Re: FLASH: symbol instances problem

[Marc Hoffman, Poison Dart Frog Media]

At 09:51 AM 6/13/00 , you wrote:


>Can text placed in graphic symbols in the library be changed to be 

>different in each instance?

>

>In other words (example) can you make a symbol be a square with "A" 

>inside: [A]

>

>And then in each instance change the "A" to be B, C, D, E, F etc., to make 

>a series of keys that match some text elsewhere?

>

>I couldn't find any reference to this in the help files.

>

>I got it to work only after each instance was Broken Apart and then regrouped.


When you break an instance apart, you destroy its reference to the symbol, 

so you lose the value of reusing symbols to save file size.


Instead, lay out instances of the original symbol.  Then select the first 

one you want to change and use F8 to convert it to a new symbol (with a new 

name) which contains the old one. Now you're re-using the same symbol. Edit 

this new symbol and add the text you want in a higher layer (don't worry 

about the existing text, we'll deal with that in a minute). Now go into the 

original symbol and either delete the text there or put it on its own layer 

and convert the layer to Guide so it doesn't export or show in any 

instances of the symbol on the stage (if you like, you can leave the 

original text as is until you've made all your symbol copies and added text 

to them -- this way you can align the new text more easily, then go back 

and delete the text in the original symbol).


Marc Hoffman


Poison Dart Frog Media

Flash portfolio: http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/portfolio



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