Working with frames in the Timeline
In the Timeline, you work with frames and keyframes, placing them in the order you want the objects in the frames to appear. You can change the length of a tweened animation by dragging a keyframe in the Timeline.
You can perform the following modifications on frames or keyframes:
- Insert, select, delete, and move frames or keyframes
- Drag frames and keyframes to a new location on the same layer or on a different layer
- Copy and paste frames and keyframes
- Convert keyframes to frames
- Drag an item from the Library panel onto the Stage to add the item to the current keyframe
The Timeline provides a view of tweened frames in an animation. For information on editing tweened frames, see Editing animation.
Flash offers two different methods for selecting frames in the Timeline. In frame-based selection (the default) you select individual frames in the Timeline. In span-based selection, the entire frame sequence, from one keyframe to the next, is selected when you click any frame in the sequence. You can specify span-based selection in Flash preferences. See Setting preferences in Flash.
- To insert a new frame, select Insert > Timeline > Frame.
- To create a new keyframe, select Insert > Timeline > Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the frame where you want to place a keyframe, and select Insert Keyframe from the context menu.
- To create a new blank keyframe, select Insert > Timeline > Blank Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the frame where you want to place the keyframe, and select Insert Blank Keyframe from the context menu.
- To select one frame, click on the frame. If you have Span Based Selection turned on in Preferences, clicking one frame selects the entire frame sequence between two keyframes. See Setting preferences in Flash.
- To select multiple contiguous frames, Shift-click additional frames.
- To select multiple discontiguous frames, Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) additional frames.
- Select Edit > Timeline > Select All Frames.
- To delete a frame, keyframe, or frame sequence, select the frame, keyframe, or sequence and select Edit > Timeline > Remove Frame, or right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the frame, keyframe, or sequence and select Remove Frame from the context menu. Surrounding frames remain unchanged.
- To move a keyframe or frame sequence and its contents, drag the keyframe or sequence to the desired location.
- To extend the duration of a keyframe, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Macintosh) the keyframe to the final frame of the new sequence duration.
- To copy a keyframe or frame sequence by dragging, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Macintosh) and drag the keyframe to the new location.
- To copy and paste a frame or frame sequence, select the frame or sequence and select Edit > Timeline > Copy Frames. Select a frame or sequence that you want to replace, and select Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames.
- To convert a keyframe to a frame, select the keyframe and select Edit > Timeline > Clear Keyframe, or right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the keyframe and select Clear Keyframe from the context menu. The cleared keyframe and all frames up to the subsequent keyframe are replaced with the contents of the frame preceding the cleared keyframe.
- To change the length of a tweened sequence, drag the beginning or ending keyframe left or right. To change the length of a frame-by-frame sequence, see Frame-by-frame animation.
- To add an item from the library to the current keyframe, drag the item from the Library panel onto the Stage.
To insert frames in the Timeline, do one of the following: