Editing Groups

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Although you can transform a group as a whole (scale, rotate, and skew it), you can't directly edit the individual shapes within the group , the way that you can edit an ungrouped shape. To edit the shapes within a group, you must use the Edit Selected command.

To edit the contents of a group:

  1. In the Toolbox, select the arrow tool.

  2. On the Stage, select the group you want to edit.

  3. From the Edit menu, choose Edit Selected.

    Flash enters group-editing mode (Figure 4.26). The info bar just above the Stage changes to indicate that you are in group-editing mode. The bounding box for the selected group disappears, and Flash dims all the items on the Stage that are not part of the selected group. These dimmed items are not editable; they merely provide context for editing the selected group.

    Figure 4.26. These eyes and eyebrows are a selected group that's being edited. The other objects on the Stage are grayed out to indicate that you can't edit them.

    graphics/04fig26.gif

graphics/01icon02.gif Tip

  • When you have the Property Inspector open , you can seeand changethe height, width, and x and y coordinates of the bounding box of a selected group (Figure 4.27).

    Figure 4.27. The Property Inspector displays the height,width,and x and y coordinates for the bounding box of a group that you've selected on the Stage. Enter new values to change any of those parameters.

    graphics/04fig27.gif


To return to movie-editing mode:

Do one of the following:

  • From the Edit menu, choose Edit All (Figure 4.28).

    Figure 4.28. You have several ways to return to movie-editing mode when you are editing a group. From the Edit menu, choose Edit All. Or you can click items in the info bar: the Back button, the scene name , and the Scene pop-up menu all let you resume editing the movie.

    graphics/04fig28.gif

  • Double-click the Stage or the work area away from the shapes in the group you're editing.

  • Click the current scene name in the info bar.

  • Click the Back button in the info bar.

graphics/01icon02.gif Tips

  • With the arrow tool selected, you can enter group-editing mode quickly by double-clicking a grouped item on the Stage.

  • If in addition to returning to movie-edit-ing mode, you want to work on a different scene, you can simply choose it from the pop-up menu of scenes in the info bar. Flash takes you to the new scene in movie-editing mode. (To learn more about scenes, see Chapter 11.)


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Macromedia Flash MX for Windows and Macintosh. Visual QuickStart Guide
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guides)
ISBN: 0582851165
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 243

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