ptg 178 Chapter 5 The Properties Inspector provides advanced options for TLF text (New!). In the Advanced Character section, you can change the text case (such as upper or lower case), specify a baseline for multi-lan- guage text or baseline shift (such as superscript or subscript), apply line breaks, and select the user’s language and region. Similar to a fea- ture in Adobe Photoshop, you can apply blending modes (New!) and color effects (New!) to a text box in front of another element, such as a graphic, to create a new look from the mix of color pixels. Changing Advanced Text Options Change Advanced Character Options Select the TLF text box you want to change with the Selection tool or select text within the TLF text box with the Text tool. In the Advanced Character section of the Property Inspector (New!), specify any of the following: ◆ Case. Changes the text to upper or lower case, or caps. ◆ Digit Case. Changes the text to settings specified by the font designer. ◆ Digit Width. Changes the text to proportional or tabular widths. ◆ Dominant Baseline. Changes the multiple language text to a common baseline. ◆ Alignment Baseline. Changes the baseline alignment for multiple language text. ◆ Ligatures. Changes the running together of letters, such as “Th.” ◆ Break. Specifies the use of line breaks. ◆ Baseline Shift. Specifies the shift in the baseline in points (pt) or percentage (%). You can also select Superscript or Subscript for standard shifts. ◆ Locale. Specifies the user’s language and region. 2 1 2 1 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 5 Working with Text 179 Add Display and Color Effects Select the TLF text box you want to change with the Selection tool. In the Display and Color Effect sections of the Property Inspector (New!), specify any of the following: ◆ Display. Click the Blending list arrow, and then select a blending effect. ◆ Normal. Removes the current blending effect. With that in mind, the modes that produce the most stunning results are Multiply, Screen, Hard Light, and Difference. ◆ Color Effect. Click the Style list arrow, and then select a color effect. ◆ None. Removes the current color effect. ◆ Brightness. Specifies the lightness/darkness of the text. ◆ Tint. Specifies the blending of a color and white (which increases lightness) for the text. ◆ Advanced. Specifies the blending of a color and an alpha blend for the text. ◆ Alpha. Specifies the blending of two colors (allowing for transparency) for the text. 2 1 Loading an External Text File If you have a body of text that may change over time, you can use the ActionScript command LoadVars to load a text file (.txt). To load the text file headlines.txt (which contains headlines=”sample text”) into the headlines dynamic text box (instance is headlines_text and var is n ews_lv ) using the LoadVars object, you can use a similar script: var news_lv:LoadVars = new LoadVars(); news_lv.load(“c:/yourfolderlocation/headlines.txt”); news_lv.onLoad = function () { headlines_txt.text = news_lv.headlines; } For Your Information 1 2 From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 180 Chapter 5 When a line of text is created in Flash, it appears in a bounding box that is editable. Sometimes you might need to adjust the characters sepa- rately or you might want to modify the shape of the characters them- selves to create new character styles. The Break Apart command allows you to do this. There are two levels of breaking that you can uti- lize. The first break will separate the text box into singular, editable characters. This is useful if you want to reposition or align the letters of a word independently. The second break severs the text from its font reference: in essence it becomes a shape that you can edit with any of the drawing tools or pen modifiers. Using Break Apart to Modify Characters Break a Text Box into Single Characters Select the text box you want to change with the Selection tool. Click the Modify menu, and then click Break Apart. Each character appears in its own editable box. TIMESAVER Press A +B (Mac) or Ctrl+B (Win) to use the Break Apart command. 2 1 2 1 The text box is broken into separate text boxes that can be moved and edited separately. Broken text box From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 5 Working with Text 181 Break a Text Box into Shapes Select the text box you want to change with the Selection tool. Click the Modify menu, and then click Break Apart. The characters become individual text boxes. Click the Modify menu again, and then click Break Apart. The characters become simple shapes that you can adjust with Flash's drawing tools. TIMESAVER Press A +B (Mac) or Ctrl+B (Win) twice to break text into editable shapes. 3 2 1 2 Text boxes becom e editable shapes. See Also See “Using the Free Transform Tool” on page 118 for information on trans- forming objects. Transforming Text You can use the Free Transform tool or the options on the Modify menu under Transform to transform text boxes in the same ways you transform other objects. You can scale, rotate, skew and flip text boxes, but the text might become hard to read. However, you can still edit it. Important: when you scale a text box as an object, the point size in the Property Inspector may not be accurate. To restore a transformed object, select the object, click the Modify menu, point to Transform, and then click Remove Transform. For Your Information 1 Characters become individual text boxes. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 182 Chapter 5 Anti-aliasing affects the pixels on the edge of a shape by allowing them to blend in with the background. It is a crucial feature when work- ing with some text as it makes it appear smoother and more integrated. Flash includes FlashType, a new text rendering feature that improves anti-aliasing and readability for fonts. FlashType is enabled whenever Flash Player 7 or later is the selected player, and anti-aliasing is set to anti-aliasing for readability or custom. The drawback with anti-aliasing is that at smaller font sizes the text can appear blurry. To avoid this problem, use sans serif text, such as Helvetica or Arial, and don’t use bold and italic. You can use anti-aliasing with static, dynamic, and input text. You apply anti-aliasing to text boxes instead of characters. Using Anti-Alias Text Set a Text Box to Anti-Alias Text Select the text box you want to change with the Selection tool. In the Character section of the Property Inspector (New!), click the Anti-Alias list arrow, and then select one of the following: ◆ Use Device Fonts. The SWF file uses fonts installed on the local computer to display fonts. ◆ Bitmap Text (No Anti-Alias) (Classic). No text smoothing. ◆ Anti-Alias for Animation (Classic) or Animation (TLF). Smooths out animation. ◆ Anti-Alias for Readability (Classic) or Readability (TLF). Smooths out text. ◆ Custom Anti-Alias (Classic). Modify font properties. 2 1 Anti-alias text at small sizes Alias text produces crisp fonts at small sizes. Alias text Anti-aliasing blends the edge pixels with the background. 2 Classic text 2 TLF text From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 5 Working with Text 183 If you open a document with a missing font on a computer, a Missing Font alert appears, asking you to choose a substitute font. You can open and use the Font Mapping dialog box to map a substitute font to the missing font, view the mapped fonts in the document, and delete a font mapping. After you select a substitute font, text appears with the correct font (if available) or the substitute font (if missing). When you use a substitute font, the text box or attributes might need to be adjusted. Using Font Mapping Select Substitute Fonts Open the document with the fonts you want to map. ◆ To view al l th e fo nt map pings saved on your computer, close all documents. Click the Flash (Mac) or Edit (Win) menu, and then click Font Mapping. Click a font in the Missing Fonts column. TIMESAVER Press Shift+click to select multiple missing fonts to map to the same substitute font. Click the Substitute Font list arrow, and then click a font, or click System Default. Click OK. 5 4 3 2 1 54 3 Did You Know? You can delete the font mapping. Close all documents, click the Flash (Mac) or Edit (Win) menu, click Font Mapping, select a font mapping, click Delete, and then click OK. You can turn off the Missing Font alert. Click the Flash (Mac) or Edit (Win) menu, click Font Mapping, select the Don’t Show Again For This Document, Always Use Substitute Fonts check box, and then click OK. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 184 Chapter 5 When you include a font in your Flash document that is installed on your computer, you can include the font into the exported Flash movie. This is called an embedded font and it ensures that your fonts will look consistent when displayed on other computers. This adds to the file size, as each character from the selected font family has to be included in the final SWF. If file size is an issue, and the exact character match- ing is not important, you can choose to use device fonts. The Font Embedding dialog allows you to add or remove the fonts (all or part) you want to embed in the Flash document ( New!). You can view a list of all your embedded fonts in one place. When a font is set to device, Flash will not embed the font information in the exported file. Instead the Flash Player will substitute the closest resembling font by name on the computer playing the Flash movie. The drawback is that you won't be able to predict how the fonts will display on every computer. To combat this uncertainty, Flash includes three device fonts. Each is designed with characteristics of typical fonts usually found by default on most computers. You can also choose device fonts when using small font sizes because they are not anti-alias and display clearly. Setting Device Fonts Versus Embedded Fonts Embed Fonts Select the text box with the fonts you want to embed with the Selection tool. Click the Embed button in the Property Inspector. Click the Options tab, and then specify a font name, family, style, and character ranges you want. To add or de le te an em be dded font, do either of the following: ◆ Add New Font. Click Add New Font button, and then specify the font information in the Options tab. ◆ Delete Font. Select a font from the Font list, click the Delete Selected Font button, and then click OK. Click the ActionScript tab, and then select options to export font information for ActionScript or to share font information for runtime sharing. Click OK. 6 5 4 3 2 1 654 3 Embedded fonts From the Library of Wow! eBook . then specify the font information in the Options tab. ◆ Delete Font. Select a font from the Font list, click the Delete Selected Font button, and then click OK. Click the ActionScript tab, and. include a font in your Flash document that is installed on your computer, you can include the font into the exported Flash movie. This is called an embedded font and it ensures that your fonts will. device fonts. The Font Embedding dialog allows you to add or remove the fonts (all or part) you want to embed in the Flash document ( New!). You can view a list of all your embedded fonts in one