- Setting Selection Preferences
- Making Selections
- Using the Clipboard
- Resizing Graphic Elements
- Positioning Graphic Elements
- Flipping, Rotating, and Skewing
- Distorting Graphic Elements
- Modifying Fills and Strokes
- Modifying Shapes: Natural Drawing Tools
- Modifying Shapes: Bzier Tools
- Modifying Primitive-Shape Paths
- Converting Shape Types
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Resizing Graphic Elements
Flash gives you several ways to resize, or scale, graphic elements. You can scale selected elements interactively on the Stage. You can also set specific scale percentages or dimensions for your element in the Transform panel, the Properties tab of the Property inspector, and the Info panel.
To resize a graphic element interactively
- In the Tools panel, select the free-transform tool (Figure 4.17).
Figure 4.17 The free-transform tool enables you to select and scale elements interactively.
On the Stage, click the element you want to resize.
Flash selects and highlights the element and places transformation handles on all four sides and at the corners of the element's bounding box.
- In the Tools panel, choose the Scale modifier.
Position the pointer over a handle.
The pointer changes to a double-headed arrow, indicating the direction in which the element will grow or shrink as you pull or push on the handles.
- To resize the graphic element, do one of the following:
- To change the graphic element's width, click and drag one of the side handles.
- To change the element's height, click and drag the top or bottom handle.
- To change the size of the element proportionally, click and drag one of the corner handles.
Figure 4.18 Activating the free-transform tool's Scale modifier places a set of handles around a selected element. Click and drag the handles to change the size of the element.
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To resize an element via the Transform panel
With the Transform panel open, on the Stage, select the element you want to resize.
A value of 100% appears in the Width and Height fields of the Transform panel.
- To resize the element, do either of the following:
- To resize proportionally, select the Constrain check box next to the Width and Height fields, and enter a new value in either field (Figure 4.19). As you enter the value in one field, Flash automatically updates the other field.
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Figure 4.19 Enter new values in the Transform panel's Width and Height fields to resize an element. With the Constrain check box selected, as you enter the value in one field, Flash automatically updates the other field. The Transform panel also lets you enter values for rotating and skewing selected elements.
- To allow the aspect ratio to change, in the Transform panel, deselect the Constrain check box; enter new percentages in the Width field and Height field.
- To resize proportionally, select the Constrain check box next to the Width and Height fields, and enter a new value in either field (Figure 4.19). As you enter the value in one field, Flash automatically updates the other field.
Press Enter.
Flash resizes the element.
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- The Transform panel resizes a mergeshape on an absolute scale as long as the shape remains selected. Once you deselect the shape, the current size becomes the shape's new 100%. You can also make changes on a relative scale for merge-shapes. With the merge-shape selected, enter a new value in the Width and Height fields of the Transform panel, then deselect the shape. Select the shape again (the Width and Height fields now show a value of 100%). Enter a percentage for the second transformation.
- The Transform panel always resizes drawing-objects, primitives, text fields, groups, and symbols on an absolute scale (applying the percentage you enter into the panel to the element's original size).
- To scale several elements at the same time, select all the elements and then use any of the scaling methods described earlier in this section. When you use the Transform panel, the bounding box that contains the elements scales relative to its center point, and the entire selection grows or shrinks to fit the new box. When you use the free-transform tool, the bounding box scales from the corner opposite to the one you're dragging.
- If you select several items and scale them using the Transform panel, Flash resizes them on a relative scale. After you enter new width and height values and confirm them (by pressing Enter) Flash resizes the elements and resets the values in the Width and Height fields to 100%.
- To undo a Transform panel's transformation quickly, click the Reset button in the bottom-right corner of the Transform panel or press shift-
-Z (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-Z (Windows). For merge-shapes, you must not have deselected the element; for drawing-objects, primitives, text fields (see Chapter 3), groups (see Chapter 5), and symbols (see Chapter 7), you can select the object and click Reset in the Transform panel at any time to restore the item to 100% size. - To transform a copy of the element, click the Copy and Apply Transform button in the Transform panel. This feature can be tricky if you use it with merge-shapes, because Flash doesn't offset the copy it makes. You must be sure to move the copy yourself before deselecting it.
To resize an element via the Property inspector
With the Property inspector open, in the workspace, select the element you want to resize.
The Width and Height fields of the (Shape) Properties tab of the Property inspector display the measurements of the selected shape's bounding box.
To resize the element, do either of the following:
- To resize proportionally, set the lock icon (to the left of the Width and Height fields) to Constrain mode (a closed-lock icon). Now enter a new value in either field (Figure 4.20). As you enter the value in one field, Flash automatically updates the other.
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Figure 4.20 The (Shape) Properties tab of the Property inspector displays the width and height of the bounding box of a selected element. Enter new values to resize the element. In Constrain mode Flash preserves the ratio of width to height. Check the lock icon to enter independent width and height values.
- To allow the aspect ratio to change, in the Property inspector, set the lock icon to Unconstrained mode (an open-lock icon); enter new percentages in the Width field and Height field.
- To resize proportionally, set the lock icon (to the left of the Width and Height fields) to Constrain mode (a closed-lock icon). Now enter a new value in either field (Figure 4.20). As you enter the value in one field, Flash automatically updates the other.
Press Enter.
Flash resizes the element.
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- The Info panel lets you resize a selected element relative to its registration point (the top-left corner of its bounding box) or transformation point. Click the Registration/Transformation Point icon to toggle between modes (Figure 4.21). A crosshair in the upper-left corner of the icon means the values are relative to the registration point; a circle in the icon's lower-right corner means the values are relative to the transformation point. Values in the Property inspector are always relative to the registration point. (For more details, see the sidebar "How Flash Tracks Elements," later in this chapter.)
Figure 4.21 You can enter precise dimensions for an element's width and height in the Info panel. The Registration/Transformation Point icon shows whether changes will be relative to the top-left corner of the element's bounding box or to the transformation point. To apply the values you entered in the panel to the selected graphic element, press Enter or click the Stage.
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