RAW Graphics in Sprite or Graphic Symbol?

[IneedH3lp]

I noticed in a lot of flash projects that sprites (single-frame movie clips) contain graphic symbols of simple shapes. And another thing I also noticed is that bitmap files are broken apart and transformed into graphic symbols before being used in sprites.

Is there any reason to embed in graphic symbols vector graphics and bmp files that have been broken apart before using them in single-frame movie clips?

[[afz]snickelfitz]

AFAIK, Graphics Symbol is mainly used in timeline motion tweens, and for static objects on the stage that require additional properties not available for a vector graphic or bitmap, such as the property panel color effects.

Fundamentally, Symbols are akin to CSS, in that they represent an object with specific properties.
Even if you have hundreds of instances of the Symbol on the stage, making changes to the base Symbol in the Library will propagate to every instance of that symbol in the project. Exactly like changing the font size in a CSS file.
Also, Flash Player only has to download the base symbol from the Library; Instances of the symbol are just copies of it.

Vector objects and textfields don't work this way; each is a unique object that has to be edited and downloaded separately.