Working with Movie Clips > Using actions and methods to control Timelines > Using multiple methods or actions to target a Timeline
Using multiple methods or actions to target a Timeline
You can use the with
action to address a targeted movie clip once, and then execute a series of actions on that clip. The with
action works on all ActionScript objects (for example Array, Color, and Sound), not just movie clips. The tellTarget
action is similar to the with
action. However, the tellTarget
action is not preferred because it does not work with all ActionScript objects and is not ECMA-262 compliant.
The with
action takes an object as a parameter. The object that you specify is added to the end of the current target path. All actions nested inside a with
action are carried out inside the new target path, or scope. For example, in the following script on the main Timeline, the with
action is passed the object donut.hole
to change the properties of hole
:
with (donut.hole){ _alpha = 20; _xscale = 150; _yscale = 150; }
It is as if the statements inside the with action were called from the Timeline of the hole
instance.
In the following example, note the economy of using the with
action and the methods of the MovieClip object to issue several instructions:
with (myMovieClip) { _x -= 10; _y += 10; gotoAndPlay(3); }
For more information on the tellTarget
action, see Flash Help.