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General File FAQ

1: How do I get special characters such as âæèêíó to show up in dynamic text?

You need to embed these special characters in the text fields first. To do this, open the FLA and select the text field. In the properties panel, press the “Embed” button and you will then see a field labelled “Include these characters” – paste the special characters that you need here.

NB: When you save the XML remember to always save the XML for UTF -8 encoding. You can set the encoding type by choosing ‘save as’ and selecting UTF -8.

Note: Some fonts don’t have special characters such as pixel fonts or non-system fonts. So make sure the font you want to use has these special characters. You can check by opening the font in a character map which will display all the possible characters.

Or watch this video tutorial on how to add special characters

2: How do I format HTML text in XML? (bold, italics, font size, colour etc.)

You need to first embed the characters for bold and italics. To do this, make a blank text field which is the same font as the current dynamic text field. Leave the instance name blank. With the text field selected, select the bold icon in the properties panel. Now press the “Embed” button and select “Uppercase” “Lowercase” “Numerals” “Punctuation” and press “OK”. Now make a new text field and select the Italics icon. Repeat the same embed steps.

Once you have done this, you can use standard HTML tags in the XML to format text. Here are some examples:

<b> bold text </b>
<i> italics text </i>
<u> underlined text </u>
<font color="#FFFFFF"> colour text </font>
<font size="30"> change font size </font>
<img src="image.jpg" /> (insert image)
<a href="http://activeden.net" target="_blank">hyper links</a>
<br /> (line break)

3: How do I change the colour and hover effect of a hyper link in dynamic text?

Once you have a hyperlink in dynamic text you can use a StyleSheet in the ActionScript to format it’s colour and hover effect. Usually I would have already built in the StyleSheet in the code, so please check if this code is there, otherwise you can paste the code below in the Actions layer in the same frame where the dynamic text field is.

var styles = new TextField.StyleSheet();
styles.setStyle("a:link", {color:'#00FFFF', textDecoration:'none'});
styles.setStyle("a:hover", {color:'#00FFFF', textDecoration:'underline'});
txt.html = true;
txt.styleSheet = styles;

Note: “txt” is the instance name of the dynamic text field.

4: I get an error when opening or saving the XML file in Dreamweaver, what should I do?

The error you might get will be something like: “Dreamweaver dos not fully support UTF-16 encoded documents. If you edit this document it may become corrupted” All you need to do is choose ‘save as’ and change the encoding type to UTF-8. Otherwise to avoid problems like these, try using a simple text editing program like NotePad or TextEdit to edit the XML.

5: Why does nothing show up in the Flash after I edited the XML file ?

Most likely there is an error in your XML file. To debug errors, an easy way is to open the XML in a FireFox browser window. If there is an error it will tell you. Fix the error in the XML, save and reopen the XML in the browser window again to see if there are any more errors. Once all the errors have been fixed you should see the XML tree in the browser window. When you save the XML always choose ‘save as’ and set the encoding type to UTF -8 before saving the XML.

If you have renamed the XML file or moved the XML to another folder, make sure the path to load the XML is correct in the ActionScript. The line will look something like this:

xmlData.load("content.xml");

If images are not showing up in the flash, make sure the path for the image in the XML is correct. If the images are in folders you need to point to that folder, e.g. content/images.jpg

Or watch this video tutorial on how to edit XML correctly

6: Why do the URL links not work when I run the SWF locally?

This is because of a security issue with your Operating System. URL links will only work if you run the SWF in the Flash program or run the published files off on an online server.

7: Why do the files work fine locally but not online?

This could be a number of reasons:

First check that you have the latest Flash plugin installed in your browser.

Check that you’ve used the correct case with paths to files in your XML. Some webservers are CaSe SenSitIve, so your file might work locally but not online. e.g. You have a file called “image.jpg” but in the XML the path is “image.JPG” – this path will be ignored on a CaSe SenSitIve server.

If it’s an XML driven file and you are getting ‘undefined’ in the text fields in the flash, then this means the XML file is missing or it is in the wrong place on your server. Also make sure the XML has the appropriate permissions to run on the server. Some servers might block the XML from being read.

Make sure you keep the directory structure intact on the live server. If you move the HTML page, XML or SWF to another folder, this will cause path referencing issues and result in content not showing up. Always keep the directory structure of the files on the live server the same as the directory structure of your local files.

If you move the HTML page which has the SWF embedded to another location, you will have to change paths in the XML depending on your new folder structure. Sometimes this can be difficult to fix so if possible try keep the HTML and the SWF in the same location.

If the swfobject.js file was included with the HTML, make sure it’s uploaded to the server to the same location as the HTML page with the embedded SWF.

If none of the above work, try testing the files on a less secure server. If it works on another server, then you need to contact your server administrator to resolve the problem.

8: How do you get GIF or PNG images to show up in Flash when they have been loaded externally with the path defined in the XML?

Check your publish settings and make sure it’s exporting the SWF to Flash 8 or higher. Externally loaded GIF’s and PNG’s won’t display with SWF’s published to Flash 7 and lower.

9: How do I get a button to open a page in the same window and not a new window?

You need to change the getURL command in the ActionScript, this will either be in the Actions layer in a button function or it will be on the button symbol. The line of code will look something like this:

getURL(link, "_blank");

To open in the same window change “_blank” to “_self”

10: Can I load an AS3 .swf file into an AS2 .swf file?

Unfortunately you can’t. You can only load an AS2 .swf file into and AS3 .swf file. This is because the main SWF needs to have a greater or equal ActionScript version to the .swf files that are being loaded into it in order for them to still be functional.

11: How do I play H.264 Video like MP4 and MOV with a flash FLV player?

Add your MP4 or MOV videos as you normally would with FLV’s . The only difference is H.264 Video will only play in a flash video player if you are running the SWF in a HTML page, locally or on your server and only if you have the latest Flash Plugin installed for your browser. Please go to the Adobe to get the last Flash Plugin. Some older versions of Flash do not support H.264 video so the video won’t play if you are testing the FLA in Flash.

12: Why does my flash PHP contact form not send mails?

This might be because your server does not support PHP scripts or it has not been enabled or configured correctly. To check if your server supports PHP scripts, download this file and upload “phpInfo.php” to your server. If PHP is enabled and working correctly you should see your server’s PHP information when you access “phpInfo.php” on your server. If you get an error you’ll need to contact your hosting provider to enable PHP before your flash PHP contact form will work.

If your PHP server is enabled and you’re still not getting the email from the contact form. 1) Double check that you have entered your correct email address in the file’s XML or PHP. 2) Check your SPAM folder in your mailbox, your email client might be blocking the messages from coming through to your inbox – if so change your spam settings.

13: My file does not come with the HTML, how do I embed the SWF into an HTML page?

Method 1: Open the FLA and go to publish settings. Under “Formats” tab, tick HTML and then press publish. An HTML page will now be created with the SWF embedded.

Method 2: Open Dreamweaver and create a new page. In the top menu, click “Media”, then “Insert”, then “Flash” and browse and find the SWF file you want to embed. The SWF with now appear in the HTML page. Now set the alignment of the SWF in the HTML that you require and save the HTML to the same location as the SWF.

Or watch this video tutorial on how to add an SWF to an HTML page

Need support?

Before sending me a message through this page, please read the General File FAQ above for solutions to common problems. This FAQ is updated on a regular basis. We also prefer to answer all support questions on the file comments page so that everyone can benefit from the answers we provide.

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