Building Easy Text or Images Scrolling with Flash MX 2004

By Oleg Lazarenko
2005-03-15


Building Easy Text or Images Scrolling with Flash MX 2004

There are many websites in the Internet built using Macromedia Flash technology. You probably saw different types of scrolling on those websites. I would like to show you one of the easiest ways to create a scroll bar with the mask. It may be used not only for text scrolling but you may also put images into that scrolling. If you experience some difficulties while reading this tutorial it is recommended to read all the previous tutorials on http://www.metamorphozis.com written by me as some aspects might be discussed earlier.

1. Launch Flash MX 2004

2. Create new Flash file. Click File > New...



3. Select Flash Document in a new window



4. Create 2 blank layers. Name the first one "Buttons" and the second one "Mask and Content"



5. Select the "Mask and Content" layer and with the "Rectangle Tool" draw a simple rectangle shape. Set the shape color to black.



6. Select the "Buttons" layer and drag it to the top then with the "Pen Tool" draw up and down arrows.



7. Select the "Mask and Content" layer and with the "Rectangle Tool" draw a white rectangle within the black shape. Convert shape into the movie.



8. Type in the movie instance name to "text"



9. Above the "Buttons" layer create a new blank layer, call it "Control".



10. Press "Ctrl+F8" to create a new symbol. Call it "control". You will see the blank screen appear but do not worry. We will need this movie to hold an action script coding which will be used to calculate up and down the movement of our text layer.



11. Now create 2 blank layers in the "control" movie. Call them "Up" and "Down".



12. 12. Create 3 blank keyframes in the "Up" layer. Add the following action script code to the first frame of the "Up" layer:
stop();



13. Select the second frame and add action script code:


y = getProperty("_root.text.content", _y);
if (y>100) {
gotoAndStop(1);
} else {
setProperty("_root.text.content", _y, y+6);
}



14. Select the third frame and add the action script code:
gotoAndPlay(2);

15. Select the fourth frame of the "Down" layer and create a blank keyframe. Add the following action script code:
stop();



Tutorial Pages:
» Building Easy Text or Images Scrolling with Flash MX 2004
» Flash Text Scrolling Cont'd

Related Tutorials: » Flash Race Car Tutorial » Flash Momentum Tutorial » Customized Cursor in Flash MX 2004 » Dropdown Menu in Flash MX 2004 » How to Change the Movie Visibility Using Action Script in Flash MX 2004 » Changing Colors for the Flash Movie in Flash MX 2004