Summary

• Components are a fast and easy way to add interactivity to a movie. They save time and increase usability through consistency, intuitiveness, and solid ActionScript.

• Flash 8 (and Flash MX 2004) components are called V2 components, whereas Flash MX components are called V1 components.

• The User Interface components that ship with Flash 8 are compiled clips. All of the components' assets and code are condensed into a single symbol. You cannot edit a component's assets in its compiled version.

• Some of the most useful UI elements are already built into Flash 8, including radio buttons, click buttons, combo boxes, lists, and scrolling panes. Using these facilitates user friendliness with your Flash projects because they emulate the user interface elements commonly used across the Internet and on many desktop applications.

• You can change the look and feel of your components by using the setStyle() method of the individual component or of the _global.style object.

• If you are changing the fonts on your components, you probably want to embed them to avoid problems if your end-user does not have the font you are calling for.

• Advanced users of Flash may want to create their own custom components. Custom components can be reused from movie to movie, exchanged, or sold on the Internet. You can download additional components to add to your own movie from online resources, such as the Macromedia Exchange.