Controlling the Amount of Assistance

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Flash helps you by straightening line segments, recognizing shapes , and smoothing curves as you draw them with the various pencil-tool modifiers discussed in the preceding sections. The degree of assistance depends on the settings you pick in the Editing tab of the Preferences dialog box. The settings are relative to the resolution of your monitor and the amount of magnification you're using to view the Stage. At 100 percent magnification with the setting Can Be Distant, for example, Flash recognizes and closes an oval that has a gap of 5 pixels between its beginning and ending points. But bump the magnification to 400 percent, and Flash refuses to close a gap of 5 pixels. You must get the shape's end points within around 1 pixel of each other before Flash will recognize the gap and close the shape for you.

To set the degree of assistance:

1. From the Edit menu (Mac OS 9 and Windows) or from the Flash application menu (Mac OS X), choose Preferences.

   The Preferences dialog box appears.

2. Choose the Editing tab of the Preferences dialog box (Figure 2.26).

   Figure 2.26. Choose Edit > Preferences (Mac OS 9 and Windows) or Flash > Preferences (Mac OS X), and select the Editing tab to set the amount of assistance Flash gives you in smoothing and recognizing shapes.

   

3. In the Drawing Settings section of the dialog box, choose an option from each of the five pop-up menus (Figure 2.27 through Figure 2.31).

   Figure 2.27. Connect Lines controls how close the beginning and ending points of an oval or rectangle must be before Flash closes them for you.

   

   Figure 2.28. Smooth Curves determines how much Flash alters the curve you've drawn to make it smoother.

   

   Figure 2.29. Recognize Lines determines how close to straight a line must be before Flash removes all curves and changes it to a straight-line segment.

   

   Figure 2.30. Recognize Shapes determines how nearly ovoid or rectangular a shape must be for Flash to transform it to a perfect oval or rectangle.

   

   Figure 2.31. Click Accuracy determines how close you must get to a line segment with the arrow pointer to select that segment.

   

   Your choices range from turning the feature off to having Flash give you the highest degree of assistance.

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