Chapter 2. Customizing Flash 5 to Suit Your Workflow

One of the terrific things about Flash 5 is that it is so customizable. In fact, you have a whole host of options and settings that you can change to make Flash work for you. In this chapter, you'll take a look at the following:

• Changing the default Movie Properties. Every time you open Flash, you get a new empty movie with specific dimensions and characteristics. In this chapter, you learn how to modify those settings to better suit your needs.

• Working with the panel sets. You can make the new panels in Flash work for you. In this chapter, you learn how to create custom panel sets and how to hide the panels when you don't need them.

• Setting preferences inside Flash. By setting preferences, you can customize the way Flash works. For example, if you don't like the Flash 5 selection style, you can switch it back to the Flash 4 style. If you've never played around with the preferences before, now is the time to do it.

• Creating and using custom keyboard shortcuts. If you've already memorized a set of keyboard shortcuts from another graphics program such as Macromedia's FreeHand or Fireworks, or Adobe's Photoshop or Illustrator, don't despair ”you can use those shortcuts inside Flash as well. You also can create your own custom shortcuts.