adobe flash cs5 on demand part 31 ppsx

Set a Text Box to Device Font Select the text box you want to set to the device font with the Selection tool.. Choose a Built-In Flash Device Font Select the text box you want to set to

Set a Text Box to Device Font

Select the text box you want to set

to the device font with the

Selection tool.

Click the Anti-Alias list arrow in

the Property Inspector, and then

click Use Device Fonts.

Choose a Built-In Flash

Device Font

Select the text box you want to set

to the device font with the

Selection tool.

Click the Family list arrow in the

Property Inspector or click the

Text menu, point to Font, and then

select one of the following fonts:

◆ _sans Matches up with a

sans-serif font, such as Helvetica or

Arial

◆ _serif Matches up with a serif

font, such as Times or

Garamond

◆ _typewriter Matches up with a

typewritten-looking font, such

as Courier

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Did You Know?

You can test for missing fonts If there

is incomplete font information on your

computer, fonts may appear in the Font

list in Flash but will not embed in the

final movie To test whether a font is

complete, click the View menu, point to

Preview Mode, and then click

Anti-alias Text If the text appears jagged,

this means the font outlines are

miss-ing from the system

When you create Classic text boxes in Flash, they default to static boxes A static box is for display only and is hard-coded in the swf

One cannot be changed unless you return to the Flash development environment, edit it, and re-export the file If you need your text to be updatable from an outside source, such as a text document on a server

or if you need the user to input text for you to retrieve and process with ActionScript, you can set your text box to enable this functionality

Setting your text box to dynamic text turns it into an ActionScript object that can be given an instance name or turned into a variable that can

be populated from some other source outside of the swf This is great when you need to update content on the fly and would rather not have

to deal directly with Flash for each update If you require the user to enter a string of text, such as in a form, you can set a text box to input text This enables the user to enter information in the text box that can

be retrieved and processed

Creating Classic

Dynamic Text and

Input Text

Set a Classic Text Box to be

Dynamic

Select the Classic text box you

want to be a dynamic box with the

Selection tool.

Click the Text Type list arrow in the

Property Inspector, and then click

Dynamic Text.

Select from the following

properties:

◆ Instance Name Gives the text

box an instance name so it can

be controlled with ActionScript

◆ Embed Options Allows you to

choose which characters you

want to embed in the text

◆ Letter Spacing Changes

character position on a line

◆ Render Text As HTML.

Preserves Rich Text Formatting,

allowing you to include

hyperlinks and HTML tags

◆ Show Border Displays a

border around the text box in

the exported movie

◆ Variable Name Gives the text

box a variable name for use

with ActionScript

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Show Border, Render Text As HTML

Variable Name

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Instance Name

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Embed Options

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Line Type Letter Spacing Dynamic text boxes display in

a dashed bounding box.

Set a Classic Text Box to be an

Input Box

Select the Classic text box you

want to be an input box with the

Selection tool.

Click the Text Type list arrow in the

Property Inspector, and then click

Input Text.

Select from the following

properties:

◆ Instance Name Gives the text

box an instance name so it can

be controlled with ActionScript

◆ Embed Options Allows you to

choose which characters you

want to embed in the text

◆ Letter Spacing Changes

character position on a line

◆ Line Type Choose from Single

Line and Multi-Line with or

without Wrap, and Password

(available only for Input text)

◆ Selectability Allows or denies

the user the ability to select the

text in the exported movie

◆ Show Border Displays a

border around the text box in

the exported movie

◆ Variable Name Gives the text

box a variable name for use

with ActionScript

◆ Maximum Characters Limit the

amount of characters a user

can enter into the box

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Show Border, Render Text As HTML Embed Options

Line Type

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Instance Name

Maximum Characters

Input text boxes display in a dashed bounding box.

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Letter spacing

Did You Know?

You can create scrolling text

Shift-double-click the handle of dynamic and

input text to create text boxes that

don’t expand when you enter text on

the Stage

Using Multiple Languages in a Document

When you're working with Classic text in a Flash document, don't for-get the global community Flash supports multi-language authoring

You could create a document that displays text in Spanish and English, using a variety of methods: The text can be written within an external file and called using the #include ActionScript within a dynamic or text input box, or the text can be inserted into the docu-ment at runtime using an external XML (Extensible Markup Language) file This allows you to insert different languages that automatically appear to the visitor When you're working with multi-language Flash documents, click the Window menu, point to Other Panels, and then click Strings The Strings panel lets you streamline the process of localizing content into multiple languages, because it collects and tracks all character strings throughout the development process in a central place In the Strings panel, you can select a language and assign each text string, either a dynamic or input text box, in the document with a unique ID The Strings panel has been improved to include multi-line support in the String box and the language XML file

For Your Information

Variable Name

Flash includes a global spell-checker that is fully configurable Search the entire Flash document or isolate specific elements to search in the Spelling Setup dialog box You can choose from a variety of built-in dic-tionaries as sources including a personal dictionary you can edit

Additionally, you can choose which text characteristics to ignore, such

as words with numbers and internet addresses, as well as choose what type of alternative suggestions you want Flash to provide

Checking Spelling

Set Up Spell Checking

Click the Text menu, and then click

Spelling Setup.

Select from the following options:

◆ Document Options Specify

which elements in the Flash

document you want to spell

check You can also specify

whether you want to live-edit

the document during the Check

Spelling process

◆ Dictionaries Select a built-in

dictionary as a source At least

one dictionary must be

selected to activate Check

Spelling

◆ Personal Dictionary Specify an

option to use a dictionary

created and edited by you

Navigate to a text document on

your hard drive or edit the

default one included by clicking

the Edit Personal Dictionary

button Each new entry in the

personal dictionary must be on

a separate line

◆ Checking Options Set

word-level behaviors You can have

Internet addresses ignored, find

duplicate words, or specify the

types of suggestions you want

displayed in the Check Spelling

window

Click OK.

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Set parameters for Spell Check

Set new location for Personal Dictionary

Built-in Dictionaries

Spell Check Set locations to Allow or deny on-the-fly

editing during Spell Check

Use Spell Checking

Click the Text menu, and then click

Check Spelling.

If Flash finds suspect words, the

Check Spelling dialog box opens

Otherwise, Flash displays a

message that the Spell Check is

complete

Word not found (*element*):

This identifies the suspect word

and what type of element it was

found in parenthesis

Do one of the following:

◆ Add To Personal Click to add

the word to your personal

dictionary

◆ Ignore Click the Ignore and

Ignore All buttons to not flag

this word again in this Check

Spelling session

◆ Change Click Change or

Change All In the Change To

and Suggestions boxes, Flash

displays the closest

altern-atives to the suspect word

◆ Delete Click to delete the word

from the box that contains it

Continue until Flash produces a

message that Check Spelling is

complete or click Close to stop the

Check Spelling process before it is

completed

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Ignore all incidences

of the word Change all incidences of the word

Ignore the word

Delete the text box from the document

Change the word to one from the suggestion list or one you’ve typed in

Adds word to your personal Library

Identifies the location (the element) the misspelled word is located in

Suggestions generated from built-in and personal dictionaries

Displays Misspelled word and allows you to enter a new one to replace it

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Access Spelling setup

Did You Know?

You must access the Spelling Setup

once to activate Check Spelling You

need to activate Check Spelling to

select a dictionary Click the Text

menu, and then click Spelling Setup

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Use Find and Replace to locate specific elements in your Flash docu-ment You can specify where to look, what to look for, and what to replace it with Choose to search the entire Flash document or the cur-rently active scene Each element you search for has its own config-urable settings and options Included is a log that shows the exact locations of the found element

Using Find and

Replace

Locate Items with Find

and Replace

Click the Edit menu, and then click

Find And Replace.

TIMESAVER Press A+F

(Mac) or Ctrl+F (Win) to quickly

open the Find and Replace

window

Select where you want to search

from the Search In list arrow

menu

Select which element from the For

list arrow menu you want to

search for in Flash:

◆ Text

◆ Font

◆ Color

◆ Symbol

◆ Sound

◆ Video

◆ Bitmap

Enter and/or select the parameters

you want for your search

To find the element with the

characteristics you've entered,

click Find Next or Find All.

To update the found element with

the new characteristics, click

Replace or Replace All.

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Using Cascading Style Sheets with HTML Text

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) contain sets of

formatting rules for HTML and XML text CSS

allow you to define certain text attributes and

give them a style name This style name,

called a selector, can be applied to any

mented text Each time you need to

imple-ment the defined style, you can refer back to

the CSS This allows for more control over the

text displayed on your Web page Load styles

from an external CSS or create them within

Flash using the Style Sheet Object The

ActionScript class for CSS is described as:

TextField.StyleSheet This is a new

functional-ity and it is only available to SWFs in the

Flash 7 Player or later

Load an external CSS

In any text or HTML editor, place the

follow-ing code:

// External CSS File: styles.css

headline {

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-size: 12 px;

}

bodyText {

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-size: 10 px;

}

This code is typically found in a CSS This

example defines two styles, one for a

serif headline at 12 pixels, the other a

sans-serif body text at 10 pixels

Select the first frame of your Flash movie

Place the following code in the Actions panel:

var css_styles = new TextField.StyleSheet();

css_styles.load("styles.css");

css_styles.onLoad = function(ok) { if(ok) {

// display style names trace(this.getStyleNames());

} else { trace("Error loading CSS file.");

} } The CSS you created, “styles.css” is loaded into this object A loader is created to ensure the CSS is loaded properly Make sure the CSS and the swf are in the same directory

Create a CSS in Flash

Select the first frame of your Flash movie The following code creates a text style for head-line text and body text Place the following code in the Actions panel:

var styles = new TextField.StyleSheet();

styles.setStyle("headline", {fontFamily: 'Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif', fontSize: '12px'}

);

styles.setStyle("bodyText", {fontFamily: 'Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif', fontSize: '10px'}

);

This CSS code can now be placed in the Actions panel in Flash This example defines two styles, one for a sans-serif headline at 12 pixels, the other a sans-serif body text at 10 pixels

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