A new version of this panel can be downloaded here.

The Flash IDE has the ability to position shapes and instances on fractional pixels; unfortunately the Flash player does not have the ability to correctly render items placed on fractional pixels. The result is that anything not placed on whole pixels will look like crap as the player attempts to round off the pixels itself. If you have ever encountered strange blurry text or shapes with strokes that just don’t look right, it is most likely related to this fractional position problem which is present in all versions of the player. Within the IDE you can turn on “Snap to Pixels” but that does not completely solve the problem.

In order to help with this issue and to make dealing with animation a little easier we developed the Position Manager swf panel. This panel is essentially a copy and paste utility that allows you to grab values from an instance, round them off and paste them into another instance.

INSTALLATION

Simple drop the swf into the appropriate folder and restart Flash. The panel will be available from Window >> Other Panels in the IDE.

Windows Vista:

boot drive\Users\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS4\language\Configuration\WindowSWF

Windows XP:

boot drive\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS4\language\Configuration\ WindowSWF

Mac OS X:

Macintosh HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash CS4/language/Configuration/ WindowSWF

HOW TO USE

Each property has a check box that allows you to select which properties you want to copy, there are also select all and select none buttons at the top.

Select the properties you want, and then select one instance on stage. Click “Copy” and you will see the values appear in the tool. Select another instance and click paste to apply the values. A property needs to be checked to retrieve a value and also to paste that value. So if you uncheck a box, that property won’t be pasted back.

The “Round Values” check box automatically rounds off the values. This happens on copy and paste. So if you forget to round on copy, just check the “Round Values” box before pasting.

Sometimes Flash does not update the IDE view after you paste the values. The “Drop Selection When Done” box forces the IDE to update the display after you paste.

FILES

Grab the panel here

FUTURE FEATURES

1. Ability to paste values into all instances on a layer on a timeline. Select one instance, copy values, paste to all subsequent keyframes.
2. Ability to handle multiple selections