From the course: Flash Professional CS5 Essential Training

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Creating guide layers

Creating guide layers

Using guide layers in Flash can save you a lot on file size, particularly when you're using bitmap images as a Guide. In Flash, a guide layer is basically implied in its name. For example, I have this bitmap image on the Stage, which I'll explain how to import into Flash in another movie. Let's say I'm tracing the bitmap image to create vector artwork. So I have this flower that I've created by using the Pen tool in tracing that bitmap image. So really what I want is this vector flower that I created, but I have a guide layer in the background that I used as a guide. So when I publish this content, if I have the Guide layer as a regular layer in Flash. For one, that will show in the Flash Player. Two, that will greatly increase the file size of my SWF file that I publish. So if I convert this layer to a Guide layer, the layer will be thrown out when the file is published. I won't get the file size bloating that I would normally have, and the layer will be hidden. So let's take a look…

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