Macromedia Flash Tutorial, Part II, Continued

Adding Actions to Buttons

Now we have a Start button that reacts to the mouse and displays differently in the Up, Over and Down states. However, it performs no actions. After creating the Stop and Reset buttons we will add the actions.

Go to the Instance property of the Start button, which is in the second frame of the Clock Movie Clip timeline. Do this by selecting the frame, then choosing Modify > Instance.

You will need to add two actions to the Start button. The first is a Go to Next Frame action, which you can add by selecting the Go To action and marking the Next checkbox on the right of the dialog window. When that's done, add a second action inside the On(Release) by highlighting Go to Next Frame, and selecting (+) and Tell Target.

Now add Timer as the target by double clicking on it in the Parameters box. Timer will now appear in the Target box. Again select the plus (+) and add a Play action. Then add actions to the Stop and Rest buttons. This is what it should look like:

Start Button Actions (in frame 2):

On(Release)
     Go to Next Frame
     Begin Tell Target          Timer
         Play
     End Tell Target
End On

Stop Button Actions (in frame 3):

On(Release)
     Go to Previous Frame
     Begin Tell Target          Timer
         Stop
     End Tell Target
End On

Reset Button:

On(Release)
     Go to and Play          Park
End On

The Reset button illustrates an important concept. Movie Clips must exist and be available to continue to function. If a Movie Clip is no longer available, all of its functions are interrupted, and it will start fresh if it is used again.

In the Clock Movie Clip all the first frames should consist of Empty Keyframes. Clicking the Reset button will take the Action back to the first frame, where the Movie Clips don't exist (so the Timer's display is blank). All of its actions are terminated. The Reset action is a Go to and Play, so the Movie Clips will be restarted and the display will show all zeros and be ready to start again.

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