Flash sticker with a link IN ADOBE FLASH

Ukio · (#1 (**permalink**))

This is a very basic tutorial, you can do a lot more with flash buttons.
For exemple you can play a short sound or change how the button look when the mouse cursor is over it...

STEP 1 :

Install Flash and open it.
Create a new flash file ActionScript 2.0 (must be possible in AS 3.0 but i'm still new to it, i was working on a 2004 version from Macromedia few days ago)

STEP 2 :

Insert a new symbol "Button"

Name it whatever you want to check "Button" and click "OK"

STEP 3 :

Insert a new symbol again but this time check "Movie clip"

Select the first frame then import a picture (animated or not).
This can be a gif (transparent background or not), a jpg , a png ...

STEP 4 :

Now that we have the "Movie clip" ready, we're going to put it in the "Button" we made on step 2.

Press "Ctrl+L" to display the "Library" (it should apear on the right panel)
(you can also find it in the "window" tab)

Open the "Button" made on step 2 (Click twice on it)

Now that we are in the "Button", drag and drop the "Movie clip" in it

Press "Ctrl+K" to display the "Align" panel
(you can also find it in the "window" tab)
Check the "To stage" button and then align left and top.

Select the first frame of the timeline (Up) and press "F5" 3 times
(you can insert frame or keyframes with right click on the timeline too)

Optional : If you plan to change the button when the cursor is over the button you can add a keyframe on "Over" and put a new "Movie clip" in it. Same for "Down". You need Someting in "Hit" it's the button area (it's not visible) else your button will not work.

Once the frame cover "Up" "Over" "Down" and "Hit", click on "Scene 1"

STEP 5 :

Drag and drop the "Button" from the "Library" to the scene

Align it to the left and top corner (as we did for the "Movie Clip")

Modify the document size

Check "Contents" to set the document size the same than the button size.
Note the new dimentions somewhere you'll need it to submit your sticker.
Be sure to note the size after you checked "Contents"

STEP 6 :

Now we're going to add the link on the button

Select the button in the scene then go to "Behaviors" in the "Window" tab.

In the "Behaviors" Click on the "blue +" then "Web" and " Go to Web Page".

Type or paste the URL you want your sticker to link to in the "URL field".
Choose Open in : "_Blank" then "OK"

STEP 7 :

You can press F12 to preview how your sticker will look.
You'll had maybe a warning message from your browser when you click on it
(it's because your file is not online it will work after submit)

Now we have to save the file before publishing it.
In the "File" tab choose "Save as" save it somewhere. It will make a .fla file.
This fla file is not the file we'll submit.
This file will be usefull if you plan to modify your sticker later or do a new one from this one.

Optional : You can modify the "Publish settings" (set the jpg quality to 100 in the flash tab)

Now "Publish" it. It will make a .swf file in the same folder you saved the .fla file before.
This is this .swf file we're going to submit (not the .fla or the .html one).