Set the settings to make your movie ActionScript 3

From the FILE menu choose Publish Settings

publish preferences set player to flash 10 and script to 3.0

Adding code to use buttons to make a movie stop and go

The textbook was made for an older version of Actionscript. Here are the updated directions that will work for us.

Use these directions instead of pages 3-24 to 3-27

  1. Insert a new layer into your movie and name it stopmovie then click Frame 1 of the layer to select the frame new layer
  2. stop command from the window menu choose Actions
  3. Type in stop();
    Don't forget the parentheses and the semicolon at the end
  4. Press Ctrl-ENTER to play the movie.
    Nothing moves because it was told to stop in the first frame.
  5. Click on the button you created on the stage to select it.
    (don't double click on it to edit it, be sure you're still in Scene 1)
    Click on the CODE SNIPPETS option at the top of the ACTIONS pane
    Choose the option Click to go to frame and play
    gotoandplay
  6. A window might pop up to ask for an instance name. Click OK if it does. instance name
  7. Actionscript will create the code that connects the action to play the movie to the button that is on the stage.

play code

Press Control-ENTER to test the movie. It should stop at the beginning and wait until the button is pressed to play.