Spicing Up the Text

Now that we are able to pull in the text using this method, why don’t we use some additional coding to spice the text up a little and even give it the ability to have hyperlinks included in the text boxes. Remember the HTML option that is shown? Simply select this checkbox and you are able to insert some HTML to change the look of the text or make hyperlinks to other locations. This makes Flash files very easy to update and allows even the most inexperienced HTML developers to update a Flash file dynamically. One thing that you have to realize however is that some of the HTML tags are deprecated. Deprecated means HTML tags and attributes that have been superseded by other more functional or flexible alternatives (whether as HTML or as CSS) in HTML4 by the W3C - the consortium that sets the HTML standards. Browsers should continue to support deprecated tags for a long time to come, but eventually these tags are likely to become obsolete and so their future cannot be guaranteed.

Here is a list of the available HTML tags that the text boxes can use:

• <A> - Anchor Tag:
  This tag is used to define a link between different resources, creating a ‘web’ of information. A Hyperlink element (href) like the one used in this example, indicates text that serves as a clickable area for the user to jump to another location on the Internet. You may also bookmark certain sections of a page with the <a name="Link Name Here"> Here is some text </a> tag that will cause the user to move to that part of the page once they click on the link with the <a href="#Link Name Here">Go to the Link</a>
• <B> - Bold Tag:
  This tag is simply used to apply a bold font format to text.
  
  Example: <b>Text is Here</b>
• <FONT COLOR> - Color of the Font:
  This tag is used to determine the color of the upcoming font using a hexadecimal number.
  Example: <FONT COLOR="#003868">Text is Here.</FONT>
• <FONT FACE> - Type of Font:
  This tag used to control the type face of the font that is going to be used:
  Example: <FONT FACE="Arial,Verdana,System">Text is Here.</FONT>
• <FONT SIZE> - Size of the Font:
  This tag is used to control the font sizing. As you can see there are a few different ways to set the size:
  Font SIZE relative:
  Example: <FONT SIZE="+3">Text is Here.</FONT>
  Font SIZE absolute:
  Example: <FONT SIZE="8">Text is Here</FONT>
• <I> - Italics:
  The italics tags are used to format the text to be in italics.
  Example: <I>Text is Here</I>
  
• <P> - Paragraph
  
  The paragraph element is used to define a paragraph.
  Example: <P ALIGN="left">text</P>
  
• <U> - Underline
  
  The underline tag is used to format the text to have an underline under the letters.
  Example: <u>Text is Here</u>

These are various options that can change the appearance of the text that is brought into the text box. For example if you have a special offer on your web site and want to change a URL address to show the users who see the advertisement a link directly to that page on the site, update the text file and you will instantly give users the opportunity to go directly. At the same time it gives you the ability to change font colors or face to bring more attention to the ‘special feature’ you may have running.

To wrap up, we now know how to change the cursor for our movies, add text, and format that text with HTML. If you have any questions, suggestions or things that you would like to see please do not hesitate to contact me at any time!

Text File Overview
Flash 5 Tutorial: Part 1