Flash Site Design - scrolling movie clip display problem

Author

scrolling movie clip display problem

macron

2005-09-08, 11:15 pm

i have a .fla file with a scrolling movieclip that contains text. (it's a
biography/resume that scrolls with an up and down button).

what's strange is that if i set the font size to 8, the movie clip scrolls
down to the bottom with no problem. but if i bump the font size up to 9 or 10,
at which point the viewer can actually read it, the text gets cut off at the
bottom. but it's not because the movie won't scroll down far enough. the text
just stops showing up.

would anyone care to take a look?

the .swf with size 8 font is
http://www.contemporaryquarterly.com/test/bio_8pt.swf
the .swf with size 9 font is
http://www.contemporaryquarterly.com/test/bio_9pt.swf

and the .fla file they're based on is
http://www.contemporaryquarterly.com/test/bio.fla

thanks a million if you have time.

cheers,
macron

Nephthys101

2005-09-09, 11:20 pm

Hi. Could you upload the most recent version of the .fla (the one for 8pt type,
say)? For some reason this one's not working when I test the movie, so it's
impossible to see when/if it's going wrong... I'm using MX 2004 Pro for what
it's worth.. One thing I can say is the syntax for your conditional clauses for
your 'bio' mc are incorrect... Should be like the attached code.

onClipEvent(enterFrame) {
if (this.up==true && _y>-1500) {
this._y-=15;
} else if (this.down==true && _y<30) {
this._y+=15;
}
}

macron

2005-09-09, 11:20 pm

hi -

thanks for looking.

i've posted another version, http://www.contemporaryquarterly.com/test/bio2.fla

i tried changing the font, to see if maybe the problem is font related. i
changed it from hana to gill sans and had the same problem. at 8pt, the
biographical information is all visible, but i bump the font up to 9pt, and the
bio scrolls down to a certain point, and then just shows up blank.

let me know if you're able to test the above .fla file.

much obliged,
macron

Nephthys101

2005-09-12, 7:41 pm

Strangely the masking still isn't working properly for me... Not that it
matters because I managed to see the relevant bits. The problem is almost
certainly the physical height of the movieclip that holds the text. It's way
longer than the workspace, let alone the stage area. Having said that, I
fiddled with the font size, and found I could see slightly more at 10pt than at
9... Which is weird.

So I don't really know why, but at least I have a solution. This is with as
minimal disruption to your current structure and methods as possible. Sorry if
it states the obvious, I want to be clear:

You need to use the scroll property of the text field. In order to do this,
edit your 'bio' movieclip. (Delete the background. If you really need it,
redraw it so it is only as big as it needs to be on the stage area). Move the
text field up so you can see the bottom of it. In the properties panel, change
it from static to 'dynamic text'. Also change it from 'single line' to
'multiline'. Now double click the text field, as though you were going to edit
it, and shift-double-click the bottom right handle (a white square). It will
change to a solid black square, which indicates it's now scrollable text. Now,
grab that handle and resize the text field so that it's only the area you want
it to cover on the stage - about 526px x 332px. Put it back in the right place
in the movieclip (X:0.0 and Y:0.0). Give it an instance name of 'biotext'.

Finally, come out of the bio movieclip, and change the actionscript that's
attached to it to what I've given below here.

Hope this helps. It works fine for any font size you want :)

:: Nephthys

macron

2005-09-12, 7:41 pm

hi again,

thanks for helping me out with this and for spelling it out so clearly - i'm
still a total novice at this. i'll try doing what you suggested and let you
know how it works.

much obliged!
m.

p.s. is it just me, or is it wierd that flash isn't really set up to allow you
to work on movieclips that are significantly wider or taller than the stage?

Nephthys101

2005-09-12, 7:41 pm

Well, perhaps a bit weird, but it probably has a lot to do with effiecient
running. I found editing your .fla really slowed my machine down - especially
dragging the text field around. And it's not like there's much else there
either. The workspace area limits are way larger than a standard movie stage
(and elements will continue to exist even when pushed half outside the area you
can see and work in flash), so you have room to work, but it stops overly large
elements being used. By the way, I suspected it was something along these lines
that was causing your movieclip to become stunted at the end, but again not
sure. All just a guess.

It's also just best practice. That suggests you avoid that kind of thing.
There's no set-in-stone rule that says you can't use a movieclip that extends
beyond the workspace, more just a feeling you get for these things - that there
must be a better way of doing it.

Just comes with more and more use of the program. Like the design by the way!
All the best,

:: Nephthys

macron

2005-09-13, 7:33 pm

hi Nephthys

it works. brilliant. and it eliminates the need for a mask layer. here's
another question - is there some reason it won't display the text unless its in
arial? i tried both the hana and gill sans fonts (which my friend wants to
use) both with and without character outlines embedded, but neither one
displays. without the outlines embedded, no text shows up for those two fonts.
and with the outlines embedded, it displays as rows of little squares. ugh.
it just gets curioser and curioser.

thanks a million for taking the time to look at the .fla file. i am forever
indebted.

macron.

Nephthys101

2005-09-14, 7:15 am

Hi Macron,

glad it worked for you. Which version of Flash are you using? If you're using
MX 2004, you need to click the character button in the properties panel and
select which ranges you want to embed (ctrl+click to select multiple items).
If you're using MX (or v5?) you should probably just click the [...] embed
button on the text options palette.

Having said all that, it that doesn't sound like the problem... Are you
actually publishing the .swf, or are you just using the .swf that is produced
when you text the movie in the authoring environment? Just a guess, but it may
be that Flash is only actually embedding the fonts when you publish/export the
movie. Otherwise I'm out of ideas.

All the best

:: Nephthys

macron

2005-09-14, 7:37 pm

i'm using studio mx, and i usually just click the character button and select
the all characters option. it's not working though. could it be that flash mx
won't embed character outlines if the text is too long?

Nephthys101

2005-09-15, 7:28 am

Hey. It won't be because the text is too long... Embed character outlines only
embeds one of each character - like storing symbols in the library for example,
and the same way fonts are normally used on a computer - it then repeats an
instance of each letter (for want of a more accurate and less Flash term) each
time it occurs. It doesn't literally store 87 'T's, or however many times that
letter appears.

I was playing around with it myself, publishing .swfs and then uninstalling
the relevant fonts from my system. Bizarrely I found it didn't work until I
embedded the fonts, then saved the .fla directly afterwards, and then published
the swf. Maybe that's peculiar to my setup, but you might want to try doing it
in that order.

:: Nephthys