Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a deprecated multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich Internet applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, mobile games and embedded web browser video players.

Adobe Flash is an authoring tool that designers and developers use to create presentations, applications, and other content that enables user interaction. Flash projects can include simple animations, video content, complex presentations, applications, and everything in between. In general, individual pieces of content made with Flash Professional are called applications (or SWF applications), even though they might only be a basic animation. You can make media-rich applications by including pictures, sound, video, and special effects.

Creating a FLA file and adding graphics

To build an application in Flash CS4 Professional, you create vector graphics and design elements with the drawing tools, and import additional media elements like audio, video, and images into your document. Next, you define how and when you want to use each of the elements to create the application you have in mind.

When you author content in Flash Professional, you work in a document called a FLA file. FLA files have the file extension .fla (FLA). While viewing a FLA file, you'll notice the Flash CS4 Professional user interface (see Figure 1) is divided into five main parts:

The Stage is where your graphics, videos, buttons, and so on appear during playback.

The Timeline controls the timing of when elements in the movie appear on the Stage. You also use the Timeline to specify the layering order of graphics on the Stage. Graphics in higher layers appear on top of graphics in lower layers.

The Tools panel holds the general set of tools used for selecting objects on the stage and drawing vector graphics.

The Property inspector displays editable information about any selected object.

The Library panel is where media elements and symbols are stored and organized.