Adobe Flash Professional CC 2014 v.13.0 User Manual
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Using the ActionScript documentation
Because there are multiple versions of ActionScript (2.0 and 3.0), and multiple ways of incorporating it into your FLA files, there are several
different ways to learn ActionScript.
This chapter describes the graphical user interface for working with ActionScript. This interface includes the Actions panel, Script window, Script
Assist mode, Behaviors panel, Output panel, and Compiler Errors panel. These topics apply to all versions of ActionScript.
Other ActionScript documentation from Adobe will help you learn about the individual versions of ActionScript; see Programming ActionScript 3.0,
Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash, Developing Flash Lite 1.x Applications or Developing Flash Lite 2.x Applications. For information about
the ActionScript vocabulary, see the ActionScript Language Reference for the version you are working with.
Ways of working with ActionScript
There are several ways to work with ActionScript.
(Deprecated with Flash Professional CC) Script Assist mode lets you add ActionScript to your FLA file without writing the code yourself. You
select actions, and the software presents you with a user-interface for entering the parameters required for each one. You must know a little
about what functions to use to accomplish specific tasks, but you don’t have to learn syntax. Many designers and non-programmers use this
mode.
(Deprecated with Flash Professional CC) Behaviors also let you add code to your file without writing it yourself. Behaviors are prewritten
scripts for common tasks. You can add a behavior and then easily configure it in the Behaviors panel. Behaviors are available only for
ActionScript 2.0 and earlier.
Writing your own ActionScript gives you the greatest flexibility and control over your document, but it requires you to become familiar with the
ActionScript language and conventions.
Components are prebuilt movie clips that help you implement complex functionality. A component can be a simple user interface control,
such as a check box, or it can be a complicated control, such as a scroll pane. You can customize a component’s functionality and
appearance, and you can download components created by other developers. Most components require you to write some ActionScript code
of your own to trigger or control a component. For more information, see
.
Writing ActionScript
When you write ActionScript code in the authoring environment, you use the Actions panel or Script window. The Actions panel and Script window
contain a full-featured code editor that includes code hinting and coloring, code formatting, syntax highlighting, debugging, line numbers, word
wrapping, and support for Unicode.
Use the Actions panel to write scripts that are part of your Flash document (that is, scripts that are embedded in the FLA file). The Actions
panel provides features such as the Actions toolbox, which gives you quick access to the core ActionScript language elements, in which you
are prompted for the elements needed to create scripts.
Use the Script window if you want to write external scripts—that is, scripts or classes that are stored in external files. (You can also use a text
editor to create an external AS file.) The Script window includes code-assistance features such as code hinting and coloring, syntax
checking, and auto-formatting.
Additional recommended community content
The following additional videos provide detailed demonstrations of using ActionScript 3.0, the Flash Professional workflow, and using components.
Some videos show Flash Professional CS3 or CS4, but still apply to Flash Professional CS5 and CS5.5. Some videos may also show Adobe®
Flex®, but ActionScript® 3.0 is the same language in both Flash Professional and Flex® and Flash Builder.
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