Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 51 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page Lesson 5

2 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Objectives Create and configure text. Line up objects with another layer. Create a transparent overlay image. Create navigation buttons. Create Layer folders. Insert Macromedia Flash movies (documents with.swf extensions).

3 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Use the Text tool to add text to your Flash document It is easy to add text to a document using the Text tool. To do so: Select the Text tool from the toolbar. Click once on the Stage to create a text box. Size the text box by dragging the handle in the corner of the text box. Type the text into the box. Change the font or font size of the text in the Property inspector.

4 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Manipulating a text box The figure on the left shows a new text box just added to the Stage. The figure on the right shows the proper way to resize the box by dragging the handle in the top corner of the box. Don’t attempt to change the size of the text box using the Property inspector or the Transform panel. Doing that will just distort the text.

5 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Align text with other objects Once a text box has been added to the Stage, you can move it around using the Arrow tool or keyboard keys just like other objects. If aligning it with a “comp” image, you may need to adjust the size of the text to match the image. Do this in the Property inspector. You can also convert the text to a vector object if desired, although it can no longer be edited as text once it is converted.

6 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Create transparent overlays Creating a transparent overlay gives the appearance of a texture to your movie. You can import an image to serve as your overlay and place it on its own layer. Open the Advanced Effect dialog box and adjust the color settings to make the image somewhat transparent. Preview your overlay effect using the Test Movie function on the Control menu.

7 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 The Advanced Effect dialog box To create a transparent effect, select the symbol or layer to be affected, click the Advanced option from the Color menu in the Property inspector, and then click Settings to open this dialog box. The settings on the left in the box allow you to specify color transparency values as a percentage. The settings on the right in the box allow you to specify color transparency values by constant value.

8 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Add navigation buttons to your movie When you have multiple sections within your movie, you need to give the viewer some way to navigate from section to section. You can create navigation buttons using Button symbols. Buttons have their own independent Timeline. When you create a Button symbol, Flash creates the Timeline and four frames for the button.

9 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Button symbol components Every Button symbol consists of its own Timeline. The Timeline does not play, but reacts to pointer movement and mouse actions. Every Button symbol has four frames: Frame 1 – The Up state represents the button when the pointer is not over the button. Frame 2 – The Over state represents the appearance of the button when the pointer is over it. Frame 3 – The Down state represents the button’s appearance when it is clicked. Frame 4 – The Hit state defines the area that responds to a click of the mouse and is invisible in the movie.

10 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Create buttons from text You can create navigation buttons by entering text onto the Stage and then converting the text to a Button symbol. You can add arrows, icons, or other images to the Stage and combine it with the text by selecting both objects and converting them to a single symbol. Select the object or objects to be converted, click the Modify menu, then click Convert to Symbol. Click the Button behavior box to select it and then supply a name for the symbol. The symbol can then be dragged from the library and positioned on the Stage.

11 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Example of Button symbols using text and arrows The figure below shows a navigation panel at the bottom of the Stage area where text and arrows have been combined. Each text/arrow combination is a unique Button symbol that was created and dragged to the stage from the library.

12 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Create Layer folders to organize your movie Organizing a Flash document by putting different objects on different layers makes it easier to manage the document, but results in many layers. You can create layer folders to store multiple layers that have similar content. You can then collapse or open the folder when you want to reduce the size of the Timeline panel and make it easier to view only the layers in the layer column that you are working on.

13 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Creating a layer folder Make sure the layers to be included are all visible in the layer column. Drag the Timeline dividing bar down to expose more layers if necessary. Click the Insert Layer Folder button at the bottom left of the Timeline and enter a name for the layer folder. Select all the layers to be included in the layer folder and, after they are selected, drag the entire selection to the new layer folder.

14 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Import other Flash movies into your current document If you have other Flash movies (documents with an.SWF extension), you can import them directly into your current document. To do so: Create a new layer to contain the imported movie (if you want it on its own layer). Select the layer to contain the movie, click the File menu, point to Import, then click Import to Library. Locate the SWF file you want to import and double-click it to select it and import it. Drag the movie from the symbol library to the layer where it is to be stored. Move the movie using the Arrow tool or keyboard keys to position it where it is supposed to be placed.

15 Adding Text and Navigation to the Home Page – Lesson 5 Summary In this lesson, you learned: How to create and configure text. To line up objects with another layer. How to create a transparent overlay image. How to create navigation buttons. How to create Layer folders. To insert Flash movies (documents with.swf extensions).