Beginner's Guide to Adobe Flash/Text/Static

Using Static Text in Flash Professional 8

Static text is display text that is not changed at run time. However, static text allows the designer many options at author time. Similar to text boxes in layout programs, Flash’s static text boxes can be scaled, rotated, skewed, flipped, and moved. In addition, static text can have filters applied to it as well as anti-aliasing. Static text boxes come in two varieties: expanding and fixed width. Simply clicking the text tool on the stage and typing will create an expanding text box. This box will expand width-wise as long as the user types. Using the text tool to define a box by clicking and dragging will create a fixed width box. This will constrain the text to the width of the box. In the upper right corner of each text box, the user will find either a square for fixed width boxes or a circle for expanding text boxes. Flash 8 also allows text to be positioned vertically in a static text box. The user simply changes an option on the menu to control the text orientation. This can be useful when dealing with languages that are not based on Latin.

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