Studio 8: Common Application Elements


To provide continuity between the development applications within Studio (except ColdFusion), Macromedia has created a set of common user-interface elements that are shared across each application. Familiarizing yourself with how these tools work and their distinctions across the individual programs can help you work faster and smarter.

Note

ColdFusion is not considered a development application, but rather a utility for managing the ColdFusion environment, so it does not share any common elements with the other programs in the Studio suite.


Studio's common elements include

  • A central workspace for creating pages, movies, or images. In Flash, the workspace is called the Stage. In each of the other development applications, the workspace is called the document window.

  • A main menu bar at the top of the screen, with File, Edit, View, Insert, Modify, Commands, Window, and Help menus.

  • A secondary toolbar located below the main menu bar.

  • Panels that provide access to specific functionality. The panels all work the same in the way they are opened, closed, minimized, maximized, docked, and undocked.

  • A Property inspector that enables you to see and modify common attributes of the selected object.

  • A Tools panel (in Fireworks and Flash) located, by default, on the left side of the workspace.

Figures 2.12.3 show the main interface features for Flash, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver, respectively.

Figure 2.1. The Flash interface.


Figure 2.2. The Fireworks interface.


Figure 2.3. The Dreamweaver interface.


In addition, many of the applications share common options within the various menus, common commands on the main toolbar, and common keyboard shortcut keys.



Special Edition Using Macromedia Studio 8
Special Edition Using Macromedia Studio 8
ISBN: 0789733854
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 337

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