Adobe 38039481 User Guide - Page 80

FLASH CS3 74 User Guide This becomes the controlling Timeline. 2 In the Actions panel (Window > Actions), go to the Actions toolbox on the left, and select an action or method that requires a target path. 3 Click the parameter box or location in the script where you want to insert the target path. 4 Enter an absolute or relative target path in the Actions panel. Use an expression as a target path 1 Select the movie clip, frame, or button instance to which you want to assign the action. This becomes the controlling Timeline. 2 In the Actions panel (Window > Actions), go to the Actions toolbox on the left, and select an action or method that requires a target path. 3 Do one of the following: • Enter an expression that evaluates to a target path in a parameter box. • Click to place the insertion point in the script. Then, in the Functions category of the Actions toolbox, double- click the targetPath function. The targetPath function converts a reference to a movie clip into a string. • Click to place the insertion point in the script. Then, in the Functions category of the Actions toolbox, select the eval function. The eval function converts a string to a movie clip reference that can be used to call methods such as play. The following script assigns the value 1 to the variable i. It then uses the eval function to create a reference to a movie clip instance and assigns it to the variable x. The variable x is now a reference to a movie clip instance and can call the MovieClip object methods. 0i = 1; 0x = eval("mc"+i); 0x.play(); 0// this is equivalent to mc1.play(); You can also use the eval function to call methods directly, as shown in the following example: 0eval("mc" + i).play(); Working with scenes About scenes To organize a document thematically, you can use scenes. For example, you might use separate scenes for an introduction, a loading message, and credits. Though using scenes has some disadvantages, there are some situations in which few of these disadvantages apply, such as when you create lengthy animations. When you use scenes, you avoid having to manage a large number of FLA files.