Specifications
Check syntax and test your application 233
Check syntax and test your 
application
As you learned earlier in this lesson, ActionScript depends on correct 
syntax to execute properly. Flash offers a variety of ways for you to test 
your syntax. 
1. To check the syntax, do one of the following:
■ Click the pop-up menu in the upper-right corner of the Actions 
panel title bar and select Check Syntax.
■ Click Check Syntax along the top of the Actions panel.
If the syntax is correct, a message appears stating that the script 
contains no errors.
If the syntax is incorrect, a message appears stating the script contains 
errors; the Output panel opens and displays information about 
the error. 
2. Click OK to close the syntax message. 
3. After you’ve verified that your ActionScript does not contain syntax 
errors, save the document and select Control > Test Movie.
When the SWF file appears, the animation should not appear in the 
Global Positioning System screen, because its initial 
visible property 
is set to 
false. When you click and release the top green button, you 
call the function that sets the movie clip’s 
visible property to true. 
Does the animation play then? Finally, click the red Off button to see if 
the 
visible property for the animation is again false.
You can test your SWF content throughout authoring to confirm that 
it plays as expected.










