STEP 06 organizing imported OBJECTS

The flip side of any export operation is importing. Although the actual importing is handled in a one-step command (File > Import), there are a few things you need to know about importing complex work from FreeHand to make the most of it in Flash.

• It is very important that you set your movie options in the beginning to match the size of your layout from FreeHand (see figure 09:12).

  
  

  Figure 09:12.

  

  
  

• FreeHand tends to create nested groups of objects which, in most cases, need to be broken apart to be truly useful.

• FreeHand breaks apart text boxes line by line. In such a circumstance, the best course would be to import only the first line of text as a placeholder. Then, simply copy the text content from the FreeHand text block and paste it into the text block in Flash.

• Clipping paths are handled differently in FreeHand than in Flash. In FreeHand, a clipping path is one object with another pasted inside of it. In Flash, the clipping is composed of an outline and separate transparent fill that you need to move out of the way to get to the object inside.

• As noted earlier, TIFFs are converted to RGB images. If the image is colorized in FreeHand, Flash applies the color settings; if it's a black-and-white TIFF set to transparent, Flash automatically brings in the alpha channel.

After I have imported the exported SWF files (one for text blocks and one for text paths), I organize the file. I systematically take all the objects and move them to their own layers , converting each object into a symbol. I tend to use the Paste in Place feature as I move objects to their own layer, thus retaining the original positioning. Admittedly this is a fairly tedious process, but one that reaps tremendous rewards (see figure 09:13).

Figure 09:13.