Macromedia MAX 2005 - Anaheim, CA What’s New In Flash 8
104
Upgrading Flash 7 content to use Flash 8 anti-aliasing options
When you open a FLA file created for use with Flash Player 7 or earlier, the text Property inspector
sets the anti-alias option to its equivalent anti-aliasing option from Flash MX 2004. Text from older
FLA files can be anything except for Anti-Alias for Readability and Custom Anti-Alias.
To upgrade Flash 7 content to use the Advanced or Custom Anti-Alias options:
Open a FLA file created for use with Flash 7 or earlier.
Open the Publish Settings dialog box (File > Publish Settings), and select Flash Player 8 from
the Version pop-up menu.
Select the text field to which you want to apply the Anti-Alias for Readability or Custom Anti-Alias
option.
In the Property inspector, select Anti-Alias for Readability or Custom Anti-Alias from the Font
Rendering Method pop-up menu.
Adding text
You can add several types of text to a Flash document: static text, dynamic text, or input text. Static
text is useful when you need to add decorative text to the Stage, or any text that doesn't need to
change or load from an external source. Use dynamic text when you need to load text from a file,
database, or change the text when the SWF file plays in Flash Player. Use input text when you want
the user to type into a text field. You can take that text and send it to a database, have it manipulate
something in the SWF file, and more.
You can add any of these types of text using the Text tool. For this exercise, you will add some static
text to the Stage for decorative purposes. To add static text, follow these steps:
Open a new Flash document and name it text_test.fla in the Unit_5 folder.
1. With your text tool, draw a text block, and type in the words “Macromedia Flash”.
2. In the Property inspector, change the following font properties:
• Font: Your choice!
• Size: 60
• Color: Red
3. Change each of the Anti-alias settings to view the subtle visual changes.
