Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Classroom In A Book | Page 94

Creating Symbols
In the previous lesson, you learned how to create a symbol to be used for the Deco
tool. In Flash, there are two main ways to create a symbol. The first is to have noth-
ing on the Stage selected, and then choose Insert > New Symbol. Flash will bring
you to symbol-editing mode where you can begin drawing or importing graphics
for your symbol.
The second way is to select existing graphics on the Stage, and then choose
Modify > Convert to Symbol (F8). Whatever is selected will automatically be placed
inside your new symbol.
Both methods are valid; which you use depends on your particular workflow
preferences. Most designers prefer to use Convert to Symbol (F8) because they
can create all their graphics on the Stage and see them together before making the
individual components into symbols.
For this lesson, you will select the different parts of the imported Illustrator
graphic, and then convert the various pieces to symbols.
 Note: When you use
the command Convert
to Symbol, you aren’t
actually “converting”
anything; rather, you’re
placing whatever you’ve
selected inside of
a symbol.
1 On the Stage, select the cartoon character in the hero layer.
2 Choose Modify > Convert to Symbol (F8).
3 Name the symbol hero and select Movie Clip for the Type.
4 Leave all other settings as they are. The Registration indicates the registration
point of your symbol. Leave the registration at the top-left corner.
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