Lesson 14. Working with Text Fields
Although it's best known for animated and interactive content, Flash also provides a number of powerful capabilities for working with text. This is important because most of us learn and are informed by means of text-based content.Flash allows you dynamically create text fields, set their various properties using ActionScript, and load and style the content within them. This gives you extensive control over the text content in your movie. In this lesson, we'll explore most of Flash's text capabilities.
One of the projects you'll create in this lesson is a Flash browser. This browser loads external HTML files into a text field and uses Cascading Style Sheets to format and style the text within the field.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARNIn this lesson, you will:Create text fields dynamicallyFormat text using TextFormat objectsUse the MenuBar component to add a menu to an applicationUse Cascading Style Sheets to easily format text within a text fieldAPPROXIMATE TIMEThis lesson takes approximately two hours to complete.LESSON filesMedia Files:Lesson14/Media/homeLesson14/Media/scienceLesson14/Media/header_home.jpgLesson14/Media/header_science.jpgLesson14/Media/morning.swfLesson14/Media/galaxy.swfLesson14/Media/external.cssStarting Files:Lesson14/Assets/flashWriter1.flaLesson14/Assets/flashBrowser1.flaCompleted Projects:flashWriter3.flaflashBrowser3.fla
• Table of ContentsMacromedia® Flash MX 2004 ActionScript: Training from the SourceBy
Derek Franklin, Jobe Makar Publisher: Peachpit PressPub Date: November 19, 2003ISBN: 0-321-21343-2Pages: 636
Sure, you can use Flash MX 2004 without being a master programmer, but as any Flash developer worth his or her salt will tell you, you''''re not tapping all of its power unless you''''re taking advantage of its scripting language "ActionScript 2.0" which offers a more robust programming model and better object-oriented programming support than ever before. Here to take the fear factor out of learning it are Flash veterans and best-selling authors Derek Franklin and Jobe Makar, who demonstrate that scripting is an instinctual process you already know by translating real-life activities into ActionScript scripts. In these pages, you''''ll find methodologies and techniques for building over 40 real-life Flash ActionScript projects, including sample games, applications, Web sites, and more. New in this edition are coverage of ActionScript 2.0, Web services, Components, Printing, Video, and more. On the companion CD, you''''ll find all the project files and images you need to complete each project.