TLFTextField  - AS3 Flash

When set to true and the text field is not in focus, Flash Player highlights the selection in the text field in light blue. When set to false and the text field is not in focus, Flash Player does not highlight the selection in the text field.

Example:

		package 
		{
		    import flash.display.Sprite;
		    import fl.text.TLFTextField;
		    import flash.text.TextFieldType;
		
    	    public class TLFTextField_alwaysShowSelection extends Sprite 
		    {
		
		        public function TLFTextField_alwaysShowSelection() 
		        {
		            var label1:TLFTextField = createTLFTextField(0, 20, 200, 20);
		            label1.text = "This text is selected.";
		            label1.setSelection(0, 9);
		            label1.alwaysShowSelection = true;
		
		            var label2:TLFTextField = createTLFTextField(0, 50, 200, 20);
		            label2.text = "Drag to select some of this text.";
		        }
		
		        private function createTLFTextField(x:Number, y:Number, width:Number, height:Number):TLFTextField 
		        {
		            var result:TLFTextField = new TLFTextField();
		            result.x = x; 
		            result.y = y;
		            result.width = width; 
		            result.height = height;
		            addChild(result);
		            return result;
		        }
		    }
		}
		

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

The type of anti-aliasing used for this text field. Use flash.text.AntiAliasType constants for this property. You can control this setting only if the font is embedded (with the embedFonts property set to true).

To set values for this property, use the following string values:

The default value is flash.text.AntiAliasType.NORMAL.

Related API Elements

Controls automatic sizing and alignment of text fields. Acceptable values for the TextFieldAutoSize constants: TextFieldAutoSize.NONE (the default), TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT, TextFieldAutoSize.RIGHT, and TextFieldAutoSize.CENTER.

If autoSize is set to TextFieldAutoSize.NONE (the default) no resizing occurs.

If autoSize is set to TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT, the text is treated as left-justified text, meaning that the left margin of the text field remains fixed and any resizing of a single line of the text field is on the right margin. If the text includes a line break (for example, "\n" or "\r"), the bottom is also resized to fit the next line of text. If wordWrap is also set to true, only the bottom of the text field is resized and the right side remains fixed.

If autoSize is set to TextFieldAutoSize.RIGHT, the text is treated as right-justified text, meaning that the right margin of the text field remains fixed and any resizing of a single line of the text field is on the left margin. If the text includes a line break (for example, "\n" or "\r"), the bottom is also resized to fit the next line of text. If wordWrap is also set to true, only the bottom of the text field is resized and the left side remains fixed.

If autoSize is set to TextFieldAutoSize.CENTER, the text is treated as center-justified text, meaning that any resizing of a single line of the text field is equally distributed to both the right and left margins. If the text includes a line break (for example, "\n" or "\r"), the bottom is also resized to fit the next line of text. If wordWrap is also set to true, only the bottom of the text field is resized and the left and right sides remain fixed.

Related API Elements

Specifies whether the text field has a background fill. If true, the text field has a background fill. If false, the text field has no background fill. Use the backgroundColor property to set the background color of a text field.

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Specifies the alpha value of the text field background. The alpha of the background can be set to any value between 0 (invisible) and 1 (solid). This property can be retrieved or set, even if there currently is no background, but the alpha effect is visible only if the text field has the background property set to true.

The default value is 1.0.

Related API Elements

Specifies the color of the text field background. This property can be retrieved or set, even if there currently is no background, but the color is visible only if the text field has the background property set to true.

The default value is 0xFFFFFF (white).

Related API Elements

Specifies a vertical or horizontal progression of line placement. Lines are either placed top-to-bottom (BlockProgression.TB, used for horizontal text) or right-to-left (BlockProgression.RL, used for vertical text).

Legal values are flashx.textLayout.formats.BlockProgression.RL, flashx.textLayout.formats.BlockProgression.TB, flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will inherit its value from an ancestor. If no ancestor has set this property, it will have a value of TB.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Specifies whether the text field has a border. If true, the text field has a border. If false, the text field has no border. Use the borderColor property to set the border color.

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Specifies the alpha value of the border. The alpha of the border can be set to any value between 0 (invisible) and 1 (solid). This property can be retrieved or set, even if there currently is no border, but the alpha effect is visible only if the text field has the border property set to true.

The default value is 1.0.

Related API Elements

Specifies the color of the text field border. The default value is 0x000000 (black). This property can be retrieved or set, even if there currently is no border, but the color is visible only if the text field has the border property set to true.

Related API Elements

Specifies the width of the border. The width of the border can be set to any value between 1 and 100. This property can be retrieved or set, even if there currently is no border, but the width is visible only if the text field has the border property set to true.

The width of the border is taken into account when the width or height of the text field is calculated. To get the width or height of the text container without the border, subtract 2 times the borderWidth from the width or height value.

For example, txtHeight = tlf.height - (2 tlf.borderwidth);.

The default value is 1.

Related API Elements

An integer (1-based index) that indicates the bottommost line that is currently visible in the specified text field. Think of the text field as a window onto a block of text. The scrollV property is the 1-based index of the topmost visible line in the window and bottomScroll is the last visible line in the window.

All the text between the lines indicated by scrollV and bottomScrollV is currently visible in the text field.

Related API Elements

The index of the insertion point (caret) position. If no insertion point is displayed, the value is the position the insertion point would be if you restored focus to the field (typically where the insertion point last was, or 0 if the field has not had focus).

Selection span indexes are zero-based (for example, the first position is 0, the second position is 1, and so on).

Example:

		package 
		{
			import flash.display.Sprite;
			import flash.events.MouseEvent;
			import fl.text.TLFTextField;
			import flash.text.TextFieldType;
		
			public class TLFTextField_caretIndex extends Sprite 
			{
				public function TLFTextField_caretIndex() 
				{
					var tlf:TLFTextField = createTLFTextField(10, 10, 100, 100);
					tlf.wordWrap = true;
					tlf.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
					tlf.text = "Click in this text field. Compare the difference between clicking without selecting versus clicking and selecting text.";
					tlf.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, printCursorPosition);
				}
		
				private function printCursorPosition(event:MouseEvent):void 
				{
					var tlf:TLFTextField = TLFTextField(event.currentTarget);
					trace("caretIndex:", tlf.caretIndex);
					trace("selectionBeginIndex:", tlf.selectionBeginIndex);
					trace("selectionEndIndex:", tlf.selectionEndIndex);
				}
		
				private function createTLFTextField(x:Number, y:Number, width:Number, height:Number):TLFTextField 
				{
					var result:TLFTextField = new TLFTextField();
					result.x = x;
					result.y = y;
					result.width = width;
					result.height = height;
					addChild(result);
					return result;
				}
			}
		}		 
		

Related API Elements

Number of text columns (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). The column number overrides the other column settings. Value is an integer, or FormatValue.AUTO if unspecified. If columnCount is not specified,columnWidth is used to create as many columns as can fit in the container.

Legal values as a string are flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.AUTO, flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT and from ints from 1 to 50.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of AUTO.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Specifies the amount of gutter space, in pixels, to leave between the columns (adopts default value if undefined during cascade).

Legal values are numbers from 0 to 1000 and flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of 20.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Column width in pixels (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). If you specify the width of the columns, but not the count, TextLayout will create as many columns of that width as possible, given the container width and columnGap settings. Any remainder space is left after the last column. Value is a Number.

Legal values as a string are flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.AUTO, flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT and numbers from 0 to 8000.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of AUTO.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

A Boolean value that specifies whether extra white space (spaces, line breaks, and so on) in a text field with HTML text, or TLF markup, is removed. The default value is false. The condenseWhite property only affects TLF markup or text set with the htmlText property, not the text property. If you set text with the text property, condenseWhite is ignored.

If condenseWhite is set to true, use standard HTML tags such as <br> and <p> to place line breaks in the text field.

Set the condenseWhite property before setting the htmlText property or the tlfMarkup property.

The following example shows how to use the condenseWhite property to remove extra space from tlfMarkup content:

		 import fl.text.TLFTextField;
		 
		 var my_tlf:TLFTextField = new TLFTextField();
		 my_tlf.autoSize = 'left';
		 
		 // This line removes white space from tlfMarkup
		 my_tlf.condenseWhite = true;
		 
		 addChild(my_tlf);
		 
		 var my_markup:String =   '<TextFlow xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/textLayout/2008">'
		 					+ '	<p>'
		 					+ '		<span>Here is the first span.</span>'
		 					+ ' 	       \n'
		 					+ '		<span>And here is the second span.</span>'
		 					+ '	</p>'
		 					+ '</TextFlow>';
		 					
		 my_tlf.tlfMarkup = my_markup;
		 

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Specifies the format applied to newly inserted text, such as text entered by a user or text inserted with the replaceSelectedText() method.

Related API Elements

Specifies the default bidirectional embedding level of the text in the text block. Left-to-right reading order, as in Latin-style scripts, or right-to-left reading order, as in Arabic or Hebrew. This property also affects column direction when it is applied at the container level. Columns can be either left-to-right or right-to-left, just like text. Below are some examples:

Legal values are flashx.textLayout.formats.Direction.LTR, flashx.textLayout.formats.Direction.RTL, flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will inherit its value from an ancestor. If no ancestor has set this property, it will have a value of LTR.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Specifies whether the text field is a password text field. If the value of this property is true, the text field is treated as a password text field and hides the input characters using asterisks instead of the actual characters. If false, the text field is not treated as a password text field. When password mode is enabled, the Cut and Copy commands and their corresponding keyboard shortcuts will not function. This security mechanism prevents an unscrupulous user from using the shortcuts to discover a password on an unattended computer.

The default value is false.

Specifies whether to render by using embedded font outlines. If false, Flash Player renders the text field by using device fonts.

If you set the embedFonts property to true for a text field, you must specify a font for that text by using the font property of a TextFormat object applied to the text field. If the specified font is not embedded in the SWF file, the text is displayed in a fall back font.

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Specifies the baseline position of the first line in the container. Which baseline this property refers to depends on the container-level locale. For Japanese and Chinese, it is TextBaseline.IDEOGRAPHIC_BOTTOM; for all others it is TextBaseline.ROMAN. The offset from the top inset (or right inset if blockProgression is RL) of the container to the baseline of the first line can be either BaselineOffset.ASCENT, meaning equal to the ascent of the line, BaselineOffset.LINE_HEIGHT, meaning equal to the height of that first line, or any fixed-value number to specify an absolute distance. BaselineOffset.AUTO aligns the ascent of the line with the container top inset.

Legal values as a string are flashx.textLayout.formats.BaselineOffset.AUTO, flashx.textLayout.formats.BaselineOffset.ASCENT, flashx.textLayout.formats.BaselineOffset.LINE_HEIGHT, flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT and numbers from 0 to 1000.

If undefined during the cascade this property will inherit its value from an ancestor. If no ancestor has set this property, it will have a value of AUTO.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

The type of grid fitting used for this text field. This property applies only if the flash.text.AntiAliasType property of the text field is set to flash.text.AntiAliasType.ADVANCED.

The type of grid fitting used determines whether Flash Player forces strong horizontal and vertical lines to fit to a pixel or subpixel grid, or not at all.

For the flash.text.GridFitType property, you can use the following string values:

The default value is flash.text.GridFitType.PIXEL.

Related API Elements

Contains the HTML representation of the text field contents.

TLFTextField instances support the following HTML tags:

Flash also supports explicit character codes, such as & (ASCII ampersand) and € (Unicode € symbol).

Related API Elements

The number of characters in a text field. A character such as tab (\t) counts as one character.

The maximum number of characters that the text field can contain, as entered by a user. A script can insert more text than maxChars allows; the maxChars property indicates only how much text a user can enter. If the value of this property is 0, a user can enter an unlimited amount of text.

The default value is 0.

The maximum value of scrollH.

Related API Elements

The maximum value of scrollV.

Related API Elements

A Boolean value that indicates whether Flash Player automatically scrolls multiline text fields when the user clicks a text field and rolls the mouse wheel. This property is useful if you want to prevent mouse wheel scrolling of text fields, or implement your own text field scrolling.

The default value is true.

Indicates whether text field is a multiline text field. If the value is true, the text field is multiline; if the value is false, the text field is a single-line text field. In a field of type TextFieldType.INPUT, the multiline value determines whether the Enter key creates a new line (a value of false, and the Enter key is ignored). If you paste text into a TextField with a multiline value of false, newlines are stripped out of the text.

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Defines the number of text lines in a multiline text field. If wordWrap property is set to true, the number of lines increases when text wraps.

Related API Elements

Botttom inset in pixels (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). Space between the bottom edge of the container and the text. Value is a Number.

With horizontal text, in scrollable containers with multiple columns, the first and following columns will show the padding as blank space at the bottom of the container, but for the last column, if the text doesn't all fit, you may have to scroll in order to see the padding.

Legal values are numbers from 0 to 1000 and flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of 0.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Left inset in pixels (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). Space between the left edge of the container and the text. Value is a Number.

With vertical text, in scrollable containers with multiple columns, the first and following columns will show the padding as blank space at the end of the container, but for the last column, if the text doesn't all fit, you may have to scroll in order to see the padding.

Legal values are numbers from 0 to 1000 and flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of 0.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Right inset in pixels (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). Space between the right edge of the container and the text. Value is a Number.

Legal values are numbers from 0 to 1000 and flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of 0.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Top inset in pixels (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). Space between the top edge of the container and the text. Value is a Number.

Legal values are numbers from 0 to 1000 and flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of 0.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

Gets or Sets the character used for hiding characters in a password block.

The maximum value of pixelScrollV. The units of pixelMaxScrollV are pixels, unlike the maxScrollV property, which is line-based.

The vertical position of text in a text field, in pixels, unlike scrollV, which is based on lines. The pixelScrollV property is useful for smoothly scrolling a textField to a particular position.

Related API Elements

Indicates the set of characters that a user can enter into the text field. If the value of the restrict property is null, you can enter any character. If the value of the restrict property is an empty string, you cannot enter any character. If the value of the restrict property is a string of characters, you can enter only characters in the string into the text field. The string is scanned from left to right. You can specify a range by using the hyphen (-) character. Only user interaction is restricted; a script can put any text into the text field. This property does not synchronize with the Embed font options in the Property inspector.

If the string begins with a caret (^) character, all characters are initially accepted and succeeding characters in the string are excluded from the set of accepted characters. If the string does not begin with a caret (^) character, no characters are initially accepted and succeeding characters in the string are included in the set of accepted characters.

The following example allows only uppercase characters, spaces, and numbers to be entered into a text field:

		 my_txt.restrict = "A-Z 0-9";
		 

The following example includes all characters, but excludes lowercase letters:

		 my_txt.restrict = "^a-z";
		 

You can use a backslash to enter a ^ or - verbatim. The accepted backslash sequences are \-, \^ or \\. The backslash must be an actual character in the string, so when specified in ActionScript, a double backslash must be used. For example, the following code includes only the dash (-) and caret (^):

		 my_txt.restrict = "\\-\\^";
		 

The ^ can be used anywhere in the string to toggle between including characters and excluding characters. The following code includes only uppercase letters, but excludes the uppercase letter Q:

		 my_txt.restrict = "A-Z^Q";
		 

You can use the \u escape sequence to construct restrict strings. The following code includes only the characters from ASCII 32 (space) to ASCII 126 (tilde).

		 my_txt.restrict = "\u0020-\u007E";
		 

The default value is null.

The current horizontal scrolling position. If the scrollH property is 0, the text is not horizontally scrolled. This property value is an integer that represents the horizontal position in pixels.

The units of horizontal scrolling are pixels, whereas the units of vertical scrolling are lines. Horizontal scrolling is measured in pixels because most fonts you typically use are proportionally spaced; that is, the characters can have different widths. Flash Player performs vertical scrolling by line because users usually want to see a complete line of text rather than a partial line. Even if a line uses multiple fonts, the height of the line adjusts to fit the largest font in use.

Note: The scrollH property is zero-based, not 1-based like the scrollV vertical scrolling property.

Related API Elements

The vertical position of text in a text field. The scrollV property is useful for directing users to a specific paragraph in a long passage, or creating scrolling text fields.

The units of vertical scrolling are lines, whereas the units of horizontal scrolling are pixels. If the first line displayed is the first line in the text field, scrollV is set to 1 (not 0). Horizontal scrolling is measured in pixels because most fonts are proportionally spaced; that is, the characters can have different widths. Flash performs vertical scrolling by line because users usually want to see a complete line of text rather than a partial line. Even if there are multiple fonts on a line, the height of the line adjusts to fit the largest font in use.

Related API Elements

A Boolean value that indicates whether the text field is selectable. The value true indicates that the text is selectable. The selectable property controls whether a text field is selectable, not whether it is editable. Unlike a classic dynamic or input text field, if a TLF text field is editable, it is always selectable. If this property is set to false and the input type is set to dynamic, then the user cannot select its text.

If selectable is set to false, the text in the text field does not respond to selection commands from the mouse or keyboard, and the text cannot be copied with the Copy command. If selectable is set to true, the text in the text field can be selected with the mouse or keyboard, and the text can be copied with the Copy command.

The default value is true.

Related API Elements

The zero-based character index value of the first character in the current selection. For example, the first character is 0, the second character is 1, and so on. If no text is selected, this property is the value of caretIndex.

Related API Elements

The zero-based character index value of the last character in the current selection. For example, the first character is 0, the second character is 1, and so on. If no text is selected, this property is the value of caretIndex.

Related API Elements

Sharpness is not applicable to TLF TextFields. Any value supplied will be ignored and zero will always be returned.

Style sheets for the TLF TextField.

A string that is the current text in the text field. Lines are separated by the carriage return character ('\r', ASCII 13). This property contains unformatted text in the text field, without HTML tags.

To get the text in HTML form, use the htmlText property.

Related API Elements

The color of the text in a text field, in hexadecimal format. The hexadecimal color system uses six digits to represent color values. Each digit has 16 possible values or characters. The characters range from 0-9 and then A-F. For example, black is 0x000000; white is 0xFFFFFF.

The default value is 0 (0x000000).

Use this property to assign formatting from the TLF classes in the flashx packages to the TLFTextField instance. For example:

		 var myFormat:TextLayoutFormat = new TextLayoutFormat();
		 myFormat.textIndent = 8;
		 myFormat.color = 0x336633;
		 myFormat.fontFamily = "Arial, Helvetica, _sans";
		 myFormat.fontSize = 24;
		 
		 var myTextFlow:TextFlow = myTLFTextField.textFlow;
		 myTextFlow.hostFormat = myFormat;
		 

Related API Elements

The height of the text in pixels. The top and bottom padding are not included in this value.

Related API Elements

The width of the text in pixels. The right and left padding are not included in this value.

Related API Elements

The thickness property is not applicable to the TLF TextField. Any value supplied will be ignored and zero will always be returned.

Sets or gets the TLF markup of the text in the TLF text field.

The markup specification is posted at http://sourceforge.net/projects/tlf.adobe/files/docs/TLF_2.0_specification.pdf/download.

Related API Elements

The type of the text field. Either one of the following TextFieldType constants: TextFieldType.DYNAMIC, which specifies a selectable TLF text field, which a user cannot edit, or TextFieldType.INPUT, which specifies an editable TLF text field, which a user can edit.

The default value is dynamic.

Related API Elements

Specifies whether to copy the text formatting along with the text to the clipboard. When set to true, Flash Player copies formatting (such as alignment, bold, and italics) in tlfMarkup format to the clipboard.

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Vertical alignment or justification (adopts default value if undefined during cascade). Determines how TextFlow elements align within the container.

Legal values are flashx.textLayout.formats.VerticalAlign.TOP, flashx.textLayout.formats.VerticalAlign.MIDDLE, flashx.textLayout.formats.VerticalAlign.BOTTOM, flashx.textLayout.formats.VerticalAlign.JUSTIFY, flashx.textLayout.formats.FormatValue.INHERIT.

If undefined during the cascade this property will have a value of TOP.

The default value is undefined (indicates not set).

Related API Elements

A Boolean value that indicates whether the text field has word wrap. If the value of wordWrap is true, the text field has word wrap; if the value is false, the text field does not have word wrap.

The default value is false.

Related API Elements

Constructor for TLFTextField objects. Create a TLFTextField object the same way you create a text field with the TextField class but use the TLFTextField() constructor instead. For example:

		 var myTLFTextField:TLFTextField = new TLFTextField();
		 

Related API Elements

Appends the string specified by the newText parameter to the end of the text of the text field. This method is more efficient than an addition assignment (+=) on a text property (such as someTextField.text += moreText), particularly for a text field that contains a significant amount of content.

Parameters

Parameters

Returns a rectangle that is the bounding box of the character.

Parameters

Related API Elements

Returns the zero-based index value of the character at the point specified by the x and y parameters.

Parameters

Given a character index, returns the index of the first character in the same paragraph.

Parameters

Returns a DisplayObject reference for the given id, for an image or SWF file that has been added to an HTML-formatted text field by using an <img> tag. The <img> tag is in the following format:

	<img src = 'filename.jpg' id = 'instanceName' >

Parameters

Related API Elements

Returns the zero-based index value of the line at the point specified by the x and y parameters.

Parameters