- 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
Flipping, Rotating, and Skewing
Flash lets you flip, rotate, and skew selected elements. You can either manipulate elements freely with the free-transform tool's Rotate and Skew modifier or use a variety of commands to do the job with more precision.
To flip a graphic element
- Select the element you want to flip.
- Choose Modify > Transform.
- From the submenu (Figure 4.25), choose either of the following:
- To reorient the element so that it spins 180 degrees around its horizontal central axis like a Rolodex file, choose Flip Vertical.
- To reorient the element so that it spins 180 degrees around its vertical central axis like a weathervane, choose Flip Horizontal.
Figure 4.26 shows the results of the two types of flipping.
Figure 4.25 The Modify > Transform submenu offers commands for flipping graphic elements vertically and horizontally. It also provides commands for rotating an element in 90-degree increments, both clockwise and counterclockwise.
Figure 4.26 The results of flipping an element by using the Flip commands in the Modify > Transform submenu.
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- You can flip and scale elements simultaneously by using the free-transform tool's Scale modifier. With the selected element in Scale mode, drag one handle all the way across the bounding box and past the handle on the other side. To flip a selected element vertically and horizontally, for example, drag the handle in the bottom-right corner diagonally upward, past the handle in the top-left corner (Figure 4.27). The flipped element starts small and grows as you continue to drag away from the element's top-left corner. Flash previews the flipped element; release the mouse button when the element is the size you want.
Figure 4.27 The free-transform tool's Scale modifier can flip and scale an element simultaneously. Here, the Scale modifier is flipping the element both vertically and horizontally.
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To rotate an element in 90-degree increments
- Select the element you want to rotate.
- Choose Modify > Transform (Figure 4.28).
Figure 4.28 To rotate a selected element in 90-degree increments, use the Modify > Transform menu. Repeat the command to rotate the element 180, 270, or 360 degrees.
- From the submenu, choose either of the following:
- To rotate the element clockwise 90 degrees, choose Rotate 90° CW.
- To rotate the element counterclockwise 90 degrees, choose Rotate 90° CCW.
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To rotate an element by a user-specified amount
Access the Transform panel (Figure 4.29).
If the panel isn't open, choose Window > Transform.
Figure 4.29 The Transform panel lets you rotate graphic elements in precise increments. Select the Rotate radio button and enter a value for the degrees of rotation. Positive values rotate the element clockwise; negative values rotate it counterclockwise.
- Click the Rotate radio button.
- To specify the direction and amount of rotation, do either of the following:
- To rotate the element counterclockwise, enter a negative value (–1 to –360) in the Rotate field.
- To rotate the element clockwise, enter a positive value (1 to 360).
- Press Enter.
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- When you work with drawing-objects and primitive-shapes, you can undo changes in width, height, rotation, and skewing at any time, even after you've deselected the item and made other changes. To restore the original Width, Height, Rotate, and Skew settings, select the item and click the Transform panel's Reset button (Figure 4.30).
Figure 4.30 To undo the changes you've made in the Transform panel, click the Reset button. This technique works whether you made the changes via the Transform panel or interactively with the free-transform tool.
- For merge-shapes, the Reset button works as long as the shape remains selected. Once you deselect the element, however, you must use the Undo command or the History panel to restore the shape to its original form (to learn more about Undo and the History panel, see Chapter 7).
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To skew an element by a user-specified amount
- With the Transform panel open, select the element you want to skew.
- In the Transform panel, click the Skew radio button.
- Enter the desired skew values in the horizontal and vertical fields (Figure 4.31).
Figure 4.31 Use the Transform panel to skew selected elements. You can set separate values for horizontal and vertical skewing.
- To complete the transformation, press Enter.
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To rotate or skew an element interactively
- Select an element to rotate or skew.
- In the Tools panel, select the free-transform tool; then click the Rotate and Skew modifier (Figure 4.32).
Solid square handles appear on all four sides and at the corners of the element's bounding box.
Figure 4.32 Select the free-transform tool's Rotate and Skew modifier to access handles for rotating or skewing a selected element interactively.
- To modify the selected element, do either of the following:
To rotate the element, position the pointer over one of the corner handles.
The pointer changes to a circular arrow. Click and drag to rotate the element. Flash spins the element around its transformation point (Figure 4.33).
Figure 4.33 With the free-transform tool's Rotate and Skew modifier selected, you can drag one of the corner handles of a selected element's bounding box to rotate that element (top). Drag one of the side handles to skew the element (bottom).
To skew the element, position the pointer over one of the side handles of the element's bounding box.
The pointer changes to a two-way arrowhead. Click and drag the side handle to skew the element.
Release the mouse button.
Flash redraws the modified element.
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