Wrapping Multiple Text Fields??

[gotoAndCrash]

This is not a technical question!
At a former job we used this crappy program (Multi-Ad Creator) which totally sucked, but had one really nice feature - you could make text wrap from one text field to another.
I'm working on a site where there is a book-page-turning animation, & kinda wish that Flash had that capability to more easily edit the content without having to lengthen Text Field A, then take the spill-over text & paste it to Text Field B, etc, etc... . While it wouldn't be needed on a regular basis, it would be a great feature when you needed it.

So, basically I was just wondering if anyone else has ever had this need?

Just curious...

[Frets]

VarName_complete.text = Var1+Var2+Var3;

[gotoAndCrash]

huh? It seems like what you're saying is that I can grab the full text of each of three text fields (or variables), & store it all in one variable (or text field)...?

But what I'm saying is that I want to be able to create 3 separate text fields that are all linked together - for example, each text field is 100 pixels tall, & I want to paste in 300 pixels (height) worth of text & have Flash know to bleed the overFlow into the next field, & into the next field. I suppose that I could use an If to detect if the text was too tall & then have that spilled over text be put into a different text field, etc...

But for fear of this turning into a "technical question", I'll just let it go.
All I was saying is that in this other crappy program you could create a text field, click a button, then draw another text field & the app would link those together so that if you pasted in too much text for the first box it would bleed into the second box - & if you then deleted some text from the first box, the second box would bleed an equal amount of text back into the first box...

I was just working on this & wished that Flash had that innate ability without having to fuss around with a bunch of extra code.

but thanks!

[jasonsplace]

You can do this in InDesign too. It really is nice when you are working with a lot of text that needs to flow from one place to another.

[gotoAndCrash]

yeah, especially when there are several text boxes & the text keeps changing.
The original purpose of this post was just to see if other people have this same need - like I said, it's not something that would be used all the time, but hey - Flash is full of components that I never use! Though, considering that you cited InDesign, I suppose that perhaps this is more of a Print Designers' need, as I used to be in Print Design - but I can certainly see the usage of this in Flash.

I think even Quark had that ability - uhhhh, remember Quark???

[littleMatt]

uhhhh, remember Quark???

I'd rather not

[yasunobu13]

Quark, InDesign, Freehand. Almost every layout program has this feature, but I have never seen a web based version of it. The web based solution to this is adding a scroll bar to the text field.

[jasonsplace]

Are you loading in text dynamically that changes? If so, you could always program your code to detect the length of what it's loading and split it into multiple boxes.

[FlashLackey]

I'm having trouble visualizing a case when this feature would be needed. Maybe you can offer a more specific example?

Just seems like too obtuse of a need to have it be a native feature. You can program this effect in a class if you need it.

[gotoAndCrash]

well, i had typed out a nice descriptive post, when a friend of mine sent me a link to a flash site he was working on which exploded my CPU, spun my fan to death, & crashed my browser...& I don't feel like typing all that out again!!

but here's a recap:

yasunobu13 - not a web-based version, just used for authoring. "Quark, InDesign, Freehand. Almost every layout program has this feature" - So they may as well just throw it into Flash, too!!

jasonsplace - I'm very familiar with loading text dynamically, & am sure that I could figure it out - actually the only part that I would need to play with is how to make Flash realize when to cut the text (taking into account the middle of a word) - some kind of character count, or something - but I'm sure I could figure it out, so I'm not asking how to do it here.
To me, it seems to be something that while doing it with code would be the best option, sometimes it's not really "needed" - the text doesn't need to be dynamic, so it seems extraneous to write a bunch of code to make something dynamic that doesn't need to be especially when the client is paying in peanuts (bad excuse, I know). But in comparison to writing out a bunch of code, figuring out the logic, blah de blah - it would be nice to utilize that feature so that the actions taken would be :
Draw a text field, click the "Link Fields" button, draw a text field - done.
(Don't get the wrong idea - I LOVE code - but I also love the rain, but don't need to be in it all the time)

FlashLackey
EXAMPLE SCENARIO
(I know doing it dynamic would be ideal, but for a quick project for no money, it would be nice to not have to)
Suppose you had 25 text fields lined up horizontally that all needed to remain the exact same dimensions & one giganticon block of text to put in - but the text would be edited in Flash - paragraph spacing, font sizes, leading, kerning, stuff taken out/stuff put in, etc... (only during creation, not after compile). So basically, it would be nice to have all of those text fields linked up to each other so that if i deleted 400 characters from the first text field, then 400 characters from the second field would flow back into the first text field - then in succession: 400 from field 3 move into 2, 400 from 4 move into 3, etc up until the last text field (25) dumps 400 characters into the field right before it (24)...as opposed to deleting 400 characters from text field 1, then having to copy/paste 400 from 2 into 1, copy/paste 400 from 3 into 2, etc...only to make a change & have to do it all over again...
I'm beginning to feel that this truly is more of a Print Designer thing, & I suppose I was thinking with my design brain.

I see FlashLackey's point about it being obtuse, but I also feel there are several (or many) things already in Flash that are quite useless, so what's one more?!!?

I think one of my main points to make is that this serves no benefit to the compiled swf, & in fact has no need or purpose in that realm - it's merely for laying out designs in Flash & the ease of use therein & doesn't extend to the finished product or have anything to do with "users".

dang, this ended up being long anyways...

[FlashLackey]

Ok. I understand better now. You're talking more about a layout tool rather than a new function.

I can see how that feature would be useful in some circumstances like layout brochure-like pages or something. I've just never run across that one myself.

[gotoAndCrash]

You're talking more about a layout tool rather than a new function.

exactly!
One of those things that wouldn't be used often, but would rawk hardcore when needed. & like yasunobu13 said, it's been done in every app under the sun already - nothing new.