MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-USING FLASH - Page 187

Controlling text with ActionScript 187
First you must create a new TextFormat object. Then you can use the methods of the
TextField object and pass them the TextFormat object as a parameter to format the text in a
field.
Each character in a text field may individually be assigned a TextFormat object. The
TextFormat object of the first character of a paragraph is examined to perform paragraph
formatting for the entire paragraph.
To format text dynamically:
1. Select Window > Actions to open the Actions panel if it isn’t already open.
2. Do one of the following to create a text field:
■ Use the Text tool to create a text field on the Stage. Assign the text field an instance
name in the Property inspector.
■ For this example, enter the instance name myText.
■ Use the createTextField method of the MovieClip object. See “Creating text”
on page 162. For this example, enter the instance name myText as a parameter of the
createTextField method.
3. Do one of the following to place text in the text field:
■ Enter text into the text field on the Stage.
■ Set the text property of the TextField object. See “Creating text” on page 162.
■ In the Actions toolbox, select the Built-in classes category, then select the Movie
category, and then select the TextFormat category. Finally, double-click
new
TextFormat
. For this example, enter myformat in the Object parameter field.
The following code is displayed in the Script pane:
myformat = new TextFormat();
4.
In the Actions toolbox, select the Built-in Classes category, then select the Movie category,
then select the TextFormat category, and then select the Properties category. Finally,
double-click
color. Repeat this step for the bullet and underline properties. The
following code is displayed in the Script pane:
myformat.color = 0xff0000;
myformat.bullet = true;
myformat.underline = true;
5.
In the Actions toolbox, select the Built-in Classes category, then select the Movie category,
then select the TextField category, and then select the Method category. Finally, double-
click
setTextFormat. For this example, enter myText in the Object parameter field.