Applying a style sheet to a TextArea component

To apply a style sheet to a TextArea component, you create a style sheet object and assign it HTML styles using the TextField.StyleSheet class. You then assign the style sheet to the TextArea component's styleSheet property.

The following examples create a style sheet object, styles, and assign it to the myTextArea component instance.

Using a style sheet with a TextArea component:

Create a new Flash document and save it as textareastyle.fla.
Drag a TextArea component from the User Interface folder of the Components panel to the Stage and give it an instance name of myTextArea.

Add the following ActionScript to Frame 1 of the main Timeline:

// Create a new style sheet object and set styles for it.
var styles:TextField.StyleSheet = new TextField.StyleSheet();
styles.setStyle("html", {fontFamily:'Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif',
                    fontSize:'12px',
                    color:'#0000FF'});
styles.setStyle("body", {color:'#00CCFF',
                    textDecoration:'underline'});
styles.setStyle("h1",{fontFamily:'Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif',
                    fontSize:'24px',
                    color:'#006600'});

/* Assign the style sheet object to myTextArea component. Set html property to true, set styleSheet property to the style sheet object. */
myTextArea.styleSheet = styles;
myTextArea.html = true;

var myVars:LoadVars = new LoadVars();
// Define onData handler and load text to be displayed.
myVars.onData = function(myStr:String):Void {
    if (myStr != undefined) {
        myTextArea.text = myStr;
    } else {
        trace("Unable to load text file.");
    }
};
myVars.load("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/myText.htm");

The preceding block of code creates a new TextField.StyleSheet instance that defines three styles: for the html, body, and h1 HTML tags. Next, the style sheet object is applied to the TextArea component and HTML formatting is enabled. The remaining ActionScript defines a LoadVars object that loads an external HTML file and populates the text area with the loaded text.

Select Control > Test Movie to test the Flash document.