Selecting objects – Adobe Flash Professional CC 2014 v.13.0 User Manual
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Selecting objects
Select objects with the Selection tool
Draw a freehand selection area
Draw a straight-edged selection area
Draw a selection area with both freehand and straight-line edges
Hide selection highlighting
Set custom bounding box colors for selected objects
Set preferences for selecting
To modify an object, select it first. Select objects with the Pointer, Subselection, and Lasso tools. You can group individual objects to manipulate
them as a single object. Modifying lines and shapes can alter other lines and shapes on the same layer. When you select objects or strokes, Flash
highlights them with a marquee.
You can choose to select only an object’s strokes or only its fills. You can hide selection highlighting to edit objects without viewing highlighting.
When you select an object, the Property inspector displays the following:
The object’s stroke and fill, its pixel dimensions, and the x and y coordinates of the object’s transformation point
A mixed selection, if you select multiple items. The pixel dimensions and x and y coordinates of the selected set of items.
You can use a shape’s Property inspector to change that object’s stroke and fill.
To prevent a group or symbol from being selected and accidentally changed, lock the group or symbol.
Select objects with the Selection tool
The Selection tool lets you select entire objects by clicking an object or dragging to enclose the object within a rectangular selection marquee.
Note: To select the Selection tool, you can also press the V key. To temporarily switch to the Selection tool when another tool is active, hold
down the Control key (Windows) or Command key (Macintosh).
To disable the Shift-selecting option, deselect the option in Flash General Preferences. See Set preferences in Flash. Instances, groups, and type
blocks must be completely enclosed to be selected.
To select a stroke, fill, group, instance, or text block, click the object.
To select connected lines, double-click one of the lines.
To select a filled shape and its stroked outline, double-click the fill.
To select objects within a rectangular area, drag a marquee around the object or objects to select.
To add to a selection, hold down the Shift key while making additional selections.
To select everything on every layer of a scene, select Edit > Select All, or press Control+A (Windows) or Command+A (Macintosh). Select All
doesn’t select objects on locked or hidden layers, or layers not on the current Timeline.
To deselect everything on every layer, select Edit > Deselect All, or press Control+Shift+A (Windows) or Command+Shift+A (Macintosh).
To select everything on one layer between keyframes, click a frame in the Timeline.
To lock or unlock a group or symbol, select the group or symbol, and then select Modify > Arrange > Lock. Select Modify > Arrange > Unlock
All to unlock all locked groups and symbols.
Draw a freehand selection area
1. Drag the Lasso tool
around the area.
2. End the loop approximately where you started, or let Flash automatically close the loop with a straight line.
Draw a straight-edged selection area
1. Select the Lasso tool’s Polygon Mode modifier
in the options area of the Tools panel.
2. Click to set the starting point.
3. Position the pointer where you want the first line to end, and click. Continue setting end points for additional line segments.
4. To close the selection area, double-click.
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