Flash Lesson - Grouping, ungrouping and breaking apart

Consider you have drawn two rectangles that overlap each other similar to the figure below:
Now select the rectangle on top (the green one) and drag it to another location. You'll find that the lower rectangle has been cut. The reason for this is that Flash assumes the two shapes to be part of the same object. However, if we would have grouped each rectangle immediately after drawing it, the two would be treated as separate objects.

Note: In other vector programs like CorelDraw, the two rectangle would be treated separately and not as the same object. This is an important point to remember when making drawings in Flash.

When a circle is created using the Oval tool , its outline and fill are two separate objects. They can be selected individually and placed anywhere on the screen. Grouping allows designers to pull related objects together in a bunch. Thus, the outline and the fill or a circle can be placed in a group so that they are not accidently modified.

Grouping and ungrouping

Creating a group is as simple as selecting the objects and clicking on Modify - Group. In addition to grouping different objects, you can also place other groups into a single group. This kind of nesting is helpful in some cases but its overzealous use might lead to problems.
Once a group has been created, it can be split into its individual components through Ungrouping. Spliting nested groups to individual objects involves repeated ungrouping.

Grouping, Ungrouping and Break Apart are all found in the Modify menu.

Splitting text into individual alphabet

Label Text created with the text tool is by default placed in a group. To split the text into individual alphabet, click Modify - Break Apart. You'll notice that each alphabet is now surrounded by the selection net and can be picked and moved individually.