Flash at Work: Copying Text Boxes

If you need to create several input or dynamic text fields that are the same size and have the same attributes, it’s fastest to copy and paste a single text field. However, copied text fields have identical attributes, including instance and variable names. This will really mess up your scripting, so you must—I repeat must—then assign unique instance and variable names for each text field. Be compulsive about naming.

Similarly, if you’re debugging scripts for multiple text fields and can’t find any errors, check your instance and variable names for repetition. Because you can display the attributes of only one text field at a time in the Property Inspector, it’s best to use the Movie Explorer, as shown in Figure 5.26, or the List Variables option in the Debugger to view the entire list of variables at once.