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About Symbols in Adobe Flash

A symbol is a graphic, button, or movie clip that you create once in Flash and then reuse throughout your document or in other Flash documents. Symbols are stored in the Library panel. An instance is a copy of the symbol that has been placed on the Stage and given a unique name.

If you edit a symbol, all instances of that symbol update. However, if you edit an instance on the Stage (e.g. change its colour, size or rotation), only that instance is changed, not the symbol itself.

Using symbols in your documents greatly reduces file size and improves playback performance. If you have background images, for example, convert them to symbols.

Types of symbols



Graphic symbols: used for static images. Graphic symbols are synchronised to the main Timeline. Interactive controls and sounds do not work in a graphic symbol. Unlike Button and Movie Clips symbols, Graphic symbols do not have their own Timeline.



Button symbols: used for interactive buttons that respond to mouse clicks, rollovers, or other user actions. Buttons have their own Timeline.



Movie Clip symbols: used for reusable animations. Movie clips have their own Timeline that is independent of the main Timeline. They can contain interactive controls, sounds, and even other movie clips. Movie clips are scriptable with ActionScript.

Creating symbols

Creating a symbol from a selected object

• Select an object on the Stage and do one of the following:
  • Choose Modify > Convert To Symbol.
  • Drag the selection into the Library panel.
  • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) and choose Convert To Symbol in the context menu.
• Type the symbol name and select its behaviour in the Convert To Symbol dialogue box.

• In the registration grid, click to position the registration point for the symbol.
• (Optional) Click Library Root to place the symbol into a folder inside the Library.
• Click OK.
• The symbol is added to the Library panel, and the selected item on the Stage becomes an instance of the symbol.

Learn more by registering into the Flash Level 1, 2-day training course delivered by Alpha Computer Consultants www.alphacc.com.au.