It is important to understand some basics about symbols and instances. Symbols are elements that you can reuse in Flash. They can come in many different forms like a graphic, video, audio, and animations. Symbols are stored in the library and you can drag symbols from the library to the stage. An instance is the reference to the symbol. The instances are stored on the stage and not the library. It is pretty confusing but the more you practice it the more it starts making a little more sense.
Now that we know what a symbol is lets create one. You can see a demonstration below.
These tutorials and Flash have been a whole new experience for me. The next class of DAE is going to be very interesting. There are many confusing elements in Flash but I hope with patience and dedication I will understand it.
In Flash a critical component to comprehend is working with text. You would think text is text but in Flash there are three types static, dynamic, and input. With static text that is embedded into the Flash movie and you can use any text that you would like. You do not have to worry about the person on the other side having the same font installed and you cannot edit it in ActionScript (the programming language of Flash). There is an example below of static text.
The next type of text is dynamic text and it is not embedded in the flash movie but it can be. The person viewing it usually must have the font installed on their computer to view it in the movie. Input is a type of dynamic text that accepts input from the user. This could be used if you are making a web site with a Contact Us section to collect information from the user. Stay tuned for the my next entry on working with symbols.
