Adobe Flash Professional CS5 : Editing Bitmaps in an Outside Editor

12/5/2012 4:55:13 PM

You can edit a bitmap in its native program, such as Photoshop CS5 or Fireworks 3, or some other image editing tool. Once it is re-saved or updated to the hard drive, Flash automatically updates the bitmap back when you return to Flash (New!). If an image is moved to another location, you can manually update it. In addition, you can import another image to replace the bitmap in the Library. In either case, every copy of the bitmap used in the Flash movie (including bitmap fills) will update with these changes. This is a convenient way to make global changes to bitmap art included in your project.

Update an Image Edited Outside of Flash

Import a bitmap into Flash.

Open the Library panel.

Right-click (Win) or Control-click (Mac) the bitmap’s icon, and then click Edit with Photoshop CS5 or Edit with Fireworks 3.

For other imaging programs, click Edit With, select an image-editing program, and then click OK.

In the image-editing program, modify the bitmap, click the File menu, and then click Save or Update, and then return to Flash.

The bitmap is automatically updated in Flash.

To manually update an image or relink to a different location, right-click (Win) or Control-click the icon in the Library panel, click the Properties, click Update, and then click OK.

Replace a Bitmap

Open the Library panel, and then select the bitmap from the item list.

Click the Properties icon in the bottom of the panel or double-click the bitmap file in the list.

Click Import.

Navigate to the replacement file on your hard drive.

Select the replacement file.

Click Import (Mac) or Open (Win).

Change the name and any other options you want.

Click OK.

Did You Know?

Flash preserves the path when you import a bitmap. When you import a bitmap into Flash, the path to that image is preserved in the Bitmap Properties. If you have moved the image to another directory on your hard drive and you want to update the file in the Library with the new changes, navigate to it by using the Import button in the Bitmap Properties window.

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