Puting together different .fla's... what if object/symbolnames are the same?

1

I am puting together a flashsite (version 5). Several elements have been made by different people, so overlapse in symbol names is likely.

if I drag a MC + its symbols from one .fla into another .fla, and there is an overlapse in names, what will Flash do? Will it:

simply overwrite the existing symbol with the new symbol carying the same name,

or will it warn me and ask me to change the name;

or will it change the symbol name automatically to a higher number or add copy for example?

thanks.

2

I just checked… it says “One or more library items already exist in the document:”

Then it gives you two radio buttons…

“Don’t Replace Existing Items”

and

“Replace Existing Items (not undoable)”

Then you can hit Ok or Cancel.

Unfortunately it doesn’t say the name of the clip that is a duplicate :-\

PS: This is what happens in Flash MX… I don’t see why it would be different in 5 though.

3

how odd :slight_smile:
I decided to try it out myself (why didn’t I do that in the first place? don’t ask)

and what it does with me is put a number behind the symbolname.

so I tried to move symbol 88 to the library of another .fla which already had a symbol 88.
It did, but put symbol 88 2 as name.

any idea why this difference and if maybe you can select the way flash5 handles duplicates in the preferences (didn’t find such an option though)

4

… I was just about to ask why you didnt try in a little rant I had all ready to post… :wink:

5

Wow… no clue. I chose it to “Not Overwrite Existing File” and it just didn’t transfer it at all.

Hmm, I wonder why they didn’t keep that feature in Flash MX.

Oh well… I learned something new for the day :slight_smile:

6

ow, sorry about that. well, if it will make you feel any better do not hesitate to post the rant anyway :wink:

so, what does Flash tell you when you want to copy one symbol onto another one? :slight_smile:

7

yeah flash 5 just makes a copy of the clip with a new name in the library so theres no confusion. MX does as lost describes, and to avoid this, I usually, if transfering clips from one library to another, put the clips into a unique folder and move the folder over. This way there is no confusion and the entire folder with the correct clips can be copied fine without overlap and/or replacing.

Flash MX however can also detect if the symbol is the same or not. If it is, no replacing occurs and everything is hunky dory. Flash 5 will keep adding duplicates with the appended number forever and ever.

8

you can do that?

so even if you drag a symbol from a folder in the library onto the workfield, after publishing everything still works fine and dandy?