This tutorial will introduce you to some of the advanced features of the pageFlipper component.
Along with support for external images and movieclips the pageFlipper component also supports applying movieclips from the library as pages.
1. Open Flash and start a new file.
2. Press Ctrl+F8 (Windows) or Cmnd+F8 so that the 'Create New Symbol' dialogue box appears. Enter a name for your new symbol and ensure that 'Movieclip' is selected as the symbol's type. Click 'OK'.
3. Inside the new symbol create a graphic that you wish to use as a page item.
4. Press Ctrl+L (Windows) or Cmnd+L (Mac) to open the library panel. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac) on the symbol in the library and select the 'Linkage...' option so that the 'Linkage properties' dialogue box appears.
5. In the 'Linkage properties' dialogue box, check the Export for ActionScript option, the Export in First Frame option should then check itself. Enter a unique identifier for this symbol. (The identifier is the name by which you will refer to the symbol in the pageFlipper components parameters.)
6. Return to your main timeline and press Ctrl+F7 (Windows) or Cmnd+F7 (Mac) to open the component panel. Locate the pageFlipper component and drag a copy onto your stage. With the component still selected press 'Q' to select Flash's free transform tool and resize the component to your desired size.
7. With the component still selected press Ctrl+F3 (Windows) or Cmnd+F3 (Mac) to open the Properties panel and select the Parameters tab. Double-click on the 'Page List' parameter to open the values dialogue box. Click on the 'plus' symbol to add an item and enter the identifier you entered for your symbol in the 'Linkage Properties' dialogue box.
8. Repeat steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 to add more pages to your component.
9. Press Ctrl+S (Windows) or Cmnd+S (Mac) to save your file and then press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmnd+Enter (Mac) to test it.
The situation may arise when you want the last page in your component to be the page that is first displayed by the component when it initializes (for example, for right to left books). In this case follow these steps:
1. Create your component on the stage using the method described above or in the Basic tutorial.
2. Press Ctrl+F3 (Windows) or Cmnd+F3 (Mac) to open the 'Properties' panel and select the 'Properties' tab. In the 'instance name' input field enter 'myPageFlipper' (without the quotes).
3. Create a new layer, name it 'actions' and with its keyframe selected on the timeline press Alt+F9 to open the 'Actions' panel.
4. Enter the following actionscript in the 'Actions' panel:
myPageFlipper.gotoPageDirectly(myPageFlipper.getTotalPages());
5. Press Ctrl+S (Windows) or Cmnd+S (Mac) to save your file and then press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmnd+Enter (Mac) to test it.