Well – not quite that much fun. Let’s keep things in perspective, here.
But look. You’re going to be working in the Actions Panel a lot. And if you’re anything like me (a lazy moron) you’ll do this tons of times without ever bothering to look up just what all functions this Panel has. It’s too tedious, too much work.
But this is no walk in the park. We’re at Moron Boot Camp, here. So prick up those lazy ears of yours, and take note. It will make your life easier, in the end. Not that that’s my motivation. My motivation is, of course, to make you miss out on all the fun other people are having right now, at the beach, in bars, at delightful pool parties. Are you picturing it? How happy they are…Not, however, you. You have work to do.
Well then. Let’s start with a picture! A picture speaks, after all, a thousand words.
It does speak words! In fact, it is asking you a question. And I bet you don’t know how to open the secret little window on the left – unless, of course, it is already open. But in that case I bet you don’t know how to close it. I’ll show you. Cause that’s the kind of person I am.
See? The Secret Panel! you click on the tiny arrow, and suddenly a new world opens up. Now you get the picture below.
There we are.
This extra panel is called the Toolbox. What are you going to do with it? Well, for the moment not too much, I suggest. You can look through it to find some method or other stuff you’ve forgotten the name of. But since, at the moment, you hardly know any ActionScript at all, there really isn’t that much that you can have forgotten. So you may as well click the Toolbox away, and retain more space for writing code.
Still – if you insist on using it, you do so by clicking on the little Plus sign at the top of your Actions Panel.
Supposing, for instance, that you need a random number. But by Golly, you just can’t remember how to write it! And because your parents/spouse/children have taken your internet privileges away after you spent your nights at Facebook or Bianca’s Smut House, you can’t go online to find it.
So click on the little Plus. Now you have a tough choice to make: which group of elements should you expand? In this case, it’s Top Level. (But you didn’t know that of course, and would likely have to go on the internet to find out.) Within Top Level, you see Math. That should bring you closer! And it does.
Here’s the mess you get when you go clicking on the necessary submenus of the Plus sign, just to get to random numbers:
Actually, you can also go directly into the toolbox, click on Top Level and then the other submenus you need, until you get to the word “random”, and then double click on that. With a wooshh! sound, Flash puts the random number function right in your actions panel! You didn’t have to type a word, yourself!
You can use it for just about anything ActionScript has to offer. Even for, for instance, operators. (Don’t know what they are? See Nugget Operators!) Datatypes, anything!
But there’s an easier way to find something you need – especially if you know how the word or the words start. That’s to use so-called Code Hints, and boy, do you really need to use those! Don’t let me ever catch you not using them.
We’ll look at them in the next installment of this breathtaking series.
Brainbusters
