Flash 8 Selection Tools

Arrow Tool (keyboard shortcut V)               
You will use this the most
Gives you 3 options

1. Snap to objects
2. smooth- allows you to smooth lines or simple shapes on the stage
3. straighten – allows you to straighten lines or simple shapes on the stage

Selecting
Flash graphics can be selected separately or as a whole
A single line can be selected by clicking on it once

Flash groups primitive strokes and fills by default
To modify the object select it and select
Modify  | Ungroup from the menu

No you can select the line itself

• Draw a square
• Ungroup it (Modify | Ungroup)

If you click one of the strokes (Lines) you only select THAT stroke

If you want to select all the strokes double click one of them

Click the fill (inside the square)
You only select the fill and not the strokes

If you want to select the fill and all the strokes double click the fill

Drag the arrow tool over a section of the square and you can select just part of it

You can them move this away from your original square

You can select more than one item by dragging the arrow tool around a bunch of things

• Draw 2 lines with the line tool. Make sure they intersect each other

By default, they will both be grouped and not affect each other

• Ungroup both lines (Modify | Ungroup)

Now the lines actually intercept and slice each other into two
You can now select one of four different lines

• Draw a circle and a square
• Place them on top on one another

Move them
Nothing happens

Now ungroup both and place them on top of one another
Deselect them by clicking on the stage
No you will see that the cut into each other


Modifying Shapes

• Draw a line again with the line tool
• Ungroup it
• Deselect it
• Use the arrow tool and bring it almost to it until a crescent appears next to the cursor

Now you can click and drag and pull the line out

You can do this with shapes as well


Smooth/Straighten
Smooth and straighten are options under the arrow tool
You can click on the smooth or straighten buttons after selecting a stroke to smooth the stroke or straighten it

Lasso Tool (Keyboard shortcut L)           

used for selecting similar simple shapes on the stage Magic Wand- allows you to select odd-shaped areas inside simple shapes Magic Wand Properties- Allows you adjust magic Wand tool settings Allows you to select polygon-shaped areas in simple shapes

Subselect Tool    (keyboard shortcut A)     

Similar to the arrow tool except that instead of selecting an entire object, allows you to select and work with anchor points that exist along the shape’s path

 
You can select an anchor point and press the delete key to delete it

Magnifying Glass (Keyboard shortcut M or Z)     
The magnifying Glass has two options

To zoom in or zoom out

You can also drag the magnifying glass over and area to zoom out

You can double click the magnifying glass to zoom out
     

Hand Tool (keyboard shortcut H)  
The mouse pointer becomes a hand
The hand lets you move the entire stage to reveal other parts of the stage

Pressing and holding the spacebar temporarily selects the hand tool