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Creating or opening a document and setting properties

You can create a new document or open a previously saved document as you work in Flash. In Windows, you can use the New File button to open a document of the same type as the last document created.

To set the size, frame rate, background color, and other properties of a new or existing document, you use the Document Properties dialog box. You can also use the Property inspector to set properties for an existing document. The Property inspector makes it easy to access and change the most commonly used attributes of a document. For more information on the Property inspector, see Using panels and the Property inspector.

You can open a Flash template as a new document. You can choose from standard templates that ship with Flash, or open a template you have saved previously. For information on saving a document file as a template, see Saving Flash documents.

In the On Launch section of the Preferences dialog box, you can select an option to specify what document Flash opens when you start the application: you select New Document to open a new, blank document, Last Documents Open to open the documents that were open when you last quit Flash, or No Document to start Flash without opening a document. See Setting preferences in Flash.

For information on creating a new document using the Start page, see Using the Start page.

You can open a new window as you work.

To create a new document:

  1. Select File > New.
  2. On the General tab, select Flash Document.

To create a new document with the New File button (Windows only):

To open an existing document:

  1. Select File > Open.
  2. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the file or enter the path to the file in the Go To text box.
  3. Click Open.

To set properties for a new or existing document in the Document Properties dialog box:

  1. With the document open, select Modify > Document.

    The Document Properties dialog box appears.

  2. For Frame Rate, enter the number of animation frames to be displayed every second. For most computer-displayed animations, especially those playing from a website, 8 fps (frames per second) to 12 fps is sufficient (12 fps is the default frame rate).
  3. For Dimensions, do one of the following:
    • To specify the Stage size in pixels, enter values in the Width and Height text boxes.

      The default document size is 550 x 400 pixels. The minimum size is 1 x 1 pixels; the maximum is 2880 x 2880 pixels.

    • To set the Stage size so that there is equal space around the content on all sides, click the Contents button to the right of Match. To minimize document size, align all elements to the upper left corner of the Stage, and then click Contents.
    • To set the Stage size to the maximum available print area, click Printer. This area is determined by the paper size minus the current margin selected in the Margins area of the Page Setup dialog box (Windows) or the Print Margins dialog box (Macintosh).
    • To set the Stage size to the default size, click Default.
  4. To set the background color of your document, click the triangle in the Background Color box and select a color from the palette.
  5. To specify the unit of measure for rulers that you can display along the top and side of the application window, select an option from the pop-up menu in the upper right. See Using the grid, guides, and rulers. (This setting also determines the units used in the Info panel.)
  6. Do one of the following:
    • To make the new settings the default properties for your new document only, click OK.
    • To make the new settings the default properties for all new documents, click Make Default.

To open a template as a new document:

  1. Select File > New from Template.
  2. In the New Document dialog box, select a category from the Category list, and select a document from the Category Items list.
  3. Click OK.

To open a new window in the current document:

To change document properties with the Property inspector:

  1. Deselect all assets, then select the Selection tool.
  2. If the Property inspector is not visible, select Window > Properties.
  3. Click the Size control to display the Document Properties dialog box and access its settings.
  4. To select a background color, click the triangle in the Background color box and select a color from the palette.
  5. For Frame Rate, enter the number of animation frames to be displayed every second.
  6. For Publish, click the Settings button to display the Publish Settings dialog box with the Flash tab selected. For more information on the Publish Settings dialog box, see Publishing Flash documents.
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