Editing Groups

Table of Contents

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Macromedia Flash MX for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide

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Table of Contents

Thank You:

INTRODUCTION

Ch. 1. The Flash Authoring Tool

Ch. 2. Creating Simple Graphics

Ch. 3. Modifying Simple Graphics

Ch. 4. Complex Graphics on a Single Layer

When Lines Intersect Lines

When Lines and Fills Interact

When Shapes Interact

Understanding Grouping

Working with Grouped Elements

Controlling the Stacking Order

Editing Groups

Aligning Elements

Using the Complex Paint Modes with the Brush

Applying Gradients to Multipart Shapes

Using the Eraser Tool with Multiple Shapes

Ch. 5. Graphics on Multiple Layers

Ch. 6. Saving and Reusing Graphic Elements

Ch. 7. Using Non-Flash Graphics

Ch. 8. Frame-by-Frame Animations

Ch. 9. Animation with Motion Tweening

Ch. 10. Animation with Shape Tweening

Ch. 11. More-Complex Animation Tasks

Ch. 12. Interactivity with Simple Frame Actions

Ch. 13. Interactivity with Objects

Ch. 14. Adding Sound and Video

Ch. 15. Introducing Complex Interactivity

Ch. 16. Delivering Movies to Your Audience

Appx. A. Keyboard Shortcuts

Editing Groups

Although you can transform a group as a whole (scale, rotate, and skew it), you can’t directly edit the individual shapes within the group, the way that you can edit an ungrouped shape. To edit the shapes within a group, you must use the Edit Selected command.

To edit the contents of a group:

1.	In the Toolbox, select the arrow tool.
2.	On the Stage, select the group you want to edit.
3.	From the Edit menu, choose Edit Selected. Flash enters group-editing mode (Figure 4.26). The info bar just above the Stage changes to indicate that you are in group-editing mode. The bounding box for the selected group disappears, and Flash dims all the items on the Stage that are not part of the selected group. These dimmed items are not editable; they merely provide context for editing the selected group. Figure 4.26. These eyes and eyebrows are a selected group that’s being edited. The other objects on the Stage are grayed out to indicate that you can’t edit them.

Tip

When you have the Property Inspector open, you can see—and change—the height, width, and x and y coordinates of the bounding box of a selected group (Figure 4.27).

Figure 4.27. The Property Inspector displays the height,width,and x and y coordinates for the bounding box of a group that you’ve selected on the Stage. Enter new values to change any of those parameters.

To return to movie-editing mode:

Do one of the following:

From the Edit menu, choose Edit All (Figure 4.28).

Figure 4.28. You have several ways to return to movie-editing mode when you are editing a group. From the Edit menu, choose Edit All. Or you can click items in the info bar: the Back button, the scene name, and the Scene pop-up menu all let you resume editing the movie.
Double-click the Stage or the work area away from the shapes in the group you’re editing.
Click the current scene name in the info bar.
Click the Back button in the info bar.

Tips

With the arrow tool selected, you can enter group-editing mode quickly by double-clicking a grouped item on the Stage.
If in addition to returning to movie-edit-ing mode, you want to work on a different scene, you can simply choose it from the pop-up menu of scenes in the info bar. Flash takes you to the new scene in movie-editing mode. (To learn more about scenes, see Chapter 11.)

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Chapter 4. Complex Graphics on a Single Layer > Editing Groups

Editing Groups

Figure 4.26. These eyes and eyebrows are a selected group that’s being edited. The other objects on the Stage are grayed out to indicate that you can’t edit them.

Figure 4.27. The Property Inspector displays the height,width,and x and y coordinates for the bounding box of a group that you’ve selected on the Stage. Enter new values to change any of those parameters.

Figure 4.28. You have several ways to return to movie-editing mode when you are editing a group. From the Edit menu, choose Edit All. Or you can click items in the info bar: the Back button, the scene name, and the Scene pop-up menu all let you resume editing the movie.