Touring the Timeline s Layer Features

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Touring the Timeline's Layer Features

Flash graphically represents each layer as one horizontal section of the Timeline and provides several controls for viewing and manipulating these graphic representations. Flash layers offer several features that make it easier to work with graphics on layers, such as viewing the items on layers as outlines and assigning different colors to those outlines so you can easily see which items are on which layers. You can lock layers so you don't edit their contents accidentally , and you can hide layers to make it easier to work with individual graphics in a welter of other graphics. You can create special guide layers for help in positioning elements, masks for hiding and revealing layers selectively, and guides for animating motion along a path . (You learn more about motion paths in Chapter 9.) Flash MX now lets you create layer folders for organizing the layers in a movie.

Figure 5.1 offers a road map to the salient layer features in the Timeline.

Figure 5.1. The Timeline provides a graphic representation of all the layers in a Flash movie. You can do much of the work of creating and manipulating layers by clicking buttons in the Timeline.

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