Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Killer Tips

A lot of times I run into an issue where my script won't work. I examine it, only to find no problems whatsoever. Or so it seems. The problem is that when you are the only one looking at your work and you've been staring at it for hours, it can be difficult to identify problems. Usually I find that I've done something really stupid, like misspelling a variable name.

One of the things that can quickly help you identify where a problem lies is the trace action. Add it at any place in your script, like this:

trace("Hello World");

Now test your movie using CTRL-ENTER (or CMD-ENTER) and you'll see a new Output window appear with the words Hello World. Basically anything you put in the parentheses of a trace action will print to the Output window, whether it be a variable or a string value as we used previously. This can be very helpful to give you some immediate feedback or output to test your scripts.