Creating Multilanguage Text > Creating multilanguage text overview |  |

Creating multilanguage text overview

The Macromedia Flash Player 6 supports Unicode text encoding for SWF movies in Macromedia Flash Player 6 format. This support greatly enhances your ability to use multilingual text in SWF movies that you create with Macromedia Flash MX; you can even use multiple languages within a single text field. Any user with the Macromedia Flash Player 6 can view multilanguage text in a Flash Player 6 movie, regardless of the language used by the operating system running the player.

You can include text in multiple languages in a Flash Player 6 movie in several ways:

| By including an external text file in a dynamic or input text field, using the `#include` action. See Creating movies with multilanguage text using #include.
| By loading external text or XML files into a movie at runtime using the `loadVariables` action, the `getURL` action, the `LoadVars` object, or the `XML` object. See Creating movies with multilanguage text by loading external text or XML files.
| By entering Unicode escape characters in the string value for a dynamic or input text field variable. See Creating movies with multilanguage text using text variables.

To successfully take advantage of Unicode support in Flash MX and the Flash Player 6, it is important to be familiar with factors affecting text encoding:

| When you are authoring a movie, the Flash MX authoring tool encodes text in the FLA document using the traditional code page of the operating system running the authoring tool. Text in the document is encoded in Unicode format when you publish or export the movie in Flash Player 6 format. See Choosing an encoding language and Text encoding in the Flash MX authoring tool.
| When you are authoring a movie, any text you enter directly into Flash MX must be supported by the traditional code page of the operating system running the authoring tool. You cannot cut and paste Unicode-encoded text into Flash MX. See Text encoding in the Flash MX authoring tool.
| To display Unicode-encoded text correctly (as with all text), users must have access to fonts containing the glyphs (characters) used in that text. See Fonts for Unicode-encoded text.
| The Flash Player 6 assumes that all external text files associated with a Flash Player 6 movie are Unicode encoded, unless you tell the player otherwise. If you use external text files that are not Unicode encoded, you can set the `system.useCodepage` property to `true` to tell the Flash Player 6 to use the traditional code page of the operating system running the player. See Using external text or XML files that are not Unicode encoded.
| For movies in the Macromedia Flash Player 5 or earlier that are authored in Flash MX or earlier, the Flash Player 6 and earlier versions display the text using the traditional code page of the operating system running the player.

For background information on Unicode, see http://www.unicode.org.