| MovieClip._xscale Property | Flash 4 |
| width of a clip or movie, as a percentage | read/write |
The floating-point _xscale property specifies the width of mc, relative to its original width, expressed as a percentage. If mc is an instance, its original width is the width of the instance's symbol in the Library. If mc is a main movie, its original width is the width of the movie at authoring time.
When the current width of mc is the same as its original width, _xscale is 100. An _xscale of 200 doubles mc's width relative to its original width. An _xscale of 50 halves mc's width relative to its original width.
The _xscale property scales a clip proportionately on the right and left sides of its registration point. To size a clip from one side only, place all of the clip's content on one side of the registration point in the clip's symbol (this is a useful technique for creating horizontal preloader bars). When a clip's _xscale is set to a negative value, the clip is flipped horizontally, as if across a vertical mirror running through its registration point (i.e., it becomes a mirror image of itself), after which the negative value is treated as a positive. To flip a clip horizontally without resizing it, set the clip's _xscale to -_xscale.
// Double the width of ball_mc (the height remains unchanged) ball_mc._xscale *= 2; // Create a mirror image of ball_mc ball_mc._xscale = -ball_mc._xscale;