Flash CS3 Documentation

Learning ActionScript 2.0 in Adobe Flash > Working with Text and Strings > Using HTML-formatted text > Required properties and syntax for using HTML-formatted text

Required properties and syntax for using HTML-formatted text

To use HTML in a text field, you must set several properties of the text field, either in the Property inspector or by using ActionScript:

• Enable the text field's HTML formatting by selecting the Render Text as HTML option in the Property inspector or by setting the text field's html property to true.
• To use HTML tags such as <p>, <br>, and <img>, you must make the text field a multiline text field by selecting the Multiline option in the Property inspector or by setting the text field's multiline property to true.
• In ActionScript, set the value of TextField.htmlText to the HTML-formatted text string you want to display.

For example, the following code enables HTML formatting for a text field named headline_txt and then assigns some HTML to the text field:

this.createTextField("headline_txt", 1, 10, 10, 500, 300);
headline_txt.html = true;
headline_txt.wordWrap = true;
headline_txt.multiline = true;
headline_txt.htmlText = "<font face='Times New Roman' size='25'>This is how you assign HTML text to a text field.</font><br>It's very useful.</br>";

To render HTML correctly, you must use the correct syntax. Attributes of HTML tags must be enclosed in double (") or single (') quotation marks. Attribute values without quotation marks can produce unexpected results, such as improper rendering of text. For example, the following HTML snippet cannot be rendered properly by Flash Player because the value assigned to the align attribute (left) is not enclosed in quotation marks:

this.createTextField("myField_txt", 10, 10, 10, 400, 200);
myField_txt.html = true;
myField_txt.htmlText = "<p align=left>This is left-aligned text</p>";

If you enclose attribute values in double quotation marks, you must escape the quotation marks (\"). Either of the following ways of doing this is acceptable:

myField_txt.htmlText = "<p align='left'>This uses single quotes</p>";
myField_txt.htmlText = "<p align=\"left\">This uses escaped double quotes</p>";
myField_txt.htmlText = '<p align="left">This uses outer single quotes</p>';
myField_txt.htmlText = '<p align=\'left\'>This uses escaped single quotes</p>';

It's not necessary to escape double quotation marks if you're loading text from an external file; it's necessary only if you're assigning a string of text in ActionScript.

Flash CS3