Chapter 17. Interface Techniques

Flash 5 makes it easy to create simple interactivity. Buttons are the most obvious example. Press a button and something happens. However, if you want to add real interactivity to your site, you need to get into ActionScript. In fact, what separates the Flash wannabes from the Flash gurus is a solid understanding of how to combine Actions to get the kind of interactivity they want.

In this chapter, you get a solid introduction to some of the types of interactivity you can add to your Flash movie. You'll learn how to do the following:

• Let your user move objects around inside your movie. Take a look at the basics of drag-and-drop interactivity using the startDrag() and stopDrag() methods .

• Make something happen when an object drops on a specific target. Go beyond the simple dragging and take a look at the _dropTarget property.

• Create a custom cursor. You're no longer limited to using just the standard mouse pointer. You can use the Mouse object and the mouseMove clip event to create your very own cursor.

• Create a reusable slider. Create a slider that can be customized to suit your needs.

• Set up a scrolling text field. Scrolling text fields are easy to set up. You can control the scrolling of the text fields by setting up some simple buttons.

We start by taking a look at how you set up basic drag-and-drop style interactivity.