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Flash
Basics - Type and Text
Having
text in your Flash movie is a good thing to have. You
let users have the chance to read a little about yourself,
or about your company. Having a Flash web site without
any text would be kind of boring. You can transform
text into symbols and give them effects to make it look
more attractive, but you can also make it look excellent
using a little Action Script. In this section, we'll
learn how to create normal, input and dynamic text,
as well as how to modify your text.
Inserting
Basic Text:
Select the text tool, and click anywhere on the stage.
You will notice a small text box, with a blinking line
it it, waiting for you to type. Type in a line of text,
and you will notice that your line will always remain
one line. This is due to this text box NOT being word
wrapped. You can type forever and it will always be
one line until you hit "Enter" to start on
a new line. If you want to set a specific width, select
the text tool once again, and this time, instead of
just clicking, click and drag a text box of your size
onto the stage. You can now type, and as soon as you
get to the end of your text box, it will automatically
start a new line.
Creating
Input boxes:
When you create input boxes, this will allow users to
type in the box in the movie. You can use this to create
Flash forms, or just to play around with. Open you text
panel "Window> Panels> Text" and go
to the Text Options tab. Select Input Text from the
drop down menu, and you can now insert a text box on
your movie. Click and drag a box, then go text it out
by hitting CTRL+ENTER on your keyboard. You can type
text into it from the movie you just created.
Creating
Dynamic Text:
Dynamic text is the most important tool you can use
regarding text. This allows you to add any text you
want, but you need to make the text box a variable and
have it load from some Action Script. From the text
panel, choose Dynamic Text from the Text Options tab.
(figure 2.7) Then select multiline
from the second drop down menu. This is the hard part,
making it a variable and adding text to it.
(figure 2.7)
Now
you see how this should look from the Text Panel, call
it text, and hit Enter. Now, go to frame 1 on your stage,
and right click on frame 1. Go to Action, and select
the Actions category from the menu. Choose "Set
Variable" from the list, and in the "Variable"
field, type in text, then in the "value" field,
enter some lines of text. Once this is done, test your
movie by hitting CTRL+ENTER, and you should see some
text on the stage area in your movie.
Modifying
text:
If you want to modify your text, there are a few different
ways of doing it. You can change it's color, or change
it's alignment, change it's size or make it Bold. Any
text modifications are made through the Character panel.
Go to Window> Panels> Characters. Now select your
text box, and from the Character's panel, change the
text to the color green, it's size to 20 and make it
Italic. Now you have text the way you want it to look.
You can do this until you have the results you want
and then deselect your text box. Figure 2.8 is what
the Character Panel looks like.
(Figure 2.8)
Now
you know how to add text to your document, please proceed
to the Buttons section.
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