Lesson 5. Built-in Classes

Every day you use objects to perform any number of activities. You may have used Tupperware to store fresh cookies to prevent them from becoming stale, or the trash can to store a fruitcake from your Aunt Sally. Objects are items designed to meet specific needs. You can use them to perform tasks of their own (for example, a VCR playing or recording a movie) or you can employ them as simple storage devices.

This Flash word processor is one of the projects you'll create in this lesson.

Using Macromedia Flash, you can create objects that perform tasks or store something (such as data) in much the same way as real-world objects. A class is like a blueprint for a specific type of object. Using Flash's built-in classes, you can create objects to accomplish a variety of tasks. As a matter of fact, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised at how familiar Flash's classes seem after you understand basic concepts of how they work. In addition to using the built-in classes, you can create your own custom classes. Creating custom classes is covered in Lesson 6, "Custom Classes." We'll discuss several of Flash's built-in classes and work with a few of them in this lesson on using built-in classes.