Setting the order of MCs

[Stinger]

Is there a way, with Flash 4, to set the order of MCs?

Example: I am working on a project that looks similar to the Windows environment (not very original I know). I have several Movie Clips that look like windows that appear on the screen when they are called upon by clicking on buttons. The problem is when there is more than one visible at the same time, some always cover the others. Each MC has a button at the top that allows it to be dragged when pressed. Now, is there a way to bring a window (that is covered by another) to the front when the "Drag button" is clicked on?

I'm pretty sure this is possible because I think some of the windows on FlashChallenge.com do this.

Thanks in advance for any help,

[Stinger]

Is there a way, with Flash 4, to set the order of MCs?

Example: I am working on a project that looks similar to the Windows environment (not very original I know). I have several Movie Clips that look like windows that appear on the screen when they are called upon by clicking on buttons. The problem is when there is more than one visible at the same time, some always cover the others. Each MC has a button at the top that allows it to be dragged when pressed. Now, is there a way to bring a window (that is covered by another) to the front when the "Drag button" is clicked on?

I'm pretty sure this is possible because I think some of the windows on FlashChallenge.com do this.

Thanks in advance for any help,

[pknair]

As far as I know, in Flash 4 you CAN'T change the order - but you can load stuff in levels, and dynamically change the levels they're in, faking what you're trying to do. I don't know if that helps, but it might...


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Senior Web Designer
http://www.blab.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>

[Stinger]

I was hoping to avoid doing it that way but I guess Flash 4 is fairly limited with features like that. Can Flash 5 do this? I am going to (finally) upgrade soon.

Thanks,

[pknair]

i believe you can in flash 5. i can't remember the method off-hand, but when i get a few more minutes i'll try and research this and let you know. bill, do you know, offhand?


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Senior Web Designer
http://www.blab.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>

[pknair]

Just got this message in my inbox - just figured I'd cut 'n' paste it on the boards. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Thanks Evert!!!

*****
hi!

I saw your post on I-Us and wanted to reply... but the site went down: so I felt free to mailo you this solution directly!

I'm lazy, so I just copy-pasted my stuff here ;-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi there,

sure you can set the order of your MC's!!

In FLash 4 it involves some actionscripting using duplicate movie commands.

In flash 5 though, it's supposed to be a drag since the function is already procided there.

For version 4 you should fing the source/tutorial file on http://www.flaskit.com.
(try searching on "z-sorting", "arranging", ...) I know it's there somewhere !!
It will be something like everytime you click on a button in the MC, that one will duplicate itself(removing it's own original lying underneath) onto the current depth-level (let's say "i") plus 1.

In version 5 though try fiddling with the "swap depth" command or so: that should do exactly the same thing!

Hope this helps ;-)

e_site



-------------------------------------------
Evert-Jan De Kort
Webdesigner
Interaction
T: +32 2 349 15 73
M: evert-jan.dk@eurorscg.be
*****


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Senior Web Designer
http://www.blab.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>

[pknair]

Yet another message from Evert:

<FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="3">
Hi Pradeep!

thanx for posting my stuff on the site: here's some more info (the real thing !!) but I got the same error, so you might get this on-line too ;-)

Here's the stuff:

In the meantime I searched on flashkit and found two good and fairly simple source files on the subject both for Version 4 AND 5 [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

version 5:::
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Inter...05/index.shtml

version 4:::
http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Scrip...84/index.shtml


I didn't went into the source myself (too busy ;-), but the movies are really basic so you can have a look yourself.


CU and have fun with Flash [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


Evert-JAn
</FONT>


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Senior Web Designer
http://www.blab.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>

[Stinger]

YOu guys are great!

[pknair]

Thank Evert-Jan - he's the one who did the work. And the wonderful people at FlashKit (incidentally, for those of you who didn't know, our very own Bill Spencer is a moderator at FlashKit, and he's also one of the judges at FF01!!!)


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Senior Web Designer
http://www.blab.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>