Working with Color Swatches

You can save a new color or gradient for the duration of your work session by adding the color currently displayed in the Color Mixer panel to the Color Swatches panel. The Fill Color and Stroke Color controls found in the Tools panel, Properties tab of the Property inspector, and Color Mixer panel also give you quick access to the current set of swatches; you'll learn more about these controls later in this chapter.

To add a color or gradient to the Color Swatches panel

Create a new color or gradient using any of the techniques outlined in the preceding sections.

In the Color Mixer panel, do either of the following:

From the Options menu, choose Add Swatch ( Figure 2.12 ).

Figure 2.12. The Color Mixer panel's Options menu has a command for adding the current color to the Color Swatches panel.
Position the pointer over the blank area of the Color Swatches panel; when the paint-bucket pointer appears, click.

Flash adds the new solid color or gradient to the appropriate section of the Color Swatches panel ( Figure 2.13 ).

Figure 2.13. Positioning the pointer over a blank spot in the Color Swatches panel changes the pointer to a paint-bucket. Click to add whatever color is currently specified in the Color Mixer panel. Solid color swatches are added to the upper half of the Color Swatches panel; gradient swatches, to the lower half.

Creating Color Sets

Flash stores a default set of colors and gradients in the system color file, but it stores the colors and gradients used in each document with that document. Flash lets you define what colors and gradients make up the default set. In addition, you can create and save other color sets and load them into the Color Swatches panel. This practice makes it easy to maintain a consistent color palette when you're creating several documents for use in a single movie or on a single Web site.

To define a new set of colors

1.	Define the colors and gradients for your color set (see "Creating Solid Colors and Gradients," earlier in this chapter). You don't need to define them all at once, but after you have a set you want to save, go to step 2.
2.	Access the Color Swatches panel.
3.	From the Options menu, choose Save Colors ( Figure 2.14 ). Figure 2.14. The Options menu in the Color Swatches panel offers commands for working with color sets. The Export Color Swatch dialog appears ( Figure 2.15 ). Figure 2.15. To save a set of colors for reuse, in the Export Color Swatch dialog, choose Flash Color Set from the Format menu (Mac, top) or Save as Type menu (Windows, bottom).
4.	Navigate to the folder where you want to store your color set.
5.	Enter a name for the color-set in the Save As (Mac), or File Name field (Windows).
6.	From the Format (Mac) or Save as Type (Windows) pop-up menu, choose one of two formats: To save colors and gradients in Flash's proprietary Flash Color Set (CLR) format, choose Flash Color Set. To save the colors in Color Table (ACT) format, choose Color Table. The ACT format saves only colors (not gradients) but lets you share color sets with other programs, such as Macromedia Fireworks.
7.	Click Save.

To load a set of colors

1.	From the Options menu in the Color Swatches panel, choose either of the following: To add to the color set currently displayed in the Color Swatches panel, choose Add Colors. To replace the entire set currently displayed in the Color Swatches panel, choose Replace Colors. The Import Color Swatch dialog appears ( Figure 2.16 ). Figure 2.16. To reload a saved set of colors, in the Import Color Swatch dialog, choose Flash Color Set from the Enable menu (Mac, top) or Files of Type menu (Windows, bottom).
2.	To determine what types of files to display, from the Enable pop-up menu (Mac) or Files of Type (Windows) pop-up menu, choose one of the following: All Formats, which displays CLR, ACT, and GIF files Flash Color Set, which displays only CLR files Color Table, which displays only ACT files GIF, which displays only GIF files All Files, which displays files of any format Note that the Color Table and GIF formats are for color import only; these formats don't handle gradients. Flash Color Set handles both colors and gradients.
3.	Navigate to the file you want to import.
4.	Click Open .

Tips

You can add new colors to the Color Swatches panel even if it's closed. But if you want to get feedback when you add a swatch, open the Color Swatches panel in its own window (if the panel is part of a tabbed panel- group , you'll need to ungroup it; see Chapter 1 for details). Resize the panel so that a bit of space appears below the existing swatches. You'll see the new swatch come in.
You can also delete swatches from the Color Swatches panel. Select the swatch you want to delete. From the Color Swatches panel's Options menu, choose Delete Swatch.
If the gradients section of the Color Swatches panel is so full that you can't see the latest swatches you added, resize the section by dragging upward on the bar dividing the gradient swatches from the solid color swatches. You may need to resize the whole panel so there is room to drag upward.
If the swatches in the Color Swatches panel are too small for you, resize the panel. The swatches grow bigger as the window widens.
To create a new gradient swatch based on an existing one, in the Color Swatches panel, select the swatch you want to tweak. Position the pointer over the blank area below the swatch set. When the paint-bucket tool appears, click to add a copy of the selected swatch. Select the copy in the Color Swatches panel, and it loads into the Color Mixer panel, ready for you to modify.
The Options menu in the Color Swatches panel also offers some handy shortcuts for dealing with color sets. To reload the default color set, choose Load Default Colors. To remove all color swatches from the current panel window, choose Clear Colors. To load the standard Web-safe colors, choose Web 216. To arrange colors by hue, choose Sort by Color. (Note that you can't undo the color sorting. Be sure to save your current set of colors if there's any chance that you'll want to restore the unsorted order.)
You can also use the Color Swatches panel to select colors for fills and strokes. The key is first to tell Flash where to apply the new color. You do that by choosing any Stroke Color or Fill Color control and then selecting a color in the Color Swatches panel. Flash puts that color in every Stroke Color or Fill Color control. In the Colors section of the Tools panel, for example, choose the Fill Color control by clicking the paint-bucket icon; then select blue in the Color Swatches panel. Blue now appears in the Fill Color control in the Tools panel, in the Color Mixer panel, and in the Properties tab of the Property inspector.

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