User Guide

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CHAPTER 3
Working with Components
In this chapter, you’ll use several Macromedia Flash (FLA) files and ActionScript class files to
learn how to add components to a document and set their properties. This chapter also explains a
few advanced topics such as using code hints, creating custom focus navigation, managing
component depth, and upgrading version 1 components to version 2 architecture.
The files used in this chapter are TipCalulator.fla and TipCalculator.swf. The files are installed in
the following locations on your hard disk:
• (Windows) Program Files/Flash MX 2004/Samples/HelpExamples/TipCalculator
• (Macintosh) Applications/Flash MX 2004/Samples/HelpExamples/TipCalculator
This chapter covers the following topics:
The Components panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Adding components to Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Components in the Library panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Setting component parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Sizing components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Deleting components from Flash documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Using code hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Creating custom focus navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Managing component depth in a document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Components in Live Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52s
About using a preloader with components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
About loading components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Upgrading version 1 components to version 2 architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53