Macromedia Studio 8 [Electronic resources] : Training from the Source نسخه متنی

Dynamically Populating the Text Area

Now that you've created the text area and all the button hotspots, you can write the script that makes the map functional.

upperHell_btn.onRelease = function() {
upperInfo_txt.text="<b>Upper Hell</b><br><br>This map represents the upper
reaches of Hell, where Dante begins his travels.<br><br>The region is bounded by
the gates of Hell at the top and the walls of Dis at the bottom, the city that
contains those damned for the gravest of sins.<br><br>Dante begins in Limbo, the
first circle, where the Virtuous Pagans reside with neither punishment nor hope
of ever seeing God.";
};

If you want to copy and paste this text string, it's listed under the heading Upper Hell in script_infern228.txt.

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This piece of code changes the Dynamic Text field to show this string of text when the user clicks the Upper Hell label. The original contents of the dynamic text field disappear.

The text string dutifully changes, which is pretty cool. What is even cooler is that Flash automatically adds a scrollbar to accommodate the text that doesn't fit in the text area.

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Although this step is somewhat repetitive, bear in mind that you're adding quite a bit of functionality to the movie.

As you work through this step, you'll probably notice that if you read one description and scroll down to the bottom, and then click another label, the description remains scrolled to the bottom. It would be more attractive, not to mention usable, if the text area returned to the top every time the user clicked one of the labels.

You can achieve this behavior by adding a simple line of ActionScript to each of the six button functions.

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upperInfo_txt.vPosition = 0;

The property vPosition is built into the TextArea object. It defines the vertical position of the text. By setting it to 0, you ensure that the first line of text appears at the top of the text area.

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Try clicking each of the labels and scrolling the text area down to the bottom for each one. Regardless of the current position of the scrollbar, clicking one of the labels should immediately show that label's text, and it should start at the top.