Adding Custom Actions and Escape Keys
As an extension to my previous post regarding Escape Shortcut Keys in Flash, below is a way to add/modify your own, along with a nice set graciously provided by atn at SoleilNoir
There's also a trick to improve the way you use these "quickeys" by editing the ActionsPanel.xml file and personalizing it.
• In CS2 Find it at C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash {version} \{LANGUAGE}\First Run\ActionsPanel
• In CS3 Find it at C:\Documents and Settings\{USER_NAME}\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS3\en\Configuration\ActionsPanel\ActionScript_1_2
• The file contains every shortcut key used in Flash for ActionScript editing. This is an XML formatted file so you can edit it with any code editor and you can either add or modify any command.
• Most of the time, the lines are written this way:
(You can change this: quickey="nf". It must be a two-letter combo.)
• When adding a "hotkey", be sure it is not already in use.
• Save it as UTF8 (very important)
/!\ CREATE A BACKUP FILE ! (so that you can go back if there’s a problem)
Paste the block of code blow into your ActionsPanel.xml to add the following QuickKeys (these will also show up in your actions panel under a folder named "Atn Special Moves"). I have also added these to the 'PDF version' or 'FlashPaper version' as well. And as with the original set, the downloadable/printable versions include descriptions as well.
| Element | Quickkey |
| stopClip | Esc - o - s |
| invisibleClip | Esc - o - v |
| clipLoad | Esc - o - l |
| invisible | Esc - v - i |
| currentframe | Esc - c - f |
| totalframes | Esc - t - f |
| this | Esc - t - h |
| _name | Esc - n - a |
| onEnterFrame | Esc - o - e |
| setInterval | Esc - s - i |
| clearInterval | Esc - c - i |
| switch" | Esc - s - w |
| updateAfterEvent | Esc - u - a |
| random | Esc - r - a |
| createEmptyMovieClip | Esc - c - m |
| _xmouse | Esc - x - m |
| _ymouse | Esc - y - m |
| onMouseMove | Esc - o - m |
| newObject | Esc - n - o |
| loremIpsum | Esc - l - o |
| _global | Esc - g - l |
| _alpha | Esc - a - l |
| _root | Esc - r - o |
| _parent | Esc - p - a |
| attachMovie | Esc - a - m |
| _quality | Esc - q - u |
| Shared Object | Esc - s - h |
**note: I have tried to translate the tipText to English from French... please let me know if you see any errors**
Enjoy!
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April 4th, 2007 at 11:04 am
[...] /** UPDATE **/ See the post titled “Adding Custom Actions and Escape Keys” for more information on this topic. [...]
August 4th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Hi,
I’m having trouble with this..
I’ve notice there seems to be a bunch of errors in the code..
1. there is an extra double quote in the second last line:
2. why are all the lines at the end? – should there be one after EVERY line instead?
I tried it as is and I tried it with my modifications of the errors, but I still cannot seem to use the shortcuts (I’m using CS3)
- I know that I”m editing the right file because if I put an eroneous character in, I get an error about it while loading flash.
any ideas?
/** combined multiple comments into one – Admin 8/04/07 @ 9:23am **/
… sorry, that 2nd error was:
2. why are all action nodes closed ‘at the end’? – shouldn’t there be one after EVERY line instead?
thanks for this page by the way.. haven’t got it working yet.. but have learned alot!
August 4th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Your right Dale it looks like WordPress doesn’t like some of the characters in the file. I have updated the code view using the Flash Text Formatter plug-in so hopefully that makes the code a bit more legible.
Thanks for the heads up!
July 1st, 2009 at 7:16 pm
nice idea!
anybody tried it with Flash 8? i can’t get it to work
can anybody upload the .xml file please?