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Flash Tutorial - Scrolling Dynamically Loaded Text

Free Flash Tutorial

Step One: Setting up the Text Documents

1. Download the following zip files and extract the 3 text documents into a folder of your choosing. My folder is called: scrolltext
   
   
   
   My Folder with the three text files.


Note: Download the Text files: Here
Or view them individually: page1.txt   page2.txt   page2.txt



2. Open page1.txt with Notepad or any other Text Editor. In Windows go to: Start > All Programs > Accessories > Notepad



Note: Notepad has nothing to do with Flash. It is a PC's default Text editor. All computers come with a Text Editor as standard. If you are not on a Windows PC you will have an equivalent program somewhere in your computers program menu. You can also create Text files in programs such as Dreamweaver:


Using Dreamweaver to create Text Files.


3. In your Text Editor you should see the following:

info=Hello, this is Page One of this flash movie. This information was loaded ...

Note: The Text above is split into sections:

a. Defining a Variable:

    info=

b. The Text (know as a String) that will be seen in Flash:

    Hello, this is Page One of this flash movie. This information was loaded ...

For Flash to be able to read data in an external file you have to use a variable. The variable is simply a way of defining and naming the text data to be used. The reason it must be named is so that when you are in Flash the ActionScript can refer to it. In this way Flash can remember the text or move it about the Movie. Makes sure no spaces are around the "=" sign

Cross Ref: To learn more about Variables see the tutorial: Variables

Quotes: It is also worth noting that in Flash you always use "quote marks" to define text that you use in variables. If you are loading text from an external file you do not use the "quote Marks".

4. Close page1.txt and open: page2.txt

Or click here to view page2.txt

5. Look in your Text Editor and you should see the following:
   

info=<p>Hello, this is Page Two of this flash movie. This information was, ...

The text above is similar to page1.txt except there are HTML tags in the above text document, such as:

<b></b> (bold),
<i></i> (italic),
<u></u> (underline), ect...

HTML tags enable you to format your externally loaded text. For a full list of usable tags in Flash, go here:

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Flash/Working-with-Text-and-HTML-in-Flash/4/



6. Close page2.txt and open: page3.txt

Or click here to view page3.txt

7. look in your Text Editor and you should see the following:

info=Hello, this is Page Three of this flash movie. This information was, ...

8. Close: page3.txt