Symbols

So draw whatever you want(a smiley face, a circle in a box, whatever you want). Then get your selection tool, and drag a box around what you want to create to be your symbol. Right click on what you selected, and then near the bottom of the popup menu, select "Convert To Symbol" (or you can choose "Convert To Symbol" in the Modify menu. Also, the keyboard shortcut is F8.) Name it and make sure its type is "Movie Clip" for the purposes of our class. Make sure its registration has the middle box selected. Click Ok, and there you go! you have a symbol!
 * How do you turn a piece of drawing into a Symbol?**


 * What are the three types of Symbols?**
 * Movie Type(Always select this, unless instructed something else)
 * Button
 * Graphic

A symbol is the object or shape that you made, and is available for whenever you want to use it. An instance is like one individual copy of that symbol. It can be individually edited.
 * What is the difference between a Symbol and an Instance?**

For example... If you made a smiley face symbol and then copied that symbol about 5 times on your screen, each individual smiley face is an instance. The symbol was the shape of the smiley face, it was the basic shape that started you off. But once you put the smiley faces on your screen, each had its own identity. It can be edited individually. Therefore, each individual one was an instance.

If you still don't understand instances, think of it like this.... An instance is like an individual person of one family. Each individual in that family is different from each other, but sometimes there are certain events that happen that can cause all of them to becomes sad or happy. So for instances, you can edit each one individually; however, you can also edit all of them at once by editing its symbol.

(Note: Really, when you are saying "Convert to Symbol" what this means is "Create a new symbol based on this graphic, and convert the graphic to an Instance of that Symbol." I wonder why they didn't put that in the menu instead? - HH)

Once you have made that symbol,
 * How do you make instances of a Symbol?**
 * Go to your library and drag the symbol that you want to create instances of onto the screen.
 * You can also copy and paste that one instance of a symbol, if you haven't edited it yet. (or even if you have - HH)
 * You can also option-drag instances to make duplicate symbols.

So once you have made your symbol, and have placed it in multiple spots around your screen(created many instances of it). You realized you made a mistake. You might think that you will have to go back to each instance and individually fix each one. That can be tedious but its also unnecessary! All you need to do is.....
 * How do you change the appearance of a Symbol for all of the instances of that Symbol? (and how do you get back to normal editing?)**
 * Go to your library, and click on that symbols icon that you want to change. (Or double-click on an instance - HH)
 * Your symbol will show up on an editing screen(at the top left of your screen, you should see 2 tabs. One of the tabs will have the name of your symbol and its icon)
 * You can do whatever you want(resize it, change color, add effects, etc)
 * Once you're done, go back to the top left where you see the tabs, and select your main screen with everything else on it.
 * You will notice that you changes have took place on each instance.


 * How can you change the appearance of a given instance of a Symbol without changing the others?**

When you're on the main screen and you see and instance that you want to edit it, just click on it and use the tools you want on it. Treat it like a normal, individual object.