported bitmap (raster) images:

Swap Bitmap

Replace the selected instance of a bitmap with another bitmap.

Trace Bitmap

Converts the selected bitmap into a vector image, by converting areas of color into editable vector shapes. It greatly reduces Flash file sizes, but works best with simple images with large areas of similar colors. For highly detailed bitmaps, the tracing process can produce interesting but sometimes ...