Flash CS3 Documentation

ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference > ActionScript classes > MovieClip > createTextField (MovieClip.createTextField method)

createTextField (MovieClip.createTextField method)

Creates a new, empty text field as a child of the movie clip on which you call this method. You can use the createTextField() method to create text fields while a SWF file plays. The depth parameter determines the new text field's depth level (z-order position) in the movie clip. Each depth level can contain only one object. If you create a new text field on a depth that already has a text field, the new text field replaces the existing text field. To avoid overwriting existing text fields, use MovieClip.getInstanceAtDepth() method to determine whether a specific depth is already occupied, or the MovieClip.getNextHighestDepth() method to determine the highest unoccupied depth. The text field is positioned at (x, y) with dimensions width by height. The x and y parameters are relative to the container movie clip; these parameters correspond to the _x and _y properties of the text field. The width and height parameters correspond to the _width and _height properties of the text field.

The default properties of a text field are as follows:

type = "dynamic"
border = false
background = false
password = false
multiline = false
html = false
embedFonts = false
selectable = true
wordWrap = false
mouseWheelEnabled = true
condenseWhite = false
restrict = null
variable = null
maxChars = null
styleSheet = undefined
tabInded = undefined

A text field created with createTextField() receives the following default TextFormat object settings:

font = "Times New Roman" // "Times" on Mac OS
size = 12
color = 0x000000
bold = false
italic = false
underline = false
url = ""
target = ""
align = "left"
leftMargin = 0
rightMargin = 0
indent = 0
leading = 0
blockIndent = 0
bullet = false
display = block
tabStops = [] // (empty array)

You can extend the methods and event handlers of the MovieClip class by creating a subclass.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Player 6 - In Flash Player 8, this method returns a reference to the TextField object created, instead of void.

Parameters

instanceName:String - A string that identifies the instance name of the new text field.

depth:Number - A positive integer that specifies the depth of the new text field.

x:Number - An integer that specifies the x coordinate of the new text field.

y:Number - An integer that specifies the y coordinate of the new text field.

width:Number - A positive integer that specifies the width of the new text field.

height:Number - A positive integer that specifies the height of the new text field.

Returns

TextField - Flash Player 8 returns a reference to the TextField object that is created. Flash Player versions earlier than 8 return void.

Example

The following example creates a text field with a width of 300, a height of 100, an xcoordinate of 100, a y coordinate of 100, no border, red, and underlined text:

this.createTextField("my_txt", 1, 100, 100, 300, 100);
my_txt.multiline = true;
my_txt.wordWrap = true;
var my_fmt:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
my_fmt.color = 0xFF0000;
my_fmt.underline = true;
my_txt.text = "This is my first test field object text.";
my_txt.setTextFormat(my_fmt);

For another example, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download and decompress the Samples zip file and go to the ActionScript2.0\Animation folder to access the animation.fla file.

See also

getInstanceAtDepth (MovieClip.getInstanceAtDepth method), getNextHighestDepth (MovieClip.getNextHighestDepth method), TextFormat

Flash CS3