Flash Basics > Using the Timeline
Using the TimelineThe Timeline organizes and controls a movie's content over time in layers and frames. The major components of the Timeline are layers, frames, and the playhead.
Layers in a movie are listed in a column on the left side of the Timeline. Frames contained in each layer appear in a row to the right of the layer name. The Timeline header at the top of the Timeline indicates frame numbers. The playhead indicates the current frame displayed on the Stage.
The Timeline status display at the bottom of the Timeline indicates the current frame number, the current frame rate, and the elapsed time to the current frame.
Note: When an animation is played, the actual frame rate is displayed; this may differ from the movie frame rate if the computer can't display the animation quickly enough.
You can change the way frames are displayed, and display thumbnails of frame content in the Timeline. The Timeline shows where there is animation in a movie, including frame-by-frame animation, tweened animation, and motion paths. For more information on animation, see Creating animation overview.
Controls in the layers section of the Timeline let you hide or show, lock, unlock, or display layer contents as outlines. See Editing layers.
You can insert, delete, select and move frames in the Timeline. You can also drag frames to a new location on the same layer or a different layer. See Working with frames in the Timeline.