Chapter 6. Using Flash

What You Will Learn

In this lesson, you will:

• Learn to use Flash for asset creation

• Use components for rapid development

• Use ActionScript to control check box components

• Learn the Lingo to get data from a Flash sprite

Approximate Time

This lesson should take you about 1.5 hours to complete.

Lesson Files

Media Files:

None

Starting Files:

myTrainer_start.dir

Completed Files:

None

This is the first lesson in the second project, the Personal Training Log. When the log is finished, at the end of Lesson 10, you'll have a complete, database-driven application that you can use to keep track of training miles for activities such as biking or running. You'll even add graphing functions so you can visualize mileage versus average speed. If you're not a fitness buff, you can use the log for keeping journal entries, appointments, or other events.

The completed personal training log project

In this lesson, you'll set up and create the custom input dialog for the training log using Macromedia Flash. Using Flash for dialog boxes and other assets is a great way to go, as it makes it easy to encapsulate the entire Flash movie within a single Director sprite. You can also leverage Flash features such as text field input restriction to limit user input to only the characters you want. And because Flash is a vector-based package, you can scale your Flash sprites in Director and they will still look great. Using Flash is also much simpler in Director MX 2004 than in previous versions, as you will soon see.

Note

If you don't currently have Flash installed, a 30-day trial copy is provided on the CD. You can find the Flash trial within the Lesson06\Flash_Trial folder.