Flash CS4 text fields

There are three types of text fields: static, dynamic, and input. All text fields support Unicode.

• Static text fields display text that doesn’t change characters dynamically.
• Dynamic text fields display dynamically updating text, such as stock quotes or weather reports.
• Input text fields allow users to enter text in forms or surveys.

  You can create horizontal text (with a left-to-right flow) or static vertical text (with either a right-to-left or left-to-right flow).

  When creating static text, you can place text on a single line that expands as you type, or in a fixed-width field (for horizontal text) or fixed-height field (for vertical text) that expands and wraps words automatically. When creating dynamic or input text, you can place text on a single line, or create a text field with a fixed width and height.

  Flash displays a handle on the corner of a text field to identify the type of text field:

• For static horizontal text that extends, a round handle appears at the upper-right corner of the text field.
  
• For static horizontal text that has a fixed width, a square handle appears at the upper-right corner of the text field.
  
• For static vertical text that has right-to-left flow and extends, a round handle appears at the lower-left corner of the text field.
  
• For static vertical text that has right-to-left flow and a fixed height, a square handle appears at the lower-left corner of the text field.
  
• For static vertical text that has left-to-right flow and extends, a round handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.
  
• For static vertical text that has left-to-right flow and a fixed height, a square handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.
  
• For dynamic or input text fields that extend, a round handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.
  
• For dynamic or input text that has a defined height and width, a square handle appears at the lower-right corner of the text field.
  
• For dynamic scrollable text fields, the round or square handle becomes solid black instead of hollow.
  

  Shift-double-click the handle of dynamic and input text fields to create text fields that don’t expand when you enter text on the Stage. This allows you to create a text field of a fixed size and fill it with more text than it can display to create scrolling text.

  After you use the Text tool to create a text field, use the Property inspector to specify the type of text field, and to set values that control how the text field and its contents appear in the SWF file.