How to Make Flash Gadgets

Making gadgets for use in Adobe's Flash Professional program will let you produce Flash projects faster and with a higher level of complexity. Flash projects are also easier to maintain and build. Within Flash, gadgets are called components. These components are used to build component libraries (gadget libraries). Once created, using a Flash component -- which can represent hundreds of lines of Flash code-- is just a matter of looking for the specific component icon in Flash's component library. Making a Flash gadget is also easy. Once you know how, it's almost as simple as saving a file.

Things You'll Need

  • Adobe Flash Professional: CS3, CS4 or CS5 versions
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Instructions

    • 1

      Start the Flash program. Click "Flash File (ActionScript 3.0)" from the Splash window to create a new file for an AS3 Flash animation project.

    • 2

      Click "New Symbol" in the "Insert" menu to open the symbol editor. Type in a symbol name for the gadget. Use "Gadget_Circle" for this example. Position your mouse cursor over the stage, press and release the "O" key on your keyboard to activate the oval drawing tool. Drag your mouse to draw the oval. Stop dragging and release the mouse button to place the oval on the Flash stage.

    • 3

      Click the blue arrow icon at the top of the stage to exit symbol-editing mode. Click "Library" in the "Window" menu. Locate the "Circle_Gadget" in the symbol library. Position your cursor over the "Circle_Gadget" library symbol icon and right-click to display the context menu. Click "Export SWC File."

    • 4

      Type in a name in the file box to specify a name for the SWC file. For this example use the file name "gadget_one." Save the file in the Adobe "Component" directory. Locate where you originally loaded your Adobe Flash Professional software and trace this directory tree to find the Components directory. It is often directly located under the "Configurations" directory. Click "Save" to save the SWC file.

    • 5

      Click "Components" from the Window menu. Right-click the context menu option in the "Components" library panel and click the "reload" option to display the "Circle_Gadget" component in the Components panel. Look for the name you specified for the Symbol -- in this case "Circle_Gadget" in the Components panel. This is the component you just made.

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