SYMBOL LIBRARY

Whenever you create a symbol, or import an image, or sound, it’s placed in the project’s library. The library panel shows you what you’ve got both by name and an icon representing the type of symbol it is, as well as a preview/picture of it.

In the case of a movie, sound, or button symbol, the preview pane will also have a “play” button that, when clicked, shows you the movie, plays the sound, or shows you the four button states (in rapid succession!).

The library menu, accessed from the top right of the panel, provides the opportunity to create a new symbol, edit a symbol and/or its properties (you can change a button symbol to a movie clip, for instance, although it acts like a button in every instance you used it until you changed its properties). You can delete and rename your symbols from this menu as well.

At the bottom of the library panel are icons that let you add a new symbol, create a folder (great for consolidating all your sounds, all your buttons, and so forth), get information about a symbol’s properties, and trash a symbol (which is not undo-able).

If you scroll to the right in the library panel, you’ll see information about what kind it is, how often it’s been used, and when it was last modified.

If you find you have a lot of symbols called “tween1,” “tween 2,” tween 3,” and so on, it means you tried to make a tween between a symbol in one keyframe and nothing in the next keyframe. Shame on you.!

To use a symbol, select the layer and frame where you want it to appear, and create a keyframe (F6). Then just drag your symbol to the stage.

This creates an "instance" of the symbol.

Remember that if you want to create any animation using that instance it must be on its own layer.