Set preferences in Flash



You can set preferences for general application operations, editing operations, and clipboard operations.

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The General category in the Preferences dialog box.

    Set preferences

    1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Flash > Preferences (Macintosh).
    2. Make a selection in the Category list and select from the respective options.

    Set AutoFormat preferences for ActionScript

     Select any of the options. To see the effect of each selection, look in the Preview pane.

    Set text preferences

    • For Font Mapping Default, select a font to use when substituting missing fonts in documents you open in Flash.

    • For Vertical Text options, select Default Text Orientation (deselected by default).

    • To reverse the default text display direction, select Right To Left Text Flow (deselected by default).

    • To turn off kerning for vertical text, select No Kerning (deselected by default). Turning off kerning is useful to improve spacing for some fonts that use kerning tables.

    • For Input Method, select the appropriate language.

    Set warning preferences

    • To receive a warning when you try to save documents with content that is specific to the Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional authoring tool as a Flash 8 file, select Warn On Save For Adobe Flash 8 and CS3 Compatibility (default).

    • To receive a warning if the URL for a document changed since the last time you opened and edited it, select Warn On URL Changes In Launch And Edit.

    • To place a red X over any Generator objects as a reminder that Generator objects are not supported in Flash 8, select Warn On Reading Generator Content.

    • To receive an alert when Flash inserts frames in your document to accommodate audio or video files that you import, select Warn On Inserting Frames When Importing Content.

    • To receive an alert when selecting Default Encoding that could potentially lead to data loss or character corruption, select Warn On Encoding Conflicts When Exporting ActionScript Files. (For example, if you create a file with English, Japanese, and Korean characters and select Default Encoding on an English system, the Japanese and Korean characters are corrupted.)

    • To receive a warning when you attempt to edit a symbol with timeline effects applied to it, select Warn On Conversion Of Effect Graphic Objects.

    • To receive a warning when you create a site in which the local root folder overlaps with another site, select Warn On Sites With Overlapped Root Folder.

    • To receive a warning when you convert a symbol with a behavior attached to a symbol of a different type—for example, when you convert a movie clip to a button—select Warn On Behavior Symbol Conversion.

    • To receive a warning when you convert a symbol to a symbol of a different type, select Warn On Symbol Conversion.

    • To receive a warning when Flash converts a graphic object drawn in Object Drawing mode to a group, select Warn On Automatically Converting From Drawing Object To Group.

    • To display warnings on controls for features not supported by the Flash Player version that the current FLA file is targeting in its publish settings, select Show Incompatibility Warnings On Feature Controls.

    Set General preferences

    On Launch
    Specify which document opens when you start the application.

    Document- or Object-level undo
    Document-level undo maintains a single list of all your actions for the entire Flash document. Object-level undo maintains separate lists of your actions for each object in your document. Object-level lets you undo an action on one object without having to also undo actions on other objects that might have been modified more recently than the target object.

    Undo levels
    To set the number of undo or redo levels, enter a value from 2 to 300. Undo levels require memory; the more undo levels you use, the more system memory is consumed. The default is 100.

    Workspace
    To open a new document tab in the application window when you select Control > Test Movie, select Open Test Movie In Tabs. The default is to open the test movie in its own window. To have panels in icon mode auto collapse when you click outside them, select Auto-Collapse Icon Panels.

    Selection
    To control how multiple elements are selected, select or deselect Shift Select. When Shift Select is off, clicking additional elements adds them to the current selection. When Shift Select is on, clicking additional elements deselects other elements unless you hold down Shift.

    Show Tooltips
    Shows tooltips when the pointer pauses over a control. To hide the tooltips, deselect this option.

    Contact Sensitive
    Selects objects when any part of them is included in the marquee rectangle when dragging with the Selection or Lasso tools. The default is that objects are only selected when the tool’s marquee rectangle completely surrounds the object.

    Show axes for 3D
    Displays an overlay of the X, Y, and Z axes on all 3D movie clips. This makes them easier to identify on the Stage.

    Timeline
    To use span-based selection in the Timeline, rather than the default frame-based selection, select Span Based Selection.

    Named Anchor On Scene
    Make the first frame of each scene in a document a named anchor. Named anchors let you use the Forward and Back buttons in a browser to jump from scene to scene.

    Highlight Color
    To use the current layer’s outline color, select a color from the panel, or select Use Layer Color.

    Version Cue
    Select this option to enable Version Cue®.

    Printing (Windows only)
    To disable PostScript® output when printing to a PostScript printer, select Disable PostScript. By default, this option is deselected. Select this option if you have problems printing to a PostScript printer; however, this option slows down printing.

    Clipboard preferences

    Bitmaps (Windows only)
    To specify Color Depth and Resolution parameters for bitmaps copied to the clipboard, select their respective options.

    To apply anti-aliasing, select Smooth.

    To specify the amount of RAM that is used when placing a bitmap image on the Clipboard, enter a value in the Size Limit text field. Increase this value when working with large or high-resolution bitmap images.

    Gradient Quality
    To specify the quality of gradient fills placed in the Windows metafile, select an option. Choosing a higher quality increases the time required to copy artwork. To specify gradient quality when pasting items to a location outside of Flash, use this setting. When you are pasting in Flash, the full gradient quality of the copied data is preserved regardless of the Gradients setting on the Clipboard.

    PICT Settings (Macintosh only)
    To specify how PICT files are handled, use the following settings.
    Type
    To preserve data copied to the Clipboard as vector artwork, select Objects. To convert the copied artwork to a bitmap, select one of the bitmap formats.

    Resolution
    Enter a value.

    Include PostScript
    Select to include PostScript data.

    Gradient Quality
    To specify gradient quality in the PICT file, select an option. Choosing a higher quality increases the time required to copy artwork. To specify gradient quality when pasting items to a location outside of Flash, use the Gradients setting. When you are pasting in Flash, the full gradient quality of the copied data is preserved regardless of the Gradient setting.

    FreeHand Text
    To keep text editable in a pasted FreeHand® file, select Maintain Text As Blocks.