Working with Text > Controlling text with ActionScript > Creating and removing text fields dynamically |
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Creating and removing text fields dynamically
You can use the createTextField
method of the MovieClip object to create a new, empty text field as a child of the movie clip that calls the method. You can use the removeTextField
method to remove a text field created with createTextField
; it will not work on a text field placed by the Timeline.
When you create a text field, you can use the TextField object to set properties of the text field. If you don't set the properties, the new text field receives a set of default properties. The default properties of the new text field are as follows:
type = "dynamic" border = false background = false password = false multiline = false html = false embedFonts = false variable = null maxChars = null
Once you create a text field, you can use the TextFormat object to format the text. You must create a new TextFormat object and then pass it as a parameter to the setTextFormat
method of the TextField object. A text field created with the createTextField
method receives the following default TextFormat object:
font = "Times New Roman" size = 12 textColor = 0x000000 bold = false italic = false underline = false url = "" target = "" align = "left" leftMargin = 0 rightMargin = 0 indent = 0 leading = 0 bullet = false tabStops = [] (empty array)
To create a dynamic text field:
1 |
Select a frame, button, or movie clip to which to assign the action. |
2 |
Choose Window > Actions to open the Actions panel if it isn't already open. |
3 |
In the Actions toolbox, select the Objects category, then select the Movie category, then select the MovieClip category, then select the Methods category, then double-click the |
4 |
In the Object field, enter an instance name for the movie clip that will be the parent of the new text field. For this example, enter the alias _root because the main Timeline is the parent. |
5 |
Enter values for the following parameters: |
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The following code displays in the Script pane: |
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_root.createTextField("mytext",1,50,50,200,100); |
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6 |
In the Actions toolbox, select the Objects category, then select the Movie category, then select the TextField category, then select the Properties category, then double-click |
7 |
In the Value field, enter this is my first test field object text. The following text is displayed in the Script pane: |
mytext.text = "this is my first test field object text"; |
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This example creates a text field with an instance name |
For a detailed description of the createTextField
method of the TextField object, see its entry in the online ActionScript Dictionary in the Help menu.
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