Using Imported Artwork > Placing artwork into Flash

Flash recognizes a variety of vector and bitmap formats. You can place artwork into Flash by importing or pasting. Flash imports vector graphics, bitmaps, and sequences of images as follows:

	Vector images from FreeHand are imported directly into a Flash movie. You can choose options for preserving FreeHand layers, pages, and text blocks. To import a FreeHand file, see Importing FreeHand files.
	PNG images from Fireworks can be imported directly into a Flash movie with vector and bitmap data preserved as editable objects. You can choose options for preserving images, text and guides. To import a Fireworks PNG file, see Importing Fireworks PNG files.

Note: If you import a PNG file from Fireworks by cutting and pasting, the file is converted to a bitmap.

	Vector images from SWF, Adobe Illustrator, and Windows Metafile Format (WMF) files are imported as a group in the current layer. See Import file formats and Adobe Illustrator files.
	Bitmaps (scanned photographs, BMP files) are imported as single objects in the current layer. Flash preserves the transparency settings of imported bitmaps. Because importing a bitmap can increase a movie's file size, you may want to compress imported bitmaps. See Setting bitmap properties.

Note: Bitmap transparency may not be preserved when bitmaps are imported by dragging and dropping. To preserve transparency, use the File > Import command for importing.

Any sequence of images (for example, a PICT and BMP sequence) is imported as successive frames of the current layer.

For information on specific file formats, see Import file formats.

To import a file into Flash:

1	Choose File > Import.
2	In the Import dialog box, choose a file format from the Show pop-up menu.
3	Navigate to the desired file and select it.
	If an imported file has multiple layers, Flash might create new layers. Be sure the Timeline is visible when importing a file with multiple layers.

Note: If you are importing a Fireworks PNG file, see Importing Fireworks PNG files. If you are importing a FreeHand file, see Importing FreeHand files.

4	Do one of the following:
	In Windows, click Open.
	On a Macintosh, click Add to add the selected file to the Import list, and click Import to import the file or files in the Import list.
5	If the name of the file you are importing ends with a number, and there are additional sequentially numbered files in the same folder, Flash asks you whether to import the sequence of files:
	Click Yes to import all of the sequential files.
	Click No to import only the specified file.
	The following are examples of file names that can be used as a sequence:
	Frame001.gif, Frame002.gif, Frame003.gif Bird 1, Bird 2, Bird 3 Walk-001.ai, Walk-002.ai, Walk-003.ai

To paste a bitmap from another application into Flash:

1	Copy the image in the other application.
2	In Flash, choose Edit > Paste.