Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity (OReilly Digital Studio)

.3. Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

Many commands and features in Flash already have corresponding keyboard shortcuts, such as pressing V to activate the Selection tool. However, you may want a speedier way to run a command or open a custom panel set. As a general example, Figure A-5 shows the process of adding a keyboard shortcut to a menu command that doesn't already have a corresponding shortcut.

You can also reassign shortcuts, as seen in this procedure:

1. Choose Edit Keyboard Shortcuts (Win) or Flash Professional Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac) to open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, shown in Figure A-5.

2. Click the Duplicate Set button in the dialog box, name the new keyboard shortcut set something like My Set, and click OK. This preserves the original shortcuts, rather than overwriting them, and provides you with a set that you can modify freely.

3. In the Commands section of the dialog box, expand the File menu and select Close All (which closes all open documents and Libraries).

4. In the Shortcut section, click Add Shortcut, and press the keys you want to use as the new shortcut. For example, you might press Shift-Ctrl-W (Win) or Shift-Cmd-W (Mac). The keys you press appear in the Press Key field.

5. Click the Change button. This opens a message warning you that the shortcut is already assigned to the Work Area command, an infrequently used feature.

6. Click Reassign.

7. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Now, when you have more than one document or more than one Library open, you can simply use this keyboard shortcut to close all your Flash files at once.

You can even reconfigure many or all shortcuts at once to match other programs that you may be more familiar with. For example, you can choose a shortcut set more in line with Photoshop, FreeHand, or Illustrator.