Text Properties by Subpanel

So far, this chapter has only scratched the surface when it comes to tweaking type. Printers, graphic artists, and typographers have dozens of methods for arranging and positioning type—and, with TLF text, so do you. These settings determine the space between individual letters, between words, and between lines and paragraphs. There are settings to set margins and to justify or center text. The possibilities may boggle your mind if you're not up to speed with printing jargon. And the fact is, you may never use some of the text tools provided in Flash. Still when you need them, it's helpful to know where the tools are, so here's a subpanel-by-subpanel description of the text properties.

Note

Keep in mind, some properties are available only to a specific text engine or text type.

As explained on Text Questions, the top of the Text Properties panel has menus for choosing the text engine (TLF Text or Classic Text) and the text type (Figure 6-20). For every text type except Classic static text, there's an Instance Name box. Give your text an instance name, and then you can refer to it in ActionScript code. This gives you the opportunity to change text properties as your Flash animation runs. In the lower-right corner use the "Change orientation of text" box to change the direction the text flows when you're working with different languages. This option is not available for Classic dynamic text or Classic input text.

Figure 6-20. Menus to choose the text engine and text type appear at the top of the Properties panel after you select the Text tool.

Position and Size

For Classic text, you use standard X and Y coordinates to position text on the stage. (For TLF text, use the 3D Position and View subpanel.) The upper-left corner of the text box is the registration point (Creating a graphic symbol in symbol editing mode). The W and H properties set the width and height of the text block. Use the chain link to lock the values and maintain proportions. Changing the width and height doesn't change the font size specification; it distorts the text.

3D Position and View (TLF Text Only)

With TLF text, you can control the position of your text blocks in three dimensions. Use the 3D Position and View subpanel (Figure 6-21), where you find controls similar to those used with movie clip symbols. The X and Y properties represent horizontal and vertical positioning. Use the Z property to move the text block toward or away from your audience. As you use the 3D Rotation tool (W) to make text blocks spin around and you automatically change the 3D Position and View: W and H settings. The Perspective Angle setting (camera) changes the apparent angle of the view. The Vanishing Point (X and Y) settings control the orientation of the Z axis by relocating the vanishing point (the point where parallel lines appear to merge in the distance).

Figure 6-21. For TLF text use the 3D Position and View settings to display your text with 3-D effects

Character

Use the Character subpanel (Figure 6-22) for the standard type specifications: Family (font), Style, Size, and Color. With TLF text, you also have the option to set the highlight (background) color. Leading sets the space between lines of text. Tracking sets the distance between individual characters (or glyphs, as the typographers say). Turn on the "Auto kern" checkbox to have Flash automatically adjust the space between certain characters. For example, in some cases auto-kerning pushes the letters A and V closer together to avoid an unsightly gap.

Figure 6-22. Many of the settings on the Character subpanel are shared for both text engines and all types of text. Here you can choose a font family, text size, color, and style.

The Anti-alias settings require a little explanation. It's not always easy to make type look good on a computer screen, especially when displaying a complex typeface at a small size. Antialiasing is one of those fool-the-eye tricks used to make small type look less jagged. Flash gives you a few options depending on the text type you've selected:

Device fonts. This option uses the fonts installed on the computer where the Flash animation is viewed. Usually, these fonts will be readable at most sizes.
Bitmap text [no anti-alias] (Classic text only). This option turns off anti-aliasing because the fonts are converted to bitmap images. This increases the size of the Flash file, and the text may appear jagged when it is resized.
Anti-alias for animation (called Animation for TLF text). As the name implies, this option is good for text that you want to reposition and resize on the fly. Some typographic details, such as alignment and kerning, are ignored to create smoother animation.
Anti-alias for readability (called Readability for TLF text). The best option for large blocks of small text. All the antialiasing tricks are used to make it easier for your audience to read.
Custom anti-alias (Classic text only). If you think you can do a better job than Flash, you can use your own antialias settings, such as sharpness and smoothness. Some additional text styles are available in the Character subpanel, such as buttons that let you toggle superscript and subscript characters, as in:™. As usual, TLF text offers some extra features, like Underline and Strikethrough. Using the Rotation menu, you can rotate characters within the text line. For more details, see Creating Vertical Text Containers on Creating Vertical Text Containers.

TLF text offers more advanced character options than Classic text. In fact, there are enough new features that they get their own Advanced Character subpanel (see the next section). The more modest Classic text features are placed in the Character subpanel, where they've always been. They include these choices:

Selectable. Click to let your audience select text at runtime. This option is always on for input text.
Render text as HTML (dynamic text and input text only). Tells Flash to interpret any HTML code it encounters in dynamic text instead of just displaying it.
Show Border Around Text (dynamic text and input text only). Select to place a border around dynamic or input text to set it off from other text.

Advanced Character (TLF Text Only)

The Advanced Character options (Figure 6-23), which are available only with TLF text, change depending on the text type selected. The TLF text types include read only, selectable, and editable. For example, settings used to create hyperlinks aren't available in editable text—it wouldn't make sense.

The Link and Target options are used to create hyperlinks. Type a URL (like http://www.missingmanuals.com) to display text in your finished animation as a clickable link. Target options are used, as they are in HTML, to tell the browser how to open the linked web page: _self (the standard option) opens the page in the current browser window; _blank opens the page in a new window; _parent opens the page in the parent of the current frame; and _top opens the page in the top-level frame of the current window.

The rest of the options in the Advanced Character panel are typographic features.