The stage is the large blank canvas that appears immediately after opening a project. Above it, by default, is the time line as well as a few other controls. The stage represents what will be displayed when the SWF is exported. Objects that appear on the background (the white section by default) will be visible, while objects that are beside it are usually masked.

When using time based animation, flash developers rely heavily on the stage, making sure each frame appears on the stage as it should in the SWF. When a developer relies more heavily on ActionScript the stage becomes less accurate since changes in ActionScript are only represented when the SWF is exported.

The top of the stage has several buttons. From left to right, there is a toggle for the timeline, a breadcrumb that will grow if you edit Movie Clips or buttons on the stage, a workspace button that will change your window arrangement, a scene button, an edit object button, and a percentage that controls the level of zoom.