The BoxedArt Guide to Using Website Templates

How to Change the Language in a Flash Template

For Flash templates using an external .txt file:

Open Notepad, and use File > Open to go to the html (filled or blank) folder in your template package.
Open the .txt file. Then go to File > Save As

Click the dropdown arrow in the Encoding field and choose UTF-8 from the list, as pictured Click Save, and make sure you are saving the .txt file into the same folder as your Flash .swf movies

Assuming that you have already customized the .txt file to include your chosen language and saved it as UTF-8, you may now preview your web page in a browser. In most cases this is all you need in order to have the .swf movie in the web page display the language of your choice. 

If it does not, you may need to make further modifications to the .fla file using the Flash program. Save a copy of your new external .txt file into your template's "fla" folder, and read on....

For Full Flash sites (modifications to the .fla using Adobe Flash):

Launch Flash and open the .fla file from your template's "fla" folder

Locate the text you wish to modify and click to select it on the stage (make sure the layer is not locked or hidden)

The selected text will have a blue bounding-box, as shown above. If the Properties panel shows that the selected item is a Symbol (either a MovieClip, a Graphic, or a Button) you'll need to double-click on the text on the stage to go further inside it. Keep double-clicking on it until the Properties panel shows that the selected item is Text.

The selected text will have a blue bounding box with corners, as pictured ---> If the Properties panel shows "Static Text", choose "Dynamic Text" from the dropdown list:

Note: changing to Dynamic Text often makes the text "selectable" in your .swf movie, which you don't want.
De-select (click once on) the Selectable icon in the Properties panel so it is gray, not white:

 

Next, choose the Text tool from the toolbar and click and drag across the text on the stage to select it.
Type in your own words in the languge of your choice.

Then, switch to the black arrow tool in the toolbar and click once on the text on the stage to select it.
Click the Embed button in the Properties panel (in Flash MX it's the "Character" button)

In the window that opens, select "All", or Ctrl-click to
select one or more of the other options:

Then, click OK to close the Character window.

File > Save to save the .fla file, then press the Ctrl and Enter keys on your keyboard to preview your .swf movie.

If your new text is not displaying correctly in the .swf movie, you may have to switch to another font.  Most fonts do display non-English characters, but not all. You will need to experiment with different fonts until you find one that does display your words correctly.

The font can be changed in the Properties panel. With your text selected on the stage, click the Font dropdown arrow and choose other fonts from the list:

Preview your .swf movie each time you try another font, until you find one that will work for you.

Important: Your revised .swf movies and .txt files need to be in the folder with the .html and .swf files, not in the "fla" folder, so remember to copy/paste or drag any new .swf or .txt files into the "html" folder.

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