Chapter 7—Flash

How do you change or read the contents of a text box?

A text box's contents are determined by its text property, which accepts String values. To change or access the contents of a text box, you must first give the text box an instance name in the Properties inspector. Then, in ActionScript, you can reference the contents of the text box with its instance name, followed by a dot, followed by the keyword text.

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Choose TLF Text when you want to use more sophisticated controls for text formatting such as multiple columns or wrap-around text. Too, TLF is a more recent and more powerful text engine.

What Devise Fonts?

Devise fonts are an alternative embedding fonts. These are three generic options grouped at the top of the Character Family pull-down menu. The three devise fonts are SEFIF, SAN-SERIF, and TYPEWRITER. These options find fonts used on the computer that try to resemble the specific devise font. You don't have to worry about embedding fonts with these and they will show up in the authoring environment..

When do you need to embed fonts, and how do you do it?

Fonts should be embedded for any text that may be edited or changed at runtime, which means any Editable text box or any text box whose contents dynamically changes, except for text that uses device fonts. Choose Text > Font Embedding or click the Embed button in the Properties inspector to display the Font Embedding dialog box. In the Font Embedding dialog box, you can choose which font, style, and range of characters to embed in your Flash movie.

Embedding fonts

For any text that may be edited during runtime, you should embed the fonts. Since the user can enter any kind of text in Editable text boxes, you need to include those potential characters in the final SWF to ensure that text appears as you expect it.

What are Embedding Fonts?

For text to be edited during runtime, you should embed the fonts. Since any kind of text can be entered in editable text boxes, you need to include those potential characters in the final SWF to ensure that text appears as you expect it with the same font choosiness the Properties inspector.

TLF text

Stands for Text Layout Framework,

TLF text

TLF Text depends on a specific external ActionScript library to function properly. When you test a movie or publish a movie that contains TLF Text, an additional Text Layout SWZ file ( ) is created next to your SWF file. The SWZ file is the external ActionScript library that supports TLF Text.

What is the extra SWZ file that is required for TLF Text?

The SWZ file is an external ActionScript library that contains information that supports TLF Text. If your Flash movie contains TLF Text, it needs the SWZ file to function properly. Flash automatically generates the additional file, which should always accompany your SWF file.

Embedding fonts dramatically increases the size of your final SWF, so exercise caution when doing so, and limit the number of fonts and characters when possible.

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When you use device fonts, you don't have to worry about embedding fonts, and you can be assured that your viewer sees text that is similar to the text you see in the authoring environment.

How do you make text wrap around objects in a layout?

You can wrap text around objects such as photos or graphic elements in a layout by: creating a series of linked text boxes, sometimes called threaded text containers. The links establish how overflow text from one text box flows into the next text box. Create the first text box, and then click on the small white box in its lower-right corner. After the mouse cursor changes to a text box icon, click and drag to add the next linked text box.

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You should always keep the SWZ file with your SWF file so the TLF Text features work properly when you test your movies locally. You should also have the SWZ file accompany your SWF file when you upload it to your Web server, just to be safe.

What is the difference between Read Only, Selectable, and Editable TLF Text?

• Read Only text is for display purposes and doesn't allow the user to select or edit the text. • Selectable text allows the user to select and copy text. • Editable text allows the user to select, copy, delete, and edit the text. The contents of all three kinds of text can be changed dynamically with ActionScript.

Chapter 7—

• Understand the difference between Classic and TLF Text • Add and edit text on the Stage • Apply style and formatting options to text • Create text with multiple columns • Create text that wraps around objects • Add hyperlinks to text • Use editable text for user input • Dynamically change text content • Embed fonts and understand device fonts • Load external text