Flash CS3 keyboard shortcuts

Authors: Daniel K. Schneider (TECFA) and Marielle Lange (WidgEd)

This page contains the most important Flash CS3 keyboard shortcuts. There may be some mistakes and omissions for now (e.g. programming/debugging is not covered). Table size optimized for Mozilla/Windows.

For Mac users, to have the functions keys functioning as below, you have to go to "System Preferences" > "Keyboard" > tick option "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys". Otherwise your function keys will function as the special feature printed on them (you can always use these special features using FN key+F1, F2, etc.).

The useful list Standard windows commands not shown here F5 - Add simple frame F6 - Add new Keyframe F7 - Add blank Keyframe F8 - Make Symbol CTRL+ENTER - Test a Movie F9 - Action Panel F4 - Show/Hide All Panels F10 - Keystroke Menu command mode Tools Panel While drawing on the stage you quickly can change tools that way. V - Selection Tool A - Sub Selection Tool Q - Free Transform tool F - Gradient Transform Tool L - Lasso Tool P - Pen Tool N - Line Tool T - Text Tool R - Rectangle Tool O - Oval Tool Y - Pencil Tool B - Paint Brush S - Ink Bottle K - Paint Bucket I - EyeDropper D - Dropper E - Eraser H - Hand Tool M,Z - Magnifier (Zoom)

Modifying and editing CTRL+G - Group CTRL+SHIFT-G - Ungroup CTRL+B - Break Apart CTRL+A - Select All CTRL+SHIFT+A - Deselect All CTRL+C - Copy CTRL+V - Paste CTRL+SHIFT+V - Paste in Place CTRL+D - Duplicate CTRL+SHIFT+O - Optimize Curves CTRL+T - Modify Font CTRL+SHIFT+T - Modify Paragraph CTRL+left Arrow - Narrower Letter Spacing (kerning) CTRL+right Arrow - wider Letter Spacing (kerning) CTRL+SHIFT+9 - Rotate 90° Clockwise CTRL+SHIFT+7 - Rotate 90° Counter clockwise CTRL+SHIFT+Z - Remove Transform CTRL+ALT+S - Scale and Rotate CTRL+SHIFT+Z - Remove Transform Arranging CTRL+Up Arrow - Move Ahead CTRL+Down Arrow - Move Behind CTRL+SHIFT+Up Arrow - Bring to Front CTRL+SHIFT+Down Arrow - Send to Back CTRL+ALT+1 - Left Align CTRL+ALT+2 - Horizontal Center CTRL+ALT+3 - Right Align CTRL+ALT+4 - Top Align CTRL+ALT+5 - Vertical Center CTRL+ALT+6 - Bottom Align CTRL+ALT+7 - Distribute Widths CTRL+ALT+9 - Distribute Heights CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+7 - Make Same Width CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+9 - Make Same Height CTRL+ALT+8 - Set "Align to stage"

Windows and Panels Open/close various Panels F1 - Help F4 - Show/Hide Panels CTRL+K - Align Panel CTRL+T - Transform SHIFT+F9 - Color Mixer CTRL+F9 - Color Swatches CTRL+L - Show/Hide Library F9 - Actions If your screen is big enough you won't need these a lot ... CTRL+F3 - Properties Inspector CTRL+F2 - Tools Panel CTRL+ALT-T - Timeline CTRL+M - Modify Movie Properties CTRL+E - Toggle between Edit Movie& Edit Symbol Mode CTRL+SHIFT+L - Show/Hide Timeline CTRL+SHIFT+W - Show/Hide Work Area Frames and Symbols (most of the time, position first inside the timeline) F5 - Add frame (extend the timeline) SHIFT+F5 - Delete Frame F6 - Add Key Frame (and copy over old contents) SHFIT-F6 - Clear Key Frame F7 - Add Blank Key Frame (and leave the stage empty) F8 - Turn into Symbol CTRL+F8 - Make new Symbol CLICK DRAG - Move keyframe (Select, release - then drag !) CTRL-DRAG - Select several Frames

Timeline Enter - Play Movie CTRL+0 (zero) - Rewind Movie < - Previous Frame > - Next Frame CTRL+ENTER - Test Movie CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER - Debug Movie Home - Goto First Scene End - Goto Last Scene Page Up - Goto Previous Scene Page Down - Goto Next Scene Files CTRL+N - New File CTRL+O - Open File CTRL+S - Save File CTRL+R - Import Image/Sound/etc... CTRL+SHIFT+O - Open as Library SHIFT+F12 - Publish CTRL+SHIFT+R - Export to .swf/.spl/.gif/etc... View CTRL+1 - View movie at 100% size CTRL+2 - Show Frame CTRL+3 - Show All Generate shortcut table Menu Edit->Keyboard shortcuts Click on the little icon on top right (Export Set as HTML). This will generate a single HTML file with several tables, showing all commands that can have a shortcuts plus the shortcuts currently defined.

Links

• What Are the Flash Shortcut Keys? by Adobe, a good short list.
• Flash Keyboard Shortcuts (another, more recent Adobe document, 2011)
• Most useful Flash 8 Shortcut Keys by Anders Bergmann.
• Full reference for Flash CS3 shortcuts can also be printed. (commercial $15)

Conventions

• On a Mac replace "Control" by "Command"
• In this table, "+" means hold down both (usually I just use a "-" for this)

Other tricks

(from Adobe, to sort out)

With the arrow cursor: Control + Click and Drag - Duplicates a shape By hitting the control key first (Macintosh & Windows) and THEN clicking and dragging on a selected shape or group of shapes, you will create a duplicate of those shapes at the spot where you release the mouse button.

CTRL+Clicking a keyframe to move frame: CTRL+clicking a frame in the timeline switches the cursor to a slider, and allows you to click and drag that frame to a new place in the timeline within that same layer. Useful if you want to stretch out tweens for example

With the magnifier tool:

Control + Click - Toggles to the opposite magnifier. If the + magnifier (zoom in) is active, and you hit Control while clicking, you will switch to the - magnifier and actually zoom OUT.

With the dropper tool:

Shift + Click - Select a color for both fill and outline tools Clicking a red fill will do the same, giving you the Bucket tool, and switching fill colors to red. But the outline tool colors are not changed. Clicking on text switches the text tool to that color, and gives you the text tool. Shift clicking with the dropper makes the color you click on active for ALL tools, and doesn't automatically switch you to any tool. It leaves the dropper active.

This is one of the least well known short cuts in Flash, and is the ONLY way to use the dropper on an outline for example, and then be able to switch to the fill tool and have that color automatically active already.