How to Make Hyperlinks in Flash

Text Hyperlinks

If you have a text box, you can create a hyperlink by simply selecting the box and entering the link URL in the hyperlink field (pictured right).

• If the text is dynamic, the hyperlink can only be applied to the entire box.
• If the text is static you can apply hyperlinks to selected parts of the text.
• If the hyperlink is not obvious to the user, you might like to change the color of the link to blue or a color that is consistent with links on your site.

Button Hyperlinks

You can turn any button (or movieclip) instance into a hyperlink. If you don't already have a button on the stage, do this first:

1. Add or create an image on the stage that will become the button.
2. Select the image then from the menu select Modify > Convert to Symbol (F8).
3. In the symbol dialogue, set the Type to Button.

The next step will depend on whether you are using Actionscript 2 or 3 (if you don't know, look in File > Publish Settings under the Flash tab).

Actionscript 2

Select the button instance on the stage and open the Actions panel (you can right-click the button and select Actions). Enter the following code into the actions panel:

on(release)
{
getURL("http://www.example.com", "_blank");
}

Actionscript 3

First, give the button an instance name by selecting it and entering a name in the Instance field of the property inspector. For this example will will use the name myButton_btn.

In the main timeline enter the following code:

myButton_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, myButtonFunction);
function myButtonFunction(event: MouseEvent) {
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://www.example.com");
navigateToURL(request, "_blank");
}

Notes:

• The examples above use the "_blank" attribute which opens in a new window. Change this to "_self" or "_top" to open in the same window.
• In Actionscript 3 you can use the same code for a movieclip instance (instead of a button instance).