CONTINOUSLY SCROLLING A LOADED HTML FILE
by MAX


TUTORIAL
First, create your up & down buttons as you'd like them to be and place them on the stage where you want to.

Next, make a new layer. We'll call ours "Text" for now. On this layer make frames 1-4 blank by selecting each frame and pressing the F7 key.

Label Frame #2 load
Label Frame #4 end

Double click Frame #1 on the Text layer, the Action Properties should pop up. Enter the following action:

loadVariablesNum ("./yourtext.txt", 0);

where "yourtext.txt" is the name of your soon to be text file.



Move the Action Properties box so you can see the Frame #2 on the Text layer and click on it. Action Properties will now display no actions for this frame. Enter the following action:

if (text ne "") {
gotoAndStop ("end");
}

Click Frame #3 on the Text layer. Enter the following action:

gotoAndPlay ("load");

Click Frame #4 on the Text layer. Enter the following action:

stop ();

While in Frame #4 on the Text layer. Click the Text Tool and click where you want your text to be.
In your Text Options panel select Dynamic Text.
Also Select Multiline.
Type text in the variable box
Check the HTML & Word Wrap Boxes
Now select the Arrow Tool and your text field will be a blue out line you can place this where you need to. Double click in your text field and instead of typing text select the small square on the side and drag it out to make the field fit where text would go.

If you would like to change your text to something other than Times New Roman just edit the text field to the font style, size, color you'd like. If you would like to use a special font, select it as you would normally and then in Text Options click the [...] under Embed Fonts. This does add to the file size.
We need to make 2 blank movie clips with Actions in the first 3 frames. These will tell your text to scroll up and down.
The first movie will be like this:
INSERT - NEW SYMBOL name it uptrigger set the behavior as Movie Clip. Click OK.
Make Frames #2 & 3 blank with the F7 key.
Double click Frame #1 to bring up the Action Properties. Enter the following action:

stop ();

Click Frame #2. ACTIONS - set variable. Enter the following action: (you could copy and paste this)

/text:scroll = /text:scroll-1;



Clik Frame #3. Enter the following action:

gotoAndPlay (2);


The second movie will be like this:
INSERT - NEW SYMBOL name it downtrigger set the behavior as Movie Clip. Click OK.
Make Frame #2 & 3 blank with the F7 key.
Double click Frame #1 to bring up the Action Properties. Enter the following action:

stop ();

Click Frame #2. ACTIONS - set variable. Enter the following action: (you could copy and paste this)

/text:scroll = Number(/text:scroll)+1;



Clik Frame #3. Enter the following action:

gotoAndPlay (2);

Lets go back to Scene #1, and place these 2 blank movies on the stage somewhere... doesn't matter where as they are blank. For later editing purpose, I put the uptrigger movie clip near the up button and the downtrigger movie clip next to the down button... made sense to me.
Once you've placed them you'll notice they are just small circles... this is supposed to happen.
Select uptrigger and set the instance properties name to uptrigger.
Select downtrigger and set the instance properties name to downtrigger.

After naming your blank movie clips. Select your up button and bring up the Action Properties on it. Enter the following actions:

on (press) {
 tellTarget ("uptrigger") {
  gotoAndPlay (2);
 }
}
on (release) {
 tellTarget ("uptrigger") {
  gotoAndStop (1);
 }
}

select your down button and bring up the Action Properties on it. Enter the following actions:

on (press) {
 tellTarget ("downtrigger") {
  gotoAndPlay (2);
 }
}
on (release) {
 tellTarget ("downtrigger") {
  gotoAndStop (1);
 }
}

Now save all your work and export this movie.

Last step is to create your text file.
In Frame #1 on the Text Layer we put:
loadVariablesNum ("./yourtext.txt", 0);
So for this example we will create yourtext.txt in the same directory as our flash movie. Just add the line text= before all your text.
Even though using a text file is fine instead of HTML is fine. You could have put yourtext.html and used a HTML file to create your text. Flash recognizes all html text tags and ignores mostly everything else like tables and images.

A PLUS to using this technique is the fact you can use an open window browser Java Script.
Just add the following script to the web page where you have you flash movie on:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function newwinlink() {
newwin = window.open("newwindow.htm","newwindow","height=220,width=400,resizable")
}
// end hiding --></SCRIPT>


and in your text file that will be loaded by your flash movie add this link:

<a href="javascript:newwinlink()">CLICK HERE</a>

-Enjoy!