Quick Macromedia Flash Tutorial : Interface

This is called "The Interface". This is what makes up flash. Like the saying goes: You can't beat and egg without knowing where the beater is. :)
I have color coded the picture above to show the following:

The Stage - This is the core of everything you do in flash. You can draw with the toolbar, place movie clips or buttons on the stage, drag in components and much more.
The Timeline - The timeline is made up of Layers, Frames and Keyframes. The timeline is used for animation. Each frame is like a slide in a presentation. You can also actionscript each frame (Actionscripting discussed in a later tutorial).
Properties - This is where you can adjust the options of the document, frames, movie clips ect. You can set everything here from the size of your stage, to the x and y coordinates of an object.
The Toolbar - The home of all the tool buttons (See below). This is also the are you can set colors, use the eraser and draw. This could be considered your virtual pencil case.
The Library - This is where all the symbols are stored. You simply drag and drop onto the stage. Imported videos and pictures can also be put here as well as many other things.
Actions - Maybe the most important part of Flash. This is where you write all the actionscript for your movie. If you become a Flash Pro, you will use this a lot.
The Window Bar - This could also be classified as the library. This is where most of the smaller windows are docked. I have the Color window docked in the picture, but many others can go there such as Alignment and even the Library.
The Menu - If your an owner of Flash then I don't think I need to discuss this ;p . This is basically where you can find Save, Publish, Register your Product and much, much more.

That is your basic interface. If you are going to learn flash, then try and memorize what I've said. It is really helpful to have a guide at your side while learning.
Now onto the Toolbar!

Step Two : Tools, Tools, Tools...

Man oh man there is a few of them :lol
The tools help you draw in flash. The paintbrush, pencil, paintbucket and inkbucket ( ) are the first things you need to know. If you have Windows or Photoshop, then you should know what the pencil, paintbrush, and paint bucket are for. You can draw thick smooth lines with the paintbrush. One of the best things of flash would have to be the auto-smoothing function. The Pencil creates thin lines. Pain bucket fills in an enclosed are. Eg. If you were to draw a circle with the pencil tool. You could fill it in black with the paint bucket tool.

The Shape tools () are also very helpful. Set the colors with the color bar and then click and drag on the stage to create a variety of shapes.

The Selection and Sub-Selection tools ()() are used probably the most. Simply click on an object to select it, or click and drag to select only part of it.

The Text, Line and Pen tools()()() are yet again, helpful to the world of flash. The text tool is what it's name says. it creates text on your movie. The text can be edited at any time. The line and pen tools are used frequently. The line tool creates straight lines while the pen tool creates curvy and bent lines.

Eraser?() Need I say more :D . All it does is erase things.



Eye dropper

can copy a color value from another color. Simply point and click.

And last but not least, Lasso, Free Transform an Gradient Transform



Lasso lest you select a freeform area of the document for you to modify. Free transform allows to to re-size and change the dimensions of an object. Gradient Transform... To tell you the truth, I haven't used that tool to this day :lol I actually don't know what it does. I think It's used to change the shape and dimensions of a gradient.

Well, that concludes the first tutorial of this series. I hope this helped you learn the interface of flash and I hope to see you again!