Lesson #05 Closer Look at the Timeline
Written By Daniel Mitchell

Using The Timeline

The timeline is used to control a movie's content over time in layers and frames. Flash movies divide lengths of time into frames and layers are like film strips that contain different images that appear on the Stage. The main components of the timeline are the layers, frames and playhead.

The timeline shows where there is animation in a movie by showing frame-by-frame, tweened animation and motion paths. Although there is essentially only one main Timeline, Flash can have more than one timeline in the movie. A large movie for example can be broken up into several scenes, each with its own timeline that works along with the main timeline.

Changing The Appearance of The Timeline

As you will notice the Timeline is situated at the top of the main window above the Stage. To change this position you can either place the Timeline at the bottom or either side of the main window or have it displayed as its own window. There is also an option which allows you to hide the Timeline if you need to and to resize it to change the number of layers and frames that you can view.

To move the Timeline simply:
Click and drag the Timeline from the area above its header Drag it to either the edge or the bottom of the window.

To lengthen or shorten layer name fields:
Drag the bar separating the layer names and the frames portion of the Timeline.

To resize the Timeline, do one of the following:
If the Timeline is docked to the main window, drag the bar separating the Timeline from the application window. If the Timeline is not docked to the main application window, drag the lower right corner or the Size box in the lower right corner.

Moving The Playhead

The playhead is used to show which frame is currently being displayed on the Stage. The Timeline header shows the frame numbers of the current animation. To display a certain frame drag the playhead to the frame you want in the Timeline to bring it up on the Stage.

If you have a lot of frames that can not appear in the Timeline all together just move the playhead along the Timeline to find the current frame. To go to a frame just click on the frame's location in the Timeline header and drag the playhead to where you want it to be.

To center the Timeline on the current frame:
Click the Center Frame button at the bottom of the Timeline.

IV. Changing the Display of Frames

To edit the display of frames in the Timeline, click on the "Frame View" button in the upper right corner of the Timeline and select one of the following options:

The Preview in Contect feature is very useful for viewing the way everything moves within their frames over the course of the animation.