Flash CS5: The Missing Manual

Manipulating Graphic Elements

Flash gives you a gazillion tools to modify the drawings that make up your animations. You can stack, rearrange, and reposition each individual graphic element, transform (shrink and squish) them, move them, apply color effects, and more until you're completely satisfied with the way they look. It's a cliché, but it's true: When it comes to drawing in Flash, you're pretty much limited only by your imagination. This section acquaints you with the most powerful tools Flash has for modifying the lines, shapes, bitmaps, symbols, and other graphic elements you add to your drawings.

Modifying Object Properties

Flash's Properties panel is a beautiful thing. Select any element on the stage, and the Properties panel responds by displaying all the characteristics, or properties, that you can change about that element.

In Figure 5-15, for example, you see several graphic elements on the stage: a brush-drawn squiggle (fill), a bitmap of a frog, a line of text, and a star. When you select the star, the Properties panel shows all the properties associated with the star: the color, width, and type of outline; the fill color; and so on. When you select the text, the Properties panel changes to reflect only text properties.

Figure 5-15. Selecting an object tells Flash to display that object's properties right there in the Properties panel. Here, the star shape is selected, ...