flash component.....text bullets....

[pelsar]

I'm looking for an automatic way of having text enter my screen in flash. No, fancy tricks, just show up one after the other. Since i will have many of these and will be changing the sizes of the text, line spacing, amount of words etc a lot, hence i'm looking for a simple automatic system (like powerpoint has).

any components out there or some simple programming that offers all of these variables in a simple GUI?

or does Flash CS3 already have it and i just missed it?

 

[snickelfritz]

I'm not 100% clear on your use of the term "automatic".

Are you looking for a looping slideshow?
I would store the text fields in an array, and use a tweening class within a function that loads/unloads the text fields incrementally, then reloads the entire function on Complete to create the loop.

Or would you like to control the playhead movement manually?
Here's a basic actionscript (AS3) with buttons that advance the timeline 1 frame forward or 1 frame back.
This would be manually controlled by mouse clicks.
There are no special "Flash" effects included in this script. (no page transitions, rollover effects, etc...)

/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stage setup:
Paste this script on a locked layer "actions" in frame1.
Two movieclips on frame1, instance names "forward" and "backward".
These are the buttons that advance the playhead 1 frame forward, or 1 frame backward.
Wrap these movieclips in a parent movieclip, instance name "buttonGroup".
Place the variously formatted text fields on frame1, frame2, frame3, etc...
in the order you would like them to appear.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
stop();

buttonGroup.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, action, false, 0, true);
buttonGroup.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, action, false, 0, true);
buttonGroup.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, action, false, 0, true);
buttonGroup.mouseEnabled = false;
buttonGroup.buttonMode = true;

var button:String = "";

function action(event:MouseEvent):void {
	button = event.target.name;
	switch (event.type) {
		case MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER :
			//optional: call a tweening function here for rollover effects. (targeting the event.target).
			break;
		case MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT :
			//optional: call a tweening function here for rollout effects. (targeting the event.target).
			break;
		case MouseEvent.CLICK :
			switch (button) {
				case "forward" :
					trace(button);
					gotoAndStop(currentFrame + 1);
					break;
				case "backward" :
					trace(button);
					gotoAndStop(currentFrame - 1);
					break;
			}
			break;
	}
}

 

[pelsar]

thanks...but i got some help....

One of the component makers (i shall give him a plug here, as he was very helpful

Hi Steve,
I think that using my text effect components will be 'overkill' for your needs. I think that you can probably make a very simple model with some basic scripting doing that. You'll probably want to pour your texts into an Array, then have a frame loop MC fade in-wait-out text and use a counter++ to load next text .. and restart the frame loop.
Regards
Patrick

components@patrickjansen.net>
http://www.patrickjansen.net/components

actually made a small MC for me and solved my problem (no charge)