Creating instances

After creating a symbol, you can create instances of the symbol wherever you like throughout the movie, including inside other symbols.

Creating movie clip instances is different than creating graphic instances. Movie clips need only a single keyframe to play. Graphic instances must be placed in every frame where you want them to appear.

To create a new instance of a symbol:

1	Select a layer in the Timeline.
	Flash can only place instances in keyframes, always on the current layer. If you don't select a keyframe, the instance will be added to the first keyframe to the left of the current frame.
2	Choose Window > Library to open the Library.
3	Drag the symbol to the Stage.
4	If you created an instance of a graphic symbol, choose Insert > Frame to add the amount of frames that correspond to the length of the graphic symbol.

After creating an instance of a symbol, use Instance Properties to specify color effects, assign actions, set the graphic display mode, or change the behavior of the instance. The behavior of the instance is the same as the default behavior of the symbol unless you specify otherwise. These modifications affect only the instance and not the symbol. See Changing the color and transparency of an instance. See also Creating interactive movies overview.

Note: If a graphic symbol animation appears choppy, you may have to adjust the instance so that the animation plays in a smooth loop. See Synchronizing graphic instances.