User Guide

8 Introduction: Getting Started with ActionScript
• Chapter 1, “What’s New in Flash MX 2004 ActionScript,” on page 11 describes features that
are new in ActionScript, changes to the compiler and debugger, and the new programming
model for the ActionScript 2.0 language.
• Chapter 2, “ActionScript Basics,” on page 23 describes the terminology and basic concepts
used in the rest of the manual.
• Chapter 3, “Using Best Practices,” on page 65 helps explain the best practices for using Flash
and writing ActionScript.
• Chapter 4, “Writing and Debugging Scripts,” on page 139 describes the ActionScript editor
and debugger within Flash that makes it easier to write code.
• Chapter 5, “Handling Events,” on page 167 discusses a few different ways to handle events:
event handler methods, event listeners, and button and movie clip event handlers.
• Chapter 6, “Creating Interaction with ActionScript,” on page 179 describes some simple ways
in which you can create more interactive applications, including controlling when SWF files
play, creating custom pointers, and creating sound controls.
• Chapter 7, “Using the Built-In Classes,” on page 197 lists the built-in classes in ActionScript
and provides a brief overview of how you use them to access powerful features in ActionScript.
• Chapter 8, “Working with Movie Clips,” on page 205 describes movie clips and the
ActionScript you can use to control them.
• Chapter 9, “Working with Text,” on page 221 describes the different ways you can control text
in Flash and include information on text formatting.
• Chapter 10, “Creating Custom Classes with ActionScript 2.0,” on page 247 describes how to
create custom classes and objects for manipulating data in your applications.
• Chapter 11, “Working with External Data,” on page 275 describes how to process data from
external sources using server- or client-side scripts in your applications.
• Chapter 12, “Working with External Media,” on page 295 describes how to import external
media files such as JPEG, MP3, and other SWF files in your Flash applications.
• Appendix A, “Error Messages,” on page 305 contains a list of error messages that the Flash
compiler can generate.
• Appendix B, “Deprecated Flash 4 operators,” on page 311 lists all the ActionScript operators
and their associativity.
• Appendix C, “Keyboard Keys and Key Code Values,” on page 313 lists all the keys on a
standard keyboard and the corresponding ASCII key code values that are used to identify the
keys in ActionScript.
• Appendix D, “Writing Scripts for Earlier Versions of Flash Player,” on page 319 provides
guidelines to help you write scripts that are syntactically correct for the player version you are
targeting.
• Appendix E, “Object-Oriented Programming with ActionScript 1” provides information on
using the ActionScript 1 object model to write scripts.
This manual explains how to use the ActionScript language. For information on the language
elements themselves, see ActionScript Language Reference Help.