Working with Texts

Starting

(Click the picture to play video in new window)

Flash provides everything that we might need to create an animation, and, hence, also all that is related to the texts. However, Flash was conceived to create graphic animations, in such a way that it will treat any text as if it were one more object, prepared to be animated if that's what you want it for. That allows us to animate texts afterwards and to easily create spectacular animations. Flash distinguishes among 3 types of text: static text or normal; dynamic text; and input text (in order the user to introduce the date, for example), it can also create text that supports HTML format, etc...

Text Properties

In order to write we have to click on the Text Tool and then on the point of the stage in which we want to start writing.

To learn more about How to write texts visit our Advanced Page.

The Properties Panel contains the main properties of all the objects that we'll use during our movie. So if we select a text, we can see whatever we need to know about our text. If we have experience using Flash 5, we'll notice that all the properties met before in the Character Panels and Paragraph, are now grouped in the Properties Panel.

Click to enlarge

Let's see inside out the Properties Panel:

Icon	Tool	Purpose
	Font	From here, as well as in the more common text editors, we can select the preferable type of letter or "font".
	Height	It determines the space between the characters. It is used when the used typography shows the letters together or to add specific effects to the text.
	Text Orientation	It changes the orientation of the text from horizontal to vertical, as well as from right to left.
	Automatic adjustment between characters	The activation of this square causes that the separation between characters is done automatically.
	Position	It allows us to convert our text in subindices or in superindices (or leave it normal).
	URL	If you want the text linked to a web page, enter the address here.
	Destination	It determines where the URL will be loaded: in the same window of the browser, in a new one...
	Line Type	If the text is dynamic (otherwise it appears deactivated), this option allows us to determine the type of lines (single line, multiple line or multiple line without adjusting).
	Configuration	There are the classical options that allow to convert the text in Bold (B), Cursive (I), or to change the text color and size.
	Other Properties	Given the fact that Flash handles the texts as objects, these also have width, height and coordinates. We can modify them.

A Paragraph is nothing more that a set of characters with common properties for all of them. These paragraphs admit certain options that allow us to work with text blocks. The Properties Panel provides us the following options to work with paragraphs (between others).

Align Left: All the lines will begin as far as possible to the left (within the defined text frame).

Center: The lines are distributed to the right and to the left from the middle Paragraph point.

Align right: All the lines will begin as far as possible to the right (within the box of defined text).

Justify: The text is widen if it is necessary in such a way that there cannot be spaces in any of its limits.

The rest of options allows us to determine the margins (left and right ones), the indentations of paragraph and the interlineal space.