FLASH CS3
User Guide
74
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 intro-
duction, 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.
