Flash11:Trouble Shooting

Introduction
This is page contains issues discovered by me (and students) with some possible solutions

Outline view
Problem: elements are displayed as outlines

Discussion: Flash allows you to display the graphics in outline view to simplify the viewing of elements on the stage.



Solution:

There are two places to select outline view

1. View > Preview Mode > Outlines

.. or (and this is the sneaky one)

2. Attached to each layer. Right click on the layer > Properties > uncheck View layer as outlines

Buttons

 * Problem: I create multiple buttons, but when I change something on one - like the caption - they all change.
 * Solution: If you want the buttons to look the same, you will need to duplicate each button in the library (as opposed to using Windows > Common Libraries > Buttons ). To do this right click on the button in the library, and choose Duplicate and give the button a Name. This button is now available for the stage.

Scrolling text box
If you have problems check


 * Problem: Weird things happen.
 * Solution: Check you have room left on your Hard Drive!
 * Problem: The text file does not load into the scroll box.
 * Solution1: The file jnlTextScroll.txt exists and is in the same folder as the fla file.
 * Solution2: The variable name in the text file is exactly the same as in the var box for the scrolling text area. This means the upper and lowercase match e.g. varscrollbox is not the same as varScrollBox
 * Problem: The text loaded is different from that in the text file
 * Solution:The txt file contains the text and is saved
 * Problem: The text seems to have double line spacing
 * Solution:Check that all the text is on one line.
 * Problem: The scroll bars are detached from the scroll box
 * Solution: Make sure you drag the scroll bars (UIScrollBar) ONTO the scroll box.
 * Problem: The scroll bars do not work
 * Solution1: Put in more text. There is not enough text to scroll!!
 * Solution2: Try deleting the existing scroll bar and redoing.
 * Problem: Not all loaded text is showing in the scroll box
 * Solution1: In the HTML check that you haven't broken the tags across two lines.
 * Problem: Scroll bars do not scroll all the text (you can check this by trying to select the text using Shift + [Down arrow] in the box
 * Solution1: ??
 * Problem: Nothing is showing in the text box
 * Solution: Check the font isnt a weird one
 * Problem: Scroll bars won't activate (remain greyed out)
 * Solution1: Try deleting the scroll bars and reinserting.
 * Solution2: If Solution1 fails to resolve this, add several lines of text in the text box untill the text goes below the box area containment area. Press Ctrl+Enter to run the script. If the Scroll bars are working, remove the text from the text box Press Ctrl+Enter to run the script and confirm the scroll bar is working. Note if the scroll bars stop working you may need to leave some text in the text area. It seems taht the dummy text needs to be longer than that of your inserted html file.
 * Solution3: Select the text box the scroll bar is meant to attach to.  Take note of its instance name in the Properties window or give it one if it hasn't got one.  Now select the scroll bar and open the Component Inspector for it.  In the Parameters tab there is a field called _targetInstanceName.  Change the value of this to the instance name of the text box.  Save and test the movie.
 * Solution4: In the component inspect for the scroll bar check to make sure the bar is enabled.  If it is but it still won't show up go to the action script where you load your text.  Add a new line to enable the bar manually "barName.enabled = true;" where barName is the instance name you gave to the scroll bar in the Properties window.
 * Solution 5: Check that you have added the preloader frames. (The txt file needs to be loaded before it is displayed)

Video doesn't play when copied to another computer
First thing to check is that the path to the video is correct
 * With video selected use Window > Component Inspector and check the Content path

FLVPlayback Component

 * Problem: The video plays ok from its own swf file but doesn't show up when linked from the index. This is likely to happen if you haven't kept all your journal files in one folder (they are organized into different folders).
 * Solution1: Flash is going to search for the video AND the skin in the folder containing the index.swf. So select the FLVPlayback component and open the component inspector.  Under contentPath type the location of your video file RELATIVE to the index file location.  For example a folder called Index which contains index.swf and a folder called Video which contains myVideo.flv.  The path would be ../Video/myVideo.flv  The same concept applies to the skin.  When you choose a skin for the player a copy of that skins swf file ends up in your folder.  So pick a skin and save and publish your movie.  Now go back and open the component inspector for the FLVPlayback component.  In the skin field open the skin window using the magnifying glass that appears when you click in the field.  In the drop down menu change the skin to Custom Skin URL and type the RELATIVE path to the skin.  Using the same folders as in the example for the contentPath (and having applied the skin ClearOverPlaySeekMute) the new skin URL would be ../Video/ClearOverPlaySeekMute.swf