Each symbol has a unique Timeline and Stage, complete with layers. You can add frames, keyframes, and layers to a symbol Timeline, just as you can to the main Timeline. When you create a symbol you choose the symbol type.

• Use graphic symbols  for static images and to create reusable pieces of animation that are tied to the main Timeline. Graphic symbols operate in sync with the main Timeline. Interactive controls and sounds won’t work in a graphic symbol’s animation sequence. Graphic symbols add less to the FLA file size than buttons or movie clips because they have no timeline.

• Use button symbols  to create interactive buttons that respond to mouse clicks, rollovers, or other actions. You define the graphics associated with various button states, and then assign actions to a button instance. For more information, see Handling Events in Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash or Handling events in Programming ActionScript 3.0.

• Use movie clip symbols  to create reusable pieces of animation. Movie clips have their own multiframe Timeline that is independent from the main Timeline—think of them as nested inside a main Timeline that can contain interactive controls, sounds, and even other movie clip instances. You can also place movie clip instances inside the Timeline of a button symbol to create animated buttons. In addition, movie clips are scriptable with ActionScript™.

• Use font symbols to export a font and use it in other Flash documents.

  Flash provides built‑in components, movie clips with defined parameters, that you can use to add user interface elements, such as buttons, check boxes, or scroll bars, to your documents. For more information, see About Components in Using ActionScript 2.0 Components, or About ActionScript 3.0 Components in Using ActionScript 3.0 Components.

  Note: To preview animation in component instances and scaling of 9-slice-scaled movie clips in the Flash authoring environment, select Control > Enable Live Preview.