User Guide > Interface > User Interface > Library View

Library View

1. Library View Menu
2. Preview Window
3. Preview Playback
4. Library Folder List
5. Template/Symbol List

The Library view is used to store elements such as animation, drawings, backgrounds and puppets to reuse them in your different projects. You also use the Library view to create and store your symbols.

To reuse an element in another project, you must create a template out of your drawings. A template is a mini scene that you import in your other project. A template has no link to the original scene. When you create a template, the full content of your selection is copied in the template.

When you are creating a series of layers all using the same drawings or building puppets, you will create symbols. These can be used as drawing containers when you are creating puppets so that you can store different mouth shapes or hands to use while animating. You can also use symbols when you are building props, such as a skateboard and you want to use the same wheel drawing for the four skateboard wheels.

Refer to Library to learn more about using the library, symbols and templates in context.

Library View Menu

The Library View menu allows you to access commands that are specifically related to the Library view such as importing SWF movies and Illustrator files, adding a new folder and refreshing the library’s content.

Preview Window

The Preview window is used to see the content of the currently selected template or symbol in the Template/Symbol list.

Preview Playback

The Preview Playback button is used to play back the content of the selected template or symbol if it contains more than one frame. Press the Play button to play back the preview.

Library Folder List

The Library Folder List displays all of the folders linked to the Library view. There are two default folders:

Symbols

The Symbols folder is the only folder containing symbols. The user can organize it by adding subfolders inside.

Animate Library

The Animate Library folder is a default library found on the hard drive in the user’s documents. This folder can contain templates, but no symbols.

The user can link new library folders to the Library view and organize them with subfolders.

Template/Symbol List

The Template/Symbol list displays the templates or symbols contained in the selected library folder. If you right-click, you can display the templates and symbols’ thumbnails by selecting View > Thumbnails.

Related Topics 

Library