Flash CS5.5: The Missing Manual

Chapter 1. Getting Around Flash

As mentioned in this book’s introduction, Flash performs several feats of audiovisual magic. You use it to create animations, to display video on a website, to create handheld apps, or to build a complete web-based application. So it’s not surprising that the Flash workspace is crammed full of tools, panels, and windows (Figure 1-1). But don’t be intimidated—you don’t have to conquer these tools all at once. This chapter introduces you to Flash’s main work areas and often-used toolbars and panels, so you can start creating Flash projects right away. You’ll experiment with Flash’s stage and timeline, and see how Flash lets you animate graphics so that they move along a path and change shape.

Figure 1-1. The Flash Professional workspace is divided into three main areas: the stage, the timeline, and the panels dock. This entire window, together with the timeline, toolbars, and panels, is sometimes called the Flash desktop, the Flash interface, or the Flash authoring environment.

Tip

To get further acquainted with Flash, you can check out the built-in help screens by selecting Help→Flash Help. Once the help panel opens, click “Using Flash Professional CS5.5.” It’s on the left side of the somewhat busy window. You can read more about Flash’s help system in Appendix A.

Starting Flash

You start Flash just as you would any other program—which means you can do it ...