Creating basic rollovers

To make an object into a rollover, you must add other states to it with the States palette. A state is a collection of changes to an object that is triggered through mouse actions or scripts. For example, adding an Over state creates a new version (state) of the object and adds scripting that displays this state when the mouse is over it.

Here are some things to note about rollovers:

• By default, objects with more than one state are automatically turned into movie clips. Each state of a movie clip exists as a variation on the original (Normal) state. For information on movie clips, see Working with movie clips.
• Rollover states are triggered by basic mouse actions. The Normal (default), Over, Down, and Out states are all rollover states.
• Custom states are states that are not triggered by basic mouse actions. Instead, they are triggered by another object's state, or by a state-change script.
• To add a transformation such as changing the rollover's position or rotating it, you need to make the rollover a movie clip group. (See Creating animated rollovers.)
• Once you have created a rollover effect that you like, you can save it to the Library palette or Styles palette for future use. (See Adding and deleting Library objects and Saving and applying rollover styles.)

The States palette with pop-up menu showing available states

To create a basic rollover:

1. Select the object.
2. Choose Window > States, or click the States tab to display the palette.
3. Click the New State button  at the bottom of the palette.

By default, the Over, Down, and Out states are assigned to new states. If these rollover states already exist, the new state is a custom state.

4. Choose the type of state you want from the pop-up menu:
• Normal is the default state for the object.
• Over is triggered when the mouse pointer is over the object.
• Down is triggered when the mouse pointer is over the object and the mouse button is clicked or pressed.
• Out is triggered when the mouse pointer moves off of the object.
• Custom State lets you create your own custom rollover states. These are used for remote rollovers and other effects. If you choose this option, name the state in the dialog box that appears.

Note: In addition to using the New State button, you can use the Duplicate State button  to create a new state based on the currently selected state.

5. Apply changes to the rollover object to change its appearance. For example, you can apply a new texture, color, layer effect, or sound.

Changes you make to the rollover appear in a Changes list beneath the selected state in the States palette.