Flash CS5: The Missing Manual

Mouse Events

The mouse is the most common way your audience interacts with your Flash creation, so a lot of events center around the mouse. The MouseEvent class detects all sorts of mouse events, including a variety of clicks and mouse movements, like mouse over (when the cursor moves over an object) and mouse out (when the cursor moves away from an object). Such events are the stuff that buttons and other smart objects are made of. So, roll up your sleeves, and get ready to create a mouse event listener. If you have a project deadline looming and just need bulletproof code for a simple mouse-over event, see the box on this page.

Note

A mouse event refers to an event generated by any kind of pointer device, whether it's a mouse, a trackpad on a laptop, or a drawing pad.

Frequently Asked Question: Create an Event Handler in a Snap

I need an ActionScript 3.0 event handler now! Where can I find some cut-and-paste code?

Events and event handlers are fundamental to most ActionScript projects, so it's great to have a thorough understanding of their workings. You'll get that in the following pages. But if you don't have time to look up references and write the code, Flash CS5 can help you out with Code Snippets. These predesigned chunks of ActionScript 3.0 code are ready for you to drop into your project. So, if you need a mouse-over event handler, select a movie clip symbol and then choose Window→Code Snippets. Expand the Event Handler, and then click Mouse Over Event. Flash adds several lines ...