dynamic text from Flash doesn't show up in OS X

[Alexandra]

Hi,

I built my site in OS 9 and then checked it out in OS X, and oh no, the text disappeared. Well it doesn't sound like you guys use a lot of Flash, but it is loading dynamically into Flash by using an external file called "something-rather.txt" and then the first line in that file is "text=". Does this sound familiar in anyway? - I don't know if any other programs or languages are similar.

Any help appreciated!

[driverdave]

I think you have a font problem. If you don't include the whole font for the text box, you'll have problems. You may have had that exact font in OS9, but the exact font may not be there in OSX.

Try recompiling the fla in OSX, and include the font outline. See what happens.

Thats the only time I've seen such an issue. I have plenty of dynamic flash movies that work just fine in IE/Netscape OSX.

[Alexandra]

Hi driverdave,

Thanks for responding.

I am actually using Verdana, which I do have in OS X (and hopefully the rest of the planet.) And also, the text is not actually in Flash, it is in external text files.

Do you think it could be the word software? I am using Simpletext text files and X does not have that.

I could compile it in X I guess but if I do edits to the text files (which I do all the time) then I have to save them with the extention .rtf. Those don't open in 9.

[driverdave]

Well, first I'd suggest you download BBEdit lite. It's free, and it's a nice text editor. Use it to edit the .txt files. I'm pretty sure flash would choke on a rtf file.

Let me see if I have this correct. The website shows the text when using IE in mac OS9, but the website doesn't show the text in IE OSX. Correct?

If thats thre case, I'd still say it's a font problem, because the swf is pulling the text server side, so a browser wouldn't matter there. I'm guessing Verdana on OS9 is different than verdana on OSX. So I'd still say a recompile and inlcude the font outline in the text area in the fla. Or try a device font in the fla.

Oh yeah, a place you might be able to get lots more help is

http://www.flashkit.com

They have lots of great flash forums.

[Alexandra]

Hi driverdave,

I'm actually a complete idiot because I had not downloaded Flash 6 for X and loading dynamic text is a feature new to Flash MX. :p

But many thanks for problemshooting for me! Peace!

Ali

www.aliport.net (http://aliport.net)