Placing artwork into Flash

Flash recognizes a variety of bitmap and vector file formats. You can place artwork into Flash by importing or pasting. Flash imports bitmaps, sequences of images, and vector graphics as follows:

	Bitmaps (scanned photographs, BMP files) are imported as a single object in the current layer. Flash preserves the transparency settings of imported bitmaps.
	Any sequence of images (for example, a PICT and BMP sequence) is imported as successive frames of the current layer.
	Vector images from FreeHand or Adobe Illustrator, and WMF files are imported as a group in the current layer. (See Choosing an import file format and Using Adobe Illustrator files.)

Flash can also import sound files in AIFF and WAV format. See Importing sounds. For information on specific file formats, see Choosing an import file format.

To import a file into Flash:

1	Choose File > Import.
2	In the standard import dialog box that is displayed, locate and open the desired file.
	If an imported file has multiple layers, new layers might be created in Flash. Be sure the Timeline is visible when importing a file with multiple layers.
3	If you are importing a file with a name that ends with a number, and there are additional files in the sequence after that file in the same folder, at the prompt to import the sequence of files click Yes to import all of these files, or click No to import only the specified file.

Here are examples of file names that can be used as a sequence:

Frame001.gif     Frame002.gif     Frame003.gif
Bird 1     Bird 2     Bird 3
Walk-001.ai     Walk-002.ai     Walk-003.ai

To paste a bitmap from another application into Flash:

1	Copy the image from the other application.
2	Choose Edit > Paste.

To paste a bitmap into Flash as an embedded object (WIndows):

1	Copy the image from the other application.
2	Choose Edit > Paste Special.
	When you want to edit the bitmap, Flash opens the original application. Flash can't rotate an embedded bitmap unless you first select the bitmap and choose Modify > Break Apart. See Grouping objects.

Note: Before pasting graphics from FreeHand 8 into Flash, set your FreeHand export preferences to convert colors to CMYK and RGB for Clipboard formats.