Moving or resizing all the layers and frames of a Flash animation at once. How to move an entire Adobe Flash animation on the stage in one go.

How to move or resize a whole Flash animation at once

How do I move all the graphics in all layers and frames in a Flash animation in one go? I have tried selecting all the frames and layers and then dragging them to an other location on the stage, but this doesn't work. Do Adobe or Macromedia have a built in solution for this?

This is an often asked question, unsurprisingly, considering that the size, shape and position of elements on web pages change so often (especially when client's change their mind).

Therefore an easy to use technique to move the whole of a Flash animation on the stage at once can become an essential requirement.

In this instance, the successful method is not as immediately obvious as it might be. Simply highlighting all layers in a Flash animation and trying to move them will not indeed achieve the desired result.

The solution, however, can actually be quite simple, if a bit tricky (so remember to always work on a copy of the file). To move or resize an entire Flash animation on the stage, we use the following steps.

How to move a complete Flash animation in one go

To move the complete animation to another part of the Stage, requires firstly that all layers are unlocked. (To avoid moving unwanted layers, make sure that they are hidden of locked). Then;

1. Click on the Edit Multiple Frames button in the Flash animation Timeline. This is a crucial step.
   
   
2. Now there are two options. Either drag the onion skin markers so they cover all the animation frames. But an easier method may be to click the Modify Onion Markers button and then select the option to Onion All.
   
   
3. Next, select the Edit menu and then Select All.
   
   
4. It is now possible to drag all the elements of the whole animation to a new part of the stage.