Flash Button Symbols

Flash Tutorial to create a button symbol

Button symbols are used for timeline navigation - They add interactivity to the movie and respond to mouse clicks, key press or rollovers/rollout, and other actions. You define the graphics associated with various button states (Up/Over/Down/Hit), and then assign actions to the instance of a button. They have 4 frames in their timeline - one each for the up, over and down states, and one to define the hit area of the button.

Steps to Follow:

1. First create/import the object(s) to be converted into a button. Import bitmaps onto the stage using Ctrl+R.
2. Select the object(s) and then press F8 (or Modify >> Convert to Symbol).
3. Select the Button Behavior for the symbol and name the symbol say, 'btnHome'.
4. Double-click the instance of 'btnHome' on the stage to switch to its symbol-editing mode. The Timeline header changes to display four consecutive frames labeled Up, Over, Down, and Hit as shown below.
   

   
   Fig: Symbol-editing Mode of completed flash button 'btn_home'

5. The first frame displays the drawn vector/plain text used for creating this button, now insert a Key frame (F6) in the frame labeled Over (Flash automatically duplicates the contents of the Up frame).
6. Now change the color of the object in the Over frame to create a rollover effect in the button.
7. Insert frames (F5) for the Down frame and the Hit frame (only defines the area of the button that responds to user action and is not visible at runtime).
8. Save your work and test the Movie (Ctrl + Enter). That's it your simple button is ready!

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