Flash CS6 Tutorial - An Essential Guide For Web Developers

Assess Flash weaknesses and determine when it's the right tool or a poor fit for information-based sites, given usability, bookmarking, SEO, plugin dependency, and load times.

Discover Flash's strengths for promotional and artistic websites, interactive banners, headers, and embedded objects, plus interactive maps, data charts, and mobile or desktop game and app development.

Explore the Flash CS6 welcome screen, timeline panel, and options to create new projects or open templates. Learn to navigate left, center, and right columns and access learning resources.

Create a new flash movie from the welcome screen or the new file dialog, then set width, height, frame rate, and choose a type like action script 3.

Navigate the templates tab to create new documents from Flash templates. Use keyboard shortcuts to open the new document dialog and preview templates in categories like advertising and animation.

Explore the flash interface through a broad tour of the menu bar, application bar, document tabs, panels, and tool box, then identify the stage and timeline as core work areas.

Explore Flash's panels and the toolbox by using the window menu to open the actions panel, understand panel menus, and learn docked or floating behavior.

Explore the Flash toolbox, read tooltips, discover hidden tools under the tiny black triangle, and use keyboard shortcuts like p, a, t, and z for quick access.

Learn to tailor the Flash CS6 interface by docking, undocking, and rearranging panels, creating flexible workspaces, and preparing for custom interfaces and workflows.

Explore and save your own custom workspaces in Flash CS6 for web development by switching presets like essentials or classic, arranging toolbars, timeline, and panels.

Explore flash preferences to customize launch options, undo settings, and import behavior. Navigate categories, toggle auto recovery, and configure file importers for Photoshop and Illustrator content.

Enable auto save and auto recovery per file in Flash, set the interval (even one minute), and use the document properties wrench to manage changes and the asterix.

set up and demonstrate auto recovery in flash (application-wide), explain auto save differences, simulate a crash, and show how recovered files appear and are saved or overwritten.

Learn to adjust magnification in Flash CS6 using the navigation bar, magnification field, and zoom tool. 100 percent equals the browser view; zoom with z and alt.

Explore fast zooming techniques in Flash CS6 using keyboard shortcuts such as command/control spacebar to toggle the zoom tool, and plus/minus to zoom.

Master navigation in Flash by zooming and panning with the hand tool, scroll bars, and spacebar shortcuts. Use spacebar to pan and command/ctrl spacebar to zoom.

Set flash movie properties in Flash CS6 by adjusting stage size, frame rate, and background color, and configure document settings via the wrench icon or modify menu.

Learn how to save flash files, choosing between .fla for a fully editable project, .xfl for cross‑suite sharing, and .swf for a compressed published version.

Create a new flash file and use the pencil tool to draw freehand lines with modes—straiten, smoothing, and inc.—while exploring dynamic options and black stroke on white fill defaults.

Explore the pencil tool options in Flash CS6 to customize stroke color, weight, line styles, caps, joins, and smoothing for precise vector drawings.

Learn to use the Flash CS6 line tool to draw perfectly straight lines with snap to objects and 45-degree snapping, and adjust stroke color, width, and style.

Learn to paint with Flash's brush tool, adjusting brush size and shape, choosing calligraphy nibs, and applying fill colors to create painterly, calligraphy-like strokes with smoothing options.

Explore Flash brush tool modes, including paint normal, paint fills, paint behind, paint selection, and paint inside. See how each mode affects strokes and fills on canvas and shapes.

Explore the eraser tool in Flash CS6, mastering modes such as normal erasing strokes, erasing fills, erasing only lines, and selected fills, plus the Fosset modifier for object-based erasing.

Master the Flash pen tool by placing anchor points, forming paths, and creating both straight and curved shapes, with practice on open and closed objects.

Master the pen tool by creating straight and curved path segments, closing paths, and using combination paths. Use the shift key for 45-degree angles and control-click to finish.

Learn to create curved paths with the pen tool by clicking and dragging in the curve direction, then in the opposite direction, to form arcs and closed shapes.

Create combination paths by blending curved and straight segments with the pen tool in Flash CS6, using anchor points, direction lines, and breaking teeter totter for a dovetail effect.

Learn to manipulate anchor points and curves in Flash CS6 using the white arrow tool to edit paths and convert between curved and straight segments.

Learn to convert straight anchor points to curves and curved points to straight using alt/option drag, and to add or remove anchor points with the pen and selection tools.

Explore Flash CS6 drawing basics with the rectangle tool to create rectangles and perfect squares, adjust stroke and fill colors, and apply corner radius options.

Explore setting corner radius on rectangles in flash cs6, linking corners for uniform radii or unlinking to assign independent values, including positive and negative radii for concave shapes.

Explore creating ovals, circles, donuts, and pie wedges with the oval tool in Flash CS6, using start angle, end angle, and inner radius to craft circles, donuts, and interface elements.

Explore the rectangle primitive tool and its editable fill and stroke, contrast with the regular rectangle tool, and learn visual corner radius editing via anchor points in the properties panel.

Utilize the oval primitive tool to create ovals and circles with adjustable fill, stroke, inner radius, and start/end angles in Flash CS6.

Use Flash's polygons and stars tools, set the style to polygon or star in the options, specify sides or points, and adjust the point size for sharpness.

Explore how merge drawing mode in Flash handles shapes, fills, and strokes, showing how overlapping different colors cut holes while same colors merge, and how strokes split at intersections.

Learn how the object drawing mode in Flash CS6 preserves separate fills and strokes, making shapes act as independent objects and preventing interference.

Master object selection in Flash CS6 using the bounding box. Learn strategies for groups, object drawing, and merge drawing mode; double-click fills or strokes to select entire shapes.

Master the paint bucket tool to quickly change fill colors on shapes, using the fill color swatch, and understand its behavior with object drawing and merged drawing.

Use the ink bottle tool to change stroke color, thickness, and style, applying dotted lines and other stroke settings to shapes created with object or merge drawing modes.

Open the color panel and create a custom fill or stroke, then adjust with the color picker, HSP or RGB values, or hex input and save to Flash swatches.

Learn how to apply transparency in Flash CS6 using alpha, adjusting opacity for fills and strokes, and manage stacking order to create semi-transparent objects.

Create custom gradients in Flash CS6 using linear and radial gradients, adjust color stops, and save swatches while exploring color picker and alpha.

Position objects precisely with x and y coordinates relative to the stage's top-left corner. Enter exact values in the properties or info panel, such as 10,10 or 0,0.

Learn to duplicate content in Flash CS6 using copy and paste, paste in center vs paste in place, the duplicate command, and alt-drag for offset copies on layers.

Master aligning objects on the stage with dashed guides and the align panel; select items, open the panel with command/ctrl k, and align edges or center to stage.

Use the align panel to evenly space objects on the stage, horizontally or vertically, ensuring equal gaps between items and showing how center-point distribution differs from spacing by edges.

Explore transforming objects visually with the free transform tool, resize, rotate, and distort using handles, then apply precise numeric values via the transform and properties panels.

Learn to combine objects in Flash CS6 using union, intersect, punch, and crop within the object drawing mode to craft custom shapes.

Learn how to group and ungroup objects in Flash cs6, use ctrl or command g, and break apart or ungroup within nested groups via group editing mode.

Compare Flash's merge drawing and object drawing modes, showing how strokes and fills can be grouped or separated, and how to ungroup, edit, and convert shapes.

Understand stacking order by how objects overlap. Move items with bring to front, bring forward, send backward, and send to back, and manage grouping and ungrouping.

Master Flash layers and the timeline to manage stacking order, visibility, and layer-specific content. Copy, paste in place, and arrange to control how layers interact on the timeline.

Create point and paragraph text in Flash CS6 using the type tool; edit text, manipulate text objects and frames, and explore bounding boxes and text columns and threading.

Format paragraph text in Flash CS6 from the properties panel, adjusting font, size, color, and alignment, and switch to the text layout framework engine for expanded options.

Learn to create multiple columns in the Flash CS6 text frame by using the TALF engine, adjusting columns, gutter, and padding in the properties panel, and preparing threaded frames.

Thread text frames in Flash CS6 using the TLM engine to spill text between frames, link frames with input and output jacks, and thread forward or backward.

Explore symbols and instances in Flash CS6, learn how to create graphics, movie clips, and buttons, manage them in the library, and apply motion tween animations for reusable content.

Learn to create and convert graphic symbols in Flash CS6, turning content into a graphic symbol for static objects like logos or interface elements, managed in the library as instances.

Learn to build a graphic symbol from scratch in Flash CS6 by inserting a new symbol, naming it alien invader number two, and adding content inside the symbol.

Create a movie clip symbol from existing content and explore the timeline inside a timeline, convert to a symbol, place an instance on the stage, and start a basic animation.

Learn to animate a movie clip in Flash CS6 by editing a symbol's timeline inside a movie clip, creating a two-frame flicker with keyframes, and previewing looped animation on stage.

Create button symbols in Flash CS6 by building a button from scratch or from stage content, define up, over, down, and hit states, then test in the movie timeline.

Define the hit frame as the button's clickable hot spot to prevent flicker and ensure rollover, by creating a hit area around text and converting it to a button symbol.

Explore the Flash library panel and learn to manage symbols and content. Edit instances, rename items, delete symbols, and organize with folders for a lean project.

Drop symbol instances from the library panel onto the stage or timeline, keeping a live link to the original symbol, whether graphic or movie clip.

Learn to manipulate stage instances in Flash CS6 by transforming, duplicating, aligning, grouping, and swapping symbols, using the Free Transform tool, keyboard shortcuts, and the library panel.

Edit symbols in Flash by updating the original symbol in the library panel or using edit in place; changes cascade to all instances with live previews on the timeline.

Import symbols from an external Flash library, then drag and drop graphic symbols such as cartoon one and cartoon two into your project, which also adds them to your library.

Develop the ability to import symbols from external Flash projects and enable automatic updates across multiple files by linking library symbols to the source file via author time sharing.

Discover how to use Flash's common libraries—especially buttons—to insert, edit, and preview button symbols, including rollovers and symbol editing workflows.