Specifications

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17
CHAPTER 17
Text: Add Text to a
Document
Macromedia Flash Basic 8 and Macromedia Flash Professional 8 provide a
variety of text features and options. This lesson introduces you to the three
primary types of text you can add to a document. You can add static text for
titles, labels, or other text content you want to appear in a document. You
can also use input text options to allow viewers to interact with your Flash
application—for example, to enter their name or other information in a
form. The third type of text is dynamic text. You use dynamic text fields to
display text that changes based on criteria you specify. For example, you
might use a dynamic text field to add values stored in other text fields, such
as the sum of two numbers. This tutorial shows you how to add text and
text fields to a Flash document.
After taking this lesson, be sure to explore additional text options described
in “Working with Text” in Using Flash.
You can print this tutorial by downloading a PDF version of it from the
Macromedia Flash Documentation page at www.macromedia.com/go/
fl_documentation.
In this tutorial, you will complete the following tasks:
Set up your workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Create an expanding-width text block. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Create a fixed-width text block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Edit text and change font attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Select device fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Add an input text field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Copy a text field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Assign instance names to text fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205