| You'll find very little jargon or nerd terminology in this book. You will, however, encounter a few terms and concepts that you'll encounter frequently in your computing life: -
Clicking . This book gives you several kinds of instructions that require you to use your computer's mouse or trackpad. To click means to point the arrow cursor at something on the screen and thenwithout moving the cursor at allto press and release the clicker button on the mouse (or laptop trackpad). To double-click , of course, means to click twice in rapid succession, again without moving the cursor at all. To drag means to move the cursor while pressing the button continuously. To right-click or right-drag , do the same as above, but press the mouse button on the right. When you see an instruction like Shift-click or Ctrl-click , simply press the key as you click.
Note: Macintosh computers don't come with a right mouse button. With a one-button mouse, to do the same thing as a right-click or right-drag, press the Mac's Control key as you click or drag. (Or buy a two-button mouse.) See the next section for more Windows/Mac differences.
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Keyboard shortcuts . Every time you take your hand off the keyboard to move the mouse, you lose time and potentially disrupt your creative flow. That's why many experienced computer fans use keystroke combinations instead of menu commands wherever possible. Ctrl+B (  -B on the Mac), for example, is a keyboard shortcut for boldface type in Flash (and most other programs). When you see a shortcut like Ctrl+S ( -S on the Mac), which saves changes to the current document, it's telling you to hold down the Ctrl or key, and, while it's down, type the letter S, and then release both keys. -
Choice is good . Flash frequently gives you several ways to trigger a particular commanda menu command, or by clicking a toolbar button, or by pressing a key combination, for example. Some people prefer the speed of keyboard shortcuts; others like the satisfaction of a visual command array available in menus or toolbars . This book lists all of the alternatives, but by no means are you expected to memorize all of them. Macintosh and Windows Flash 8 works much the same way in its Mac and Windows incarnations with the exception of a few interface differences and a slight variation in performance Flash animations tend to run a bit slower on the Mac. This book's illustrations give Mac and Windows equal time, alternating by chapter, so you get to see how all of Flash's features look, no matter what kind of computer you're running. There is one small difference between Mac and Windows software that you need to be aware of, and that's keystrokes. The Ctrl key in Windows is the equivalent of the Macintosh key, and the key labeled Alt on a PC (and on non-U.S. Macs) is the equivalent of the Option key on American Mac keyboards. Whenever this book refers to a key combination, therefore, you'll see the Windows keystroke listed first (with + symbols, as is customary in Windows documentation); the Macintosh keystroke follows in parentheses (with -symbols, in time-honored Mac tradition). In other words, you might read, "The keyboard shortcut for saving a file is Ctrl+S ( -S)." This book mentions any other significant differences between the Mac and Windows versions of Flash 8 as they come up. |
