Flash CS4 All-in-One For Dummies®

Chapter 5. Organizing Your Work

In This Chapter

• Understanding layers

• Adding layers to a document

• Using layer folders

• Viewing rulers and grids

Being organized is a good thing, especially when you're dealing with a document full of symbols, movie clips, and buttons, not to mention ActionScript. When you have this much going on in a document, trying to stuff it all on one layer is like storing your clothes in a dresser with no drawers. (You can't find nothing, honey.) In the last chapter — you did read it, didn't you? — we showed you how to organize your symbols in the document library. In this chapter, we get down to brass tacks and show you how to organize the stuff on Stage.

Organizing a Project with Layers

When you create a new document, you have one layer with which to work. No, the Flash guys and gals weren't being stingy when they designed the program; they just wanted to give you options. The option to create a layer whenever you need to gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility. You can think of layers as a place to put your Flash stuff. But if you have lots of Flash stuff on lots of Flash layers, you have a hard time finding your stuff. When that happens, you create a layer folder that neatly collapses to a single icon. Figure 5-1 shows a Flash document with a lot of stuff neatly segregated on layers, and neatly packed away in layer folders. (This paragraph was inspired by the ...