Flash :: Dynamically Sizing Text Area

Sizing Images Dynamically
I have a question about sizing an image as it comes in from the data base into a flash movie. Right now the code is written...
smallPicX = 0;
smallPicY = 0;
smallPicW = 218;
smallPicH = 153;
so an image from the database comes in and sizes to 218w x 153h. However this creates white space above and below or on the sides if the image is not the same proportion. Can the code be written so the shortest pixel dimension is either 218 or 153. This way the image comes into a mask and crops so it fits.

Guessing but can you set a variable to the min image px dimensions then write if/else statement?

Thanks

Sizing Textfield Dynamically?
Is there a way to size a textfield dynamically based on the amount of data being fed to it (via XML).

If so, could someone point me in the right direction?

Problem With Dynamically Sizing Movieclips
Hey ... I seem to have a problem when I scale a movie "x value" ... dynamically ...
When the Script runs the movieclip resizes the x value but also changes the y value ... I can't seem to find out why ...

I'm attaching a .fla file (MX) that is a dummy setup ... Please look at it ... and tell me anything I can do ...

thanks for the help

Dynamically Sizing Textboxes _width
Hi All,

I'm having a problem with sizing a dynamic text box's _width.

My movie has a single movie (feedback) on a single frame. Within feedback I have a dynamic textbox called myText. It's multiline property is set to true. It's width is 200. It's height is 100.

Here's the code that goes on frame one.

code: var minWidth = 200;
var minHeight = 100;
feedback.myText.autoSize = true;

function buildBox(val){
thisText = feedback.myText;
trace(thisText._width);
thisText.htmlText = val;

if(thisText._height > minHeight){
minWidth = minWidth * 1;
minHeight = minHeight * 1.5;
thisText.text = "";
thisText._width = minWidth;
thisText._height = minHeight;
trace(thisText._width);

buildBox(val);
}
}

buildBox("Hello. How are you doing today? This is a test. Here is some text. I should get some Lorum Ipsum text for this. But that';s jsdkaisdjfh asdfas asdf asdf asdf asdf awetr fgh asdf awrt gh zdf ast srtu What more do you need to know. Is this working? Add some more text. More text. asdf wert sdgsdfgsdfg awtr asgf asdfg asert asg dfu ety asdfg");

When I have the line: minWidth = minWidth * 1; I would think that the width of the textbox would not change from 200, but it does. It changes to 236.9 or some odd number like that.

If I comment out the line: thisText._width = minWidth;, then the width stays at 200.

Any thoughts???

Thanks.

_t

Scroll Bar With Dynamically Sizing Handle?
Hi all,

I'm trying to find a way to create a scroll bar that allows it's handle to resize itself depending on how much material is loaded into the thing it's scrolling. i.e like the way handle on the side of your web browser resizes itself depending on how long the weboage in question is.
Hope that makes sense. Is there a name for such a scrollbar so I can look for tutorials on how to do this?

Many thanks
Scott

Dynamically Sizing The Flash Window
I would like to be able to run my Flash at 600 X 600 until it ends then change it to 100 X 100.

Is this possible? If so how do I do it?

I apologize if this is in the wrong section.

Dynamically Loading Jpgs And Sizing The Movie Appropriately
Hello everyone. I am creating a site that the client needs to update themselves. The site will showcase a photographers photos. I am going to call all the jpgs in off the server with the loadMovie command and was wondering if it is possible to check the size (pixels) of the jpg and then scale an MC to match it, plus a 20 pixel border of extra space around it?

Am I making sense? Does anyone have any idea how this can be done?

thanks in advance for any replies..

Dynamically Sizing Clip To Stage Width+height
so i guess what the real question is is how would make the movieclip smart enough to know when its reached the top of the stage and bottom from different positions on the stage.

i have a button that is duplicated three times one after the other. so when they resize even though they are now equal to 600 in height (my stage is 800x600) they are not positoned isnt equal to the top and bottom of the stage.

here's my code as it stands now:

sW=Stage.width;
sH=Stage.height;

fillScreen= function (clip) {
speed = 4;
clip.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._height += (sH - this._height)/speed;
if(Math.round(this._height) >= sH){
this.onEnterFrame = null;
trace(this._name+" equals null");

} else {
trace("AAA" + _parent._name + "not equal to stage");
trace("BBB" + "sH value: " + sH);
trace("CCC" + "this._height equals: " + this._height);
}
};
};
i hope that makes sense
thanks for the help

erase

Dynamically Sizing A Flash Object To Fit The Live-Space Of A Browser
I'm not quite sure this is the best place to find the answer to this question but here goes anyway ...

_______________________________________

I would like to know if it is possible to author a Flash or Shockwave file that can dynamically RESIZE and re-POSITION its elements to fit the ALL or (a given) PART OF the Live-Space of the browser/window (not the entire screen area)..

My Thoughts:
Since there is no way (that I know) of getting the Live-Space of the container Browser/window from within Flash or Shockwave, the only option is "get" these values using JavaScript, and then "send" them to the embedded (Flash or Shockwave) object which must be able to use the said values to resize/reposition itself and its elements accordingly.

Ok, does this make sense? More importanly, how can I achieve the stated effect.

Thanks

- your frinedly vIDEOhEAD

How To Dynamically Vary The Size Of Scrolling Area
Hi,

I would like to vary the size of the scrolling Area at runtime.

A movieclip contains a form. The form consists of a variable number of buttons. The movieclip shall be scrollable - but only if possible.

When I do the "classic" scrolling, I have to define a fixed size of the movieClip and a mask. But then the user is able to scroll even when there is no content in the scrollable area.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Thanks
Inga

Dynamically Size Stage And Display Area?
I have a slideshow that loads from xml and fades in a variety of sizes of images in random positions. I'm trying to set it up so that the swf (which is in a div tag in an interface) will resize depending on the browser size and will use the NEW stage size to determine the random x/y positions of the images (without resizing them) and will skip any images that are too big for the stage size...

Any ideas if this is possible? Dynamically sizing and determining the "working area" of a swf based on the browser/div size??

THANKS!!!!

Dynamically Fill Area With Words From List
hello all,

i would like to fill the entire area of a flash movie with words.

the movie starts out blank, but as time goes on the visible area fills with words from a pre-written list.
ideally, the height and width of the words is randomized within a range i determine.

i wouldn't mind being pointed to a tutorial that shows how to fill an area with randomly-sized rectangles, that might help.

eventually, i want to be able to control the speed of the area being filled with an input device (mouse or external sensor) but first things first!

am using flash 8.

thank you,
aya.

Help In Dynamically Creating A Transparent Area On A Movieclip
I have a .jpg graphic in a movieclip on layer two (1024/768). This is used as a background.

I have a .jpg scrolling movieclip on layer one. It is a very wide graphic used for displaying a panorama.

I would like to be able to create, dynamically using actionscript, a transparent area on the layer two movieclip (create a window) to view the underlying movieclip.

I believe this is possible using the Rectangle class in the flash.geom.rectangle but I can't figure out how to attach it to the layer two movieclip or how to make it transparent so shows the underlying scrolling graphic.

If someone can help, I would sure appreciate it. I am a beginner in Flash and trying to learn.

Dynamically Improve The Target Area Of Buttons
In the Macromedia White Paper on Flash usability there is the paragraph:

According to Fitt â€™s Law,â€œThe time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.â€ Simply
stated,this means the bigger a button is the easier it is to click;and the easiest item to click on the screen is one
that is closest to the mouse pointer and largest in screen size.

When designing in Macromedia Flash elements like buttons that interact with the user â€™s cursor or mouse arrow
apply to Fitt â€™s Law.Navigation elements should be the easy to click.One unique way that Macromedia Flash can
improve the â€œclickability â€ of a button is by using ActionScript to dynamically improve the target area of buttons as
the cursor approaches them.

My question is how do I do this?

I just want to know the actionscript i would need to change the size of a movie clip so that as the mouse gets closer to it, it becomes larger and as the mouse moves away it gets smaller.

thanks

Sizing Photos For An Auto Sizing Gallery
I want to put together a flash gallery of photography for my photography business. I am very good at Photoshop design, html, css, javascript but I am a novice with flash. I can use it and use some actionscripting but my knowledge is limited.

I see galleries like this one: http://www.jeshderox.com/

The images expand and contract perfectly as the browser is resized. I am used to having to size pics for the lowest res screens (I design for 1024 width resos's usually).

What size should I make pictures to work like this... Does flash scale them down / up / either... are there quality issues with letting flash manage the sizing.

Add any answers to thoughts you know I should have asked...

Scott

Dynamic Text Box Sizing
This may be a dumb thing to say, but that's just me. I write the text I want to display in a box. I make the box dynamic, multiline and unselectable, therefore making much more readable. All the text fits inside the box size I have used.

I then play the movie however, and large chunks of text are missing i.e. the box now appears to be too small to contain the text.

Does anyone know why this would happen? It's incredibly annoying!!!!

Text In Textfield Not Sizing...
hi,
im creating a textfield in an empty MC.
im setting the width of the MC to a lower size, but
the text isn't sizing with it... the font size is still the same...

im not using TextFormat bcuz i want the text to be change as accuratly as the width of the MC changing...
here's a piece of code -
code:
mc = _root.createEmptyMovieClip("textMC",3);
mc.createTextField("nodeTitle", 1, 0, 0, 100, 100);
mc.nodeTitle.multiline = true // the text will adjust it self to lines
mc.nodeTitle.autoSize = true;
mc.nodeTitle.wordWrap = true;
mc.nodeTitle.text = "adlfkjalsd kfjasldkgjas ldkgjasldkgjas dgjasldg";
mc._width = 10;

thanks in advance,
Avi.

Text Field Sizing
Does anyone know how to size a text field by entering exact numbers, while not causing a transform. Dragging the text field handle is a bit time consuming....

Dynamic Text Box Sizing
Hi all...

I'm building a scrolling marquee. Simple enough, but I'm wondering if someone can help me with one aspect of it.

I'm passing several strings of text via php that will scroll by in the marquee. These strings are all different lengths, some short, some very long. I'm populating a dynamic text box inside a movie clip. The problem is, is that I don't know the best way to size this text box. The best way I could think of was to pass the total number of characters in my text to the movie and then do this:

_root.myMovie.myTextBox._width = _root.numChars * 7

7 seems to be the magic number, anything smaller cuts some of the end of the text off. Anything longer gives me too big of a box. I need to get it as close to the size of the actual text as possible, because I'm checking for the end of the text box to go by before I send the next string across the marquee with a duplicateMovieClip function.

Hope this makes sense, if someone has a better way or suggestions, please help! Thanks in advance...

Text Field Sizing
Does anyone know how to size a text field by entering exact numbers, while not causing a transform. Dragging the text field handle is a bit time consuming....

Auto Sizing Text Boxes
Is it posable to have a dynamic text box that sizes according to the amount of text being input in to it?

Scroll Bar Not Sizing To The Text Field?
I am following the directions on the macromedia site for a scrollbar text-field and when I drag the scrollbar from components it's not sizing to fit the size of the text box I made. My text is dynamic like the directions said. Can anyone tell me how to correct this problem without having to do like a free transform on the scrollbar. I was thinking that if I altered the scrollbars size besides it adjusting to the text field on it's on I would mess it up.... Thanks for your help in advance!

Dynamic Text - Sizing Issue.
I have a dynamic text box which loads an external txt file.
When the movie is published the text in the swf comes up blurry when viewed at %100 but is fine when show all is ticked?

Im using verdana size 9 for the font.

any tips?

Dynamic Text Box Sizing Issue
I have some dynamically generated buttons.
So I made a button, slapped my dynamic text box on it and made the text centered. Problem is the text of the buttons varies in length. So the spacing of the buttons seems really wide between some buttons and too small between others (partly because there's no background to the button, its just the text). Anyway to get around this?
Can I limit the size of the dynamic textbox/button to the length of the text loading into it?? tia.

Input Text Font Sizing
Alright, I made a big box where a message could go, i set arial font to 14 and it was huge, i set it to 8 and it was big but skinny, my name and email inputs are not as big so the font looks fine in them, why is it making it bigger and how do u fix it?

Sizing Dyn Text Box For Externally Loaded Txt FL8
I have created a scolling text field in which I would like to have an external .txt load. I have been able to get the text to load but I cannot get the box height to load correctly based upon the external file. I have been looking for days now and have not been able to find out how to fix my problem.The script that scrolls properly with text in the AS is below.

import mx.transitions.Tween;
import mx.transitions.easing.*;

// Scrolls descrip1 to follow scrollbar, with easing
function scrollOnMouseMoveEase() {
this.startDrag(false, this._x, mask4._y, this._x, scrollbarbottom);
this.onMouseMove = function() {
new Tween(descrip1, "_y", Strong.easeOut, descrip1._y, mask4._y - (textheight - mask4._height) * ((this._y-mask4._y) / scrollbarrange), 1, true);
}
}

// variable to store height of textfield after text added
var textheight:Number;

// variables for calculating scrollbar/textfield relationships
// position of scrollbar when at bottom:
var scrollbarbottom:Number = scrollbar._y + (mask4._height - scrollbar._height);

// range of scrollbar is from mask._y to scrollbarbottom:
var scrollbarrange:Number = scrollbarbottom - mask4._y;

function stopScrollOnMouseMove() {
this.stopDrag();
delete this.onMouseMove;
}

// in init function:
descrip1.htmlText = "Proin porta mattis sapien. Quisque accumsan malesuada turpis. In ut dui non eros ultrices laoreet. N</p>";
descrip1.autoSize = "left";
// can use same textheight variable calculated for example 4
textheight = descrip1.textHeight + 5;// add some extra pixels for insurance
scrollbar.onPress = scrollOnMouseMoveEase;
scrollbar.onRelease = scrollbar.onReleaseOutside = stopScrollOnMouseMove;

// Stop continuous scroll
function stopScroll() {
delete this.onEnterFrame;
}
init();
If I place two mcs on the stage (button1 and button2) and the following AS the text will load onRelease but the height of the text box is based upon descrip1 and I need it to be the dynamically loaded text. What I am trying to achieve is one .text to load onLoad and the others onRelease.I would like to have the scrollbar to reset when clicking on the next button as well. I could live with just properly loading external txt
//function to lead text on button 1//
button1_mc.onRelease = function () {
_root.myLV.load("page1.txt");
}

//function to lead text on button 2//
button2_mc.onRelease = function () {
_root.myLV.load("page2.txt");
}

//creates a new loadVars object that will load the text
var myLV:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
myLV.onLoad = function(success) {
if (success) {
descrip1.htmlText = myLV.info;
} else {
loadedInfo.text = "There has been an error";
}
};I know this is a ridculously long post but I would really like to get this for a website I am building for our wedding. Please help if you can. Please keep in mind I am a newb when commenting. I really appreciate anybody who reads this. It is people like you who make the world a better place.

IB

scrolling_Text.zip

How Do You All Handle Dynamic Text Sizing?
Hello!
How do you guys handle situations where you have a dynamic text field that needs to have the text size shrink when the length of the text is too long to fit in the spot alloted on the stage?
I usually make a stupid little if/then that sets the size based on the number of chars, is there a cleaner and more elegant solution?
Jason

Weird CSS Text Sizing Problem.
When I use a CSS file for dynamic text the text from the exported SWF is either displayed smaller or larger than the actual px definition in the CSS file. Sometimes the CSS file has to define the style as 18px for the SWF to show the text as 10px and sometimes I can't even get the px size down far enough to display as 10px. Does anyone know what is causing this?

LOOPED BUTTONS AND TEXT SIZING
Hello all

I have a set of buttons which loop based on the length (number) of children in XML. The labels of the buttons are an attribute of each child node. right now I am looping an equally sized button but in fact need each button to be resized based on the amount of text in each of the child nodes in XML. In other words, if the button label is "cowagunga dude" the button needs to be the size of that phrase. THe buttons always need to be looped from the right to the left as well (which i have pretty much figured out). The code that I am using is as follows:

//load the xml
menuXML = new XML();
menuXML.ignoreWhite = true;
menuXML.load("list.xml");
menuXML.onLoad = function(success) {
createBottomMenu();
}
//attach some dummys off the stage because we are counting backwards and need to measure the width of these items
_root.attachMovie("menuEnd", "endDummy", 3);
_root.endDummy._y = 100;
_root.attachMovie("navButton", "dummy", 4);
_root.dummy._y = 100;

//create a function to make the nav elements
function createBottomMenu() {
//find the amount of elements in the nav
loopAmount = menuXML.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes.length;
_root.createEmptyMovieClip("navContain", "navContain", 5);
_root.navContain.attachMovie("menuEnd", "menuEnd", 10);
//place a bookend at the edge of the stage (minus its own width);
_root.navContain.menuEnd._x = Stage.width-_root.endDummy._width;
_root.navContain._y = .5;
//create a width variable based on our dummy
startX = Stage.width+(-_root.navContain.menuEnd._width-(dummy._width));
trace("created");
//loop the nav elements
for (i=0; i<loopAmount; i++) {
navContain.attachMovie("navButton", "navButton"+i, i);
navContain["navButton"+i]._x = startX;
navContain["navButton"+i].slot.html = true;
//name the xml link and the button content
navContain["navButton"+i].slot.text = menuXML.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.menuName;
navContain["navButton"+i].link = menuXML.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.menuLink+".html";
startX -= navContain.navButton0._width;
var theEnd = navContain["navButton"+i]._x;
}
//attach the bookend on the left
_root.navContain.attachMovie("menuBegin", "menuBegin", 50);
_root.navContain.menuBegin._x = theEnd-(_root.navContain.menuBegin._width);
}

USUALLY i am pretty sure i can figure stuff out on my own but i have NO idea how to make this happen... I am thinking something to do with enterframe clipevents on the buttons or something but i really dont know ... COMPLETELY banging my head against the wall. If anyone can help me i would be very grateful. Is it even possible to do what I am asking??

Thanks

E

Exact Text Box Sizing Without Using The Bounding Sizer
I want to create text fields that are an exact dimensions. However if I create the field first and use the proerties manager to get the field size I want, the text also gets transformed by the change in dimensions.

So, I have to use the bounding box to resize the text field, which turns out to be next to impossible to get the exact dimension that I want.

Is there a better way?

Scrollbar Not Sizing To Size Of Text Field
Hello and thanks for your time.
I created a dynamic text field. Selected multi-line. Gave the text field an Instance Name(scroll_text).
Dragged my Scrollbar component to the right-hand region of my text field and it's not snapping to the side of my field or automatically sizing like others I've done. I have deleted, redone, rebooted Flash, rebooted my computer. Any ideas? Thank you again.

Dynamic Text - Auto Sizing The Height?
Dear All
I have several dynamic text fields that are going to be in a column. I am going to use these fields with xml files for the user to update. Hence I don't really know how long the text is going to be. I can set a max size by creating a dynmaic text box that has several lines. However, if the user only inserts a few words I am gonig to be left with a lot of empty space a the bottom of the text box.
HOw do I set the text box so that its size automatically adjusts up and down to the size of the text that's going into it.
Many thanks
Edward

Font Rules Please For Sizing Text Fields
Hi,

Can you point me in the right direction please to stop my fonts blurring in my dynamic text field.

I have embedded a font. (Nutrox's sx nudoc regular). 8pt, line spacing 2 pt, Antialiased and (left aligned).

It works beautifully if i have a huge text field of say 333.9 x 106. (x and y are whole numbers).

But I want it to appear in a column of about 10 lines and 169 pixels wide or there abouts.

What am I not considering when I resize my text fields please? (I have tried with locking or unlocking the width/height parameters)
and the above settings.

I am loading in the text dynamically and like I said it works fine and stays perfect size also for a huge text field.

Cheers. (Don't you just hate losing days on this kind of thing?)

ps. this text is so blurred, how ever much I strain to squint, I still can't read it.

Resizing A Movie Clip Without Sizing The Embedded Text Field
I have an input text field inside a movie clip. The user is able to resize the clip. I want the text to remain it's normal 12 point size but it scales with the movie clip. How do I prevent this?

How To Format External Text File To Show In Three Separate Columns Through Text Area?
Hullo everyone!

Could anyone suggest a piece of advice to visualize the following idea?

I should like to import an external .txt file into flash and display it by means of a text area component, which would take the better part of the screen and be skinned to fit the rest of the page design. The text ought to be formatted by way of an external .css file. Images are optional.

I can do all this allright, but what I should like to have is the text formatted to be displayed in three separate columns. The idea for this naturally comes from the Flash version of the Macromedia Edge newsletter.

I should be most thankful if anyone cared to come up with a solution.

Streching A Text Box Area To Match The Exact Size Of The Text Inside.
Is there a way to strech the width of the text area (without distorting it) to match exactly the size of the dynamic text on it?

I'm sure a lot of stumbled upon this once...

Thanks in advance!

Embedding Fonts Into HTML Enabled Text Area Component Results In No Text Appearing
I've tried this on both Flash's own text area component and Ghostwire's and have had exactly the same result with both.

Basically, I'm using the text area component to load in an HTML document. The component is supposed to display the Tahoma font but it isn't on all computers as Times might show up. So I went ahead and decided to embed the font. Doesn't matter if I place a dynamic text field off the stage and then select the embed fonts option or make a Font Symbol for Tahoma. If I tell the text area to embed fonts I then render out the .swf and the text disappears. Turn off HTML formatting and the text then appears but the formatting of course, is completely lost. Anyone got an idea of a real fix for this? Or at least an explanation?

Loading External Text File Into Text Area (flashMX)
Hi,

I am trying to load text from an external text file into a textarea in FlashMX. I am able to set the contents of the textarea by using a string ("test thingy"), but I was wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction on hoe to include text from an external file.

Used to set string:
scroller.text="test thingy";

Thanks a bunch,
Niklas Wahlberg

List Component That Calls Text File To Text Area
flash mx pro

How would i load externel text files into a scrollable textfield using a listbox component as a menu to select and load the different .txt files on my server.

Please see my attempt so far which "does not work" at the following link:

http://www.miamicrab.com/untitled0.htm

Dynamically Masking Dynamically Created Text (MX)
I am having trouble dynamically masking dynamically created text... It just doesn't seem to work!! This is what i'm doing.

First i create a movie clip dynamically using attachMovie. On the first frame of that mci create a bunch of text fields, one after the other. When that finishes, i call a function in another mc that creates another mc and draws a box in it and then sets it as the mask of the first mc.

The result should be that only the text that is within that mask should show up, right? Well, the text doesn't mask at all, even if it is entirely beyond the bounds of the mask.

I read that it might be a problem with fonts that aren't embedded, so i set the TextFormat.embedFonts to true...

anyone have any idea??

Vertical Align Text In Dynamic Text Area
Have just created my first database driven dynamic text box and it works

Just one problem...

One of the dynamic text areas is multi-line and try as I might I can't seem to find any way to set the vertical alignment of the text to 'middle' vertically...

i.e. if the text is only a couple of words, it aligns to the top of the textarea and I'd like it to align to the middle of the text area vertically.

Any ideas???

Thanks

dominicall

Flash 8 - Text Area Component Selecting Text
Essentially I have a single instance of a text area (populated via XML) that updates based on whichever button (1 thru 6) is pressed. The prob:
On intial load you can scroll the text and it behaves normal. I press a button, the text updates, but when I scroll again the component auto selects all of the text within.

prob#2:
In another section of my app I reuse templated slides that populate a text area component with XML text - if I select/highlight the text on slide 1, click next/forward, reuse the template slide but parse a new XML into it, it displays new content but the same area that was previously selected is selected/highlighted on the new slide.

Any thoughts - is this a bug?
Thanks