Flash CS5: The Missing Manual

Preparing to Draw

Even if you're familiar with animation software (but especially if you aren't), you need to know a few quick things before you roll up your sleeves and dive into Flash—sort of like the quick where's-the-turn-signal once-over you do when you jump into a rental car for the first time.

In this section, you'll find out how to get around the stage and how to customize your Flash document's properties. You'll also learn a couple of basic Flash terms you need to understand before you use the drawing tools (which you'll see how to do on Creating Original Artwork).

But first you need to open a new Flash document page so you can follow along at home. To do so, launch Flash. Unless you've turned it off (Starting Flash), the first thing you see is Flash's Welcome screen. Under Create New, choose Flash File (ActionScript 3.0). If you've turned off the Welcome screen, you can create a new file using the Flash main menu. Here's how:

1. From the main menu, choose File→New.

   The New Document window opens. If the window doesn't show the General tab, as in a Figure 2-2 then click that tab to make it active.

   

   Figure 2-2. In every case but one (Flash Project), selecting a document type and then clicking OK tells Flash to create a crisp, new document for you. (Flash projects are really nothing more than lists of other files with version control added so that multiple designers can work on the same ...