Dynamically expand flash using text tree menu

[mickyjune26]

Hi everyone! I'm creating my 2nd flash interface. It will display the graphic below:

Focal-Review-Web-Diagram.gif

When someone clicks a phase in the cycle, the graphic with fade out and a new window displays.

Focal-Review---Web-Diagram_Ribbons.png

I know how to do that much in flash. What I don't know is how to best organize the text in the pop-up. Specifically, when someone clicks the plus sign (look closely in the 2nd image to see an example of an expanded section), I want the space below the text to expand, showing more text and/or an image. When the user is done, they click the "X" to close the expanded section.

It's basically a tree menu format. However, instead of just expanding a small phrase, it will expand to show an entire paragraph and/or images.

Questions:
1. What code should I use to do this? I'm guessing I can't just insert CSS / Javascript into flash, lol.
2. Do I need to make my flash player window big enough to fit all the items, in case the user expands all sections and wants to see it all from a bird's-eye view?Or is there a way to dynamically increase the vertical size of the flash player to fit the expanded text? I like how HTML allows you to dynamically expand the vertical cell height, as more text is added.

My due date is September 24th. If I can't have the ability to expand / hide sections, I'll just show the window with everything already expanded...or I'll just show it in a separate window inside the player.

[rachelg]

check out http://www.ehow.com/how_12190372_mak...enu-flash.html

[rachelg]

or look at this - it's better http://www.experts-exchange.com/Soft..._26851535.html

[mickyjune26]

Thanks for the quick reply. The ehow example isn't exactly what I'm looking for. When the item expands, i'd like it to move the text beneath it down and also expand the size of the background box color.

I'll try the 2nd solution. I'm putting it here to keep it centralized:

Yes, using autosize property:

Try this sequence:





var titleFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
titleFormat.bold = true;
titleFormat.color = 0xFFFFFF;
titleFormat.size = 14;

var titleLabel:TextField = new TextField();
titleLabel.defaultTextFormat = titleFormat;
titleLabel.autosize = "left";
titleLabel.label = data;
addChild( titleLabel );