Mouse-over Effects

[FongLuh]

My site is at http://www.savefirefly.org/template_5958/site_flash/index.html

I downloaded a Flash template that, over all, works really well, except for
one little annoying problem. If you move your mouse over the links at the top
of the screen, you might notice that they pulse only when your mouse is on the
edge of the links, not when the mouse is over it. The template, before I
customized it, had links that would pulse when your mouse was over the link.
Apparently at some point during the customization this stopped working.

I have limited knowledge of Flash, but I think I could fix it if someone
pointed me in the right direction. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[NedWebs]

What kind of cusomizing did you do?

Since the last item, Links, appears to be working okay, compare what goes on
there to one of the others that doesn't work the same... both in terms of
coding and visuals.

There's no telling by simply looking at the page what might have been done.

[FongLuh]

The only customization I did was changing the link text and the address they
point to. And I have been trying to figure out why the Links button works as
it's supposed to, and the others don't. As far as I can tell they're
identical. I even tried taking the Links button and copy/pasting it into the
other button areas, but when I try to change the text of one, it changes the
text of them all.

[NedWebs]

Is the Links button a library object? If so, duplicate it in the library
(don't copy it on the stage and paste it) and try using the duplicate. If
editing its label changes the Links button, then the buttons share some other
library object, which would mean the labels are probably dynamically created.

Top duplicate the button, right click on it in the library and select Duplicate

[FongLuh]

I tried duplicating the button in the library and still ran into the same problem with the text being changed for all the buttons when I'm changing one of them.

[Rob Dillon]

Are these links buttons or movieClips? If they are buttons then the target area
is the fourth frame. If they are movieClips, then the target area may be the
whole clip or some part of the clip. This will depend on the way the clip was
constructed and the way actionscript is written.

If you change the text in one link and it changes in other links at the same
time, then the text is in a movieClip. When you duplicate the link, you are
also duplicating that movieClip, and so its contents are mirrors of each other.
To overcome this, you will need to also duplicate the clip that contains the
text and use a new instance of that clip.

[FongLuh]

Well I know for sure that they're movie clips. I just have no idea how to fix
them. I know you tried to explain to me how that can be done, but I'm going to
need that in newby dummy talk. I'd [i]really[/i] appreciate it if someone
downloaded the FLA file and found out specifically what I have to do. I know
I'm kind of asking for a lot, but I just can't figure it out.

[NedWebs]

I took a look at your file and suggest the following (even though it shouldn't
matter... it appeared to fix things). Inside each button, take the layer
labeled Layer 2 and move it up directly under Layer 3 (the actionscript layer)

Something above the button (Layer 2) is blocking somehow, though it shouldn't
be.

[FongLuh]

Shiny! Thanks Ned, that fixed it. Who knew it would be so simple? :D

[FongLuh]

Sorry, but apparently fixing one problem caused another. The animation works
just fine, but now the links don't work. It seems that before, the links were
blocking the animation, and now the animation is blocking the links. I tried
moving the layers around to see if it would work some other way, but I haven't
had any luck with that.

Any ideas?

[NedWebs]

Did the links ever work before? When I looked at the file I didn't see any links. You may have to add them still.

[FongLuh]

Oh yeah, the links worked just fine. But no animation. For now I even set the
Flash menu back to the way it was so that the links work again, but I'm back to
the same problem where the links don't pulse like they do in the example I was
given when I ordered the template. I re-uploaded the FLA file, so it's got the
links on there for sure.

[NedWebs]

It's a mystery to me... some dark force is working its wizardy in this file!
If I didn't see it actually open a web page, I wouldn't believe the buttons
link to anything. I've dissected one of the buttons as far as I can see to,
and I found no code related to linking anything.

So here's your mission... find the evasive button linking code.

Failing that, here's what to do...

Put the buttons back the way I told you to and add the following code to them
below the other on (...) code they currently have

on(release){
getURL("put the web page link here");
}

I cannot believe I just told you to do that, but it's the safest way out. I
wouldn't normally recommend using the on(...) method of coding something.