Chapter 4. Wireframing an Application in Flash Catalyst
IN THIS CHAPTER
Creating a new Catalyst project
Using the Selection, Direct Select, Hand, and Zoom tools
Using the Drawing tools
Using the Transform tool
Understanding layers
Working with blend modes
Adding wireframe components
Running a project
Saving a project
Catalyst provides a few basic drawing tools. These are not designed to provide you with a complete drawing application; rather, they allow you to wireframe an application.
Wireframing is the process of visually laying out the basic framework of your application. In Catalyst, you can draw shapes and add common Flex components such as buttons and datagrids — features that the other Adobe design tools may lack.
The wireframe tools allow you to create an initial visual representation of your application. From there, you can move to Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks to finalize the design before returning to Catalyst to create the actual project.
Creating a New Wireframe Project
When you first launch Catalyst, you are presented with the Start screen (see Figure 4.1). If you want to wireframe your application, follow these steps:
Select the Create New Project option in the lower-right corner. A dialog box appears.
In this dialog box, give the project a name (see Figure 4.2). This will eventually be the name of the FXP file that Catalyst creates for the project, so be sure that it is a memorable name.
Figure 4.1. The Catalyst Start screen
Figure 4.2. The New Project dialog box
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