Flash CS5 instance name problems

[jurzyna]

I can't give instance names in my AS2 project. When I click on the Instance Name box it is locked. I can only give instance names to the text objects. Movie clips and buttons are locekd. Please Help

[nrajbhan]

Hi,

Are you having this issue with all FLA files or just specific ones? If you create a new FLA file and add a symbol to the stage, can you give it an instance name?

Thanks,

Nivesh

[charlieFlash]

I am seeing this too. Happens for a FLA opened in CS5 with publish settings for AS 2.0 - changing the target Flash Player version didn't have an effect. Had to revert back to Flash CS4 and back-save all my FLAs in order to change the instance name!

[Craig Grummitt]

bizarre, am seeing it too. Instance name is greyed out and non-editable.

[Daniel Polsen]

same problem. looks like a bug…

Will you fix it? Cause we actually can't work with this product

[Guest]

I am having the exact same problem.  Very frustrating

[Craig Grummitt]

for anyone encountering this problem, my 'hack' solution was to save it as CS4, go into CS4, change it, save it, then go back to CS5, reopen it, and finally i could change the instance names...

[Guest]

I can confirm this is still an issue - and a huge one at that.  I have literally hundreds of CS5 files that I can now no longer work on unless i save them as CS4 files and work on them in CS4.  No matter if I reset or restart CS5 - now NO cs5 as2 file will allow me to rename the instance.   What an utterly disgusting bug - i'm now looking at dozens of hours to simple resave files so i can modify instance names - what a joke.  Adobe - any help?

[wkirklutz-dI9Xvv]

I too am encountering the same bug. Hey Adobe, are you listening? Need this fixed pronto. While I would love to author in AS3, most web pubs require AS2 for some reason.

-Kirk

[wkirklutz-dI9Xvv]

Just realized that we jumped from CS3 to CS5. So I have no means to save backwards.

Adobe? Any kind of work around would really be helpful. My next step will be to reprogram in AS3, but my flash is VERY complicated and I have just a simple change. Really need to be able to edit the instance name.

-Kirk

[38102]

Try saving the file as .xfl (uncompressed flash file), re-opening the .xfl and saving it again as CS5 .fla. This worked for my files.

K.

[CameronLS1]

I was having this same problem and found this thread. I actually tried quitting Flash and restarting and on the restart I was able to change the instance names again. Maybe an easier work around than the CS4 route.

[madsb-OPBkOH]

Same problem here. Restarting, rebooting, saving as CS4 and reopening didn't help.

[tugted]

Yikes.  I'm a member of this club too.

Just wanted to say that if you don't want to bother with saving your file as CS4, there's another way to get around this.

Just create classes for your assets, and then call them programmatically.  And, as you all probably know, in case you have loaders, don't export them for frame 1, or there'll be a delay before your loader appears.

update:  suddenly, I can access the instance input field in the property panel again.  I have no idea how it fixed itself, but I hope this happens for everyone else too.

[Guest]

This is an ongoing problem; two or three times a day, you have to restart Flash if you want to change instance names for objects on the stage using the properties inspector. Very annoying! This is one of the most basic things that you want to do in Flash and it's worked in all the previous versions of the program. The option simply becomes unavailable perioidically, and the only way to get it back is to relaunch Flash until you accomplish your task.

[yavstr]

This is really frustrating, i've resatred quite a few times and nothing. I dont' have CS4 or CS3 so saving back won't help and I'm only working on a banner so creating classes isn't an optoin.

I was able to tab into the field but that didnt' solve my issues as Flash is ignoring the instance names.

This needs to be fixed.

[Guest]

This continues to be a problem for us, but there's another workaround: in your actions panel, click the 'insert target path' icon, and navigate to the instance that you need to name or re-name. You can now make the edit from within this panel, rather than on the stage.

[Guest]

Actually this workaround is only good for un-named instances. If you want to change an existing instance name, you're out of luck unless you happen to get editable instance names in your property panel again by restarting Flash. 

[tugted]

Totally get your frustration, but don't get why classes aren't an option.  I'm not talking about the [perhaps] daunting spectre of external AS files and OOP.

Just talking about clicking the 'export for actionscript' in the properties panel, naming the class, and then creating an instance of it via code.  From that point on, it is yours to control however you'd like to.

[yavstr]

These are for a client and I have to have everything on the stage (not my choice nor my prefered method of working), but it's required for this project. I think they want to be able to go and move things around and they don't have ayone that can work with the code.

It's also the only reason I use AS2.

[tugted]

Gotcha.  Sorry for making you have to explain yourself.  That is a bummer.

[yavstr]

All good. I think we're all frustrated with the bugs we're finding in CS5.

Earlier today I had my PhotoShop tool cursors all locked up and had to find a hack patch application to fix that.

[DammitRAWR]

Hey guys,

I struggled with this too.

It seems if you make a reference to it in the action script it allows you to set an instance of that name (basically. why would you need to set a name if there is no reference to it in the action script)

e.g add something like

mc_myMovieClipName.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, myFunction);

and you will be allowed to rename a new symbol of that name.
(or change your existing references to your OLD movieclip name and you will be allowed to rename it)

If there are 2 symbols on the stage and only 1 reference in the code. only 1 symbol will be allowed to be named and you will have to add...

mc_myMovieClipName2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, myFunction2);

to the code in order to name the second movieclip.

Please let me know if this helps.

[Guest]

NO word from Adobe on this? REALLY!?

We need a fix. Flash is in enough trouble as it is, with Apple effectively phasing it out. Give your current users some support. Fix this problem. And fix the ridiculous FONT display problem!

I was once sad that Flash is being phased out. Now I can't wait for everything to be HTML5.

I miss Macromedia.

[Guest]

The status of this thread is set to "Possibly Answered".   This is missleading, the problem still exists.  It appears that the issue doesn't have one fix that works for everyone.  None of the above solutions work for me, for example.  The status of this thread should be set to "Ignored by Adobe".  That would be accurate.