Working with instances of symbols in Java

Creator Code 39 in Java Working with instances of symbols

When you drag a symbol from the Library, the copy on the Stage is called an instance You can have many instances of one symbol in a Flash document You can change an instance so that it differs from its original symbol, and the original symbol in the Library remains intact To change an instance, follow these steps: 1 Select the instance by clicking it on the Stage with the Selection tool Remember that changing an individual instance doesn t change the symbol itself 2 Use the Properties panel to do one or more of the following: Change the brightness, color, or transparency by selecting an option from the Color drop-down list Select Advanced from the Color dropdown list to change both color and alpha (transparency) at the same time Change an instance s type (graphic, movie clip, or button) by selecting an option from the Symbol Behavior drop-down list

You can also change the properties of an instance by using ActionScript For more information on ActionScript, see Book IV, 8 If you need to refer to a symbol instance in your ActionScript, you can give that instance a unique name Select the instance and enter the name in the Instance Name text field of the Properties panel 3 Use the Free Transform tool (or other editing tools) in the Tools panel to rotate, scale, or skew the instance

To create a graphic symbol from existing objects, follow these steps: 1 Using the Selection tool from the Tools section of the Tools panel, select the objects that you want to convert to a symbol 2 Choose Modify Convert to Symbol or press F8 The Convert to Symbol dialog box appears, as you can see in Figure 3-1

3 In the Name text field, enter a name for the symbol Some people start the names of their symbols with a code that indicates the type of symbol For example, you can start your graphic symbols with gr_ and then add the name of the symbol Classifying your symbols in this way automatically alphabetizes them by their type and helps to keep clear which type of symbol you re using 4 Select Graphic from the Behavior list of symbol types 5 Click OK The objects that you selected are now one object, surrounded by a selection border The symbol is also stored, automatically, in the Library You can achieve the same result by creating an empty symbol and then adding your objects Follow these steps to do so: 1 Choose Insert New Symbol to open the Create New Symbol dialog box Make sure that you don t have any objects selected when you perform this step The Create New Symbol dialog box is the same as the Convert to Symbol dialog box (refer to Figure 3-1)

2 In the Name text field, enter a name for the symbol 3 Select Graphic from the Behavior list of symbol types 4 Click OK You now find yourself in symbol-editing mode and are no longer on the main Timeline 5 Draw the objects for your graphic symbol All these objects become part of your symbol 6 Choose Edit Edit Document to exit symbol-editing mode and return to the main Timeline The symbol is now in the Library and disappears from the screen

To insert an instance of a symbol, drag it from the Library onto the Stage You can drag from the symbol s icon in the Library list or from its preview at the top of the Library window You can also use a graphic symbol (and any other type of symbol) from another Flash document file by following these steps: 1 Choose Import Import to Library This step opens the Import to Library dialog box, where you can browse for Flash files 2 Choose the file that contains the symbol that you want 3 Click the Open button Macromedia Flash opens another Library window 4 Drag symbols from the new Library window onto the Stage