Screens Learning Guide

Screens are a convenient way to organize content and applications in Macromedia Flash MX Professional 2004. Screens complement the traditional Timeline.

The Timeline is useful for animating content but it's awkward for organizing it. For example, you must represent multiple content pages as separate key frames. Screens organize content according to the major screens in a project. You animate the content on each screen using the Timeline.

Screens are divided into slides and forms. Use slides anytime you build sequential content, which means users view pages of content one at a time. Use forms where multiple pages of content are displayed at once, either as multiple windows or composited together to form one interface.

Explore the topics below to learn more about screens; decide whether slides, forms, or the Timeline are right for your content; and learn the intricacies of working with this new authoring method.

Introduction to Screens

Get into the basics of screens. See how you can organize and build complex applications in this new development environment in Flash MX Professional 2004.

Choosing Between Slides, Forms, or the Timeline

Wondering how to start a new Flash document for an application that you're planning? Learn case by case when you should use screens, forms, or the Timeline.

Pages and Navigation with Slides

Find out how to add navigation to slides through buttons and behaviors. When using slides, you can build navigation into an application without a single line of code.

Transitions and Visual Inheritance

Need to include one persistent element throughout your entire application as others change? Want to add custom transitions between sections of your application? See how the built-in inheritance in screens lets you visually structure your applications.

Applications with Forms

While you can build a complex application without code using screens, combining ActionScript with forms gives you many new possibilities. Find out how to load content into a form or toggle its visibility. Also see how to use the programming model for forms to extend their functionality.