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Flash Reference Guide

Aug 22, 2003

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The previous section of the guide introduced Input text. In this section of the guide, you’ll focus on Dynamic text, why you should use it, and how to program it with ActionScript.

Dynamic text is similar to Input text, in fact, their Properties are almost identical. Their characteristics, however, are very different. With Static text, you type onto the screen and the information doesn’t change. With Input text, you create a place on the screen where a user can type in text. With Dynamic text, you create a place on the screen where the text is changed programmatically.

By its nature, Dynamic text requires the use of some ActionScript. This section of the guide introduces only a few basic scripts you can use to control text, as there are too many to cover in one guide.

Treating Text Like A Movie Clip

With Flash 6, Macromedia made a bold move by simplifying the way users work with Dynamic text, treating Dynamic text as any other object. Starting with Flash 6, designers could control Dynamic text in the same way that they control a Movie Clip, for example. Here’s how it works.

To start, you must create a Dynamic text field and place it on the Stage. Change to Dynamic text if it has not been selected from the Properties Inspector.

Figure 1

You’ll see a field called <Instance Name> in light gray lettering. Here, you’ll add a name that you can later reference through ActionScript. In this example, we’ll name the Dynamic text: myDynamicText_txt

Figure 2

A Word on Naming Objects

All objects that are given names, such as Text and Movie Clips, must adhere to a few simple rules. First, there can be no spaces in a name. Creating a name such as "my text" will not work, while "mytext" will. Instead of spaces, you can use special characters, such as a hyphen, to separate names. Special characters are used in this name: my_dynamic-text.

For clarity, I use a naming convention called "camel" where all the words of a name are run together, but the first letter of each word is capitalized. In this case, "my dynamic text" becomes "myDynamicText."

Some people, however, choose to add a prefix or suffix to help define the object type that’s being named. A dynamic text field, for example, would be named "myDynamicText_txt," where the "_txt" refers to the object type of text.

Adding ActionScript

You can use ActionScript to dynamically change the values placed in the Dynamic text field. This is important for games, eCommerce solutions, or any application you create where values change and are not static.

The ActionScript uses the name you gave the Dynamic text object as a way to identify the object and then apply changes. It’s good practice to place your ActionScript in a layer called "scripts" in the Timeline.

Figure 3

You’ll need to have the Actions Panel open. The Actions Panel is where you add all of your ActionScript programming.

Select frame one of the Scripts layer and add the following ActionScript to the Actions Panel:

myDynamicText_txt.text = "this is dynamic text";

There are a few things going on in this script. The first is that you’re changing a property of the Dynamic text area named myDynamicText_txt. That property is the "text" property, which controls what you see onscreen. The final section of the ActionScript defines what the new value should be.

You won’t see any immediate change on the Stage. You’ll need to test the movie to view the change. Press F12 to test the movie and see your Dynamic text. It will look something like this:

Figure 4

You can, of course, do more with Dynamic text than I’ve covered in this section of the guide. You’ll find that I use Dynamic text a lot in my demos. Many of the ActionScript guides have samples of ActionScript interacting with Dynamic text.

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