Flash® CS4 for Dummies®

Chapter 10. Getting Interactive

In This Chapter

• Getting familiar with ActionScript

• Using methods to control objects

• Storing ActionScript in a frame

• Putting buttons to work with ActionScript

• Creating event listeners

• Animating masks

• Creating drag-and-drop animations

• Investigating advanced ActionScript features

The real fun with Flash begins when you start to make your art and animations interactive. Interactivity means that a computer user's input triggers immediate changes on the computer screen, which the user can then respond to further, as if a conversation is taking place between the user and the computer. Examples can be as simple as clicking a button to go to another Web page, or as complex as a video jukebox.

Flash uses a computer language called ActionScript to specify how the interactivity works. ActionScript statements are short instructions that tell Flash what to do next. By combining them, you can produce complex sets of instructions to create amazing animated graphics and give your Flash movies sophisticated interactive capabilities. ActionScript provides you with tremendous flexibility in designing animations and interactivity, and only your imagination limits what you can do.

Understanding ActionScript

The most recent version of ActionScript is 3.0, which was thoroughly redesigned to better support big, complex applications that have lots of data. For those just starting out with ...