Button Question

i’ve created a menu bar in my flash and created rollover effects for the buttons on that menu bar (the buttons are just text that I converted into symbols). In the past, I’ve always right clicked on the symbol - Edit in Place - Then made a keyframe in the over frame - Then edited the text to make it change a little when rolled over. In addition, I always make an empty rectangle over the text so that there’s a bigger “active area” when you roll over the buttons.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Here’s my question: 1) Is there a better way to accomplish that (the active area part), and 2) When I’ve done it this time I can’t seem to have a totally blank rectangle. I can’t seem to get both the fill and stroke of the rectangle set to be blank. As it is, I have the stroke set to be blank and the fill white. So when I roll over (of course) a big white box appears.

Thanks in advance.

Jamie