Flash Tools Panel

The Tools panel is the panel with which you will likely become most familiar. Any time you create or edit anything on the stage, you need to have one tool selected from the tools panel. The default location is docked to the left side of the flash interface.

Although the tools panel is used primarily to draw on the stage, it’s also used to edit what you’ve already drawn. In this fig. the tools panel is actually divided into several sections. The first four are selection tools, then six creation tools, four modifying tools, two view tools, four settings for color, followed by a variety of options that vary depending on which tool is actively selected.



The tools section enables you to create graphics and text (via the line tool and the text tool), to edit graphics (via the Eraser tool and the Paint Bucket tool), and to simply select graphics (via the selection tool, the Subselecttool, and the Lasso tool). You’ll learn about all these tools next posting. The two view tools (Hand tool and Zoom tool) let you change your view of the stage (as you did in the preceding task). The colors give you control over the color of objects drawn. Finally, the options area includes additional modifiers for certain tools. Depending on what tool is selected, you might not see anything in the options section.

You’ll look at these tools in detail in the next coming postings. For now, go ahead and play with these tools. If you think you lost the Tools Panel, you can restore it by selecting Window, Tools.