Buttons

Button states

Every button in Flash has four States. Three of those states display visual content depending on mouse interaction.

Double click the button you have created and you will open it for editing. In contrast to movie symbols, buttons have not an ordinary timeline. You may see only 4 keyframes on the timeline and each of them has a separate name.

By default button has only one frame corresponding to Up state. It’s how button looks like when it is not touched by mouse.

Extend the button timeline up to last named frame and insert keyframes for every frame. Test them by moving the red hairline cursor – all of them must look the same.

Now place the cursor on the Over state and change a color of button rectangle fill a little. It’s good idea to make it brighter. Make it even more brighter for the Down state.

Test your movie. Now when you touch or click the button it change the color.

We have created a simple rollover effect. Practice more and make several more buttons. You may change not only color but also size and shape of the drawing in Over and Down states.

You may wander for what purpose we need Hit state. It shows a “clickable” area – the place where cursor changes to the hand. By default it matches visible drawings, but it’s possible to change it – you will see it on the later examples.

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