dynamic text is invisible

[btelecky]

I am attempting to use dynamic text in flash 8. But the text doesn't show up. I'm using it in a scroll pane componet, and the scroll bars show up so it would seem the data loaded.

I'm using a technique from a flash mx book, utilizing assigned variables and some actionscript to load the variable and connect to a .txt file.

I've consulted the help menu in flash, but dynamic text is kind of a broad topic... Any help or a point in the right direction would be apprecated.
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[nwalton]

I've seen some of these in books that are pretty difficult to get working. First off, do you have your fonts embedded into the dynamic textfield? There should be a little "Embed..." button on the right side of the properties panel when you textfield is selected.

// EDIT: The real problem is addressed below-- scrollpanes shouldn't be used for this

[nwalton]

You probably also want to run some trace actions to see whether the data is really loaded or not.

One problem I've had when loading external data is that there can be a delay for loading, and the textfield doesn't always get updated after the data loads. If you have any experience using listeners to trigger actions (using, for example, an "onLoad" event) that would be the best way to avoid that problem.

[BrightStarPro]

I've seen some of these in books that are pretty difficult to get working. First off, do you have your fonts embedded into the dynamic textfield? There should be a little "Embed..." button on the right side of the properties panel when you textfield is selected.

I'm using Flash 7, and I've been trying to find a way to get people who see the dynamic text in my website to see the same "LCD" font I see. I'm guessing this "embed font" feature would solve that problem, but I don't see anywhere where I can do that. Is this option available on Flash 7?

[nwalton]

You mean Flash MX or MX 2004? I'm not sure that it was available in those (it's been a little while since I've used them). If you click on your dynamic text box, and look down in the properties window it may be there. Mine looks like this (Flash 8):



If you look over to the far right, you see the little "Embed..." button. If yours doesn't have that, you'll have to do the older method of including a font in your library. It can be a little more complicated. Here's a page that explains how to do it:

http://www.flash-mx.com/news/archives/000136.cfm

[Medyman]

Have you embedded the text? That might be the culprit. Embed the characters you'll need to recall in the flash movie.

It can be done by click the "Embed" button in the Properties panel.

[nwalton]

I'm using it in a scroll pane componet, and the scroll bars show up so it would seem the data loaded.

I didn't notice this before...Sorry about the non-useful advice so far.

A scrollpane component is not the right way to create scrolling dynamic text. A scrollpane is usually used to load an image that is bigger than the scrollpane viewing area (and thus would need to be scrolled).

To create dynamic text, you can just use a plain old textField from the tool bar. Change it to a dynamic text field in the properties panel. Give it an instance name. Embed the characters of the font you want. Add the actionscript to populate it (I can give you more direction on this if you need help).

You can then attach a scrollbar component to your text field to get the scrolling.

That's not the only way, but it's one good way to accomplish what you're trying to do. Let me know if I can help further.