Creating text



    About text fields

    You can create three types of text fields: static, dynamic, and input. All text fields support Unicode.

    • Static text fields display text that doesn’t change characters dynamically.

    • Dynamic text fields display dynamically updating text, such as stock quotes or weather reports.

    • Input text fields allow users to enter text in forms or surveys.

      You can create horizontal text (with a left-to-right flow) or static vertical text (with either a right-to-left or left-to-right flow).

      When creating static text, you can place text on a single line that expands as you type, or in a fixed-width field (for horizontal text) or fixed-height field (for vertical text) that expands and wraps words automatically. When creating dynamic or input text, you can place text on a single line, or create a text field with a fixed width and height.

      Flash displays a handle on the corner of a text field to identify the type of text field:

    • For static horizontal text that extends, a round handle appears at the upper-right corner of the text field.

      A round handle at the upper-right corner of the text field.

    • For static horizontal text that has a fixed width, a square handle appears at the upper-right corner of the text field.

      A square handle appears at the upper-right corner of the text field.

    • For static vertical text that has right-to-left flow and extends, a round handle appears at the lower-left corner of the text field.

      A round handle appears at the lower-left corner of the text field.

    • For static vertical text that has right-to-left flow and a fixed height, a square handle appears at the lower-left corner of the text field.

      A square handle appears at the lower-left corner of the text field.

    • For static vertical text that has left-to-right flow and extends, a round handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.

      A round handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.

    • For static vertical text that has left-to-right flow and a fixed height, a square handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.

      A square handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field

    • For dynamic or input text fields that extend, a round handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.

      A round handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field

    • For dynamic or input text that has a defined height and width, a square handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.

      A square handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.

    • For dynamic scrollable text fields, the round or square handle becomes solid black instead of hollow.

      The round or square handle becomes solid black instead of hollow

      Shift-double-click the handle of dynamic and input text fields to create text fields that don’t expand when you enter text on the Stage. This allows you to create a text field of a fixed size and fill it with more text than it can display to create scrolling text.

      After you use the Text tool to create a text field, use the Property inspector to specify the type of text field, and to set values that control how the text field and its contents appear in the SWF file.

    Create and edit text fields

    Text is horizontal by default. However, static text can also be aligned vertically.

    You can use most common word-processing techniques to edit text in Flash. Use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands to move text in a Flash file as well as between Flash and other applications.

    Add text to the Stage

    1. Select the Text tool .
    2. In the Property inspector (Window > Properties), select a text type from the pop‑up menu to specify the type of text field:
      Dynamic Text
      Creates a field that displays dynamically updating text.

      Input Text
      Creates a field in which users can enter text.

      Static Text
      Creates a field that cannot update dynamically.

    3. For static text only: In the Property inspector, click Change Orientation Of Text  and select a direction for text orientation and flow. (Horizontal is the default setting.)
    4. On the Stage, do one of the following:

      • To create a text field that displays text in a single line, click where you want the text to start.

      • To create a text field with a fixed width (for horizontal text) or fixed height (for vertical text), position the pointer where you want the text to start and drag to the desired width or height.

      Note: If you create a text field that extends past the edge of the Stage as you type, the text isn’t lost. To make the handle accessible again, add line breaks, move the text field, or select View > Pasteboard.
    5. Select text attributes in the Property inspector.

    Change the size of a text field

     Drag the text field’s resize handle.

    When text is selected, a blue bounding box lets you resize the text field by dragging one of its handles. Static text fields have four handles that let you resize the text field horizontally. Dynamic text fields have eight handles that let you resize the text field vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

    Switch a text field between fixed-width (or fixed-height) and extending

     Double-click a resize handle.

    Select characters in a text field

    1. Select the Text tool .
    2. Do one of the following:

      • Drag to select characters.

      • Double-click to select a word.

      • Click to specify the beginning of the selection, and Shift-click to specify the end of the selection.

      • Press Control+A (Windows) or Command+A (Macintosh) to select all the text in the field.

    Select text fields

     Using the Selection tool , click a text field. Shift-click to select multiple text fields.

    Set dynamic and input text options

    1. Click in an existing dynamic text field.
    2. In the Property inspector, make sure Dynamic or Input is displayed in the pop‑up menu.
    3. Enter an instance name for the text field.
    4. Specify the height, width, and location of text.
    5. Select the font and style.
    6. In the Paragraph section of the Property inspector, specify one of the following options from the Behavior menu:
      Single line
      Displays the text as one line.

      Multiline
      Displays the text in multiple lines.

      Multiline No Wrap
      Displays text in multiple lines that break only if the last character is a breaking character, such as Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh).

    7. To enable users to select dynamic text, click Selectable . Deselect this option to prevent users from selecting dynamic text.
    8. To preserve rich text formatting (such as fonts and hyperlinks) with the appropriate HTML tags, click Render Text As HTML .
    9. To display a black border and white background for the text field, click Show Border Around Text .
    10. (Optional) In the Var box, enter the variable name for the text field. (Use this option only when authoring for Macromedia Flash Player 5 from Adobe or earlier.)

      Beginning with Macromedia Flash MX (version 6), you assign the text field an instance name using the Property inspector. Although you can use the variable name method with dynamic text fields for backwards compatibility to Macromedia Flash 5 and earlier versions, Adobe doesn't recommend this, because you can't control other text field properties, or apply style sheet settings.

    11. Click Character Embedding for embedded font outline options:
      Don’t embed
      Specifies that no fonts be embedded.

      Auto fill
      Click Auto Fill to embed all of the characters from the selected text field.

    Set preferences for vertical text

    1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Flash > Preferences (Macintosh) and click the Text category in the Preferences dialog box.
    2. Under Vertical Text, set any of these options:
      Default Text Orientation
      Automatically gives new text fields vertical orientation.

      Right to Left Text Flow
      Makes lines of vertical text fill the page from right to left.

      No Kerning
      Prevents kerning from being applied to vertical text. (Kerning remains enabled for horizontal text.)

    Check spelling

    You can check spelling in text throughout your Flash document. You can also customize the spell checker.

    Use the spell checker

    1. Select Text > Check Spelling to view the Check Spelling dialog box.

      The box in the upper-left corner identifies words not found in the selected dictionaries, and also identifies the type of element that contains the text (such as a text field or frame label).

    2. Do one of the following:

      • Click Add To Personal to add the word to your personal dictionary.

      • Click Ignore to leave the word unchanged. Click Ignore All to leave all occurrences of the word in the document unchanged.

      • Enter a word in the Change To box or select a word from the Suggestions scroll list. Then click Change to change the word or click Change All to change all occurrences of the word in the document.

      • Click Delete to delete the word from the document.

    3. To end the spelling check, do one of the following:

      • Click Close to end spelling before Flash reaches the end of the document.

      • Continue checking spelling until you see a notification that Flash has reached the end of the document, then click No to end spelling checking. (Click Yes to continue the spelling check at the beginning of the document.)

    Customize the spelling checker

    1. Do one of the following:

      • Select Text > Spelling Setup. (Use this option if you have not used the Check Spelling feature before.)

      • In the Check Spelling dialog box (Text > Check Spelling), click Setup.

    2. Set any of the following options:
      Document Options
      Use these options to specify which elements are to be checked.

      Dictionaries
      Lists the built-in dictionaries. You must select at least one dictionary to enable spelling checking.

      Personal Dictionary
      Enter a path or click the folder icon and browse to a document to use as a personal dictionary. (You can modify this dictionary.)

      Edit Personal Dictionary
      Adds words and phrases to your personal dictionary. In the Personal Dictionary dialog box, enter each new item on a separate line in the text field.

      Checking Options
      Use these options to control how Flash handles specific types of words and characters when checking spelling.

    Find and replace text

    1. Select Edit > Find and Replace.
    2. Select Text from the For pop‑up menu.
    3. In the Text box, enter the text to find.
    4. In the Replace With Text box, enter the text to replace the existing text.
    5. Select options for searching text:
      Whole Word
      Searches for the specified text string as a whole word only, bounded on both sides by spaces, quotes, or similar markers. When Whole Word is deselected, the specified text can be searched as part of a larger word. For example, when Whole Word is deselected, a search for place will yield the words replace, placement, and so on.

      Match Case
      Searches for text that exactly matches the case (uppercase or lowercase character formatting) of the specified text when finding and replacing.

      Regular Expressions
      Allows the use of regular expressions to perform complex searches in text fields and ActionScript. For information about using regular expressions, see these resources:

      • Introduction to Regular Expressions This article describes using regular expressions in the Find and Replace dialog box. It is written about Dreamweaver, but applies equally to Flash.

      • Using regular expressions in Programming Actionscript 3.0. This chapter describes using regular expressions to perform searches using ActionScript 3.0.

      Text Field Contents
      Searches the contents of a text field.

      Frames/Layers/Parameters
      Searches frame labels, layer names, scene names, and component parameters.

      Strings in ActionScript
      Searches strings (text between quotation marks) in ActionScript in the document or scene (external ActionScript files are not searched).

      ActionScript
      Searches all ActionScript, including code and strings.

    6. To select the next occurrence of the specified text on the Stage and edit it in place, select Live Edit.
      Note: Only the next occurrence is selected for live editing, even if you select Find All in step 7.
    7. To find text, do one of the following:

      • To find the next occurrence of the specified text, click Find Next.

      • To find all occurrences of the specified text, click Find All.

    8. To replace text, do one of the following:

      • To replace the currently selected occurrence of the specified text, click Replace.

      • To replace all occurrences of the specified text, click Replace All.

    Embed and share fonts

    You can embed a font in your SWF file so that the font does not need to be present on the devices the SWF file eventually plays back on. To embed a font, create a font library item.

    Creating a font library item also allows you to use the font as a shared library item for sharing among multiple SWF files. You must also assign the font item a linkage identifier string and a URL where the document that contains the font symbol will be posted. In this way, you can link to the font and use it in a Flash application. When you use font symbols for dynamic or input text, embed the font outline information.

    After a font symbol in a Flash document has an assigned identifier string and URL, use the font symbol in another Flash document by copying the font symbol into the destination FLA file.

    Create a font library item

    1. Open the library to add a font symbol to.
    2. Select New Font from the Library Panel menu.
    3. Enter a name for the font item in the Name text field.
    4. Select a font family from the Font menu or enter the name of a font in the Font text field.
    5. (Optional) Select a font style from the Style menu.

      If the selected font does not include a bold or italic style, you can select the Faux Bold or Faux Italic checkboxes. Faux Bold and Faux Italic styles are added to the Regular style by the operating system. The faux styles may not look as good as fonts that include a true bold or italic style.

    6. (Optional) To embed the font information as bitmap data rather than vector outline data, select the Bitmap Text option, and enter a font size in the Size text field. (Bitmap fonts cannot use anti-aliasing. You must choose Bitmap as the anti-aliasing option in the Property inspector for text that uses this font.)
      Note: The Size setting applies only when you use the Bitmap Text option.

    Assign an identifier string to a font library item

    1. Select the font item in the Library panel.
    2. Select Properties from the Library Panel menu.
    3. Under Linkage, select Export for Runtime Sharing.
    4. In the Identifier text field, enter a string to identify the font item.
    5. In the URL text field, enter the URL of the SWF file that contains the font item.

    Scrolling text

    There are several ways to create scrolling text in Flash:

    • Make dynamic or input text fields scrollable by using menu commands or the text field handle. This does not add a scrollbar to the text field, but instead allows the user to scroll the text with the arrow keys (for text fields also set to Selectable) or the mouse wheel. The user must first click the text field to give it focus.

    • Add an ActionScript 3.0 UIScrollbar component to a text field to make it scroll. For more information, see “Use the UIScrollBar component” in Using ActionScript 3.0 Components.

    • In ActionScript 3.0, use the scrollH and scrollV properties of the TextField class.

    • Add an ActionScript 2.0 ScrollBar component to a text field to make it scroll. For more information, see “UIScrollBar Component” in the ActionScript 2.0 Components Language Reference.

    • In ActionScript 2.0, use the TextField object’s scroll and maxscroll properties to control vertical scrolling and the hscroll and maxhscroll properties to control horizontal scrolling in a text field. See Example: Creating scrolling text in Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash.

    Make dynamic text scrollable

     Do one of the following:

    • Shift-double-click the lower-right handle on the dynamic text field. The handle will turn from an unfilled square (non-scrollable) to a filled square (scrollable).

    • Using the Selection tool , select the dynamic text field and then select Text > Scrollable.

    • Select the dynamic text field with the Selection tool. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the dynamic text field and select Scrollable from the context menu.

    Transforming text

    You can create text effects by transforming text fields. For example, you can rotate, skew, flip, and scale text fields. (When you scale a text field as an object, the Property inspector does not reflect increases or decreases in point size.) The text in a transformed text field can still be edited, although severe transformations may make it difficult to read.

    You can also animate text by using Timeline effects. For example, you can make text bounce, fade in or out, or explode.

    Break text apart

    You can break apart text to place each character in a separate text field. Then you can quickly distribute the text fields to separate layers and animate each field. However, you cannot break apart text in scrollable text fields.

    You can also convert the text to its component lines and fills to reshape, erase, and otherwise manipulate it as a graphic. As with any other shape, you can individually group these converted characters, or change them to symbols and animate them. After you convert text to graphic lines and fills, you can no longer edit the text.

    Note: The Break Apart command applies only to outline fonts such as TrueType fonts. Bitmap fonts disappear from the screen when you break them apart. PostScript fonts can be broken apart only on Macintosh systems.
    1. Using the Selection tool , click a text field.
    2. Select Modify > Break Apart.

      Each character in the selected text is placed in a separate text field. The text remains in the same position on the Stage.

    3. Select Modify > Break Apart again to convert the characters to shapes on the Stage.

    Link horizontal text to a URL

    1. Select text or a text field:

      • Use the Text tool  to select text in a text field.

      • To link all the text in a text field, use the Selection tool  to select a text field.

    2. In the Link text field in the Options section of the Property inspector (Window > Properties), enter the URL to which you want to link the text field.
    Note: To create a link to an e-mail address, use the mailto: URL. For example, enter mailto:adamsmith@example.com.

    Substituting missing fonts

    If you work with a document that contains fonts that aren’t installed on your system, Flash uses the fonts available on your system. You can select which fonts are substituted for the missing fonts, or you can let Flash substitute missing fonts with the Flash System Default Font.

    When a font is substituted, the text is displayed on your system using the substitute font, but the missing font information is saved with the document. If the document is reopened on a system that includes the missing font, the text is displayed in that font.

    When you work with a document that includes missing fonts, the missing fonts appear in the font list in the Property inspector. When you select substitute fonts, the substitute fonts names also appear, enclosed in parentheses to identify them as substitute fonts.

    If you apply formatting (such as font size or kerning) to the substitute font, check the formatting when the text is displayed in the missing font, because it may not look as expected.

    If you install a previously missing font on your system and restart Flash, the font is displayed in documents that use the font, and the font is removed from the Missing Fonts dialog box.

    If you see an alert box indicating missing fonts in a document, you can select substitute fonts in the Font Mapping dialog box.

    Specify font substitution

    1. When the Missing Fonts alert appears, do one of the following:

      • Click Select Substitute Fonts to select substitute fonts from fonts installed on your system and proceed to step 2.

      • Click Use Default to use the Flash System Default Font to substitute all missing fonts and to dismiss the Missing Fonts alert. You have finished specifying font substitution.

    2. In the Font Mapping dialog box, click a font in the Missing Fonts column to select it. Shift‑click to select multiple missing fonts to map them all to the same substitute font.

      The default substitute fonts are displayed in the Mapped To column, until you select substitute fonts.

    3. Select a font from the Substitute Font pop‑up menu.
    4. Repeat steps 2 through 3 for all missing fonts.

    View all the missing fonts in a document and reselect substitute fonts

    1. With the document active in Flash, select Edit > Font Mapping (Windows) or Flash > Font Mapping (Macintosh).
    2. Click a font in the Missing Fonts column to select it. Shift‑click to select multiple missing fonts to map them all to the same substitute font.

      The default substitute fonts are displayed in the Mapped To column, until you select substitute fonts.

    3. Select a font from the Substitute Font pop‑up menu.
    4. Repeat steps 2 through 3 for all missing fonts.

    View or delete font mappings

    1. Close all documents in Flash.
    2. Select Edit > Font Mapping.
    3. To delete a font mapping, select the mapping and press Delete.

    Turn off the Missing Fonts alert

    • To turn the alert off for the current document, in the Missing Fonts alert box select Don’t Show Again For This Document, Always Use Substitute Fonts. Select Edit > Font Mapping to view mapping information for the document again.