Actionscript for Flash 5 dummies: Scrolling a text box II

Actionscript for Flash 5 dummies: Scrolling a text box II

Welcome to the second installment in the Actionscript for Flash 5 dummies series, scrolling a text box II. You'll need to read (and hopefully understand) the first tutorial before going on with this one; you can check it out at actionscripts.org or at Flashkit.

I'm glad to say I've gotten some very positive feedback from people, so I would like to announce that the Actionscript for Flash 5 dummies series is here to stay; if I'm not too busy, I'll try and write a tutorial every two or three weeks. You can send a blank e-mail to as_for_flash5_dummies-subscribe@yahoogroups.com with "subscribe" in the subject line if you wish to be reminded of any new tutorials.

Today's tutorial will build on what we learned last time on scrolling a text box. Mainly, we'll modify the script in three points: loading the text from an external text file, getting rid of the hand cursor, and adding a scrollbar. These three points were suggested to me by readers of the first tutorial. Unfortunately, they are not as easy to create as a simple scroller; I'll try my best, however, to explain them in an easy to understand way.

The Movie

Without further ado, here's the movie we're going to make:

As you can see, there's a lot of functionality added, as well as easier management because of the external text file. Don't worry though, whilst it is true that a lot of code has been added, it should be pretty easy to understand, provided you have a sufficient amount of coffee handy.

Get your old .fla file ready from the last tutorial, as we'll start adding the actionscript.