The commands in the Modify menu let you change the properties of your document, your timeline, and the objects in your animation. For example, you use commands in this menu to rotate, scale, and distort the shapes on the stage.
Windows: Ctrl+J
Mac: ⌘-J
Opens the Document window, where you set the width, height, and background color of the stage. Document settings also control the speed (frames per second) of your animation and the measurement units used by rulers.
Windows: F8
Mac: F8
Converts selected objects to a symbol, which can be a movie clip, a graphic, or a button. Symbols are key to many aspects of Flash animations. Among other things, symbols help to reduce the overall file size of Flash animations.
Windows: Ctrl+B
Mac: ⌘-B
Used to break an imported bitmap into separate pixels that can be selected and edited. (When you first import a bitmap, Flash treats it as a single discrete element.) This command also separates grouped objects and symbols into their component parts.
Flash has two Modify commands to help you work with imported bitmap (raster) images:
Flash has two Modify commands to help you work with symbols.
Flash has several commands to help you modify shapes in your animation:
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N
Mac: Option Shift-⌘-N
Removes the hard angles and bumps from shapes and lines. Applying this command repeatedly creates smoother and smoother shapes.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N
Mac: Option-Shift-⌘-M
Removes the curves from lines and line segments. You can apply this command repeatedly, creating straighter lines each time.
Windows: Shift+Ctrl+Alt+C
Mac: Option-Shift-⌘-C
Reduces the number of anchor points (control points) in a shape or line by removing unneeded anchor points. This doesn't change the shape, but it does reduce the file size and helps make shapes more manageable.
Changes lines into fills, in effect giving them the properties of fills. For example, once a line is changed to a fill, you can change its shape.
Opens the Expand Fill window where you can expand (enlarge) or inset (shrink) the fill portion of a shape. This is similar to scaling a shape and works best on simple objects.
Softens the edges of the selected shape, giving it the appearance of fading away. In the Soften Fill Edges window you can choose the distance and the steps (gradations) for the effect.
Windows: Ctrl+Shift+H
Mac: Shift-⌘-H
When you're creating a shape tween, you can use hints to control the appearance of objects as they change from one shape to another. By adding hints, you can highlight important parts of the shape that should be defined during the transition.
The Combine Objects submenu lets you create more complex objects by combining multiple objects created in object drawing mode and altering their grouped features:
Combines two or more shapes to create a new object by deleting unseen overlapping sections. The new object consists of the visible portions of the joined shapes.
Creates an object from the intersection of two or more objects. The new object shape consists of the overlapping portions of the combined shapes.
Removes portions of an object as defined by the overlapping portions of another object placed on top of it. Areas where the top object overlaps the lower object are removed, and the top object is deleted entirely.
The Timeline submenu's commands help you organize and manipulate the parts that comprise your animation, notably layers and frames:
Windows: Shift+Ctrl+D
Mac: Shift-⌘-D
Distributes the selected objects so that each object is on its own layer. Useful for making sure different shapes are on separate layers before applying a tween.
Opens the Layer Properties window, where you name layers and adjust settings like layer type, layer colors, layer height, layer visibility, and layer locking.
Rearranges the selected frames in reverse order. In effect, this arranges the frames so that the animation runs in reverse.
Synchronizes the animation of a graphic symbol instance to match the timeline. It also recalculates the number of frames in a tween to match the number of frames allotted to it in the timeline.
Windows: F6
Mac: F6
Converts the selected frames in the timeline into keyframes. This command retains the contents of the preceding keyframe. Keyframes are represented by a solid circle.
Leads to a submenu with the following Transform commands:
Puts the selected object in Free Transform mode where you can perform scale, rotate, and skew transformations.
Puts the selected object in Distort mode. You can change the shape of the object using handles on the bounding box.
The Envelope modifier lets you distort the shape of an object using handles on the bounding box.
Scale lets you change the height and width of an object by dragging the handles on the bounding box. Press Shift to resize the object proportionally.
Places a bounding box around the selected object. Using the handles, you can freely rotate and skew the object.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+S
Mac: Option-⌘-S
Opens the Scale and Rotate window, where you can resize and rotate the selected object by typing numbers into text boxes.
Windows: Ctrl+Shift+ 9
Mac: Shift-⌘-9
Rotates the selected object by 90 degrees in a clockwise direction.
Windows: Ctrl+Shift+ 7
Mac: Shift-⌘-7
Rotates the selected object by 90 degrees in a counterclockwise direction.
Flips the selected object horizontally, putting the left side of the object on the right.
The Arrange submenu's commands act on the objects in your animation's layers:
Windows: Ctrl+Shift+up arrow
Mac: Option-Shift-up arrow
Brings the selected object to the top level in the frame so that the object appears to be in front of all other objects in the same frame. This action pertains only to objects in the same layer in the timeline; it doesn't reposition layers or move objects from one layer to another.
Windows: Ctrl+up arrow
Mac: ⌘-up arrow
Brings selected objects forward one step in front of other objects in the same frame. This action pertains only to objects in the same layer in the timeline; it doesn't reposition layers or move objects from layer to another.
Windows: Ctrl+down arrow
Mac: ⌘-down arrow
Sends the selected object backward one step behind other objects in the same frame. This action pertains only to objects in the same layer in the timeline; it doesn't reposition layers or move objects from one layer to another.
Windows: Ctrl+Shift+down arrow
Mac: Option-Shift-down arrow
Sends the selected object to the bottom level in the frame so that the object appears to be behind every other object in the same frame. This action pertains only to objects in the same layer in the timeline; it doesn't reposition layers or move objects from one layer to another.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+L
Mac: Option-⌘-L
Locks selected objects in their current position on the stage. Locked objects can't be selected to be moved or transformed in any other way.
The Align submenu's commands help you position your animation's objects neatly in relation to the edges of the stage or to one another:
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+2
Mac: Option-⌘-2
Aligns the center of the selected objects to the same horizontal position.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+5
Mac: Option-⌘-5
Aligns the center of the selected objects to the same vertical position.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+7
Mac: Option-⌘-7
Spaces selected objects evenly on the stage from left to right.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+9
Mac: Option-⌘-9
Spaces selected objects evenly on the stage from top to bottom.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+ 7
Mac: Shift-Option-⌘-7
Makes the width property of selected objects equal.
Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+ 9
Mac: Shift-Option-⌘-9
Makes the height property of selected objects equal.
Windows: Ctrl+G
Mac: ⌘-G
Combines selected objects into a group. Grouped objects behave as if they're a single object. They can be selected with a single click, and modified and transformed with a single command.