panels

Appendix B
The Property Inspector
and the Panels
Several panels have been changed in Flash CS3. The panels often have
unlabeled buttons and flyout menus that hold hidden treasures — or at
least hidden features — if you know where to look. In this appendix, we help
you discover these features.
The Tools Panel
The Tools panel contains all the drawing tools as well as many editing tools.
You’ll use this panel a lot! Most drawing tools have their own modifiers that
control how the drawing tool works. In Figure B-1, you see only one set of
modifiers — the ones for the Brush tool. Other tools offer different modifiers,
so the options section of the Tools panel will look different depending on the
tool you’re using.
Several buttons have flyouts, which are like submenus for toolbars. You click
a tiny arrow at the lower-right corner of the button to display additional
tools. For example, the Rectangle flyout reveals the Oval tool, the Rectangle
Primitive tool, the Oval Primitive tool, and the PolyStar tool. Check out
Chapter 3 for the full scoop on the Tools panel and all its helpful tools.

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Part VII: Appendixes
Figure B-1:
The Tools
panel.
Selection
Free Transform
Pen
Line
Pencil
Ink Bottle
Eyedropper
Hand
Stroke Color
Black and White
Object Drawing Mode
Brush Mode
Brush Size
Use Pressure
Subselection
Lasso
Text
Rectangle
Brush
Paint Bucket
Eraser
Zoom
Fill Color
Swap Colors
Lock Fill
Brush Shape
Use Tilt
The Property Inspector Gadget
The Property inspector is context sensitive, which means that it displays
information that’s useful to what you’re doing at the time. In this section, you
see some variations on this theme.
Property inspector with no selection
When no object is selected and the cursor is on the Stage, you see the document
properties, as shown in Figure B-2.
Background color
Figure B-2:
Property
inspector
when an
object is not
selected.
Document properties
Frame rate

Appendix B: The Property Inspector and the Panels
357
Property inspector with a shape selected
When you select a shape, the Property inspector displays properties of the
shape so that you can edit them, as you see in Figure B-3.
Figure B-3:
Property
inspector
when a
shape is
selected.
Stroke
color
Fill color
Stroke
height
Stroke style
Custom
stroke style
Cap
type
Join type
Property inspector with keyframe selected
When you click a keyframe on the Timeline, the Property inspector displays
properties of the frame, as you see in Figure B-4.
Figure B-4:
Property
inspector
when a
keyframe is
selected.
Frame label
Tween type
Sync mode
Sound name
Number of times to loop
Property inspector with a
symbol instance selected
When you select an instance of a symbol, in this case a movie clip, the
Property inspector displays properties of the instance so that you can edit
them. See Figure B-5.

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Part VII: Appendixes
Figure B-5:
Property
inspector
when a
symbol
instance is
selected.
Instance behavior
Instance name
Swap symbol
Color style
Blend
The Align Panel
The Align Panel (see Figure B-6) gets your objects in line, where they ought to
be. For more information, flip to Chapter 4.
Align objects
horizontally
Align objects
vertically
Align/distribute
relative to
entire Stage
Figure B-6:
The Align
panel.
Match
by width,
by height,
or both
Space objects
evenly
horizontally
or vertically
Distribute objects evenly
The Color Panel
The Color panel is similar to an artist’s palette. See Figure B-7. You can create
your own colors for both strokes (lines) and fills.

Appendix B: The Property Inspector and the Panels
359
Swap Colors
Figure B-7:
The Color
panel.
Stroke Color
Fill Color
Black and White
No Color
Transparency
(Alpha) value
Fill Style
Color Space
Brightness
Hexidecimal
value
Color Specifications
The Swatches Panel
You can use the Swatches panel to manage your colors. See Figure B-8. New
colors and fills that you create appear in this panel for easy access. (See
Chapter 3 for more information.)
Figure B-8:
The
Swatches
panel.
The Info Panel
The Info panel lets you control the precise size and location of objects.
(Check out Chapter 4 for more information on using this panel.) The X and
Y measurements are relative to the upper-left corner of the Stage. See Figure
B-9. The lower-right corner shows the current position of the mouse cursor.
Depending on the object, you may also see color and Alpha information.

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Part VII: Appendixes
Width
X Location
Figure B-9:
The Info
panel.
Height
Y Location
The Scene Panel
The Scene panel is quite simple, as shown in Figure B-10. You can use it to
move from one scene to another, change the order of scenes, and rename,
add, or delete scenes. Choose Window➪Other Panels➪Scene.
Figure B-10:
The Scene
panel.
Duplicate Scene
Add Scene
Delete Scene
The Transform Panel
Use the Transform panel to scale, rotate, and skew objects with precision.
You scale by percentage, and you rotate and skew by degrees (increasing
degrees going clockwise). See Figure B-11. To use the Copy and Apply
Transform button, the first button in the lower-right corner, select an object
and specify the transform settings you want. Then click Copy and Apply
Transform. Flash creates a new object with the new settings on top of the old
object. You can leave the new object there to create a composite object or
immediately move it to a new location. Use the Reset button, the second
button in the lower-right corner, to return a transformed object to its original
properties. Chapter 4 gives you more information about this panel.

Appendix B: The Property Inspector and the Panels
361
Height
Width
Rotation
Figure B-11:
The
Transform
panel.
Skew Vertically
Reset
Skew Horizontally
Copy and Apply Transform
The Actions Panel
The Actions panel is where all the action is — the ActionScript, that is. On
this panel, you write or insert code that makes your movies interactive. See
Figure B-12. Chapter 10 offers more information on this panel.
Actions Toolbox Insert Target Path
Add New Item to Script Autoformat
Script Assist
Figure B-12:
The Actions
panel.
Find Show Code Hint
Check Syntax Script Pane

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Part VII: Appendixes
The Movie Explorer Panel
Explore the depths of your movie with the Movie Explorer panel, shown in
Figure B-13. Refer to Chapter 12 for details.
Show Text
Show ActionScript
Show Frames and Layers
Figure B-13:
The Movie
Explorer
panel.
Customize
which items
to show
Show Video, Sounds, and Bitmaps
Show Buttons, Movie Clips, and Graphics
The Output Panel
Use the Output panel as a way to test the ActionScript code in your movie.
Choose Control➪Test Movie and then choose Window➪Output. The Output
panel opens automatically if you test a movie with errors, and you can also
choose List Objects or List Variables from the Debug menu in the Player
window to view a list of objects and variables.
On Windows, the Output panel is by default a tab of the Property inspector.
See Figure B-14. On Mac, you have a stand-alone Output panel by default —
although, like any other panel, you can add it to the Property inspector or
any other panel group.
Figure B-14:
The Output
panel.

The Accessibility Panel
Appendix B: The Property Inspector and the Panels
Accessibility features make your movies more accessible to people with certain
disabilities or limitations, such as limited or no sight. You can display or
hide objects, depending on the needs of your viewers. These features make
some of the nongraphical objects in your movie available to screen readers,
which read parts of the screen out loud. Choose Window➪Other Panels➪
Accessibility to display the Accessibility panel, shown in Figure B-15.
363
Figure B-15:
The
Accessibility
panel.
The Components Panel
Components are prebuilt movie clips that come with predefined parameters
that you can set to alter their appearance and behavior. They allow you to
build complex Flash applications even if you don’t have an advanced understanding
of ActionScript. Some components are nonvisual and allow you to
do such things as manipulate information from data sources (for a Flash
movie with a news ticker, for instance). Other components are interface elements,
such as check boxes, radio buttons, and drop-down lists (combo
boxes), which you can add to your movies to create interactivity. For more
information, see Chapter 12. The Components panel is shown in Figure B-16.
Figure B-16:
The
Components
panel.

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Part VII: Appendixes
The Component Inspector Panel
Use the Component Inspector panel to assign labels and parameters to
components, such as check boxes, lists, and other interface elements. See
Figure B-17.
Figure B-17:
The
Component
Inspector
panel.
The History Panel
The History panel stores all your commands. See Figure B-18. You can review
them, repeat them, or save them to use again later. Choose Window➪
Other Panels➪History. See Chapter 4 for details.
Figure B-18:
The History
panel.

The Strings Panel
Appendix B: The Property Inspector and the Panels
Use the Strings panel, shown in Figure B-19, to create strings of text in various
languages. You can use these for Web sites in multiple languages. Choose
Window➪Other Panels➪Strings. Then click the Settings button to set up the
languages.
365
Figure B-19:
The Strings
panel.