Use the Eyedropper Tool

The Eyedropper tool appears as an eyedropper in the Toolbar, to the left of the Eraser tool. You use the Eyedropper tool to sample fill and stroke colors and apply the sampled color to other objects in your movie. You can also use the tool to sample a bitmap fill, a technique that is covered in Chapter 6. To sample an object’s stroke or fill, click the Eyedropper tool and move it onto a shape or a line. If a Pencil icon appears under the Eyedropper tool, you are sampling a stroke color. If a brush appears under the Eyedropper tool, you are sampling a fill color. Note that the pencil and the brush that appear in the bottom right of the Eyedropper tool are extremely small and therefore a little hard to see. Both are shown in the next illustration. Click the stroke or fill to sample it. When you click a shape to sample a fill, the Eyedropper tool becomes the Paint Bucket tool and you can proceed to fill another object. When you click a stroke to sample a stroke, the Eyedropper tool becomes the Ink Bottle tool and you can then change the stroke on an object.

Use the Eraser Tool

The Eraser tool is located in the Toolbar to the right of the Eyedropper tool. Its icon is unmistakable because it looks just like the pink erasers you used in grammar school. When you select the Eraser tool, three modifiers appear in the Options section of the Toolbar: the Eraser Mode, Faucet, and Eraser Shapes, as shown next. These modifiers allow you to control exactly what is erased and how. Use the Eraser tool to erase editable lines, fills, or a combination thereof.

Eraser Mode
The Eraser Mode tools allow you to customize the manner in which you erase an object or a part of an object. To erase an object using the Eraser tool, select the tool first. In the Options section of the Toolbar, click Eraser Mode as shown in the previous illustration and, in the pop-up menu, select one of the following options:
■ Erase Normal This selection causes strokes and fills on a layer to be erased as you drag the tool across them.
■ Erase Fills This option causes only fills to be erased; strokes are not affected.
■ Erase Lines This causes only strokes to be erased; fills are not affected.
■ Erase Selected Fills This selection causes a fill from a selected shape to be erased without altering its stroke.
■ Erase Inside This option causes an object’s fill to be erased from the point where you begin the eraser stroke, without altering surrounding fills or strokes.

Once you’ve chosen a modifier, click the Eraser Shapes modifier and choose a shape from the pop-up menu shown here.

Finally, drag the tool on the stage over the object you want to erase. Note that the behavior and look of the eraser is based on your previous settings.

To erase everything on the stage quickly, double-click the Eraser tool in the Toolbar.

Erase Fills
The Eraser tool’s Faucet modifier makes it easy for you to soak up all of an object’s fill or stroke. To completely erase a stroke or fill on an editable object, select the Eraser tool; then click the
Faucet modifier. Click an object’s stroke to erase a stroke; click its center to remove a fill.

Conclusion

You’ve learned a lot about the tools in the Toolbar in this chapter. From time to time throughout the book, you’ll return to the Toolbar, learning more about the exciting things you can do with
just tools and modifiers. You’ll get to know the Toolbar quite well as you continue on your learning journey. In the next chapter, we will concentrate on learning all about creating text in Flash. For this task, you’ll use another tool in the Toolbar: the Text tool. The subject of text in Flash is so broad that it needs a chapter of its own.