ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

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Appendix E: HTML Support in Text Fields

we must assign HTML text to a TextField object’s htmlText property or, in Flash 5, to

the variable associated with the text field. For example:

// Flash 6 syntax

theField_txt.htmlText = "<P><B>Error!</B> <I>No email address!</I></P>";

// Flash 5 syntax

theField_txt = "<P><B>Error!</B> <I>No email address!</I></P>";

In Flash 6, the Flash 5 syntax will not only fail to work, it will replace

the TextField object with the assigned string! In Flash 6, use of the

htmlText property is mandatory.

In the Flash Player, HTML can also be entered into a movie via an HTML-enabled or

regular (non-HTML) user-input text field.

When regular text is entered into an HTML-enabled user-input text field, the field’s

htmlText property includes markup tags that are added automatically. For example,

the input text “Hi there” is converted to the

htmlText property value:

'<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE="10" COLOR="#000000">Hi there</FONT></P>'

When the HTML characters <, >, &, ", and ' are entered into an HTML-enabled user-

input text field, the field’s

htmlText property represents them with the entities &gt;,

&lt;, &amp;, &quot;, and &apos;. For example, the input text “<B>hi there</B>”is

converted to the

htmlText property value:

'<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Arial" ...