Touring the Tools

The Tools panel holds all the tools you need to create and modify graphic elements in Flash 8 (Figure 2.1). The Tools section contains tools for creating graphic elements; the View section contains tools for scrolling the Stage and for zooming in and out; the Colors section allows you to set colors for the elements you create; and the Options section provides modifiers appropriate to whatever tool you have currently selected.

Figure 2.1. The Tools panel contains tools for drawing, editing, and manipulating graphic elements in Flash. The polystar tool appears as a submenu item of the rectangle tool.

You click a tool to select it for use. If the selected tool has options, the appropriate buttons and/or menus for choosing options and settings appear in the Options section at the bottom of the Tools panel.

To access tools and options

1.	With the Tools panel open, click a toolfor example, the brush tool. The Options section of the Tools panel displays the relevant modifiers for the selected tool.
2.	Click a button or select an option from a menu in the Options section to modify the way the selected tool works (Figure 2.2). Figure 2.2. When you select a tool, its modifiers appear in the Options section of the Tools panel. Here the settings for using the brush appear; click a button to toggle settings such as Merge mode; select a setting from a menu, such as Brush mode.

Tips

• Flash's default setting makes tool tips active (when the pointer hovers over a tool, an identifying label appears). You can change the tool tip setting in the Preferences dialog: Select the General category, select (or deselect) the Show Tool Tips check box, and click OK to close the dialog. (For details on opening the Preferences dialog, see Chapter 1.)

• In addition to displaying tool names, tool tips show keyboard shortcuts. As you get more familiar with the tools, activating them from the keyboard will speed your operations.

• If you accidentally close the Tools panel, you can open it as you would any other panel. Choose Window > Tools.