Flash Pro Overview: All About Workspace, Timeline and Layers

You create and manipulate your documents and files using various elements such as panels, bars, and windows. Any arrangement of these elements is called a workspace. When you first start an Adobe Creative Suite component, you see the default workspace, which you can customize for the tasks you perform there. For instance, you can create one workspace for editing and another for viewing, save them, and switch between them as you work.
You can restore the default workspace at any time by choosing the default option on the Window > Workspace menu.Although default workspaces vary across Flash, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, and Photoshop, you manipulate the elements much the same way in all of them. The Photoshop default workspace is typical:

The menu bar across the top organizes commands under menus.

The Tools panel (called the Tools palette in Photoshop) contains tools for creating and editing images, artwork, page elements, and so on. Related tools are grouped together.

The Control panel (called the options bar in Photoshop) displays options for the currently selected tool. (Flash has no Control panel.)

The Document window (called the Stage in Flash) displays the file you're working on.

Panels (called palettes in Photoshop) help you monitor and modify your work. Examples include the Timeline in Flash and the Layers palette in Photoshop. Certain panels are displayed by default, but you can add any panel by selecting it from the Window menu. Many panels have menus with panel-specific options. Panels can be grouped, stacked, or docked.

Customize the workspace:

A dock is a collection of panels or panel groups displayed together, generally in a vertical orientation. You dock and undock panels by moving them into and out of a dock.Note: Docking is not the same as stacking. A stack is a collection of free-floating panels or panel groups, joined top to bottom.

To dock a panel, drag it by its tab into the dock, at the top, bottom, or in between other panels.

To dock a panel group, drag it by its title bar (the solid empty bar above the tabs) into the dock.

To remove a panel or panel group, drag it out of the dock by its tab or title bar. You can drag it into another dock or make it free-floating.

As you move panels, you see blue highlighted drop zones, areas where you can move the panel. For example, you can move a panel up or down in a dock by dragging it to the narrow blue drop zone above or below another panel. If you drag to an area that is not a drop zone, the panel floats freely in the workspace.

To move a panel, drag it by its tab.

To move a panel group or a stack of free-floating panels, drag the title bar.

Swicth between workspaces: Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop include preset workspaces designed to make certain tasks easier.

Choose Window > Workspace, and select a workspace.

Select a workspace from the Workspace menu in the Edit bar.

About the Timeline

The Timeline organizes and controls a document's content over time in layers and frames. Like films, Flash documents divide lengths of time into frames. Layers are like multiple film strips stacked on top of one another, each containing a different image that appears on the Stage. The major components of the Timeline are layers, frames, and the playhead.

Layers in a document are listed in a column on the left side of the Timeline. Frames contained in each layer appear in a row to the right of the layer name. The Timeline header at the top of the Timeline indicates frame numbers. The playhead indicates the current frame displayed on the Stage. As a document plays, the playhead moves from left to right through the Timeline.

The Timeline status displayed at the bottom of the Timeline indicates the selected frame number, the current frame rate, and the elapsed time to the current frame.Change the appearance of the Timeline

By default, the Timeline appears at the top of the main application window, above the Stage. To change its position, detach the Timeline from the Stage and float it in its own window or dock it to any other panel you choose. You can also hide the Timeline.

To change the number of layers and frames that are visible, resize the Timeline. To view additional layers when the Timeline contains more layers than can be displayed, use the scroll bars on the right side of the Timeline.

Layers: Layers help you organize the artwork in your document. You can draw and edit objects on one layer without affecting objects on another layer. In areas of the Stage with nothing on a layer, you can see through it to the layers below.

To draw, paint, or otherwise modify a layer or folder, select the layer in the Timeline to make it active. A pencil icon next to a layer or folder name in the Timeline indicates that the layer or folder is active. Only one layer can be active at a time (although more than one layer can be selected at a time).

When you create a Flash document, it contains only one layer. To organize the artwork, animation, and other elements in your document, add more layers. You can also hide, lock, or rearrange layers. The number of layers you can create is limited only by your computer's memory, and layers do not increase the file size of your published SWF file. Only the objects you place into layers add to the file size.

To organize and manage layers, create layer folders and place layers in them. You can expand or collapse layer folders in the Timeline without affecting what you see on the Stage. Use separate layers or folders for sound files, ActionScript, frame labels, and frame comments. This helps you find these items quickly to edit them.

To help create sophisticated effects, use special guide layers to make drawing and editing easier, and mask layers.