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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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At some point, you’ll want to add text to your design. This may be in the form of information, design, or as an interactive element (such as providing the total in a Flash shopping cart). No matter why you’re using the text, you need to understand exactly what you can and can’t do with it in Flash before you start.

Using Text in Flash vs. HTML

HTML is the most popular presentation language in the world. Millions of new Web pages are created with it each and every day. What’s troublesome about HTML, however, is its inherent lack of control for presenting text. Yes, you have Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which is a very smooth way to present the text’s structure, but what you lack is control over its visible style, or its font.

You can go to Web sites, such as FontFace.com, to download and purchase fonts like the ones below, but the person looking at the Web page must have the font installed to view it as it was meant to be viewed. When you design with HTML you’re essentially limited to using the handful of default fonts installed on all computers.

Figure 1

If you’re looking to support fonts in a Web page, your best bet is to use Flash, which preserves text style by embedding the font’s outline inside the Flash movie. This gives you much greater control over how your text looks on a Web page and enables you to use any font you like.

The following screen shot shows an obscure font called Roughwork displayed in a Flash movie on a Web page. The font will look the same on any Web browser running the Flash Player.

Figure 2

Working With Text in Flash

The Flash Player manages fonts in several ways:

Static
Input
Dynamic
ActionScript

With the exception of ActionScript, you use the Text tool to work with text on the Stage. In this section of the guide, I’ll show you how to work with Static text in Flash. I’ll explain Input and Dynamic text in future installments of this reference guide.

In order to add text to the Stage, you must select the Text Tool from the Tool Box.

Figure 3

Select the Text tool. The cursor will change to a cross with a letter "A" next to it to indicate that the Text Tool has been selected. Now, you can select any point on the Stage and begin typing.

The text you type on the Stage defaults to the last text settings you selected. If this is the first time you’re using Flash, then the text will default to Static. As you type, you’ll see a blue outline around the text block you’re working on. The blue outline is a visual tool you can use to identify the text.

Figure 4

In the image above, a simple text block has been added to the Stage and the Property Inspector has changed to show all of the settings you can use to modify text. In the image below, you can see all of the settings that are available to you for editing text in more detail:

Figure 5

Starting from the far left, you’ll see that the icon for the Properties Inspector has changed to a capital A to indicate that you’re working with text. You’ll also see that you can use the Property Inspector to change the text field’s width, height, and X and Y positions.

You can modify the text itself with the familiar Font Type, Size, Color, Alignment, Bold, Italics, and Letter Spacing controls. You can also use the Anti-Alias feature to make text more readable. The lower half of the Text Properties Inspector allows you to add a URL link to a text block.

Overall, Flash gives you a great deal of freedom when working with text. If you’re used to the level of control offered by many page layout tools, such as Quark, then you’ll make the transition to Flash easily.

Next Steps

Experiment with the Static text settings until you’re comfortable working with the Text Tool in Flash. Next, I’ll show you how to use the Text tool to create dynamic text.

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