Flash CS3 desktop tutorial

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Layout of the Flash Desktop

The default desktop

When you first open the Flash Desktop you may not see all the tools. It should look a bit like this (I am not so sure about the right-hand side panel area).

The annotated screentop already conveys an idead of the kinds of tools you get, but we will introduce them later.

The Default Flash CS3 Desktop

You can arrange the Flash Desktop in various ways (see below), but for the rest of this tutorial I will try to stay with a somewhat stable environment

Configuring the desktop layout

Before explaining some components I suggest to make visible some more panels (tools and libraries). Having tools at your fingertip is IMHO always a good idea if your screen is big enough. BTW, if you can afford to buy CS3 maybe it's also a good idea to invest in screen that can do 1900x1200 pixels....

Show tools

You always need the main drawing tool (leave it to the left). You can add two tools panels that include some of the most commonly used menu commands.

So display all the toolbars

• Window->Toolbar
• Check all three Main, Controller, Edit Bar).

Adding and moving panels

Panels are tools and libraries that contain functionalities that you can't find in any menu. Btw, if at some point you can't see panels you think you put on the desktop, hit F4 or Window->Show Panels)

CS3 let's you arrange panels in various ways:

• They can be floating (undocked, usually you would move them outside the Flash Desktop)
• They can be docked to either panel area to the right, to the bottom or even to the left.
• They can be docked in groups of panels (each one as a tab)

To dock a panel, simply grab it with the mouse (left-mouse down on a empty area in its top bar and then drag) to an "place" that will "light up" in light blue. Below is picture:

Undocked color and library panels and swatches panel to be docked.

• • If it's a blue line it will dock there as a lone panel
  • If it's a blue top bar of another panel it will dock with a tab

To undock a panel:

• Drag it to some place that doesn't light blue.

Saving an environment

• Window->Workspace->Save Current ...

The CS3 Flash desktop