Building a graphic in Flash can be done in several ways.
Strokes and Fills
How your shapes appear will be based upon the colors you define (or don’t) for your stroke and fill.
Stroke (represented by the ink bottle icon) 
is an outline around a shape. To make a stroke, select the color, then the thickness. If the color is “transparent” then there is no stroke. You can always add a stroke after you create the shape by clicking on the ink well, then clicking on your shape.
Fill (represented by the paint bucket) 
is the inside color of the shape. You can use the paint bucket to change the color of your vector object, or even fill it in if it wasn’t fill previously. However, to fill, you must have a shape that is closed. i.e. You cannot have any open gaps in your shape.
You can always change either color after it has been created. Likewise, you can add a stroke to an element, or fill in a closed shape after it has been created.
Building Shapes
Flash gives you several built in, basic shapes. Ovals, Rectangles, etc.
Shapes can be combined, or merged, into more complex shapes by drawing one shape over another, and then removing the parts you don’t want. This is easier when the shapes have either a different color, or a stroke associated with it. Hint: You must not be in object drawing mode for this to work.
The Free Transform tool allows you to change the size of a shape.
Curves & Free-form Shapes
Flash allows you to build lines with the pencil to make free-form shapes.
Flash gives you a pen tool (a simplified version of Illustrator’s pen tool) to draw curves. You can change the curve by choosing sub sections and adjusting the handles. You do have control over the curve, and can go back and edit a curve if you need to.
Aligning Objects
People like symmetry. Aligning objects is one part of making items symmetrical.
Select the objects you want to align, then go to the align tool panel. (Window > Align). Click the proper align button, based upon how you want to align your objects. You an align your items in respect to one another, or to the stage.
In addition to being able to align items, you can also distribute the items selected. This means it will provide even spacing between the different objects.
Working with Graphic Shapes in Adobe Flash was originally found on Access 2 Learn
